Corfu Adventure

Having spent just over a week on hard standing we are now
back on the move having left Crotone to sail around the Ionian Islands. We
enjoyed our time in Crotone and met up with some friends from Ragusa, Mark and
Marta on Por Dos and Marjolein and Maarten of Mobilae, who very kindly donated us
a washing machine, which is great.

We were also very pleased with the work undertaken by Elio
and his team, and will certainly be looking to go back next year for our annual
Haul out. Elio certainly knows how to handle a mobile crane, we were packed
quite tightly in the yard and when it came to being hoisted up to be put back
in the water I haven’t seen a boat lifted so high.

Our first stop after leaving Crotone was Othoni, a small
island just north of Corfu, and anchored in the bay Ormos Ammou, we arrived
around 0600, dropped anchor and headed to bed to catch up on some well-deserved
sleep, it had taken us 22 hours to sail the 123 miles across from Italy. The
bottom in the bay is mainly rock and so when we woke up we decided to move over
to  the next island of Erikoussa,
unfortunately as we lifted the anchor our chain had wrapped itself around a
rock, it took an awful lot of manoeuvring and brute force to untangle ourselves
before we could set off.

On arrival in Erikoussa I instantly fell in love with the
place, we anchored in Port Erikoussa, here the bottom was sand, so no problems
with the anchor, and we had good shelter from the prevailing North Westerly
winds. The place itself can get quite busy during the day with day trippers but
by night it is peaceful. We stayed there for three nights, I could have stayed
longer, on our last day we had a walk round the island which took us
approximately two hours, the people of the island were really friendly and made
us feel very welcome, it is a place we will go back to.

Our next stop was a bay just south of Ak Vavaro, and only
accessible by boat, another beautiful place, there was only one other boat in
the bay so when they left we had it all to ourselves. The water was lovely and
clear and so inviting that I couldn’t resist and although a little cold at
first it was great to have a leisurely swim across the bay and back.

Again we spent three nights here, on the second day we took
a trip into Kassiopi by dingy which is about a mile up the coast. The village
is small and quite charming, but apparently gets very busy in the high
season,  I visited the place in the
nineties and can vouch for that, so at first I wasn’t that bothered about going
but I am glad I did as I saw a different side to the village from my memory of
it.

It was then onto Gouvia, where we anchored in Ormos Kammeno,
we anchored over mud and so had good holding and shelter from the prevailing
winds. Another yacht was already there which turned out to be Michel and
Danielle’s boat Nyctea, another set of friends we had made in Ragusa, so Kevin
invited them over for drinks, it was great to see them again especially as it
was so unexpected.

The following day we visited the Marina and the Port Police to
register our entry into Greece, we had heard so many stories about how
difficult and long winded the process could be, but we found it extremely
efficient even though it’s not computerised. It was then off to Corfu town to
try and arrange internet access, we caught the number 7 bus which dropped us in
the square just opposite the Vodafone store, which meant we didn’t have to
wander about looking for the place as has often happened.

Internet sorted we then set of for a tour of the town, the
place was heaving, and again it was a somewhere I was not to bothered about
visiting, as I had heard so many negative things about the place, but once
again I was glad I did. It just goes to show you shouldn’t always go on other
people’s opinions of a place, the old town although touristy was lovely, it
even has a Marks and Spencer’s although we didn’t go in, but on our next visit
there Kevin won’t be able to keep me out.

From Gouvia we motored round to anchor on the south side of
Corfu Town, again the holding was good, along with the shelter from the
prevailing winds, we only stayed here one night as we wanted to check the
anchorage in readiness for picking our friends Rachel and Matt who will be
staying with us early July.

The next day we headed north for Stefanos, on arrival there
were several other yachts there including Por Dos,and  Mobilae who were just leaving. We anchored
slightly out of the bay and had lunch, but Kevin was not happy with our
anchorage position and so we tried to move further into the bay. Por Dos was
also moving further in along with another boat, which was tearing around at top
speed coming close to us on several occasions, I think the skipper was making
damned sure we didn’t anchor before him thus getting a better spot, in the end
we decided to give up and move further down the coast to another bay.

This time we tried Kalami, but once again we were foiled,
just as we were entering the bay a French boat came in at great speed, sped
past us dropped his anchor, thus preventing us getting in. so it was off to the
bay we had first gone to on Corfu, and once again we had it all to ourselves.

The following day we set of for Palaiokastrita on the west
coast of Corfu, at first we tried anchoring in the bay, but there were so many
low lying rocks we decided to go and moor up stern too in the town harbour. No
sooner had we got settled when a charter boat with an English crew came tearing
into the harbour, by now the wind had picked up, the skipper lost control
almost collided with two other boats. The skipper kept seated the whole time
and just shouted at his crew in a very posh southern accent to “fender off,
fender off” it was obvious that most of the crew had very little experience,
they certainly kept us entertained whilst they tried to get the boat under
control and moor up. I have to say though I am glad it wasn’t us trying to moor
up in the strong winds.

Along the harbour wall it looked as though at some point
electricity was being installed, but as with a lot of things in Greece it never
got finished, well we don’t think it was finished.

Palaiokastrita is a beautiful place, and due to the
predicted strong winds which were forecast to last three days we stayed here
for three nights, on one of the days we visited the monastery at the top of the
hill which we had been told was not to be missed. As I had only shorts and a vest
top on I was not allowed to enter until I had donned the skirt and shawl loaned
to me, must say I looked a right sight.

It was in Palaiokastrita that we had our first meal out in
Greece and neither of us thought it up to much, and the wine was awful.

On the fourth day we decided to head south for Paxos and
Lakka Bay. Kevin didn’t think we would get in but on arrival the bay was much
bigger than we thought it would be, we found a nice spot over sand and dropped
the anchor. There were several charter yachts in the bay including a Flotilla
from Neilsons, but we seemed to have plenty of room, that was until a charter
boat with several Latvian chaps anchored just in front of us. That night we
kept a careful watch and at one time had to get up to fend off from the Latvian
boat, however our biggest problem was a Hanse 57 which at first appeared to be
anchored far away from us but as the winds picked up and the boats all swung in
different directions it was soon clear that they had masses of chain out, which
meant at times they were swinging close to us. At 0500 we were woken by the
women on the Hanse shouting at us to get up, she was still shouting for us to
get up once we were up, it did cross my mind to ask her if she was blind but
thought better of it.

Kevin stayed on deck whilst I went back to bed, we didn’t
have any further problems, although we did move position later in the morning,
however once again we were surrounded by charter boats many of whom seem to
drop anchor and just hope for the best.

The small town of Lakka however is very pretty with several taverna’s
along the water front, and a place where we plan to bring our friends Rachel
and Matt.

From Lakka it was onto Gaios a few miles down the coast, it
was here that we had arranged to take our PADI Open Water Diving Certificate,
we anchored in the North Canal taking a stern line ashore onto the small
island. We appeared to have good holding, but needed to put out rat guards onto
the stern line as we had heard they were a problem here.

On our first day in Gaios we took a walk along the coast to
Mongonisi, a very picturesque place but the holding did not look good and so
not a place we will visit by boat.

On the way back we bumped into Brett and Jane of Amble some
more friends from Ragusa and again very unexpected, that night we met them for
drinks, and  Brett and I sampled the
Chocolate Soup, yes really Chocolate Soup.

On the Monday we were woken at 0700 by a charter boat trying
to moor up next to us, somehow they had lost control of the back end of their
boat and were heading into us, Kevin got up and lent a hand for which they
supplied us with a bottle of red wine, the going currency for yachties.

That morning we started our scuba diving course with Babis
at Water Planet, at first I was apprehensive which surprised me as out of the
two of us I am the better swimmer, but Kevin took to it like a duck to water.

Later in the afternoon the skies darkened, the winds picked
up and a thunderstorm blew in, to the point that it was pushing us up against
the charter boat, so Kevin put the kedge anchor out to try and keep us off,
then took up some anchor chain to move us further forward the plan was to take
it up and reposition but it was caught on some chain which was lying across the
sea bed, so he had to dive down to secure a rope on the anchor so that we could
free ourselves. This achieved we pulled in the kedge anchor and moved further up
the channel and re-anchored. It had been our turn to provide the evening’s
entertainment.

After a few days of scuba training we were ready for our
first proper dive, unfortunately I had problems with my ears and so the dive
was ended, we had only made it to five meters, I think Kevin was a little
miffed.

Our second dive went much better and we achieved eight
meters and the dive lasted forty minutes, at one point I held a beautiful
brightly coloured star fish it was great. Our last dive was to have taken place
on the west coast of the island where we were to swim out and dive to ten
metres and look over what is called the wall where the depth drops suddenly to
sixty meters, but the winds were strong and we ended up back at the previous
days dive site. During this dive we had to take of our BCD’s which is the
jacket that the cylinder, weights and regulators are attached to, once again
Kevin managed this brilliantly however for me as soon as I took the jacket of
my legs shot upwards whilst I hung on to the jacket and Babis was trying to
hold me down. I did manage it though and both of us successfully completed the
course, that evening we met Babis for our final theory lesson.

For anyone considering diving we can recommend Babis at
Water Planet: www.waterplanet.gr

Whilst in Gaios we met we met up with Julie and Dave off
Carla Christina, and as usual when we have an evening with them we drink
copious amounts of wine and stay up to all hours. On the Tuesday we waved them
goodbye as we went our separate ways and we headed off to Praga over on the
mainland.

We had a great sail across and I took the helm for a change,
on arrival in the bay we noticed Brett and Jane’s boat Amble and so anchored alongside
them over sand, the place was supposed to be very touristy but we liked the
look of it and planned to spend a few days there. Once again it was pre dinner
drinks on Amble but by the time we left it had started to rain, this time there
was no wind. That night we were once again woken by a charter boat who had
dragged and was getting very close to us, the biggest problem though was the
swell coming into the bay, the boat was rocking and rolling all over the place
and by 0500 we decided we had had enough, raised the anchor and set off for
Sivota further up the coast and so missed watching Australia V Holland football
match with Brett, Jane, Maarten and Marjolein.

We arrived at 0800, dropped the anchor and went to catch up
on some well-earned sleep, at 1000 we decided we didn’t like where we were,
next to a night club and in shallow water so headed back over to Corfu and a
place called Pitriti.

We really liked the bay and decided to stay for a few days,
the following day we went for a walk along the coast to the next anchorage site
and stopped off for a drink the view was lovely.

On the way back we called in to another watering hole just
by the beach and were undecided whether to just have a drink or stay and have a
meal. The weather decided it for us, the sky got blacker and blacker so we
headed back to the boat, but on route the rain started, we could hear thunder
in the distance but after a time it looked as if we would miss it. This was not
to be the case, in the early hours of the morning we were treated to a pyro-technique
show curtsey of nature itself. Not only that we had to keep a vigil through the
night as once again we had a charter boat dragging its way towards us, after
some persuasion we convinced them to move.

From Petriti we headed back to Govia to get some provisions,
this time round the bay was really busy, but we managed to find the same spot
as last time and dropped anchor. En route Bev manages some chill-put time.

The next day we headed off to Stefanos, hoping that as it
was charter change over day there might not be so many boats there, as we
entered the bay there was only one boat but this was leaving so we had it all
to ourselves, our theory had paid off. However by the end of the day there were
eleven boats in the bay, that evening we went ashore and treated ourselves to a
lovely Greek meal, and decided to spend a few days here.

Whilst we have been here we have a regular visitor to the
boat, he chats away constantly but we can’t understand a word he is saying, but
he is entertaining, however not so this morning when he arrived at 0500 and
kept chirping for a good half hour before flying off.

Total miles this season: 559 Nm

Cumulative miles: 3098 Nm

Our present position:

Links:  

www.waterplanet.gr