Our last leg for 2015

The 17th September saw the departure of Rich, Peter and Miceala at the crack of dawn, quiet as mice they were, we didn’t even hear them leaving, having said our goodbyes the night before.

We had planned that day to kick off north to round the tip of Corfu and come down the Northwest coast stopping in Paleaokastrisa and the beautiful bays around that neck of the woods. Sadly within 20 minutes of leaving  Mandraki Marina at the foot of Corfu old town we felt a big bump from under us and a huge vibration coming through the engine. Clearly we had picked something up in the water, so we very slowly coasted to a tiny island off Corfu town to drop our anchor, so we could dive down to have a look. Sounded easy, except for when David tried to drop the anchor the windlass kept stopping, Fortunately we didn’t need to drop much chain where we were, so we persevered until we were safe and I donned my mask and snorkel and jumped in to have a look. Ouch, there was a huge bundle of very thick rope, see pic below, nicely wrapped around our prop, so once again our mini dive gear and knife came in handy. 30 minutes later our prop was clean once again, just as well as the wind started to pick up.

We then crossed our fingers as we set about lifting the anchor, luckily it came up without a hitch but on testing the downward button, there was nothing. Sadly that put paid to our plan as without an anchor we were really stuck, so despite unplugging it, cleaning the connectors and reinserting to no joy, we headed back to Gouvia Marina, to get an electrician to test the system. Within half an hour of mooring up a young electrician came aboard and soon determined the issue was the controller, thankfully not the windlass,  but it meant a night in the marina whilst he ordered a new controller, for the following day!

Friday morning arrived, and as promised this nice young man returned, new controller in hand and fitted it within 15 minutes, tested the system and said we were good to go. Just before leaving the marina we saw my namesake…

But with Southerly winds predicted we decided Paleaokastrista was not an option so we poodled out of the marina and dropped our pick in the bay close by, deciding to visit the Northwest coast overland  the following morning. The afternoon was lovely, relaxed and hot, so much so that we even got out lilo lill, (rescued  by Steven aka Marina boy earlier in our travels) , tied it to the boat and took turns flopping on that. We had a lovely night on anchor too, so all the traumas of the day before were soon forgotten.

On Saturday, happy the boat was safe and secure, we jumped in the dinghy and motored into the marina, where we decided to hire a new mode of transport to go exploring.

However having had a practice in the car park and had our bones shaken somewhat we decided that the quad bike was not such a good idea and so swapped the quad bike for 2 scooters

and set off, after more practising in the car park, back toward Corfu and the Wind shop to secure a new data card as ours was fast running out, then turned tail towards the North West Coast. it took about 40 minutes to get to Paleoakastritsa (as opposed to 8 hours by boat!) , the bays were amazing but the village was disappointing.

Paleoakastritsa, Corfu

On the way back out of the village and up the hill, I decided to stop to take some pictures and at that point realised how hard it was to put the scooter on its stand when uphill, and managed to drop it, much to the amusement of some passers-by and David, still sat securely on his!. Still the pictures were worth it.

We then took a very windy back route up to the old Fort, passing through picturesque villages such as  Lakones. There however are no pics to show you of these villages as having dropped my scooter once, I didn’t fancy a repeat performance, not until we got to the fort. The climb to the top was hard, pic says it all,

but the views from there were amazing and well worth the effort.

From there we went exploring some more by scooter and had a lovely afternoon zipping around until our ears ached from the helmets (even though we seemed to be the only ones wearing them) until it started to get late and we headed back to the marina, stopping for a quick bite to eat, some provisioning and the use of the marinas showers, before jumping in the dinghy to arrive back at Seaclusion in time to put her mooring light on!.

Last pictures of Gouvia just after the sun came up to see us on our way.

After a part motor part sail, we arrived back at Sivoto on our way south again and dropped our anchor in peaceful conditions. We knew some heavy rain was on its way with southerly winds so thought we were were nicely protected where we were. Hmmm,we had just finished our dinner and had cleared our plates when there was an almighty clap of thunder and lightening right above us, and the  heavens seriously opened, bring with it 35 knots of wind in a second, that sent our glasses of red wine all over the deck and our table mats almost in the drink. All hands to the deck as we added sea water to the rain, running it down our decks to avoid staining them forever. We donned our jackets and stayed up top as the boat was thrown around by the wind hoping the anchor would hold. Nav instruments turned on to reveal we were also in the midst of a seich (where the water level dropped by 2 metres in seconds). Fortunately we had anchored with 5 metres under us so it wasn’t a problem. 2 hours later our anchor finally gave way and started dragging. we were one of many and at 1 am we found ourselves trying to reposition the anchor, not an easy task as by this time all the boats that had been moored up to the public quay had vacated it to crowd into our little area, which despite the winds was still the most sheltered area.

Finally at around 2am the winds dropped and the torrential rain ceased and we finally crashed, exhausted.

The following morning couldn’t have been more different, we woke to little wind and clear blue skies so left our anchorage to continue southwards, motoring around the corner to see the sad sight of one beached yacht, although we were surprised there weren’t more.

The winds and seas were such that to continue southwards was going to be hard work so we sailed back across to Lakka on Paxos where we spent a reasonably comfortable night. The next morning (22nd September), we popped into the village via the dinghy to get some milk and bread and decided to potter 5 miles south to stop in Port Gaios still on Paxos, sheltered behind an island with a tiny shallow channel to get inside, but it was absolutely charming, so we dropped the pick and backed up to the town quay, (17€ for the night, not bad) and went exploring through the tiny streets that the town comprised of and then settled back on board to watch other boats come in, some having mastered the art of dropping the anchor and reversing into their given slots, some not!

Port Gaios, Paxos

Gaios is said to have a hurly burly life with as many cats as tourists and we couldn’t disagree. A lovely place to stop and we would recommend it to all passing through this neck of the woods.

We had been recommended a restaurant called Dodos by the boat next door, but as we arrived, it started to rain again and as all the seating was outside we soon thought better of it and found a lovely taverna with tarpaulins covering the courtyard that very much came in handy and had suckling pig on the spit and  a carafe of their house wine, a rather strong vintage as I found out when we wandered back to the boat, a little pickled.

23rd, We set sail back towards the mainland again southwards this time and had a lovely sail getting 8 knots of boat speed out of 9 knots of wind and settled in a bay just off a town called Parga, likened to Positiano on the Almalfi coast, it certainly looked like it from the sea, but wasn’t quite so cutesy on land.

Parga, Mainland Greece

To be honest it is  more of a tourist resort than a charming town, with more tavernas and bars  than you can shake a stick at, It does have an old ruined castle on its promontory, which as our book says was of Norman Origin built  c 1337, and considered by the Venetians as the “eye and ear of Corfu”. The notorious Ali Pasha attempted to capture the castle in 1814 with the help of the British. Parga in fact only became Greek in 1913.  Anyway enough of the history lesson, we had  a happy hour cocktail and then dinghyed back to the boat for dinner and a bottle of red wine.

The following morning, conscious that the weather was due to close in later that day, we left our little haven just after a moody dawn:

and had a fabulous sail down towards Preveza, once again flying down with a max of 8.7 knots of boat speed, thankfully as  we watched the storm fast approaching as we entered the channel into the Gulf of Amvrakia, passing Cleopatra marina in Preveza where Seaclusion is due to spend the winter.

The Gulf is said to offer some good sailing and interesting anchorages, with a multitude of ancient sites dotted around the edge of the gulf, namely Nikopoli erected by Octavi after his defeat of Anthony, the Venetian Castle at Vonitsa and ancient Arta and its famous bridge up the Arakthos River. There are lots of fish farms in the gulf and we have been told that there a many schools of dolphins that feed on them, so, given we have seen 2 solitary dolphins all summer, we were hoping to make up for it.

Due to the weather we headed straight for Vonitsa to weather the storm behind its breakwater, moored up to its little quay. We dropped our pick, reversed in to tie off and then for double measure picked up the bow mooring line provided, so we were as snug in a bug in a rug, so to speak. A kind British lone sailor, Nick, helped with our lines. Sadly the old castle was shut so we couldn’t go exploring when the rain finally stopped, and the town itself deemed to be deserted, the summer season here clearly gone now.

Vonitsa

We invited Nick over for  a bite to eat and some wine of course, we ate down below as the heavens opened, and had a lovely evening swapping stories of our adventures afloat. It rained through the night and well into the next day.

And the forecast didn’t lie.

We stayed for 2 nights waiting for the weather to clear, which it did, so we went to see Vonitsa in a different light, literally!

After, as our trip this year was coming to an end we headed back to Preveza to start the process of winterizing Seaclusion, in other words putting her to bed. Cleopatra Marina, her home for the winter was across the water from Preveza and would have been a bit of a soulless place except for the busy hub bub of people’s doing what we were, with more than 30 boats being lifted out of the water.

We spent 3 days, cleaning and storing the dinghy, dismantling the davits, taking the sails, spray hood and bimini down and arranging for them to be cleaned and stored over the winter, servicing the engine and outboard, and cleaning Seaclusion top to bottom. It wasn’t all hard work, we met some lovely people in the  marina and hope to keep in touch. We were also entertained as a spring tide / current arrived which effects the marina quite badly, and watched numerous yachts struggling to get get into their moorings due to them not being used to Attempting to tackle stern-to moorings, some with great success, some with none, boats finding themselves across other mooring lines, or broadside along the pontoon and much more, glad it wasn’t us!.

The day came to finally lift Seaclusion out of the water, (1st October) and we were booked in for 9am. Having watched the efficiency with which the yard was run, we woke at 7am to do the last minute things including filling her her with water and fuel, only to watch a commotion as the poor 100ft powerboat we had seen on the rocks in Corfu had arrived by tug at 1am in the morning and was now being towed to the lifting point…… as entertaining as it was, mixed with a tinge of sadness to see such a beautiful boat so badly damaged, it was also frustrating as our lifting time was delayed by over 2 hours. Thankfully we had been wise enough to give ourselves a day’s grace before flying home.

Anyway, later that morning we watched Seaclusion being lifted, jet washed, placed on a trailer and towed to her slot, where she was put on her chocks.

An hour later we got on board to the do the final things we couldn’t do in the water such as greasing the sea cocks, stuffing the legitimate holes in her hull with rags so nothing could nest up there over the winter, lowering the anchor and all her chain to be washed by the rain over the winter, flushing the salt water out of the engine,  until 5pm came and with great sadness as we have had such an amazing trip, we turned the key, climbed down the ladder, said our goodbyes to our summer home,due  not to return until May next year.

In summary, this year we have travelled 2834 Nautical Miles, spent 131 days on board and sailed 59 night hours. Wow, what a trip!.

So with great sadness, we say goodbye to all those who have enjoyed our blog, which will now also be going to bed until May next year. Thank you all for reading, we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have both our trip and writing it!

Chantal & David.