|
|
6th June - Corfu Island.
Well we've made it to Corfu Island and we can finally
chill out a bit. We're not planning on going very far
in the next few months. We're just going to explore
the Ionian and maybe a bit of the Peloponnese.
|
We had a week nearly in Kassiopi. We tackled our first stern-to
manoeuvre with an anchor in the harbour there. Thankfully
it was a success first time and again no violence from either
of us. We had Gyros on our first night here (Greek fast food)
and it was delicious. We have also treated ourselves to a
Greek meal too. We both had lamb dishes due to a distinct
lack of meat from the previous weeks. We needed to declare
ourselves to the Greek authorities so also have had a bus
trip into Corfu town to gather the necessary paperwork while
we're cruising here. Unfortunately this cost us 45 Euros.
A charter yacht came alongside us whilst we were in Kassiopi.
A Dutch couple, Babs and Karl were onboard. So we did the
neighbourly thing and invited them on for drinks. We broke
open the chardonnay we had bought in Sicily and had a lovely
night socialising with them. We also found a lovely pool and
bar and spent a day there sunbathing and reading and having
a dip when it was too hot. It's a hard life for us but we
suffer in silence.
We decided it was time to find another bay, another beach
and another bay so we headed for Kalami that was only 1 hour
away, on 15th June. We had a few problems anchoring here as
it was deep and full of weed and the wind was blowing quite
hard. We just kept dragging and it was 9pm at night and our
4th attempt when we finally succeeded. Fortunately a lovely
French guy, Phillip, with his daughter and grandson, Axel
came over in their dinghy and gave us a heavier anchor for
the night just in case we needed it. Thankfully it was 4th
time lucky for us. We stay here for few days just chilling
out (we do a lot of this) before moving further down the coast.
We found a lovely anchorage near Gouvia Marina which we utilised
for a few days. It wasn't a great anchorage for getting on
and off the boat but we used it just for the night times and
went away in the day to victual and do a few jobs around about
it. There was a Canadian woman here who had been cruising
around the world for 12 years so we spent an evening on her
boat with her friends (one of whom was from Handsworth, Birmingham
- it's a small world). We were very cheeky as we went into
Gouvia Marina to fill up with water one day and sneakily grabbed
a shower from them too. We found a Lidl
that was on the coast so one day we anchored up just a few
metres from it so we could stock up. For anyone on a budget,
Lidl is a welcome sight, wherever you are. Thankfully there
was a jetty that we could leave the dinghy at and even a little
coffee shop, run by Spiros, that we could go to afterwards,
complete with a family of ducks. We also bought a new much
heavier anchor from a metalwork place here to avoid the problems
we had in Kalami a few days before.
Our dinghy was also not very happy these days so one afternoon
we went into Corfu Old Harbour so we could go to a boat shop
we'd been to on our original bus trip to Corfu. We came away
with a new white dinghy that wouldn't keep deflating on us.
We didn't like to stay in Corfu Old Harbour though as it wasn't
a great place to go into. It was a bit smelly and a bit crowded.
So it was back to the Gouvia anchorage again for us.
On 18th June we finally sailed into an anchorage in Corfu
town so that we were central and could get off the boat and
have a good look around. It's a really beautiful place and
yet another town full of side streets and winding roads to
explore. We had to move around anchorages a few times and
have been stuck on the boat a couple of days due to high winds
and the seas being a bit bouncy. But its been great. We had
a thunderstorms for 3 nights and the lightening lasted for
hours. It's terrific to lie in bed and watch it happening
around us. The only downside being that Maddie still leaks
a bit and when there is heavy rain inevitably there are smalls
pools of water in various places. But we're working on them.
Unfortunately the bad weather has persisted for over a week
and one of the days that the weather was bad there was a music
day on with lots of free music to wander around and listen
to and we could hear it all from Madison but only managed
2 hours ashore to enjoy it. I think we'll leave Corfu Town
around 29th after stocking up and getting more water and head
further south to a place called Petriti. We've heard its very
Greek and not full of tourists. I hope the sunshine comes
back soon.
|