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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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