We endured two uncomfortable days of battering from gale force southerlies whilst tied up in the Marina at Brindisi and the long range forecast was still for strong winds. We needed a moderate wind to leave for Corfu, a 115 mile trip that we planned to do in two parts. Firstly 85 miles to the island of Erikoussa, one of the Diapondan isles just north of Corfu and then 30 miles down to Corfu town on the eastern side of the island.
As the two days of gales abated late on Friday 17th June, an immediate window of opportunity presented itself with light north easterlies forecast for the next 24-hours before the next wave of strong winds. We left Brindisi at 6am on Saturday 18th June and motored out into a glassy sea, setting a south easterly course for Erikoussa. During the 14 hour trip we motored for 7 hours and sailed for 7 hours on a fast broad reach, where the boat was making hull speed and more as she surfed down waves. We arrived in the bay to drop our anchor as the last vestiges of light were receding. A long trip behind us, we enjoyed a quick convenience supper (camping ready meal suggested by Tom!) and bed although the rolling sea did not afford much sleep! Up early on Sunday 19th June, we set off in dark threatening skies, but once inside the narrow strait between Corfu and Albania, the weather brightened and calmed. We ended up with a gentle sail into Gouvia Marina and tied up ready to check into Greece.
This formality had to wait until the Port Police arrived on Monday morning, and even then was only partly completed because the authorities had run out of cruising permits. We had to make do with a letter from the Corfu Police to vouch for our arrival and fee having been paid!
Noticeably hotter and more crowded in Corfu, we spent our time boat cleaning, refilling the water tanks, shopping and making use of the very welcome swimming pool at the Marina. We took the bus into Corfu town to get a data SIM card for our ipad. We queued for ages in the Cosmote store only to be told that they had run out of them but there would be arriving tomorrow. The mobile phone shops here are chaos with every assistant doing everything. Some customers take an age buying a new phone whilst other just want to pay a €5 bill and get very angry. We did lots of sightseeing in Corfu when we last visited in 2012, so check our blog here for more photos and maybe a bit of history.
We made our departure on Wednesday and sailed to an anchorage just south of the castle in Corfu town. Our intention was to return to the phone shop the next morning and get the SIM card. This we did after another very rolly night only to find unsurprisingly that the promised cards had not arrived. We defaulted to Vodaphone who at least had some. Greece is going to be a very different experience to Croatia!
It soon became clear that there are not very many deep sheltered places to go around Corfu and there is hot competition for the best anchorage positions and harbour spaces, especially if there is adverse weather forecast which is what we were soon to discover.
We set off south for a few days and visited Garista Bay, off Corfu town, Platarias town on the mainland coast and Mourtos village, again on the mainland coast with the small Sivoti islands offshore and the quiet anchorage of Valtou just north of the busy port of Igoumenitsa. The anchorage here beyond a raft of fish farms was very remote and beautiful, spoilt only by its proximity to a mosquito breeding swamp! We went ashore here and walked over the hill to see a wide beach looking across to the busy port of Igounimista. One calm night was followed by strong winds that made the anchorage very uncomfortable and our anchor dragged. We quickly re anchored with lots more chain out.
Our hopes of getting to Paxos on this excursion were thwarted by strong southerlies followed by strong north westerlies, making Paxos a bad choice of destination as there is limited shelter there, so it will wait for a week and we will try again. The promise of calm Ionian sailing seems like a myth at the moment and we have joined the throngs of sailors jockeying for shelter! Returning north for a couple of days to meet up with friends Colin and Sandra Baxter who are holidaying on the island. Thursday 30th June we are in Gouvia Marina having the rigging checked, revitalling, having high hopes of the laundry getting done in spite of frequent power cuts!
Deja Vu 
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