July

I am writing this entry in September in retrospect as somehow events overtook my regular updates and it would be quite an omission to leave out 3 sailing weeks in July.

Since we arrived in Corfu, it was clear that rubbish collection was an urgent and mounting problem. Piles of unsavoury rubbish sacks were accumulating at every corner, due, we discovered, to an age old problem on the island of the landfill site being full. It seems the authorities have hitherto been unable to come up with a good alternative, and residents local to the landfill site had had enough and blockaded access! Fortunately within a couple of weeks, it seemed to disappear, but we have no idea where to.

Right at the beginning of the month we sailed across to Paxos and anchored up in Lakka Bay, still as lovely as we remembered with azure blue water on soft sand. This of course made it a honeypot for all boats, so it was rather crowded. As new boats came and anchored ever closer late the second afternoon, we took one look at the sky threatening north easterly winds and decided the anchorage could end up in chaos should a squall ensue. We up-anchored ourselves and sailed back to the mainland. It was a cracking sail and we fetched up in Platarius later in the evening where we met up, unexpectedly, with fellow Sunbeam owners Walter and Elizabeth on their Sunbeam 42, Fortuna. It was a delightful coincidence and we enjoyed exchanging stories of boats and travels with them.

On 8^th July we sailed further round the mainland to Parga, a charming seaside town set high on a hill and tumbling down to the shore via narrow pathways. The beachfront anchorage was bumpy until the joy riders finally stopped charging around with rubber crocodiles and paragliders, but otherwise we had a lovely stay and enjoyed the climb to the town. The views from the castle were magnificent and we found the very best of restaurants tucked away in one of the side streets overlooking the bay. Quite memorable.

We cruised around discovering Petitri and the best Moussaka so far in Greece, and finally returned to Gouvia to welcome Brian and Michele for our final week.

Unfortunately the week ahead was forecast to be grim, and so it was. The marina was full, so we had to leave to find shelter from the storm elsewhere. We chose Valtou Bay and survived unscathed before returning to a reserved space in the Marina whilst the gales blew through two days later. Buses into Corfu town, meals out and trips to the Marina pool kept us busy followed by the clean up before leaving for a six week return to the UK.  Our thanks to Brian and Michele for their help in packing up and sorry not to have had good sailing this time.

Gouvia eventually found us a satisfactory berth, well away from charter boats and on July 21^st we locked up Deja Vu and returned home.