We landed in Preveza on Wednesday May 10th and on Saturday May 13th we launched Deja Vu from Cleopatra Marina’s boatyard. Those three days were really hard work, firstly removing the winter cover, then preparing the bottom of the boat for antifouling, actually painting on the antifouling and finally polishing the hull. Although exhausted we were pleased with our combined efforts as Deja Vu was gleaming!
We tied up for a few days in Preveza Marina whilst we got ourselves ready for sailing and waited for a storm or two to pass through. The topsides thoroughly cleaned (the amount of accumulated dust and dirt was incredible), the jib was hoisted and furled and the shopping was done. It was great to have a car to carry water, beer and other of life’s essentials from the out of town supermarkets to Deja Vu’s store lockers.
Our maiden sail of the year was Friday 19th May and we headed down the Lefkas canal and decided to overnight in Spartakahori, on the north side of Meganissi at Porto Spilla, the dominion of the much feared proprietor Babis. We definitely did the right thing to call ahead and ask if we could moor up and we hope we made a good impression as it seems that Babis only extends the hand of welcome to those he likes!
From there we had a great sail across to mainland Greece and back, a 15 mile round trip just for the joy of sailing as it was a beam reach.
A couple of nights in Vathi followed whilst some bad weather went through and then a calm night at anchor in Vliho Bay.
Nigel went to the assistance of a lovely couple aboard a Halberg Rassy, who in their efforts to up anchor and depart, pulled up a heaving mass of tackle from the seabed and they were well and truly in a fix. Nigel and David battled all afternoon and finally got free of the mess. The joyful outcome was that we spent a very pleasant evening in the company of Liz and David, who entertained us with tales of their many years sailing in the area and their imminent plans to move to Queenstown in New Zealand. One nice much loved old boat is now for sale!
Time to go north again so we headed back through the Lefkas Canal and sailed north to the island of Paxos where we planned to brave the “chaos in Gaios”. It was pretty busy with other yachts and annoyingly we did find small fishing boats occupying large swathes of deep water quayside. This coupled with the recently established tripper boat quayside areas is reducing space for yachts, but it does free up after 5pm when the tripper boats leave and is fine as long as you are away by 10am the next morning!
A steady sail averaging 5 knots over 7 hours took us from Paxos to Corfu where we arrived on Thursday 25th May and anchored just outside Gouvia Marina.
We are now in the Marina awaiting the arrival of our American friends Bill and Cheryl Sanderson who arrive tonight to spend a week with us. We are hoping for fair winds and a bit more settled warm sunshine so that we can enjoy good sailing, good anchorages and hear all about the joys or otherwise of their new president.
Deja Vu 
You must be logged in to post a comment.