On Saturday evening, 27th May, Bill and Cheryl, our American friends from Montana and California, (their two homes they share their time between) surprised us by arriving early to Gouvia Marina in Corfu and we had to bid a hasty retreat from our neighbour’s boat, AirWaves, where we had been ensconced with Chris and Eileen putting the world to right over a beer or two, having spent the day preparing Deja Vu to receive our visitors.
Bill and Cheryl were on a multi destination trip in Europe, with us the penultimate stopover and their luggage did present an immediate challenge, which, we are pleased to say, Gouvia Marina solved by storing two suitcases of unwanted gear for their week sailing. They had joined us before on our older boat, have sailed off the Californian coast and learned the ropes, and we were looking forward to spending a week together.
After boat familiarisation and a trip into Corfu town, we set off from the Marina and enjoyed some great sailing heading always for the blue skies which took us away from mainland Greece, besieged with dark stormy clouds and rain, to the southern tip of Corfu and the anchorage at Petriti. Our planned BBQ did not materialise as the rolling sea and stiff breeze put paid to it, but Bill worked wonders on the beef, with a red wine marinade and with seasoning from many of Mo’s store cupboard herbs and spices.
Our week sailing of good fair winds took us to Paxos, where we spent a night at Gaios and then an overnight stay in Lakka Bay, which turned out to be a firm favourite. Fortunately the main charter fleet seemed to have left the anchorage to return boats to Corfu, and it was unusually empty and civilised in the Bay.
A week is not long on a boat and their time was quickly running out. Our return trip took us to the anchorage off the town of Platarius on the mainland, then swathed in sunshine, before a windless motor on our last day back to Gouvia Marina.
We enjoyed a great week with Bill and Cheryl, chewed the fat on many a subject, political and other. I am not sure if we are any the wiser about Donald Trump other than the alternative was deemed to be unacceptable. The news we receive and absorb from the States is, apparently, very different from reality and the truth, if anyone knows what that is!
Time to re-vital, fill up with water, bid farewell to Bill and Cheryl and for us to head back south, which we did via Petriti again and Paxos. We went ashore in Petriti for a sundowner in a nice bar on the waterfront. In the shallow water off the bar a small octopus was sighted moving around with wonderful grace. However it has sadly tempted fate too much and one of the locals grabbed a fishing spear and put an end to its short life. The reality behind the seafood we enjoy was all too apparent.
We tried a new bay at the bottom of the island of Paxos, Mongonissi, a delightful inlet where we were proud of ourselves to long line successfully in a very pretty spot in the bay which sported both a bar and restaurant. We went ashore for a recce and will have to save the restaurant for another time. We left Mongonissi late morning to wait for the afternoon wind to sail down to Preveza, a 30 mile trip. After 3 hours of motoring, we were well rewarded with a fast broad reach in 14knots of wind, feeling very pleased that we were not going the other way.
Our night on Preveza quay was very disappointing when we found the motor boat adjacent to us, Queen of Hearts, insisted on running its generator all night despite the fact it was directly opposite a power supply. Nigel was incensed and did not spare his tongue when venting his fury at the boat’s owner who apparently could not survive the night without his air conditioning and television. We were pleased we interrupted their film viewing but we did have to decamp to our forward cabin to get away from the noise and the diesel fumes of his generator. Enough said. We were pleased to depart the quay. You just never know who you are going to meet or moor beside. The world is full of very strange and some very selfish people.
We have just heard the election results and are marvelling at the idiocy of our politicians. Tom sent us an hilarious email: ‘Did no-one see the enormous elephant jumping in the room? The Europeans must be bemused (amused?) as we fall from grace, repeatedly shooting ourselves in the foot, which also happens to be the national mouth.’ Pleased to say we are relaxing in Vliho Bay for 2 or 3 days and getting ahead with our reading, which for the benefit of our sanity, is all fiction.
Deja Vu 
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