We launched on Thursday 8^th May, ahead of schedule, having done the anti-fouling and the usual pre-launch jobs and checks but, alas, without our upright fridge which still had not arrived from Italy. We harboured a hope that we could pick it up in Athens, but as you will read, it is not meant to be. Once in the water we slipped around the pontoons and tied up in Cleopatra’s marina to complete our pre journey preparations.  Great to revisit the restaurants we have become so familiar with around Cleopatra and meet up with friends made in previous years.

Our plan is to go up to Corfu, as 75 mile trip, then return and head south and then east to within reach of  Athens before 26^th May.

Friday 9^th May we headed off early on the easterly wind bound for Corfu sailing half of the distance of 40 miles before we had to do some motoring. Mo had booked a berth on a restaurant pontoon off Sivota on the mainland opposite the bottom of Corfu and we arrived just before the afternoon breeze strengthened into an unpleasant blow. Another boat came alongside us and when the wind increased to over 20 knots on the beam it made for very bouncy conditions and our neighbour’s lazy line breaking. Everyone mucked in to share fenders and lines to keep all the boats safe, it was quite a start to the season!  Interesting to be somewhere new and we enjoyed the visit but will avoid if any strong northerly winds are forecast!

Whilst Britain was basking under a big anticyclone that had lasted many days, weeks in fact, Greece was catching depressions running through the Med. Our weather was unsettled to say the least; colder than usual, often wet with unpredictable winds. We decided to head for the shelter of Plataria the next day to avoid more strong winds and we were joined by new friends Mark and Lisa from Takaria, with whom we spent a very pleasant evening dining chez Babis. As we walked around the town we received friendly waves and greetings from folk we had met on previous visits which made for a very welcoming visit.

By early afternoon on Sunday 12^th we were in Corfu’s Gouvia marina to await the fitting of our new sprayhood on the Monday. All went well and we are now the proud owners of a shiny hood and can see through the new windows! The company, Gitras was most impressive and efficient, handling the modifications we requested speedily and professionally. We did a few other maintenance jobs, painting the transom of the dinghy and completing a couple of rounds of shopping at the local AB Supermarket.

We gave ourselves time out on Tuesday to meet up with Peter and Irene in Corfu town for dinner which was lovely. Goodbye to Irene, but Peter then joined us on the following morning for the journey ahead from Corfu to Athens.

We were promised a varied weather set due to many low pressure systems circulating offering up northerly winds one minute and southerly the next. We had had a mixture of motoring and sailing, visited Preveza to shelter from a rain storm, Sivota on Lefkas to enjoy the hospitality offered by Stavros, Oxia on the mainland coast for a night on anchor, Messolonghi to show Peter the town he missed last time round due to Covid and then Galaxhidi for an all too short visit before making for Corinth.  We were on such a roll with the sail from the Rion Bridge to Trizonia that we decided to keep going, skip Trizonia and make Galaxhidi, a run of over 50 miles.  We ran a reefed main for half the distance then reduced sail to just the jib, still making over 6 knots, but more comfortable in a lively bouncy sea.  Galaxhidi is always a joy to visit and we felt especially lucky to squeeze between two boats on the town quay and enjoy the town for just a night.

We transited the Corinth Canal early afternoon on Wednesday 21^st May, slightly ahead of Nigel’s schedule and, as it was late in the day by the time we had stopped to pay for our transit and to refuel , we anchored for the night on the Athens side of the canal close to the oil refinery which was a little smelly! Our plan to take Peter to Alimos marina close to Athens and to take delivery of our new fridge was thwarted due to it, and all other adjacent marinas being full! Not an option we had planned for but we quickly got creative over a new plan.

We anchored off Aegina having had an abortive attempt at getting into Perdika on the south coast of the island, but with northwesterly winds forecast overnight we made the decision to head for the shelter of the mainland coast and ended up anchoring off the beach in Epidavros. Peter explored options of getting to the airport and ended up settling for a comfortable taxi ride with Spirou, at a favourably negotiated price. We enjoyed Peter’s company on this long journey but it was time for him to get back to Portugal and home with Irene.

Peter departed early morning on Friday 24^th and we set off for Poros to get a berth before the next batch of charter boats arrived and in front of the depression promised for Sunday. Quay space in this area is very much at a premium due to the explosion in the number of huge charter catamarans, each taking the space of 2-3 yachts. This is an increasing problem which the charter companies seem loth to address. The result is chaos.

We have achieved our objectives and got close to Athens on a tight schedule. We have done 359 miles to date.

Here we are in Poros and as I write, Sunday 26^th May, it is very grey and a little wet, but the streets are full of people. The local Naval college has let all the cadets out into the town to meet up with their families. They look like a new intake of national service recruits, many with parents proudly walking beside sons in fresh starched uniforms, but there are some solitary figures sitting alone on quay side benches looking as if their worlds have ended. Tough times.

There is fierce competition for boat mooring space, so we are happy to be tied up! Tomorrow is another day and the forecasts are changing by the minute so we have no idea what we will be doing. For today, we have time to do our blog.

We spent a week in Preveza at the beginning of April to work on Deja Vu. Our good friends Brian and Michele elected to join us and we really appreciated their contribution to the work Nigel had planned for us all!

New anchor chain, shiny polished hull, stripping down and cleaning of winches, surfaces prepared for antifouling, repairs and maintenance on bow thruster, keel and prop, plus a host of internal jobs earned us all the satisfaction of knowing we were crashing through Nigel’s job lists. Time went far too quickly, but we also enjoyed great company in the evenings, visited our favourite restaurants in town and branched out to Vonitse for supper one evening. We are lucky to have good friends.

Alas, there is always something unexpected that happens and this year was no exception. We are fortunate to have two fridges, one with a small freezer section which is a major part of Mo’s meal planning, but sadly this useful one decided the end had come. We switched it on, put some beer cans in to cool for lunch, but we had to content ourselves with warm beer! The upright fridge was extricated and sent for examination. We have subsequently had to re-order another, which in Greece, is on a 4 week delivery. We will be lucky to get it installed for our trips this year, but our fingers are firmly crossed.

A busy cruising schedule is planned. We return on May 6th, launch on the 8th and let the voyage begin!

August 21^st was super early for us to return to Greece as it was still hot and very much a part of the school holidays, so crowded. However we succumbed to a request from Faye, Guy and the girls to spend some time aboard Déjà Vu and this meant, of course, the last week of the school holidays!

We had been advised of a neat package holiday deal and Faye successfully booked a package that included flights to Preveza, transfers to a hotel in Nidri and an air conditioned apartment for one week. At the same time I booked us onto a pontoon barely 300m from the hotel, for the same week, where we could come and go and enjoy power and water on tap.

With all options covered we enjoyed a great week together which included 2 nights out on the boat visiting Karnyios and Porto Spilla respectively for beach afternoons and evening dinners. It was indeed hot and Martha particularly sported a worrying heat rash most of the time, so everyone was working hard to keep her cool. Their apartment pool was a huge asset, not to mention the AC, and whilst on the boat we ran fans, facilitated essential swimming and found as much breeze as possible, although light winds limited the sailing we did. Each evening we dined together and had great fun playing a host of hilarious games, the most memorable being consequences and an attempt to get hypnotized!

It was a great joy to share time with them all, on and off the boat so we felt quite bereft when their week was up and a coach shipped them off to the airport.

We lingered for a few days to let some cloudy weather pass by before heading north to Preveza before setting off further north to Corfu.  The intense heat was beginning to give way to a series of depressions and fierce thunderstorms, so we had to time our sails carefully and plan our destinations accordingly.

It was great to meet up with Peter who joined us mid afternoon on Wednesday June 26^th, but he was distraught at having left a bottle of Moet in the taxi which had been intended to be a celebratory gift for his arrival! 

What he did bring though were the official Irish registration documents for Déjà Vu that Nigel had arranged to be sent to him. Déjà Vu now has a passport style credentials and is back in the EU.  Maybe a wish for the rest of the UK now.

As we prepared the boat for departure early the following morning, a guy turned up clutching the said bottle of Moet. He declared it had been left in his friend’s taxi and as he was visiting Eufemia, he offered to deliver it. A wonderful testament to the Greek character, we were thrilled.

We headed up to Vliho Bay, dined at Taverna Elena, which was a sort of thank you to the staff there for rescuing Peter. He had gone for one of his mega swims, lost sight of the boat amid a busy anchorage, went ashore to reassess his situation and found help there, including the loan of a phone. Phone calls to the UK and then to Nigel’s phone, requesting a rescue, resulted in an RNLI style shout!

We stayed over in Vliho for an extra day to let the strong winds blow through, and then visited Babis in Spartakahori followed by George in Kalamos, spent a night at anchor in Varko, and finally a night at the Karniya tavern just outside Vathi on Meganissey.

We have had a variety of good sailing and excellent swimming, but the week is flashing by all too quickly. Tomorrow we head up to Lefkas to unload Peter who flies home on Thursday 4^th July; election day!

Our final week before lifting out on 11th July, to go home, has no fixed agenda other than to enjoy the boat and eat up the food! It looks like another hot week, so it will need to include a few days at anchor. Ratty has not been seen for 14 days, despite no tempting treats available and nightly traps. We hope he left the same way he came arrived in the first place, but to be sure we will leave him a last supper when we leave the boat. We will look forward to the next trip late August through September.

June 15^th and next stop Trizonia. As usual the wind in the Gulf freshened steadily and we flew along under the jib doing 7 knots. Our arrival in the harbour at Trizonia coincided with an increase in the wind speed and we found the harbour as busy as we have ever seen it.  We had one option to tie up on the quay which required some clever parallel parking! We made it with a lot of help from other sailors already there and were lucky to suffer only a minor scratch on our approach when the wind took the bow a little sharply towards the quay. It was here that we discovered we did indeed have a major battery issue. Nigel had been nursing suspicions for some time, but as the service batteries were less than two years old, he had been seeking other reasons for malfunction. However it was clear that the batteries were shot and would need to be replaced. Instead of a couple of days relaxing in Trizonia, we took the first opportunity the next day to return to Messolonghi  with the wind behind us.

Our arrival back in Messolonghi coincided with a heatwave. Batteries were ordered, warranty battles began and we roasted. Replacement batteries arrived swiftly and were delivered to the boat in 40 degrees C.  We rigged up a pulley system to get the old ones out of the boat, and with a little help from our musical Sardininan neighbour, managed to lower the new ones into position. Nigel rewired everything, arranged to leave the old batteries at the marina chandlery with Dimitri and we were at last good to go. 

Annoyingly the company that supplied the batteries is refusing to accept that they were faulty and are hiding behind some very unreasonable and in the UK, illegal warranty terms.  Beware Mastervolt, they are now part of the Navico conglomerate who apparently have no customer service ethos.  So sad as they used to be a great company.  Another example of a takeover that destroyed good.

On a positive note we received confirmation finally of our Irish Registration for Déjà vu. We duly lowered the Red ensign for the last time and mounted the orange, green and white tricolor of the Irish flag. Déjà vu of Dublin is now officially part of the EU again!

We left Messolonghi with more than we bargained for as we discovered evidence of a stowaway. Rat droppings in our food stores indicated the critter was well and truly on the boat and hiding below floor level. We set traps immediately.

It was essential to escape the heat of the marina and we travelled about 30 miles to the anchorage opposite the north end of Oxia. Here we hung around in the water, swam and chilled as best we could for 3 days as temperatures stayed well into the 40s, but no sign of Ratty.

We were awaiting the arrival of friend Peter from Farnham, into Kefalonia, so we headed across the port of Poros, a first time visit!
Welcomed to the quay by harbour master Spiros, we tied up with less than a metre of water under us and were glad to have arrived early as it got very crowded. Great to explore a new place, we found a bar set into the cliff to the north and a superb restaurant on a hilltop to the south. Both mentioned on the CA Captains Mate and both worthy of a visit. Traps still down, still no sign of ratty.

Eufemia next day, although the gentlemanly beat north was thwarted by 25knot headwinds, most annoying as we motored through a chunky sea. It all died down when we got close, so we anchored for a swim off Sami before heading into the harbour at Eufemia, where trusty Makis was there to take our lines.  Temperatures had if anything risen a bit more.
A couple of days cleaning up and restocking and adding water, we sweated and  awaited Peter’s arrival.   Still no sign of ratty but research has taught us to be patient, so we continue with nightly traps and it may take a few more days before we catch him.
Life on board will carry on, we head north on Thursday 27^th June, seeking shelter from very strong winds forecast for Friday.

The week we spent in Greece in April doing work on the boat paid dividends, as we(the royal kind) had previously  polished Déjà Vu, done a host of maintenance jobs, changed a lot of the running rigging and generally cleaned her up.
We arrived late on 1^st June with high expectations for a straightforward launch on Monday 3^rd June. She had been ready antifouled by the yard; a chore we are very happy to unload in the future! However there were some engine bits on the chart table that really should have been installed on the engine, so at 830am on Monday morning there were hasty phone calls to the service engineers to get this anomaly resolved! It transpired that they had needed to order a new part that had not arrived in time, so within the hour and engineer was on board to put it all back together with a temporary repair on the broken filter glass.

We launched and went over to Preveza quay, now swamped with charter boats which reside there. Much harder to find a space, but we did, reverse anchored as usual and for the first time in several years that we have visited here, there was no one to take lines, so Mo had to leap ashore to enable the mooring process. Progress for the Quay authorities is not progress for the cruising fraternity and a major facility has been significantly reduced.

We love Preveza and  soaked up the holiday mood, met up with friendly restaurateurs we have befriended, shopped and filled with water ready for the off.

We had been invited to be guests at the Ocean Cruising Club rally dinner in Vliho Bay on the morrow, so we slipped lines, motored down to Lefkas pontoons for a stopover to collect our recently serviced life raft and fire extinguishers. All going well, until we noticed the anchor somewhat askew in the foredeck cradle. Alas we had lost the very important bow roller and spindle and Lefkas chandlers had no suitable bits for Nigel to make a temporary repair!
We got down to the OCC evening event and had a delightful evening meeting other cruisers who feted  Nigel as a hero having had some considerable successes at resolving some of the bureaucracy anomalies that Brexit has put in our way.  New friends made over dinner and beer and then back to the anchor problem!

Nidri to the rescue, where the IBA, International Boat Assistance, organization resides and they offered a proper solution via their colleague, English born Phil, the local welder and problem solver! Within a couple of days the anchor was fixed (blue circle above) and better than new, the toilet was also repaired and we were ready to get on with our trip and the important activity of enjoying ourselves! We visited the new Marina to be in Nidri next to the ferry quay, pictured above, top left. A huge expansion of their infrastructure, it will be very popular when completed and running.

A couple of nights at anchor in Varko provided much needed swimming therapy for Mo’s mending wrist and shoulder, an overnight in Sivota, and a run down to Eufemia on Kefalonia.
We had arranged a rendezvous with Farnham friends Anne and Christopher who were holidaying in the south of the island. We had a marvellous day together when they drove up to find us and we shared a very pleasant lunch and early evening supper before the time came for them to depart.

Our next stop, Messalongi, where we got the last place in the Marina, gosh it was full! Becoming ever more popular for boats to rest over for UK returns, we will have to do some forward planning next time!  The new marina owners have big plans for the place to expand and modernize.  It will become an excellent facility.

With a couple of strong wind days ahead, we rented a car and set off for the mountain rack railway on the north coast of the Pelopponese, east of Patras. We had a wonderful day where sadly the photos do not do justice to the magnificent mountain scenery, ravines and gorges we travelled though to get to the mountain town of Kalavryta.

The train climbs over 750m with the steeper gradients on rack mode.  The track is poised most of the time on the edge of precipitous drops down to the river below.  Sadly the design of the carriages does not make photography easy.  It was also very crowded.   We spent an enjoyable day in Kalavryta before returning on the train. 

The town’s main claim to infamy was graphically portrayed in the town museum, where we had quite a harrowing experience. During the German occupation, specifically on December 13^th 1943, all the men and boys over 13 in the town were executed by the Nazis in reparation for partisans having killed some German soldiers. Britain had refused help that had been requested as fierce retaliation had been anticipated and, in the event, over 460 men of the town lost their lives.
There were 13 survivors for whom oak trees have been planted in the street beside the museum to remember them.  It is a very sobering and depressing reminder of the horrors of war brought home with the terrible goings on in Ukraine and Gaza, will be ever learn?  As a tourist attraction it was uncompromising and harsh.

Our return drive to Messalonghi would normally have been by the Rion Bridge but Nigel, not having been on a boat that day, elected to use the ferry crossing. We saved 8 euros over the toll bridge fee. Four ferries run back to back and it is hard to see how this is an economic enterprise these days! We enjoyed the trip enormously though and were glad not to be sailing as the winds were very fresh, the sea bouncy such that the ferries were crabbing across the canal.

It is now Saturday 15^th June, (Happy Birthday Dick) and tomorrow we plan to depart for Trizonia, a pretty island in the gulf of Corinth as that is the way the wind is blowing.

It has been raining for most of the month of May in the UK, so quite a disappointment as we have been home-based entertaining Mo’s brother Roger, his wife Vicki and daughter Bridget, all from New Zealand. Notwithstanding the weather, it has been great to see them for a couple of days and show them some old and characterful corners of Hampshire. Bridget enjoyed it all, her first ever trip to the UK, but they are now heading off to continue their Northern Hemisphere adventures in Sicily and Italy.

We head off to Preveza on June 1st, a few weeks later that usual, but we had bones to mend after Mo fractured her left wrist scaphoid and Nigel had to recover from a cortisone injection in his knee. Slightly below our normal fitness levels, we are planning a gentle start in the Ionian, launching on 3rd and heading off to join the Offshore Cruising Club summer get together in Vliho Bay on 5th & 6th. This should break us in gently!

The wind was definitely having a rest and the next few days were disappointingly windless, so the engine was put to work to take us from Galaxidi to Trizonia and on again under the Rion Bridge to Messolonghi.  Trizonia holds a special place for us; so often it has been the haven from storms; but this time we enjoyed mooring up inside the great concrete ‘marina in waiting’ in tranquil and calm conditions. There was plenty of evidence of tidying up work being done all around. Old boats had been removed, old junk had been taken away, the bins had been rationalized, a superb new children’s play area had been built alongside the quay, and the paving was clearly being repaired. Our stop over was brief, but we met some other Brits who have made Trizonia their boat’s home location by setting up their own mooring inside the harbour.  No-one apparently needed to be consulted, give permission, or seem interested in the initiative, so DIY prevails!

We had had our fill of Messolonghi on previous trips, so as it was to be another brief stopover we dropped anchor at the head of the approach channel. For the very first time we saw and passed a cargo carrying ship leaving the quay and heading out down the narrow channel, their load likely to have been salt.

We did do some gentle sailing under a full Greek sun from Messolonghi to the island of Oxia where we decided to pick up a buoy off a taverna, in the middle of nowhere. It was utterly beautiful, we were surrounded by uninterrupted landscape with the dramatic island of Oxia to the south. It transpired that an entrepreneurial fish farm owner was developing a new business opportunity, charging boats 20 euros to stay on the buoys and also offering excellent fish meals ashore. There was a good proportion of landside visitors too so they were quite busy. We had no qualms about buoy integrity, they were robust and well spaced, as they had been laid by professionals! It was altogether a super stopover.

Next stop Efemia on Kefalonia for two nights where we were warmly greeted by Makis who is the face of the busy harbour. I don’t think we had ever seen it so busy with boats hanging off the breakwater as well as filling the small anchorage. Fortunately the weather was settled so everyone was seemingly accommodated. 

In Vathi on Ithaca we anchored off the small island in the west side of the harbour which afforded a bit more shelter from the late afternoon sea breezes. It was excellent holding ground with serious mud keeping us in one place.

We began to see a change in the weather ahead so decided to head up into the Inland sea area and enjoy some beach anchorages before the forecast storms arrived. Our stop in Vliho bay was not as good as usual after both of us felt unwell after our supper in the middle of the restaurants on the east side of the bay. Most unusual, but we did not linger there either and had a brilliant sail across to Varko Bay, our favourite beach anchorage in this area. We stayed two nights and caught up on swimming and reading, cooking on board, we even barbecued our remaining fish and generally enjoyed some normal sailing weather.

It was not to last and our next port of call was Preveza where we planned to dig in for the storms to come 25^th-27^th September.  We did find an excellent spot on Preveza Quay behind the commercial dock. A large ship was docked there seemingly unloading a large cargo of grain and we enjoyed watching endless lines of trucks passing under hoppers to receive their loads. The ship also afforded some protection from the north easterly winds.

The storm did come on Nigel’s birthday. There was lots of thunder and lightning and deluges of rain, this pattern has followed us all year. We did manage to escape to find some sardines which were especially delicious. After many years of lobbying, Mo finally capitulated and gave into Nigel’s suggestion of an electric scooter for his birthday present. It is fun and fully operational now, saving loads of time buzzing around running errands.

We have started on the clean up and tidy up operations before lifting out in a few days. Nigel was hoisted part way up the mast to clean salt from the rigging and we managed to get the outboard motor serviced in the local chandlery.  We plan to hop round to Vonitsa for a couple of days at anchor as normal weather promises to resume from tomorrow. Mo plans to Boracol the teak decks, clean and organize everything down below as Nigel concentrates on the other deck work.

Once on dry land we plan to empty the port fuel tank and do the deep clean we did on the starboard tank back in July. Messy and unpleasant work ahead but it needs to be done and we hope to rid ourselves of the dreaded diesel bug for once and for all. The tanks will be left with minimal fuel and additives with the recommended filters in the breather pipes to prevent any moisture providing the right environment for the bugs. Wish us luck.

This year we have travelled just shy of 1000 miles; a record! The conditions have been challenging, especially in May and September, and I think it is fair to say we are both looking forward to a winter break this year. We fly home on October 6th.