Heading North

Thanks Clur a great updateI finished the last blog as we danced to peg leg Geoff in Vonitsa we ended up leaving the next day and headed east to Rougas bay a beautiful anchorage with nothing there but a fishermans bar surrounded by wild dogs in pens and rotting old boats very basic to say the least but very friendly.

The next morning was spent lazing about on the boat until the wind got up and I checked the forecast, rain for the next two days and a strong westerly wind which we were exposed too so I decided to head back to Vonitsa to shelter. It was an interesting journey being hit by 28knt winds Claire helmed the boat getting soaked with breaking waves and I stayed below navigating and telling her which way to steer haha. After two days storm bound in Vonitsa it was time to head north. We had a great 8 hour sail to Anti Paxos and anchored in an emerald coloured bay

Anchorage Anti Paxos

the wind got up the following morning so we decided to move to Mongonissi on the next island Paxos another great anchorage but it was a very exclusive place and the beer was dear! but it was free to anchor so we stayed for 3 days

Anchorage in Mongonissi

and drunk our own beer. The next day we loaded up our little inflatable tender with towels mask and snorkels and set off to the nearest to explore the beaches and the town Gaios a 6 mile round trip

On our way to Gaios

On the way we spotted a deserted beach where we stopped for a swim and snorkel

Then went boat shopping

Gaios town Paxos a beautiful place to chill for an afternoon. The evening was spent back in Mongonissi where we joined a Neilson flotilla for a night of Greek dancing and drinking

Claire had to get up and show them how to do the Macarana

What ever day it was, after the Greek night we had to say bye we needed to top up the boat with deisel and water. Back to mainland Greece to Sivota Mourtos we decided to go the scenic route so went via the west coast of Paxos past towering white cliffs and gigantic sea caves

Claire doing the weekly wash on route

Eventually we got moored on the town quay in Syvota right outside a taverna

so we had to have a the customary Mythos and meze after mooring, after a freshen up we went to watch the famous Syvota sunset

then off to a Taverna and watched the Canadian GP. Lewis won and Vettel sulked haha. Still heading north we stopped in a small creek called Ormiskos for dinner and decided to stay the night surrounded by mountains this shallow inlet anchorage was just north of Igonumitsa after a swim in what felt like bath water we spent the night watching fish jumping through the air and yet an other amazing sunset

then we were treated to a spectacular electric storm with lightening lighting up the sky

Saying goodbye to Ormiskos we set off the following morning to Corfu town to get myself a new bluetooth speaker after I broke my old one by standing on it while getting out of the hammock

no wind at all meant we had to motor all the way, this is made easier because we have an auto helm that steers the boat on a given heading you just connect it to the tiller and it steers the boat leaving us nothing to do but lie in the sun reading or writing this blog😁 Corfu came into view and I decided to anchor just off the citadel

just a couple of minutes motor from Corfu old town in the tender, we got there at 2.30 pm and it was shut all I wanted was a speaker we wondered round but all the shops didn’t open until 5.30 we had to wait about in a bar drinking Mythos and listening to chill out music in sunshine and about 25° it’s tough out here! Eventually got the speaker and made our way back to the boat as it went dark the citadel lit up as we sat on the boat listening to our music on my new waterproof speaker

We turned our music off at about 11pm and went to bed but Corfu didn’t turn there music off until 5.30am all night music = no sleep if you can’t beat them join them so we got up and danced on deck.After the music stopped it was 3 hrs sleep and off to explore Corfu and the old fort

The tall narrow streets ideal for shade from the sun

that’s our home Lesanda the nearest one to the camera but still the smallest ??Our next door neighbour had a helicopter on the foredeck of his boat we had 2 towels and a bikini on ours

We left the big guns trying to out trump each other and carried on north heading for Kassiopi as we sailed up the channel something very weird happened Claire mentioned the boat clock was a hour wrong I checked my watch and it was the same as the boats, checked my phone and it was a hour slow surely we can’t have sailed through a time zone. A few hours later all was revealed….. The Albanians had hijacked our phones!! It’s a very narrow channel between Corfu and Albania and Vodafone Albania had taken over our phones and sent us a message we had both reached our £10 data cap! Ouch £20 just to sail past Albania!!!!phones off for the rest of the day By this time the wind had turned 180° to the north so our original destination would not have much shelter for the night so I found us a little bay where we long lined to a beach and had a campfire and got the new waterproof speaker out and the wine

Up early we had decided to go as far north as we could in this side of Greece so headed to the small Island of Erikousa a 19 mile sail in the pilot book it mentioned a small hamlet with a small fishing harbour with a couple of tavernas when we arrived there was a massive brand new harbour with all facilities someone has to pay for these improvements and it was us at £18 a night it is the most we have had to pay

we decided to book in for 2 nights and explore the island. A very spectacular island apparently having millions of pounds worth of e.u money spent on the new harbour, roads and inferstructure in the last couple of years, to who’s benefit? The wealthy who are building massive properties all over the Island knowing this is going to be a rich persons playground in the future funded by the e.u!!Less politics lets sea some picturesEarly tomorrow we set of South we have come as far north as we can without entering another countries waters. Italy is only 45mile to the west and Albainia 10 miles to the north and east.Link to tracker http://www.greenalp.com/RealtimeTracker/index.php?viewuser=yrag1958