2 July we had anchored overnight just north of the Levkas
canal bridge and the guys from Quantum sails turned up to fit our main. A trip
to the top of the mast for Simon to sort put a sheave. All went well apart from
a dropped spanner later recovered easily from the canal by Simon who is reputed
to free dive to 40m. A huge achievement. Raewyn took some amazing photos of
fish in the canal. Fitting the new main was easy and we carried on to Preveza,
staying the night.
Our next stop North was O.Fanari – a lovely bay at the side
of the Acheron River. Otti was anchored there – it was his birthday which we
celebrated at a restaurant on the banks of the Acheron. The small town is
quaint and apart from the beach has tripper boats going up the river. We took
the dinghy up as far as allowed –just to say we had been to hell and back.The
river is the ancient river Styx which in Greek mythology is the entrance to
Hades. I guess at some time it had natural gas flames much the same as the
Chimera on Mt Olympus in Turkey. Perhaps earthquakes have altered the landscape
as there are no flames now.
We sailed with Otti to Monastery Bay at Mourtos/Syvota and had a pizza meal ashore at
the Italian Restaurant there. Followed by an ice cream from the gelataria. We
seem to do this every time we visit the town. It is becoming a hard habit to
break. From there it was back to
Igounemitsa creek (Egg in the mixer). Even had wind in the right direction for
a sail. This was curtailed by large ferries coming from all angles as we
transited a narrow passage between a small island and the mainland –a short cut
for the ferries to and from Corfu and Italy. There is a lovely beach in the
creek and we had a pleasant night. However, the sewer from the port town must
empty in to the nearby river as the smell was definitely eau de mediterranee in
the morning.
Adventure with Sue
& Bob Blakey
Sue and Bob arrived in Garitses (Corfu) in their Jeunneau 42
called Othali. (Over The Hill And Loving It.)
We moved to Kommeno finishing with a restaurant meal at Gouvia marina.
Strong winds were forecast, so we headed to our safe haven
anchorage at Pagania where, apart from a friendly Greek fisherman and his wife,
we were the only yachts. The wind blew and we were safe – a requirement for
Raewyn.
Back to Komenno for stores, water and fuel. The obligatory
trip to Vodafone to start Sue and Bob’s ever endearing relationship with
communication. Part of this visit was ordering a kayak to be delivered next day
to Garitses and revisiting Vodafone to sort out teething issues. Also got a total laundry service. Something
we do with each visit to Gouvia marina. Cruising can be so domestic. (Don’t run
those last two words together) – just seeing if you are still awake.
Back to Garitses, Bob picked up the kayak and in the evening
we had a wonderful meal at the “Walls” restaurant with Babis and Wendy Kazianas
(Cruisers from NZ who were sailing on Carpe Diem – a Prout catamaran ), Sue and
Bob, Raewyn and I.
Our first sojourn was to a small fishing village on the
south of Corfu Island – Petriti. A lovely anchorage and we had plenty of room.
Until about 4pm when yachts descended from everywhere and although there is
acres of shallow anchorage they all decided to come inside us. Another
restaurant meal (pizza again) You must think we eat out every night – we don’t.
We went back to our yachts to find one arrogant charter skipper had anchored
very close to 3 yachts. All 3 of us made our concerns known to him but he
refused to move. This is unusual, and had I been the yacht most at risk, I
would have moved. Most times it is not
worth the hassle. However, we were relatively safe and it was a
calm night.
From Petriti, it was back to Monastery Bay and
Mourtos/Syvota. Sue and Bob had a walk
ashore. We stayed there the next day and had a lazy day on the yacht.
Parga Again
We motored down the coast to Parga and found our preferred
anchorage buoyed off with a lady on a lilo attached to one of the buoys. She
advised – no big yachts, so we moved to the next beach where we have stayed
many times. Downside is that it has a large watersports centre with motorboats
towing toys that think yachts are fun marker bouys.
We left the yachts mid afternoon and walked up the hill that
divides the bay from the town. Top of the hill is a castle and we had a great
explore. First time we have done this as the area has been cordoned off in
previous visits. We proceeded downhill to the town. There was a tourist
excursion (train) leaving for Ali Pasha’s castle at 6pm so we had a drink then
took the train. – Actually a tractor disguised as a train towing trailers disguised
as carriages. All very touristy, naff, but a very effective way of getting to
the destination which is very high up and about 5k away. Our trip down included
at a stop at a village on the mountain. We had a drink and watched enough of
the world cup final to know France won.
The history of the castle was interesting. In the 1800’s
Parga was “ruled” by the British. Ali Pasha offered to buy the area but the
British refused to sell. He had had a castle/fort built in Albania to use as a base
from which to conquer the area. It was
not close enough to Parga to be effective, so he had the 17 engineers killed
for their lack of siting the castle and had another built high above Parga. The
British, on seeing the finished fortification built with local labour, decided
to sell, so the area became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Getting back up the hill was difficult, but our reward was
dinner at a restaurant overlooking our anchorage.
We have now moved on to 2 Rock Bay for a quiet night, then
the 21 miles to Preveza. High winds have been forecast and proved correct. We
sailed from Preveza to the Levkas Canal just in time to miss the 1pm opening so
waited one hour for the slightly delayed 2pm opening and sailed to a protected
anchorage south of Levkas.
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| Ali Pasha's Castle |
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| Bob Sue & Raewyn |
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| Parga Castle |
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| Parga Town |
