22 May - Waiter Could You Pass Me The Soap?

Vonitsa is one of our favourite places. There is a small breakwater that forms a "harbour" for about 20 boats and under the lee of a very impressive Venetian fort/castle (I was proudly informed by a young greek schoolboy that, "Vonitsa once had a King!").

Vonitsa is a typical working agricultural village/town unspoiled by tourists. On Tuesday there is a market in a field at the edge of town. Here you can jostle with the locals buying fruit and veg, honey, fish, and household goods. This is the real Greece.

Overlooking the harbour breakwater is the small, family run Remezzo Restaurant, with tables outside and a hand painted sign on the front that says, "Vonitsa Yacht Club - Breakfast - Shower". The Remezzo is not really a Yacht Club - its a restaurant. The idea of calling the restaurant a "yacht club" is the Remezzo owner's way of making his restaurant frendlly and attractive to the few boats that call into Vonitsa's little harbour.

The most attractive bit of the yacht club's sign is the word, "SHOWER"!

Having been on the move at sea for days and eking the water rations by bathing with a cup full of water, who could resist the appeal of standing under a hot shower!

Buy a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee and a shower is yours for free. Great! Next question, "Where is your shower?"
"Ah, just there next to the kitchen!"


"and hey, it's nice inside...swinging doors...just like the Last Chance Saloon...and no lock!"


Ok, so you go in, strip off and enjoy your shower. You hear people talking and eating very close by... it is not until you come out of the shower that you get the full impact. You are buck naked having a shower right in the middle of the restaurant!


Great shower, just make sure you don't slip on a bar of soap, back out through the swing doors and spoil someone's meal by landing on their table!

19th May - Albania without the paperwork

Ftelias, Greece/Albania border

Ftelias is all of 5 miles from Corfu town but it may as well be on a different planet. The border between Albania and Greece bisects the entrance of the bay, so for a short while we are in Albanian waters without having to do all the tedious formalities to check the boat into the country. There are no border posts or military presence here. As we go past a fish farm a man working there calls out ‘bravo!’, and waves encouragingly towards the narrow dogleg inlet ahead of us to indicate there’s plenty of water. We suppose they don’t get many yotties in here as this is border territory offlimits to yachts. We take the gamble that since there's a general strike on in Greece, the coastguard won't come and move us on.














We find ourselves in a wonderfully sheltered creek with trees growing down to the water’s edge, to be greeted by the sound of birdsong, the inevitable goat bells and the disgruntled barking of a smallholder’s guard dogs.

It is a peaceful rural place and it’s warm and sunny today - a perfect antidote to the last five days of unseasonally strong winds and torrential rain. Last night was our first unbroken night’s sleep since last Thursday.

Here we are anchored below the Venetian old fortress in Corfu town with yet another rainstorm approaching. A 145 foot superyacht ‘Larisa’ is moored at the NAOK sailing club next to us. The yacht club marinero proudly boasted that Roman Abramovich is a member of the club, and it was here the meeting took place between the Russian aluminium oligarch and Peter Mandelson that caused such a stink a year or so ago.







We sat out the worst of the weather at anchor in protected Valtou bay on the mainland which is a real wildlife haven. Our sightings included a small flock of glossy ibis; a Hermann’s tortoise which hissed at Leighton when he picked it up; some European pond terrapins; one Montpelier snake, one unidentified brown snake and a skink. We also saw two large ladder snakes squashed on the road, so now we’re a bit cautious when going for walks along goat paths in the scrub.

13th May - Bugs on Board (by Leighton)

Cathy hates spiders on the boat. These are a few very small spiders and I don't mind them. After all they do catch mosquitos and I enjoy sitting in the cockpit while reading a book, pausing occasionally to watch them (a bit like fishermen mending their nets) cleaning and repairing their webs in amongst the various bits of rope and safety gear on the back of the boat. Any bug that can produce a material stronger than steel at room temperature and do so out of its backside on a diet of bugs, has got to demand some admiration. After I complained about the indiscrimate destruction of webs and flicking of the residents into the sea to become fish food - Cathy did conceed a bit of ground, "...they can all be put in a box and taken ashore if you want to save them!". Its not like we live in a haunted house. My crew of tiny spiders produce delicate small cobwebs that are full of diamonds in the morning dew and occasionally a dead mosquito. I like that.

Since I mention mosquitos - Unfortunately Mozzies like the same type of climate as us humans so when the weather is at its best the they are about. I am certain these little beasts are the source of many vampire tales: They come out at night, fly through the sky, suck your blood while you sleep and return to their hiding places before sunrise. We have recently had to deploy additional defenses (see picture below) and although it is a bit like something out of "Sleeping Beauty", but we haven't had a bite in the last two nights.














Mini-Ants - we both draw the line at ants. We are not sure where they have come from or where they might live on the boat. Like the spiders they are tiny - (unfortunately the spiders don't seem to do ants) and even though we bump them off when we see them, the odd ant keeps reappearing so we think there might be a small colony somewhere on board. We keep looking out for an anthill to appear on deck - nothing so far.

Dragon Flies - While we are doing bugs we might as well cover the 'mystery of the dragon flies'. Several times we have been visited by colourful dragon Flies - the same kind you can see buzzing around the water plants along any river bank in the UK. The mystery is that each time we were visited by dragon flies we were far out at sea - some 80-100 miles from land! After a rest an hour or so, they would take off and continue their journey - from and to where a mystery.

Now for our "Bug of the Month" competition:


Answers on a postcard please. Not sure where it is now (might still be on the boat somewhere? In a spiders stomach? - we can be hopeful ) but it is certainly not in our book, "The Natural History of The Mediterranean". A complete mystery - and I have never seen a bug like it. New species perhaps? However we did see this thing in the water earlier in the day, there might be a connection...?

10th May, Sivota Mourtos

Heading north from Preveza, we stopped at Parga on the mainland after a delightful close reach in light winds for 30 miles.

Here we are parked next door to a semi-submerged ferryboat. The quay is a dumping ground for old nets, an underwater wreck and assorted debris. The wrecks have been there for years apparently.







It’s a real shame the harbour is such a dumping ground as the town itself is a jewel. It sits in a beautiful double horseshoe bay which is guarded by a fine Venetian fort on the promontory above.











We took advantage of a rare cloudy day to go for a long walk in the hills above Lakka on Paxos where we spent a few days at anchor last week. Ancient olive trees grow on stone terraces which were built to stop the soil from erosion. They date from the Middle Ages when the Venetians planted the trees so that the Paxiotes could pay their taxes in olive oil.

We came across a secluded church with this ornate bronze bell hung in an olive tree.







The next day was warm enough for our first swim. Leighton collects stones from the beach. Lakka's water is a glorious turquoise.








Plataria on the mainland opposite Corfu felt very exposed when we arrived in a strong sea breeze one afternoon, as the seawall and quay are barely two feet high. Our kedge dragged in the night to put us alongside. We’ve abandoned our plans to leave the boat here and explore Albania by car as 1) the berth isn’t secure – contrary to the pilot and 2) there have been reports of rioting in Tirana.

Leighton takes a break from fixing a leak in the toilet pump with Harry Potter here in Sivota Mourtos.

We did our first stern-to on the quay here with the help of 15 knots of wind blowing us on. It worked scarily well although we ran out of chain – and we have 60 metres of the stuff – some ten feet from the quay. Never mind -we’ve been using the dinghy to ferry us across the gap ever since.

29th April 2010 - Preveza

Many people have asked us if we’re affected by the Greek economic situation since the bailout is much in the news. Here’s the answer.

People are still out spending and the tavernas are full. Because many people are paid at least part of their salary in cash, they don’t seem to pay much tax. And public sector services like the port police appear to be heavily overstaffed. Small wonder the Greek government has run out of money. The big issue for us continues to be the exchange rate – and that’s the result of a weak pound and the state of the UK economy.

St George’s day is big around here with the farming community. They celebrate by racing stallions around the church outside Vonitsa to win a loaf of bread specially blessed by the priest. It has the mayhem of a drag race with little regard for safety.

The riders wear ordinary jeans and trainers, without a helmet. They talk on their mobile and smoke as they gallop. Afterwards on the quayside the sweating horses are tied to lampposts, benches or any other convenient hitching post to kick their heels while the riders drink a glass or two of ouzo. The horses lash out at anything that gets too close – a scooter, a baby buggy, a passerby.

The deck caulking is done – two weeks of strenuous work, aching muscles and filthy fingernails is finally over!

Here's Cathy hard at work.

We’re pleased with the result and glad to get it over before it gets too hot. Now we can leave Vonitsa and go sailing. We spend the first few days exploring the anchorages in the gulf of Amvrakia with some pleasant sailing. We have to move on twice when the wind shifts to put us on a lee shore. We fetch up in the tiny hamlet of Loutraki tucked in close to the shore beside some small traditional fishing boats. We’ve seen dolphins, turtles, pelicans and seabirds here.