Serenity: June 2018

Cruising 2018

After a late start to our sailing season we flew back to Sicily on June 7th and back to Serenity who had been well looked after in Marina di Ragusa.

A rather empty Porto Turistico.

We arrived back to 45 knots of wind so no chance of getting the sails back on yet.

We hired a car to stock up on food, wine etc and early one morning it was calm enough to replace the sails.

An outing to Ragusa for oil, gas and wine, we stopped off in the old town for a spot of lunch.

Enjoying a traditional Italian lunch before we leave Italian shores and head for Greece.

After an overnight anchorage in Porto Palo, we sailed up the east coast of Sicily to the beautiful Siracusa. One of our favourite spots on the island. We didn't need to go ashore which is just as well as the port authorities now give you precise lat and long coordinates as to where to anchor and we were quite some distance from the town - it would have been quite a voyage in the dinghy!

Night scene on the waterfront.

Leaving Siracusa, the old castle in the background, next stop Crotone on the south coast of Italy - 32 hours of sailing and motor sailing. A long journey with very fickle winds which meant we were constantly altering the sails, reefing in then back out again, especially at night.

A day spent in the town of Crotone while we waited for the right winds to take us across to Corfu.

Leaving Crotone we passed the oil platforms.

Part way across, no land or other boats in sight, we were approached by the coastguard helicopter who came down very low to have a good look at us, circled us twice and then headed off.

Sunrise between Italy and Greece

After 28 hours (a better crossing than last time) we see land for the first time - the island of Orthoni, north of Corfu.

We anchored in a beautiful bay in north east Corfu called San Stefanos.

Here we spent a few days relaxing waiting to meet David Stanley in Gouvia marina.

An idyllic spot, nice little village with all amenities.

Now to enjoy Greek cuisine - lovely meze and marinated anchovies.

We met David in Gouvia marina, spent a morning sorting paperwork to check back into Greece, no, our old cruising log was not still valid so had to purchase a new one but all sorted by very helpful, pleasant port policewoman. We left Gouvia to head north to take David to our idyllic bay but were hit by very strong winds and lashing rain - not what we had promised David!

We then anchored back in San Stefanos, went ashore the next morning but, as the winds came back up, Serenity dragged her anchor! I don't think the dinghy has ever traveled as fast as she did back to the yacht! There followed a dreadful afternoon of trying to re-ancher along with most other boats who were also dragging. Luckily, no harm done on this occasion - Keith and Stella on Ananda were out with fenders and a very kind American went onto Serenity and started the engine. Eventually, by late evening the winds died down and all was calm again - time for G&T!

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From San Stefanos we sailed across to mainland Greece and went in, past a lot of fish farms into Pagania bay which was very tranquil, nothing there except one other yacht, one farm in the distance and a fisherman.

Early morning reflections in Pagania

Spot the herd of goats on the hillside.

Obviously the sun is over the yardarm!

We spotted seven pelicans on the water before going into Igoumenista Creek for a lunch stop.

Land ahoy!

Traditional fishing boats in the harbour at Sivota (where Dave worked for Neilson for ten weeks).

A walk round the coast from the harbour took us to a beach bar with a view over to Corfu in the distance.

Rather stoney sand but clear, turquoise water.

Spot the cicada - the insects that make so much noise, sounding like crickets.

Well camouflaged against the tree trunk.

Sunset over Corfu.

From Sivota we crossed over to the island of Paxos and anchored in Lakka bay. A beautiful spot with incredibly clear water but gets very busy - I counted 95 boats in here!