Category: Our Travels

Ammouliani is not a place to be – it wasn’t as bad as we expected as the sea calmed down overnight, but very busy with the boats from the campsite and the beach so not a place for us as it’s so busy. We also need to get fuel and we aren’t going to get that here. The only option was back in the direction of Diaporos with the intention to drop anchor somewhere and make calls to arrange fuel and go into the harbour when it is available. We chose Lagonisi as a change of scenery – having spent so long in Diaporos North Bay, we wanted to look at something different. It’s a lovely bay but quite a …….

The bay at Ormos Stafylos was pretty bouncy – and we were woken up being bombarded with wasps.  As usual, we had left the cabin doors open for ventilation and the cabin was full of wasps!  No idea where they came from or why they picked us, but since Ed is allergic to wasp stings, we were a bit concerned.  We very quickly had a cup of coffee and managed to get all the wasps out of the cabin and closed the doors before pulling up the anchor and getting underway just after 09h00. We were planning to head for the island of Peristera, taking in the coast of Alonnisos on the way.  We cruised on engine along the remainder …….

Today was an engine cruising day!  We left Ormos Siferi in Skiathos around lunchtime after a leisurely morning … we were about ready to leave when we caught the wake of a big ferry and the anchor came loose again … I don’t think I ever want to go to Ormos Siferi again!!!!  It was no problem as we were leaving anyway …. We decided to do a circumnavigation of Skiathos and it is a very beautiful island.  The bays on the south coast – Platania and Koukounaries – are busy, with several “day flotillas” and day trip boats – and of course mobbed with people on the beaches, parasols and beach bars.  We headed out into the Skiathos Strait …….

We ended up staying a few days in Skiathos – first of all to make sure the storm was well and truly gone …. we always hang around a day after everyone leaves the harbour as even after the wind has died down, the sea takes a little while to catch up!  In this particular case, I think it was more us that needed to recover than the sea! We ended up re-anchoring a few times – even though we had gone where we were directed, we weren’t happy being so close to the flight path so we moved a little bit closer in – then when our neighbours left we could move still closer in.  We spent a couple …….

We weren’t originally planning to go into Volos as once the storm had passed we intended to head to the Sporades and cruise round Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonnisos before heading up towards Thessaloniki.  However, as tends to happen frequently, plans change and we decided it made sense to try and properly fix the dinghy as there were several Yamaha dealers in Volos according to the internet. We pulled up the anchor around mid-day and left Vathoudi on a course straight for Volos and immediately we were in the middle of the remnants of the storm with the churned up sea once you got out of the protection of the bay.  We remember why we always say that after a storm, …….

After crossing the bridge in the middle of the night, we anchored in a big bay just the other side at around 01h30 – the anchor alarm went off early in the morning as the boat turned and the alarm circle wasn’t set accurately enough (we didn’t sit up watching the circle form at that time in the morning!).  We decided to leave – and pulled the anchor up just before 08h000 – very early for us!  There was no wind whatsoever – the wind meter was struggling to record 1 knot – and the sea was glassy, not a ripple in sight other than the wakes of the odd boat here and there.  The temperatures were soaring into the …….

The meltemi only lasted a couple of days and it wasn’t long before the wind forecast on the inside route of Evvoia was perfectly flat and we could continue our journey northwards without any problems.  We weighed anchor at 11h45 and were back on the engine coastal cruising – there are lots of little islands and bays at the southern end of Evvoia but other than a couple of ferry ports and towns, not many you could stay in which were not full of fish farms. Skipper Ed is at least smiling again !!!  We’re back to blue skies and sunshine, at least for the moment. At around 17h30 we came across the bay of Sikies … and this was a …….

We left the little bay in Lavrion just before 13h00 having researched the locations in the area to work out where we could hide out from the meltemi on it’s way in.  Where we were was too open and rolly – and although the weather today looks dodgy if we don’t move then we’ll be stuck here for days.  It was raining this morning so we held off for a bit waiting to see what happened – then decided to go at lunchtime. We were heading north of course …. into the wind.  The plan was to clear the small island of Makronisos then take a straight line course to the bay of Karystos, on the southern tip of Evvoia – …….

In the end, we stayed a couple of nights on anchor in Kalamaki (Isthmia/Corinth) – neither of us slept well the first night with mosquitos and the heat and we didn’t wake up until late.  There was also bad weather forecast – not so much the wind, but heavy rain and thunderstorms and by the time we woke up, there was not enough time to make it across the gulf to Sounio area and no other good anchorages on the way either.  The last time we had stayed here, our anchor had come loose – so we were careful to make sure we were well set, although we have confidence that the new Rocna is not going anywhere! We caught …….

The two gulfs – Patras and Corinth – are areas where we have almost always come across high winds and challenging seas – particularly when heading west as you are nose into the afternoon blast.  There are also very few places you can stop along the way.  Apart from the sailing challenges, you also have to deal with the navigation challenges of passing the Rhion Bridge and the Corinth Canal – but if you follow the rules and keep the authorities happy, this can be done without any trouble. Day 1 – Messolonghi to Galaxidi – Transiting the Rhion Bridge We pulled up our anchor in Messolonghi at 10h15 and returned down the channel to a glassy sea and very …….

The area on the mainland around the entrance to the Patras Gulf does not have a lot of suitable places to stop with shelter – it is a lowland area with lots of marshes, and a lot of shallow water.  We are heading towards the Corinth Canal to get us back into the Aegean as quickly as possible to beat the arrival of the Meltemi – so we’re skipping the other Ionian Islands where we have spent so much time in earlier years anyway. The harbour and marina of Messolonghi is an easy distance from Astakos and it’s a place we’ve never been to before.  Some other blogs we follow recommended it and it seems to be the standard stopping …….

We were happy to weigh the anchor outside Preveza at around 13h00 on 11th June and at last we were heading out of the bay into the open sea – free at last!  We’ve got the usual Ionian afternoon breeze with a westerly at around 15 knots … great for a close reach sail over to the Lefkada bridge.  We hoisted the sails and were reaching 6-7 knots in no time – putting the sail battens in the right way this year seems to have made a difference 🙂 Just two hours later, we were dropping the sails again on the approach to Lefkada – with perfect timing for the bridge opening on the hour at 15h00.  It feels like …….

We are still not quite ready – with the speakers for the anchor alarm having blown up, we need to wait for the new ones to arrive as we don’t feel comfortable laying at anchor without an alarm.  We decided to go and explore the inland lagoon of Preveza and at least lay at anchor in a better environment than sitting in the marina at Cleopatra! We left Cleopatra Marina on 4th June at midday and motored a few hours towards Vonitsa – we really could have sailed as the afternoon wind was blowing from the west at around 15 knots but we wanted to check a few things underway so we took the easy solution.  It’s just so nice …….

We leave Opatija and cruise some of the Northern Croatian islands – Krk – Prvic – Rab and cruise the infamous Velebitski Canal which features in almost every severe weather warning in Croatia!  In Rab, we moored at the ACI Marina Rab – a very small marina with some dodgy depths and tiny access!  We refuelled before entering the marina.  In Rab we did some more maintenance. The Volvo engine got it’s first service by the best engineers we have ever seen – they were immaculate with protection of the boat, laying down covers and taking extreme care. Ed did the first service on the generator – no mechanical problems but he discovered a shaved fuel line and repositioned it. Ed …….

We were finally ready at 15h00 on 24th July and we started the engine and left ACI Marina Umag.  Half an hour later, we were out in the bay and tried to calibrate the auto-pilot …. which fails!  We must be doing something wrong but after an hour of going round in circles, we gave up – we probably should have gone back into the marina at Umag and got it sorted out by Almi d.o.o. but we just couldn’t face going back again, so decided to keep going and deal with it on the way.  We also noticed that the triducer was not working properly, as we didn’t have any speed data! At 17h00, we hoisted the sails for …….