Sailing in the Ionian Islands

Prologue: Its 30th November in real time and a few things have happened here in Devon since my last upload of the post about Prague on the 11th November, but we won’t dwell on them here, their time will come.  Suffice to say this Blog is a positive way of spending some time as Jane is recuperating very well. 

Corfu and Paxos

We flew out of Prague (flight #17 in the trip so far) for Corfu on the afternoon of Wednesday 24th September.  It’s a 3 hour flight.

For those that don’t know the place, it is a Greek island, one of the largest of the Ionian Islands, off the west coast of mainland Greece. Here is a map.

We landed late in the evening and took a taxi from the Airport to the hotel, about 20 minutes drive away.  Greek thing #1. Taxis don’t have meters anymore.  Very friendly taxi driver immediately launched into a Greek “woe is us” story about the very broken Greek economy and struggling tourism industry.  We discovered when we arrived that all taxi rides in Corfu cost 20 euro (for tourists), unless they are very short (15 euro) or very long (25 euro - Corfu is not a very big island).

We had booked a hotel room overnight on the inter web and we rolled up at 10.30pm hoping for a hot bath and a comfy bed.  Greek thing #2.  Bath plugs are not allowed in Greek hotels!  So we stuffed a plastic bag and flannel in the plughole, had a middling cool bath and dreamt about a weeks glorious sailing in the late summer Mediterranean sun.

Thumbs up in the rain in Corfu. It can only get better!

The next day it started out dull and moved to pouring rain by mid morning!  We were due to go to the marina at Gouvia and meet up with David and Barbara at 3pm, mercifully the rain stopped in time for the short (15 euro) trip down and there they were unwrapping the boat.  

Hello Barbara, Hello Remilla.

David and Barbara are old friends from the time when Jane and I first lived together in our little 2 up, 2 down house in West Ealing, London. They were newly married too and lived across the road. Happy, carefree pre-children, full-on house renovation days.  David retired a few years ago and pursued a lifetime’s dream to buy a cruising boat, and with Barbara as the willing mate, they have spent two years sailing to and around the Mediterranean, arriving in Corfu a month ago.  This was our chance to catch-up with them before the boat is laid up for the winter months.

Looks who is in charge, or "at the helm" in sea speak. Look at the sky!

And what a wonderful week we had.  The boat “Remilla", is a Bowman 40 ft, a great floating home with all mod cons for the live-in sailor, comfy berths, even heating if the weather turns chilly.  The only problem we had was that there was no freezer for the ice cubes in the G&Ts! We stowed all our sailing clothes, had our safety briefing, and then sat in dock for a day waiting for better weather!

Now look who is aft the helm.  David keeping lookout for things that need to be looked out for!

Then off we set, cruising the Ionian sea. We enjoyed a circular mini-cruise incorporating Mourtos on the Greek mainland, Lakka on Paxos, with its turquoise, clear water, Gaios, then back to Gouvia.

What a wonderful week it was.  Mostly slowly sailing around the islands, not enough wind for David and me really but the girls enjoyed the sunbathing and the easy work in the galley as there was no sudden tacking or gybing around.  Jane even had fun “driving” Remilla for many hours, as we took turns at the helm. 

Oh the decisions, lamb, or beef, or fish?

 The sea was clear, the sky was blue, the sun was autumnally hot, we saw dolphins and turtles, there was much eating of fresh seafood and yummy spit roast lamb in port side Tavernas.  Greek thing #3, no printed receipts.  The only retail outlets that provided us printed receipt and took credit cards whilst in Greece were the big supermarket and the Marina.  Everywhere else it was cash!   

We did love being tourists in Greece.  The people were friendly, the food was satisfying and relatively cheap, and being somewhat at the end of season, the restaurants, marinas and tourist places were not particularly busy. It was easy to find a suitable anchorage each evening, and the G&Ts tasted particularly fine with a beautiful harbour or ocean view to hand, after the late afternoon swim. 

Retirement suits us!

There were no particular visits to historical ancient Greek sites this time. The old walled town of Corfu itself is mostly Venetian, much like the old Croatian costal town, but here with a later mostly Napoleonic and then British overlay, including a cricket oval and sailing club!  The Greeks we met were as laid back as ever and all really pleased to have us as tourists in their country. The food was good Mediterranean fare, and the ouzo was as rugged as ever,  local wines were very enjoyable and the mangey cats and dogs that seemed to hang around everywhere in Greece were all still there. Loved the place!

Gaios harbourfront.

So the week breezed by and all too soon we were heading back to Gouvia marina for a last meal in Harry’s Taverna and then up early the next morning for a short (15 euro) taxi ride to the airport!  Thanks for a magnificent Ionian cruise David and Barbara, see you in Dorset sometime soon.

Harry's Taverna, thanks for the memories, D&B.

So, Greek thing #4, without any customs or immigration checks whatsoever, (but yes, with the usual security frisk-down) we boarded the flight to Gatwick Airport and waved goodbye to the Med.  The flight to the UK went over the Italian and Swiss Alps, quite one of the most beautiful flights of the trip so far; crystal clear views of the Matterhorn and the perched lakes and hills, then rolling down into the central European plains, at which point it all went under thick cloud as we approached Blighty, of course!  

Welcome back to the UK.  But that is another chapter in this story……….