Preveza partied until the small hours but despite this we
did all manage to get a decent amount of sleep.
We were heading to the south Ionian islands today and to get there we
had to go through Lefkas Canal. At the start
of the canal is a road bridge and we needed to make the 12.00 opening. We got organised and was the first to leave
this morning.
Winds were very light so we just used the motor to get
there. The lead crew has invited everyone
to dress up in Toga costume as we navigated the Canal. On the way down everyone was stripping beds
and using spare sheets to make Togas.
Diane had pulled apart Preveza bushes the night before to get some
leaves to make Laurels. As we approached
the entrance to the canal we all milled around waiting for the lead boat to
catch up with us and then once the bridge had opened made our way through. The Canal ran alongside the road and there
was a very long line of cars all waiting for the bridge and due to the heat a lot
of people were out of the cars all looking at the spectacle of the crazy English
people in on their yachts in Togas. Everyone
had done a fantastic job of dressing up going to some lengths to get hairstyles
right and accessories for their Togas.
Part way through the canal we stopped off for fuel and then
it was onwards to the south. Our destination
for day was Little Port Vathi on Meganisi Island. We had some time to kill so we headed to Goat
Bay. As the wind had picked up to about
force 2-3 we were able to get the sails up.
We dropped anchor about 100m out on Goat Bay but it didn’t catch and we
started to drift so we pulled it up and had another go, this time it held. The wind was really starting the pick up and the
boat was swinging quite a bit in the wind around it’s anchor. Most of the other boats in the Flotilla had
decided to do the same thing and were all in Goats Bay. Due to the increased wind we decided to take
the Tender to the beach just in case the Yacht started to drift and we needed
to catch it. Goats Bay was lovely, very
clear water and not too crowded. After
about one and a half hours I swam back
to the boat to put some sun cream on and check the anchor. The wind had really picked up and was blowing
offshore so made the swim back a bit harder.
Everyone around us was starting to leave so when I got back to the beach
we packed up and headed back. On our way
back the Yacht seemed to a lot further out than what I had just swam too. It had broken anchor and was drifting away
from the shore in the wind. We caught up
with it about twice as far from the beach as when we had left it.
The wind at this time was about force 4-5 which made for some
great sailing to our evening destination.
We were able to set the sail and run with the wind all the way. We started with just the main sail to get a
feel for it and then let out the Genoa about one third as we got a bit more
confident. We were going at around 8
knots with our fastest recorded speed was 8.3.
It was really good to get some decent sailing in and everyone on the
yacht was fairly calm as there was no tacking to do and running with the wind we
were keeling over or rocking.
Once we had moored up there was time for a swim around the harbour
before another group evening meal which was a great opportunity to get to know
everyone a little better.
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