Coleman Sailing Trip 2017

I didn’t get a chance to write anything yesterday as things were quite hectic.   We woke fairly early to leave Gaios in good time as we had a long passage to Corfu.   I was worried that we might have had our anchor crossed by the boat to our starboard who came in after us.   It is a tight harbour with everyone throwing anchors down in different directions.   But, no, out anchor was fine and came up like a dream. We have had our berth confirmed by Gouvia Marina in Corfu, so we can arrive there at almost any time.   We want to have a swim so we motored (as usual) for three hours until we came to a bay on Corfu.   Richard had planned to go further in towards a town, but we found a shallow part where other boats were anchored and that saved some considerable time.   We had a swim, then lunch then another swim and off we went towards Corfu town.   As we turned into the channel to Gouvia, past Corfu town we found that we had 9-10 knots of wind on the beam and as we were in no hurry for

We left at a fairly decent time.   No dramas in raising anchor and off we go.   Keith really wants to go to Paxos and Antipaxos, having been there over 20 years ago.   So the plan is to get to Antipaxos and anchor to have a swim and then go to Paxos for the night. There is no wind, so it is another motor trip.   The anchorages on Antipaxos are not well defined in the pilot book, so we just have to look and see.   It turns out to be a bit of a disappointment as the first place we look at is too deep to anchor safely on sand.   The second place, called we think Emerald Bay, though very beautiful with the clearest blue and blue green waters is also terribly over crowded.   There are at least 15 boats including rented day boats in a small area, plus four big daytripper boats there.   We have terrible trouble finding somewhere to safely anchor where we will not fall back on other boats.   It reminds us of East Head on a holiday weekend. We do get an anchor down though we are very c

Up fairly early as we wanted to catch the bridge opening at 8am.   So we had a quick cup of coffee and slipped he mooring.   I was a bit worried that a large catamaran had anchored in the canal over our anchor, but it turned out that our anchor was nowhere near them.   So we were a bit early, but not too much.   The big motor yacht next to us also left to make the same bridge opening. After getting through the bridge there appeared to be enough wind to sail!   It wasn’t even on the nose.   So we put up the sails and sailed for about two hours.   Of course the wind died on us.   As we had a 30 mile journey we had to put the engine on.   For a while we motor sailed, but then the wind died completely, so it was just motoring again.   Of course as we got with 3-4 miles of our destination the wind picked up to a force 4 and was on the nose.   So no change there. This anchorage at Parga is not the wild experience we had hoped for.   It is a big bay completely lined with hotels and b

Quite a successful day really.   We had a fairly leisurely morning and raised anchor at 9:45.   We didn’t have far to go, so we motored very slowly and put the fishing line out to see if we might catch something.   Of course we didn’t.    As we approached Lefkada Town and were in the canal we saw other boats anchored outside the channel and as it was very hot we decided to stop for a swim, which made us all feel much better.   Then we went on to Lefkas marina.   We had not made our mind up where to go in town.   We had to go to the marina to refuel.   We were down to 40 litres of fuel and 60 miles to go to Corfu.   At the marina there is (unusually) a proper fuel pontoon, so we could fill up without taking a berth in the marina.   We did that and then I noticed that someone was walking around with camping gas bottles.   One of our bottles ran out yesterday so we were able to get a new one at half the price we have paid before.   We all decided that we didn’t want to stay in th

I woke up early even though we were not planning on an early start.   The boat next to us who said they were over our anchor left closer to 8am than 7, but seemed to have no problem leaving and did not affect our anchor. I went ashore early and bought some breakfast from the bakery and then went in to the supermarket to see if I could find more chicken to go with what I had left over from the other night’s curry.   I had success and got back to the boat to find the Finnish couple wanting to leave and worrying that we might be over their anchor.   I did tell them that we had definitely gone over something, but I didn’t know if it was theirs.   So they decided to delay their start until we left.   That made us hurry up with breakfast and a quick refill of the water tank.   While we were doing this two very large beamy boats started to try to come in where the German boat that just left was.   We all shouted at them that there was insufficient room for their sized boat.   The British

Well, as the song goes, what a difference a day makes.   We wake up fairly early and it is like being in another harbour.   The sea is glassy and there is no wind.   Even looking out to the open sea we can see no white horses.   We get everything ready a little early so we leave at 9:30, not 10 as planned.   The idea is to get to Fiskardo at the time many boats will leave and before new boats arrive.   Richard is keen to sail and puts up the main just after we get out of the harbour.   But there is virtually no wind.   We then notice that our wind instrument is not reading correctly.   It is saying that the wind is on the beam, when it is on the nose.   Also the log is not reading our speed, so the wind speed is suspect because it does not take into account the boat speed.   At first Richard thinks our course computer has gone wrong.   But that can’t be the case because the Track facility on the plotter is working correctly.   He cleans off the transducer and the boat speed it now

We had a remarkably good night in the circumstances.   The wind was still blowing hard, but the anchor alarm never went off and we slept well.   When the morning came it was clear that no one was going to move today and there was no chance we would get a place on the wall.   But anchoring seemed fine. We had a quiet morning.   One of our great forms of entertainment was watching a British yacht that had snagged their anchor and couldn’t get it to free.   It was not helped by the fact that they had no electric windlass.   In the end they had to send down a diver to free them. Keith and Richard got the outboard motor on the dinghy using the main halyard.   I was unwilling to go ashore even though I wanted to because I really didn’t trust the outboard which always conks out.   Everyone said I was being silly because it had just been serviced and would be fine, but I stayed aboard while Richard and Glenys went in the dinghy.   It was just fine, they got there and back despite high

Well, today was nearly the day that stopped me sailing for good!   We had been watching the weather report for Sunday for days and it was not good.   There were supposed to be strong winds on the nose.   But last night and this morning it seemed to have changed.   The winds were predicted to be strongish on the nose, but not above 17 knots and the sea state was not bad.   Further, the high winds were due in the late afternoon, so if we got an early start then we should be able to get to Cephalonia before really bad weather came in. Also the Weymers really want to get going.   They have been on the island for a week and want to get on.   So we decided to go.   The Weymers got to us early so we hoped to be ahead of the game.   However things did not start very well, because when we tried to take up the anchor we found that we were under the chain of the boat next to us.   It was probably our fault as when we put the anchor out we did not realize how close to the next boat they wante

A domestic day mainly.   In the morning despite very hot weather I cleaned the boat a bit in anticipation of the Weymers coming on board tomorrow.   Richard managed to get a hose attached to the bollard to our boat and fill us up with water, but as he finished he was yelled out being told the hose belonged to another boat.   So what!   Anyway we have a full tank of water. The Weymers turned up and we went to a fairly large supermarket in their car and bought most of what we need to keep us going for 2-3 days.   The only thing was I didn’t like their meat so eventually we found a butcher and bought far too much!   The weather is getting hotter and hotter.   So we decided to have our main meal at lunch time and then go to a beach.   That worked out well and we went to the Turtle beach which was lovely.   We even managed to get a couple of sun beds off a couple leaving the beach.   On the way back to the beach the car showed the outside temperature to be 40C!   At the boat the te