23 May 2016. Goodbye to Greece


A lot has happened since my last Blog update.


We returned to Lefkas and had a stainless steel Iridium Post fitted on the stern, new Bimini installed over the cockpit, new 140 amp hour alternator fitted, Liferaft fully serviced and met a whole lot of new friends on the water at the different anchorages.





Weathered a bad storm in the small anchorage on the north end of Paxos where we sustained minor damage to anchor retrieval gear including twisted bow roller assembly. But nothing that could not be fixed. We sailed from Paxos the 12 miles over to Syvota and there Ted pulled the twisted bow roller off Elixir and the bent fairlead for the anchor winch and took both ashore where he panel-beat them back into shape on the cast iron bollard o-so handily placed there. Not without amusing the locals I might say by being forced to go diving for the small bit of stainless steel that sprung from the hammer and hand right into the very cold deep water, not once but twice!





From Syvota we sailed 8 miles north to Valtos Cove or Mullet Bay as we call it for the hundreds of mullets that spend their night jumping all around our yacht.









Next day the top of Corfu Island where we anchored for the night ready to leave Greece for the very last time.


Hoisting the Albania Courtesy Flag

Up bright and early to sail over and enter Albania at Sarande where we were met once again my Agim and his capable staff. Agim took care of all of our ships and personal paperwork to ensure that appropriate authorities in the European Union would recognize that we had been out of the EU for a period which would enable us to have a further long stay in the EU, getting us beyond Gibraltar without worry of penalty.
24 May 2016 Departed Albania and sailed first to the top of Corfu to anchor for the night
then on to Erikoussa



and Othoni



out in the Straits of Otranto for a night each in quite wild conditions regarding wind and waves.

LAND AHOY Italy!

27 May 16 and we sailed over to Italy and entered the port at Gallipoli just under the heel of Italy's boot so to speak.




It was no 0530 and high time for Happy Hour. Next day we would complete formalities. It was quite confusing sailing into the Marina at Gallipoli as it was not in the location as shown in the Pilot book and there seemed to be nobody on hand at that hour of the day to assist us. We found a good sheltered spot in the marina just over the pier Dave and Melinda Gunn from an Australian yacht called Sassoon, we quickly struck up an enduring friendship as fellow sailors bound for the Pacific. Swimbo was now in heaven as Gallipoli is the most picturesque of ancient sea ports with a lot of quaint shops and walkways around magnificent middle ages fortifications. We also took the opportunity to take a day train trip inland to the ancient city of Lecce. Time to do the tourist thing.