With a strong sense of deja vue Friday the 9th of August found us back in the bay below the castle, near to Corfu airport. Ben and Matt were arriving on the same flight that Sam had used three weeks earlier so our timings were spot on as we arrived just before the flight touched down. (This is a detailed account of their stay as an aide memoire to our dodgy memories!)
Watching them walk out of the arrivals hall was very exciting for all of us – Ben has not been on Max at all abroad and Matt had never been to Greece. This was their first holiday for more than six years so it was wonderful to see them enjoying their walk back to Min as we ferried them back to Max in two trips across the bay.
Ben’s first thoughts were the same as ever on reaching water – getting in! Before anything else was done he had stripped off, applied factor 50 and jumped in the water – much to Matt’s amusement, but not to our surprise as we remembered all the times this had been Ben’s reaction on family holidays since he could walk.
Continuing with Groundhog Day we had a bbq on Max that night and next morning left for the mainland. Heading for Plataria we stopped at a rare sandy beach for a great snorkel where the boys used their new snorkels,masks and fins. On our way into Plateria the weather was changing and something like rain clouds appeared as the wind got up a little more than normal. The world and his wife had gone in to the harbour and the town quay was full of Sailing Holidays Charter boats on their turnaround day so we ended up anchoring off in front of the packed harbour. We watched in amazement as more boats went into the ‘full’ harbour and dropped anchor in the middle, should make for interesting anchor tangles tomorrow we thought.
By now however Ben was feeling unwell, we weren’t sure if it was sun, seawater or the high humidity but he didn’t feel like eating so we decided that with the wind getting up and the thunder clouds that we would stay on Max for dinner. We could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance and felt like rain was imminent, so shut all the hatches. We later discovered that five miles north it poured, with thunder and lightning, but we escaped both!
Next morning with everyone bright and breezy again and the sun back in the sky we made our way south, aiming for Sam’s bay for a beach bbq. We had a great sail down but as we made our way nearer to the bay we could see what a difference three weeks had made – it was packed with motor and sailing yachts leaving it quite difficult to find a space. The only thing that was the same was that Rampage was here again – amazing coincidence! We anchored and I swam ashore to take a shore line to the rocks. We were next to two crewed motor boats one side and two anchored Italian yachts the other side. Ben and Matt were straight in the water snorkelling as soon as we were secure despite the wind being quite brisk.
The dinghy approaching Max had Julia and Duncan on board returning to Rampage. After a quick chat they invited us all over for drinks at 6pm and then left as we needed to put a second shore line on. Whilst we were preparing to do this the wind changed direction and gained in strength. We were now being hit beam on and being pushed, quite strongly towards the motor boats. The professional skipper of the biggest boat came over in his rib and told us we needed a second line and that the wind was forecast to increase more. This was not what we had seen when we checked the weather this morning so we were a little surprised but the current direction was not forecast and not normal prevailing winds. With the strength of the wind we were going to struggle to put a second line on so the guy offered to push Max with his rib to help us when we were ready.
With the weather information and the conditions worsening Ian decided we were in an untenable position and that we would up anchor and move. The only problem was that when we removed our shore line nothing would stop us hitting the motor boats that would still be tethered to the shore – a dilemma indeed!
We called Ben and Matt to come back on board and explained the situation to them. We told the pro skipper that we wanted to leave and he offered to help, along with his friend, the skipper on the second boat. Using their ribs to keep us straight and off of the motor boats we would release the shore line and start to raise the anchor. Once we had the anchor part way up it would pull us forward away from their boats and into clear water. We needed Ben and Matt in the dinghy to collect the shore line and then return to Max once we had the anchor up.
Plan in place we proceeded. We could see that Rampage was trying to re-anchor and it looked challenging in the conditions but we really had our hands full with our situation. As soon as we released the bar tight shore line we started to be pushed by the wind the wrong way, the ribs started pushing against the wind, thank goodness they had very powerful engines! I moved forward swiftly and started to pull the anchor up, it was a great relief to pull clear of their boats and the minute or so that it took seemed like an age! Once clear, and with the anchor up, we signalled to the boys to come back on board which they duly did. They had successfully retrieved the shore line and had enjoyed the bit of drama that accompanied the whole manoeuvre. We thanked the guys that had helped us, without their help I am not sure what we would have done in the circumstances we found ourselves.
Looking around the crowded bay Ian decided that there was nowhere that he wanted to be in unpredictable weather – there wasn’t room to free swing on the anchor which is our preferred plan in wind. We could also see that after more than one attempt Rampage had decided not to re-anchor and that Duncan was in the dinghy trying to retrieve shore lines. Talking to Julia as we passed by she said that Duncan had dropped the propeller on the outboard and that was why he was trying to row, which was looking increasingly challenging in the wind conditions that had also been whipping up the waves far more than normal. She turned down Ian’s offer of help but as we moved slowly away, watching Duncan, Ian decided he would jump in Min and drive over to see if he could assist.
Stooging around, watching, we were glad that Ian had gone, rowing would have been very difficult against the wind and we would have been pleased to get help if the tables had been reversed. Once Ian and Duncan were safely back on their respective yachts Rampage decided to head for Corfu to get a new propeller and we decided to head two hours further south to Parga where we knew we could anchor freely.
I think the boys enjoyed the drama, we were glad it had ended well and we all enjoyed a good sail down the coast. We still had a fair amount of wind as we anchored in Parga so Ian and I stayed on board while Ben and Matt caught the water taxi into town for dinner.
Next morning was a typical calm Ionian day so we loaded up Min and headed for the beach for a couple of hours until we lost the shade and then returned to Max to drop off our swimming things before heading around to the town side harbour for lunch. Ben found a lovely café with a shady terrace in the town where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch followed by a quick look at some of the myriad of shops in the back streets of Parga. After a siesta on Max we took Min into the small yacht harbour at the opposite end of the bay and walked all along the beach and up the very steep hill to the castle. We took Ben and Matt to the restaurant where we had had drinks with Sam, which overlooked all of old Parga, with the lights twinkling below. It was an early birthday dinner for Ben so it was our treat, and we had a lovely dinner.
With our previous experiences in mind we planned to arrive in Paxos late morning to find a space on the town quay as other boats left. Luckily the plan worked, again, and we were able to tie up in time for lunch. This time the heat and the humidity after being at anchor was quite difficult, especially for Ben and Matt. We were hoping to hire a car to look around Paxos the next day but all hire cars on the island were fully booked so that was a non-starter. If anything Paxos was even more packed than our previous visits. Late afternoon Ian spotted a familiar boat anchoring outside of the harbour, Muskrat had arrived! We invited them to join us on Max for dinner to meet the boys and had a lovely evening with them.
Given the heat and the lack of car we decided to move on next morning and joined the exodus of boats leaving Gaios. The boys decided they would prefer another anchorage so we headed back to the mainland for the quiet anchorage we had used after Sam left. A quieter day reading and swimming with the breeze in the anchorage was appreciated by us all and we enjoyed a lovely bbq that evening.
With one night left before we needed to be in Corfu heading further north on the mainland was ideal and Ben and Matt had agreed that another anchorage was preferable. We had been recommended a fish taverna in a small village, Sayiadha, which we thought we would try for lunch. The weather had to be calm enough to attempt this as the water was very shallow a long way out and was too shallow for us to use the harbour. We anchored in about 2m at the third attempt and launched Min for the trip ashore. The fish tavern was very busy and after eating, fish for Matt and I and giant prawns, ¾ kg, for Ian and Ben, we could see why. The skipper was doubly happy as the tavern was on the waterfront and he could see Max easily, ensuring we were not dragging our anchor. As the afternoon breeze was picking up our lazy lunch came to an end and we rejoined Max to continue up the coast to Pagania, a well-protected anchorage tucked round past a couple of fish farms, within walking distance of the Albanian border.
Friday morning had crept up on us before we knew it and we turned Max back toward Corfu. After lunch, before heading into Mandraki marina, we anchored off a small island for the boys to have one last swim and snorkel. The water was crystal clear and warm, one of the good things about coming in August, and the boys saw quite a few fish here.
Mandraki marina is at the foot of a huge fort, Paleo Frourio, and we had to walk through the fort to get to the town, We had decided to go here as Ian gets eaten alive by the mozzies in the bay around the other side and also, the boys wanted to take us out to dinner on their last night. They walked up to Corfu town to look around leaving Ian and I to do a few boaty jobs- with water and electricity there are always things to be done.
Dinner that night was delicious, the boys had chosen a great restaurant on a wide pedestrian boulevard, arcaded and typically French, we later discovered it was built during the French occupation by the architect of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Eating outside in the ‘cool’ of the evening is one of the great pleasures of living in southern Europe. We had a lovely stroll after dinner, finding an old fashioned ice cream shop for dessert.
Saturday was given over to sightseeing and shopping in Corfu as the boys didn’t need to be at the airport until 21.30hrs. Lunch in town gave Ben a chance to try a pizza restaurant that he had spotted yesterday and Matt tried a Corfiot speciality – ginger beer, a result of the British administration that lasted.
We decided to walk to the airport, despite being about 45minutes away, as it was in the cool of the evening. It was a lovely walk all the way along the harbour of the anchorage we had used when we picked them up. There were some amazing superyachts in the bay, lit up like Christmas trees, obviously no battery limitations on their vessels!
All too soon they were checked in and gone amid promises to return to Max again next year – wherever we may be ! We had such a lovely week but it whizzed by so quickly, so…. Roll on next year!