sunset over Preveza

It took us almost a week to finally leave the Inland sea and head back through the Lefkas canal to Preveza so that we could go and explore the Ambracian Gulf.

From Mytikos we returned briefly to Nidri on the Island of Lefkas to replenish food supplies, do laundry and make one last visit to the pool bar before we returned to the Greek mainland to slowly work our way back along part of the coastline. Our first anchorage was Ormos Palairos, located approximately 9 miles northeast of Nidri and the furthest away. We noted many yachts anchored just off the village of Palairos so decided to anchor closer to the village of Pagonia instead.

Mountains surrounded the bay with its long stretch of beach. It is a popular watersports area with jet bikes, wakeboards, canoes, pedalos, SUP's, and waterskis for hire. A toy for just about everyone's ability. Watching the antics in the afternoon wind kept us entertained so we didn't have any need to go ashore. Fortunately the majority of the activities were away from the anchorage, the exception being the jet bikes that weaved in between the yachts at anchor as they frustratingly seem to want to now a days!


the village of Pagonia

From Ormos Palairos we motored around the headland to a wide bay, open to the south with an islet in the middle of the entrance. Yachts can anchor either on the NE corner, off Ormos Varko or NW, off Ormos Marathias. We tried several times to anchor in Ormos Varko however the seabed had dense weed that even our trusty Rocna anchor just couldn't dig into. Ormos Marathis on the otherside by comparison had sand with crystal clear water however it was crowded, not with charter yachts but with private vessels. Ormos Vathi Vali, the next islet along had the same crowded issue. These few bays were clearly popular places to anchor. Onto the next one then which happened to be Nikiana on the island of Lefkas. We anchored in 17m, outside of the harbour and just off the buoyed beach.


the small harbour village and beach resort of Nikiana

The coast road runs through the village of Nikiana and the harbour and marina is lined with a handful of cafes and tavernas. It was surprisingly quiet and a practical place to stop since it was only a short distance back to the Lefkas swing bridge that separates the island of Lefkas from mainland Greece.

Our timing for the 9am bridge opening required a bit of speed adjustment so as to not arrive too early or too late and miss the opening. This time it ran 5 minutes late!


we were close to running into the bridge at this point... until it started to open towards us!


bridge open... watch out for the convoy coming through

We were shocked to see a convoy of 15 yachts coming in the opposite direction. The majority were huge catamarans, which reduced the narrow marked channel down considerably. Fortunately there were no catamarans coming from the south. If two had to pass one another they would have taken up the whole channel. The leading yachts were in no rush to hurry through despite the operators gestures to get a wiggle on so we felt for the yachts further behind as it was likely that they wouldn't get through. As we suspected, a few minutes later the siren sounded and the bridge closed which left them having to hang around and wait for the next opening.

NOTE: From 01/08/2024 a new summer/winter opening time schedule came into effect. It can be found on www.noonsite.com.

Strangely, as we left the bridge behind us we both breathed a sigh of relief as if we had escaped the Inland sea. We had no idea why we felt this way so could only put it down to the bridge separating us from the 'freedom of the open sea' which we suddenly became aware of as waves and swell gently rolled us from side to side.

An hours motoring saw us arrive at the entrance to Preveza and the Gulf with the narrow buoyed channel that guided us in-between the sandbanks either side and onwards to 'hospital bay' anchorage where we were briefly greeted by the resident turtle.

Total distance this season: 743.913 nautical miles