Teulada Marina was charming. It was out of season, so we were charged €88 for 2 nights. We could tell that Sardinia is a stunning island just by the taste of this little place. The 27th April dawned with a stinking head. I tried to flush it out with lots of water and a coffee. When Jerry awoke, we decided to cycle to Teulada town, which was 8 kilomatres away. We found a lovely little restaurant called Carpe Dieme. I had Clam Vongale with Botarga; Jerry had a traditional Sardinian pasta. We cycled back and went to the beach for a swim. The water was cold; bloody cold. We had been watching the forecasts and the weather was in our favour for the 28th, so we did some boat jobs in readiness for our departure, planned for the next day.
We departed the marina at 0610, motoring for half an hour before finding the wind in a reasonable direction. We hoisted the sails and with 2 reefs in, proceeded under sail. By 1445 we had shook the reefs out, to keep up a good speed. It was an uneventful day. We were getting ourselves ready for the night shift, with 3 hour watches, which started at 1900-2200, followed by 2200-0100, 0100-0400, 0400-0700 and 0700-1000. Then we would be resting and sleeping the rest of the day. We decided to go straight through to Kefalonia in Greece, rather than stop in Sicily. That meant 4 nights at sea, in total. The advantage of this is that we would arrive in Kefalonia before the predicted storms, on Thursday and Friday and Predict Wind forecasts have been bang on so far. At 0000 hours, dolphins were dancing on the bow in the phosphorescence; always a treat. By dawn, on the 30th, we had sunshine at last, after 3 days of cloudy weather.
We called into Reggio Calabria, in the Messina straits, to top up our fuel cans, just to be on the safe side. It was a bit of a carry on trying to get them to understand us but Jerry came through and found a different number on the internet and spoke to someone who understood. Once we had refuelled, we departed the port and goose-winged down the channel at 7.5 to 8 knots; fantastic.
By Sunday the 1st May, we were trying to slow down as we only had 210 miles to go to reach Kefalonia. 35 hours at 6 knots meant that we would arrive before 0500 hours, in the dark. As the forecast said, the wind would drop off completely and we would have to motor, so we ran the engine at only 1500 revs, doing 5 knots; perfect for a 1000 hours arrival and saving some fuel.
We had a stowaway for 3 hours today, a beautiful little bird, which needed a rest before going on his merry way, 90 miles from land, in any direction. At 1500 hours, 1 hour after our little friend flew off, a nightjar came for a rest but was very nervous and only landed on the stacker pack, keeping his distance.
We raised the Greek ensign, is required before entering a new country. At 1150 hours, we arrived at Argostoli, fantastic. We went to book into the country with the port police, only to be met by the most bureaucracy I have ever seen. I want to spend my money in their country, crazy! It took us 2 days to get things sorted, TEPAI form which was new to me, was €33 a month, transit log, €30, paperwork €15 and on it went. By the 3rd of May we were officially legal in Greece. The transit log is like a passport for the boat and you must book in and out of every island, sometimes taking ages to find the officials, then you must go through the same bureaucracy once more, passports, insurance, ships papers and skipper's licence, which had to be shown to get the transit log; absolutely crazy. We haven't had this in the rest of the Schengan. So with that we will go to Turkey earlier than planned. We do seem to be the only British here but it's early season and our first port of call.