Ist August 2020
So finally, with all, well almost all boat jobs done, we set off from the marina on a course to Preveza on the main land of Greece. Our journey, covering over 200 nautical miles should take us about 46 hours non stop, so we made sure we had lots of snacks and easy to grab bowls of pasta for the journey. Yes, we considered ourselves well prepared. The engine ran beautifully, the sails were in fine shape and we were super smug.

We just hadn't prepared for a teeny tiny helpless stowe - away! We knew there had been a nest in the end of our boom while we were in Uk, what we didn't realise was that it was still occupied. One of the fledglings, had been left behind. All the time we were sat in the marina it was silent, no mum or dad came to feed it, so when we were miles off shore we were horrified to hear chirping. I peered in and saw a tiny fluffy ball with black eyes peering back. I couldn't get it out so we had to leave it. I was traumatised! A couple of hours later in sheer desperation, the tiny thing propelled itself out of the end of the boom, landing on the deck with a thud.(Thank God it was alive!)

So dear readers if you are expecting this blog entry to be an exciting account of our first sail, you are going to be disappointed. The entire trip revolved around our new crew member - Ricky called him Solomon- no idea why, but it suited. We had to hand feed him every couple of hours!

A further complication was, despite a sweet engine and spiffy sails, the flipping auto helm packed up! As if caring for Solomon wasn't enough, we had to hand steer for the last 17 hours in challenging seas.

It was all a bit much, so we decided to change course for the Island of Keffalonia and the port at Agostoli. This was at least a smoother ride over the ever growing waves - a good call.

We finally arrived and anchored in Livadi bay, just North of Argostoli at 4am on 3rd August, exhausted, but elated that Solomon had survived.

After a short sleep, we sailed south and moored up in the unfinished marina at Argostoli (another EU funded project). Here we had a great few days. Solomon got stronger and braver. He tried different foods and Ricky taught him to fly - well glide and fall gracefully.

We were pleased to see that Argostoli was as charming as we remembered with its turtles and tavernas. The Greek people are all being very sensible concerning the pandemic. Masks are worn indoors and in supermarkets the staff and shoppers are respecting social distancing. They appear happy to see us, well everyone apart from the rather grumpy, chap in The Port Police office who checked us in, chucked our papers at us and grunted 'Welcome to Greece' just like a 10 year old boy might reluctantly apologise to his arch enemy after being caught fighting on the playground.

Oh well - Can't win 'em all!!