Sunday, July the 19th – 20:00 – Gouvia Marina / Greece

That was a long time without internet and I am not sure I will get a connection later in order to update my blog. So I will prepare everything in the assumption that I will be given the code from the pizzeria around the corner which has a strong signal in the marina. Here is what happened:

On Tuesday the 16th at 10:30 we left St Maria di Leuca and headed east to Othonoi. Othonoi is the biggest of three islands north-west of Corfu and is often used for a night stop by yachts transiting from Italy to Greece and vice versa. So did we. We arrived late in the afternoon and tried to anchor. There were already quite a number of yachts anchoring in the bay and we had to go for a somewhat remoter place further off in the east side of the bay. After a while of trying, the anchor seemed to have set and we switched off the engine. There were strong gusts blowing into the bay from the 480m high mountain of the island and I did not dare leaving the boat alone and go for my Greek salad, tzaziki and local whine a have been waiting for all along the passage. I got my flippers on and the mask and had a look at the anchor which was lying in about 10 m depth. The bottom was covered with big stones, rocks and plates and the anchor was holding just with its tip in a crack of one of the plates. That was not good. We decided to move the boat into the little bay where the anchor ground was sand. We tried a few times and finally the anchor seemed to hold but after a while we observed that the boat had moved astern about 5 meters. Unfortunately, there was not much space left astern and the gusts were still falling into the bay. This location was even worse. Not only couldn’t we leave the boat but we could watch the guests now sitting in the tavernas and even smell the food. We had to find a solution! We decided to go out again. The sun had already disappeared behind the mountain and it was getting dark. We found a place over that rocky bottom again. It was about 10:00 now and the gusts had weakened significantly. We left the boat and went for a Greek dinner. The dish of the day was stuffed tomatoes and peppers. Tzatziki and saganaki as starters and a Greek salad were added. Jummy! Yes! I am in Greece!

The owner of the taverna has a boat too and he said that there were big rocks just 1 meter below the waterline not far away from where we anchored. I had a look around the boat the next morning and saw a massive rock just 5 boatlengths away which was not shown in the harbour map. I was really glad we didn’t hit it whilst looking for the place to drop the anchor last evening.

Othonoi. We are in Greek waters

Othonoi / Ormos Ammou. We are not the first ones

This massive rock was not shown in the harbour plan

That rock is not really far away. I am glad we did not hit it last night!

Next stop on Friday the 17th was the little bay of Agios Stefenos. This one was really tight and we had to anchor a bit further off at the entrance of the bay. Although thick weed, we got the anchor in first time and holding was good.

Agios Steffanos is even tighter

Agios Stefanos – Taverna view

The last day of Leg 6 was only a very short trip to Gouvia Marina

There are many anchorages on the way to Gouvia Marina

The crew is having a refreshing bath

Finally moored in Gouvia Marina

The final Leg will be sailed singlehanded from Gouvia Marina to Oropos. Although I will spend most nights at anchor I will try to keep this blog up to date. So stay tuned and see you soon!