Zakinthos to Corfu

Well, we left you with a lovely couple of days in Aghios Nikolos at the North end of Zakinthos...
And then night fell. The forecast was predicting strong North Easterlies out at sea but only light ones at Ag Nik. So we, along with 10 other yachts hoped for the best and settled down to sleep. Around midnight, the swell suddenly arrived and rapidly turned into a very dangerous surge. We had prepared for a quick exit just in case and so we put the plan into action. Sadly, in the darkness, I failed to notice that the wheel was still lashed to port to prevent the rudder banging around and we hit the bow of the boat on our port side, demolishing his and our navigation lights. We shouted phone numbers and then after a few passes in the pitch dark in the shelter of the small island to sort out ropes, fenders, dinghy, etc we set off into the open sea.

Dawn at last!

At first there was little wind and just a swell but after a couple of hours we were battling into heavy seas and gale force winds on our way to Kefalonia. After a couple of failed plans, we headed for the lea provided by the South East corner of Kefalonia and mooched about outside the bay there until dawn broke. And lucky we did. The whole place is strewn with uncharted rocks and reefs. In good daylight, they were easily seen and we found a good anchorage but at night we would have come to serious grief.
We put the hook down and crashed for a few hours than did the few miles to Poros in the afternoon. It was now the Saturday before the Greek Election. We walked into town needing cash (to pay for the nav lights) only to find the solitary ATM empty.
The Dutch boat we had agreed to give €140 for the light couldn't easily catch us up so instead of going to Eufemia on Kefalonia as planned, we diverted to Vathi on Ithaca as his sister was there on a flotilla. Luckily the ATMs in Vathi were working so we got out the cash, handed some of it over and headed up to Kioni on Ithaca for lunch with Mike and Gilly and then on to Abeliki on Meganisi.
We arrived at about 6.00 to find it already crowded. We tried 3 times to anchor but only succeeded on the fourth. We had a good night in the pleasant surroundings we remember although it was tarnished a bit by the large number of wasps.

Vlicho bay on Levkas

Motored over to Vlicho next day and anchored in the wonderful enclosed bay. We met Miles & Karen - who's yacht Stella Maris was badly damaged in the storm last year - and drank good Cretan Raki into the small hours. Vlicho Yacht club hosted a quiz night on Thursday so we ate there and then rested (and worked) on the Friday.
Next day we motored up to Levkas and moored on the Town Quay. Its a familiar, busy place with loas of chandleries and other services. We got most things we needed including a clever engineer from Contract Yacht Services who managed to remove a bolt from my alternator that I had been trying to get undone for two years!
We are now heavily into planning for Kieran, Nicky & the girlies to visit us next month. We had hoped that there would be some sensible and economic way of getting between Levkas and Igoumenitsa( the main ferry port for Corfu) but no such luck. There are only 3 buses a week and those are at silly time. Taxis cost a fortune and minibuses only run if they have flotilla customers and even then charge over €100! They can't tell you until a day or so beforehand if they will have any spaces. What a way to run a country!
So off to Preveza. Buses are more hopeful but still infrequent and long. In the end we decided to hire a car and take them up to Igoumenitsa ourselves. Cheaper and a lot less hassle.
Nicky is a bit worried about seasickness when we pick them up in Corfu and then run down to Preveza so we investigated lots of alternatives for her to go by ferry and bus. This included the possibilty of going from Corfu to Parga (shielded by the swell) then taking a bus to Preveza. Unfortunately, Parga is not at all comfortable. Lots of swell and even more waves from water sports, fishermen and tripper boats. Looks like its going to be travel sickness pills and an overnighter.
And so to Lakka on Paxos - one of our favourite places in the whole world. We stayed there for a few days just enjoying it. Getting onto the quay for a cope of hours from 10.00 was a really good idea. The fuel man was there with his mini tanker filling up some of the tripper boats. The travel info place sells water at €7.00 per 1/2 hour with the hose which is a bit steep if like us you have small tanks and could only take 200L. They were prepared to pro-rate it though so we were happy with €2.50 for 10 minutes.
On Wednesday we made the short hop to Petriti sailing most of the way to my surprise. The last hour was a gentle but very pleasurable beat to windward. Petriti turned out to be a thoroughly nice little village. It has a bakery, a good minimarket and some nice little tavernas where they charge proper Greek prices. The harbour is crowded and although there were 11 yachts on the mole, there wasn't a lot of movement so I suspect some of them are based there. No matter, the anchorage just outside the harbour is good (excellent holding on mud and weed) and reasonably sheltered (bit of swell if the wind has a bit of East in it). We stayed for 2 days thn ran up to Corfu town and anchored off the mouth of NAOK just under the castle. We took the dinghy through the inshore passage to IOK yacht club and booked in for Friday-Sunday to await the Family.