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August - Corfu - Lefkas
August has been a great month for us as our lovely
pal, Jimmy and his girlfriend Glynis came over on holiday
to stay with their friends, Gordon and Margaret and
we all hooked up and did some sailing.
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The day before Jimmy arrived it was busy aboard Madison,
as we had an evening with Gil
and Linda
from the Yacht Rocking Chair II. We had met them previously
with their daughter Camille in Petriti, and they came aboard
for a few drinks along with another couple we had been chatting
to, Phil and Monica (Philarmonic as they are known). So we
had 7 people all squeezed into the cockpit for a wee while.
It was very cosy and I'm sure Madison was happy to have so
many visitors.
The next day Jimmy,
Glynis and their friends, Gordon and Margaret came into
Corfu town to see Madison and and grab a drink (or two). Gordon
and Margaret now live on Corfu and Gordon we discovered is
an ex-professional footballer from Hibs (77-90) so now we're
mixing with celebrities too! I'm also hoping that our street
cred in Edinburgh will increase, although the Jambos (or Hearts
fans for those not in the know), may not be very happy with
us for mixing with their enemy!
By the end of our one or two drinks we had decided that
we would all go sailing. So on Thursday we all met up early
on Madison and headed for Petriti. We knew that we would have
to motor as wind very rarely happens in the morning in the
Ionian but we were hoping to sail back. We had a lovely day
with a few hours in Petriti sunbathing and swimming and a
good lunch. There were some dramatic rescues at sea too -
two balls and a lilo (the rescue of the lilo resulting in
the rescue of Jimmy as he fell in attempting to grab it) and
we also managed to sail most of the way back. Gordon became
Cap'n Gordon for a time as he took the wheel and was a pure
natural helmsman. As this was such a great day we organised
to go sailing on the Sunday but this time from the NW of Corfu
where Gordon and Margaret live, to an island called Erikoussa.
Karl and I spent the next couple of days working our way up
there in Madison. This also meant we were visiting places
on Corfu that we had not been to before so that was an added
bonus for us.
We had a lovely sail to Erikoussa
which has a fabulous beach. We were witness to money gone
mad - when a super
yacht anchored and the crew proceeded to spend a couple
of hours raking the beach and scooping the weed out of the
water around where they had raked so that the (very rich)
family on board could come ashore to play without having to
touch weed or encounter an uneven beach. If I had thought
in advance I would have sent Karl, Jimmy and Gordon to do
the same for myself, Glynis and Margaret as the uneven sand
can be such a bore. Whilst on Erikoussa, Karl also gave Glynis
and Jimmy a scuba diving taster which they seemed to enjoy.
We also saw dolphins on the way back. This was a great end
to a great day.
The next day Jimmy and Glynis were flying home so we met
them for lunch and headed to Gordon and Margaret's to see
their new house (which is fabulous) and say our goodbyes.
They then surprised us with the present of a hammock
which we had planned on getting for Madison. This is something
we had on our list of 'wants' rather than 'needs' and it was
really lovely of them. Gordon and Margaret also invited us
to stay over one day and do some washing once Jimmy and Glynis
had gone. When you live aboard this is a real treat and we
were delighted to take them up on their offer. So a couple
of days later we arrived laden with a big blue ikea bag full
of sheets and towels etc...and of course beers and goodies
as a thank you. It was great being in a proper bed and getting
use of modern facilities after being on Maddie for so long.
We said big thanks and goodbyes to Gordon and Margaret the
next day and got back on Maddie and organised ourselves for
sailing back down to Preveza and onwards to Lefkas. It had
been great seeing Jimmy and Glynis and a real pleasure meeting
Gordon and Margaret who were lovely to us.
And so the first two weeks in August were over and we spent
the next week slowly making our way south. We met a Czech
sailor in Corfu called Peter,
Yacht Steel Pulse who was a diver so Karl went for a wee dive
around the boats with him. We revisited places we had already
been to a few times and went to see Fiona and Bob from Pythias
Gallery in Paxos on the way. Finally getting back to Preveza
on 21st August.
We hung around Preveza for four days and organised our winter
lift out there for 31st October. We had the pleasure of meeting
a lovely family - Rob, Sarah, Phoebe (9) and Nick (7) and
spent a few hours here and there with them. They were previous
liveaboards and were busy sorting out their yacht Dreamcatcher,
which had accumulated a large amount of unwanted things before
they had to go back to the UK for the new school term. Phoebe
and Nick were an absolute delight and for all we didn't spend
huge amounts of time with them, I have to say I enjoyed every
minute. We also bumped into Marc, Yacht Monade again with
his dog Casper
and spent a couple of evenings with him. Its always great
to meet up with him. Casper is a real celebrity too and everywhere
we went with them people wanted to talk to Casper. Madison
and Suzy (the Suzamar dinghy) both had a good wash too.
Finally on 25th August we arrived on the island of Lefkas.
This was a unique day as it involved coming down the Lefkas
Canal, which has a floating bridge that is floated out
of the way every 2 hours for boats to pass through. Our first
port of call on Lefkas was Lefkada which is the main town.
We had 3 days here and met a single-handed sailor, Mark from
Yacht Vipress. He has a wonderful 46ft Bavaria, which makes
Maddie look very small and I was starting to have another
case of yacht envy. Mark had a maintenance job that needed
doing on the underneath of Vipress so Karl offered his diving
services and Mark took us out for a fabulous meal at a
restaurant called 'EY ZHN' in return, which we thoroughly
enjoyed and hope to try again on our way back to Preveza when
we get hauled out at the end of October. Lefkada was another
lovely Greek town full of locals and not just tourists. We
got caught by the local authorities and had to pay €8
for one night (thankfully they didn't come for the other two
nights we were there). However this is the first time that
anyone had asked us for money for going onto the quay so we
can't complain.
After 3 days in Lefkada we sailed with Mark down to a resort
called Nidri
and anchored. Mark has been cruising round here a lot and
has lots of useful information regarding where to go for yacht
supplies and good restaurants to eat in and places to anchor,
so we have been picking his brains. Nidri is a tourist spot
but lovely all the same. What we like about the tourist places
in the Ionian is that they don't have high-rise buildings
everywhere so the views aren't spoilt. Unfortunately we have
not been able to avoid pirates
trying to board us and sell us bread and milk (pirates are
getting much younger these days too!). Last night we had a
terrific lightning show from our cockpit. Thankfully it didn't
come too close and we didn't get rained on either. Disaster
struck though when we discovered we'd lost our very expensive
bimini in the winds. Karl has gone searching for another €6
replacement. I'm not sure I can budget can survive the expense.
And so here we are another month gone. We have now done over
4000 miles since leaving Scotland. We are especially looking
forward to September as we will be making our way south through
Lefkas and onto Kefalonia where we hope to have a week with
Iain, my wee brother and Emma, his wife and one of my best
friends and their bump, as Emma will, by this time be 6 months
pregnant. I can't wait to see them.
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