Kirk got up early to make a call home to his Mom who is looking after our place while we are away. Seems like she and the furred and feathered monsters are getting along and they are all settling in with each other. She says that she is slowly getting used to their schedule. Um…yup, we warned you about Loki and his freakish ability to read a clock…and that he starts to demand his breakfast at around 6 am…. and really Charlotte, don’t worry, Gizmo is just a klutz sometimes…he really does fall off his perch fairly regularly…but he is probably only coming to terms with the fact that I clipped his wings before I left and therefore every landing is a crash landing. And the cats won’t eat him when he hits the floor…they have a healthy respect for that beak which has nailed them both. But Loki does get a bit over zealous when he goes down.
When Kirk comes back and crawls into bed we hear the neighbours (the Comedy Club …three very funny British fellows with whom we chatted last night) start up and pull out. On the other side, Captain Glenn has started up, says good morning, and also pulls out. Both exit through the South channel and we watch. The Comedy Club picks their way through very, very slowly with two on the bow conning. It is VERY shallow and VERY narrow. They make it, but we still decide that we will leave via the North channel, the way we entered. It is not our boat and we would hate for anything to happen to Nikolas.
The sky is grey today, another fellow comes by and asks if we have heard the weather, we have not, although we looked the other day and it showed two days of clouds and potential rain for Corfu followed by several fried eggs. There is what looks like a wall of fog out there, but the sun is brightening it up as it comes up over the mainland mountains. Most days it seems to burn off relatively early. We hum and haw…will we stay or will we go. We do like it here, but it is time to move on….so we decide to pull out too.
The huge sailboat from Sydney Australia is waking up, the three young crew members are polishing the windows, wiping the morning dew from the gangplank. Last night one of the Comedy Club wondered aloud to us if he offered them 20 Euros did we think they might be able to get the young fellow to wash their boat? They had also said good on us for bringing the Canadian flag to the Mediterranean….they said they had never encountered one here before in their sailing.
So we pull off the quay at 9am and head out the North (safer) channel and plot our long course to Preveza. We were going to head for the South tip of Levkas, but it’s a long 50 nm haul so we opt for the shorter jump to Preveza which is 29 nm, where we should be able to get water to replenish our supply.
Once outside the harbour we look across but cannot see the mainland. The horizon is shrouded in mists but we can see several other boats ahead of us in the distance. The waters are absolutely flat calm….varying between Beaufort 0 “seas like a mirror” and Beaufort 1 and “seas rippled”. We are wondering if we will ever be able to actually pull a sail here.
So we point the boat to Preveza, engage the autopilot and sit back to watch the blue water slide by the hull. We have a few moments of interest en route. We see two small groups of dolphins. The first plays around us for a moment before moving on aft. The second group of dolphins follows three large fishing boats we give a wide berth to (we can see that they are dragging nets and have no desire to have a close encounter with them). This second group is shyer and descend until we pass.
We will need to navigate a narrow channel into Preveza, but determining the proper bearing is relatively simple here, there is only a 2 degree East variation to calculate. We just need to correctly find the outer markers to run the channel to follow the range into safer waters.
We pass Captain Glenn along the way and see two hydrofoils zipping into Gaios from the mainland.
A swallow has been playing off our port and stern. He has been with us for about an hour now. There seems to be a lot for him here as he flits about catching insects.
There is not much else out here…we can see the off boat inthe distance, but it is a bit lonely.
And the boat drives on…..
Five and a half hours later we can finally see the channel markers for Preveza channel. The wind has picked up to about 15 knots and we have a following sea, albeit not a very large one. The channel is very narrow and there are four sets of markers to navigate….must remember…NOT red, right, return…NOT red, right, return! Instead…we must chant “Red to Red, straight ahead!” Stay on target……
As we round the corner and get into the lee of the land the water flattens although the wind is still blowing. We pass the town quay and note that yet again…most vessels are alongside where they should be stern to. We check out the marina which is reported to be incomplete and find sailboats stacked two and three deep on the first two pontoons…the rest seem to have been commandeered by charter companies. No luck there.
About face and back to the quay. We intend to go stern to along another boat until we see a sign that says Odessyus and points to both sides. OK…Plan C. We blow a couple of donuts in the harbour while we run the fenders to the starboard side, change all the lines, move the dinghy over, and prepare to dock alongside in front of another boat. As we close in, two fellows come ashore to catch our lines. I laugh and say that I was preparing to do a death defying leap and they say they would be most happy to stand back and watch instead of take the lines from me…. I opt for the more graceful choice and toss the lines. One of the three fellows looks exactly like Red Green!
When we step ashore to take our lines…we are instantly smoking hot. Time to get out of the fleece and back into shorts!
This is a lovely little place! A fuel mini tank truck trolls the waterfront back and forth. Two black cats meander about, the palm trees are swaying in the wind. And to our Port side….enters Captain Glenn!
A large double masted sailboat named Born2sail is heading bow in to our bow, it has VERY large bowsprit, or, as Kirk puts it, a large battering ram is coming our way….perhaps it would be prudent to assist since we are directly in the line of fire. We do so. We are not yet sure where they are from but the Captain knows his boat extremely well and appears to be teaching several young people how to work a boat. Their language sounds Scandinavian. After they are all settled, the Captain comes over and pokes his head in our boat to say thank you.
We see more boats headed this way and feel overwhelmingly guilty that we (and everyone else) is moored alongside. We assume that as the season progresses the Port Police will tell boaters that they cannot moor this way, but for the time being we can only silently feel guilty and say that it is what it is and we merely followed suit. If we see anyone we have met along the way we would feel obliged to move some fenders out and invite a raft.
Preveza is our home for the night.
We do a bit of a walkabout and find that, as usual, everything is closed between about 1 and 4-ish pm. We return to Nikolas and decide that we have confused enough people by flying the Greek flag at the stern and the Canadian flag on high. It’s time to put the second “big ass Canadian Flag out” (Thanks Grace!). We pull the flagstaff in and gently and respectfully fold away the Greek flag and replace it with a second Canadian flag.
Shortly thereafter our newest British Neighbours disembark for dinner and note the newest addition to our vessel. They comment on it and say “We see you’ve put out another small flag. We were wondering how you dealt with Customs?” We say, “Yes, it is large, but it really doesn’t weigh terribly much so they didn’t bother with us”
We figure that there is a slim possibility that people may miss our flag up on the halyard…so we’ll just put another at eye level…..but we do bring it in after dark….
The quay comes alive as the sun sets. Where DO they all come from?!?! We wander off to look for the market to pick up one or two provisions. There is the most annoyingly tacky “train” that runs along the quay every hour or so. We look (unsuccessfully) for an internet cafe. But we do find the market and finally find a bit of chicken that doesn’t break the bank completely. AND we actually find Alpha brand beer! Along the way we run into out neighbours at dinner. They had asked us what we were doing for dinner and unfortunately we had already eaten…otherwise we are quite certain that we would have been invited out along with them. We chat for a moment or two and leave them to enjoy their meal. We really don’t want to disturb them long…….so damned Canadian of us…..
We walk back to the boat and settle in for the night as a spectator sport. The locals all walk the quay and eyeball all the “tourists” on the waterfront. We aren’t really sure who is watching whom….
A quick shower each and we really are ready for bed. Maybe we can find internet for a cappuccino in the morning….