Greek Islands here we come!

Arriving at Montenegro, we motored up the Estuary to Kotor which seemed to take an eternity. The Estuary/Harbour is one of the biggest in Europe. On the way through, you can see old Submarine enclosures that are dug into the surrounding Hills, remnants from a previous era.

The Port Authorities at Kotor were the best we have dealt with to date and were very welcoming, we even stayed tied up to the main Wharf there longer than we should have but no one seemed to mind.

Kotor is situated right at the end of the Estuary/Harbour and is surrounded by steep high hills and I could see remnants of some remaining snow on one of the highest points. I’d say it must get bitter here in the Winter and the Bora wind comes down off the Hill sometimes reaching speeds over 200 km/h. We anchored overnight just in front of a derelict Hotel (Hotel Fiord) which looks like it was built around the time just prior to the civil war in the 1990s, The timing could not have been worst for the new venture and it was a shame to see it in the state it was. Someone had put a lot of thought into it with Tennis Courts and nice grounds at one stage.

The next day we motored out and went to Bar which is further south. We arrived at the Marina there and what is becoming a common theme, no one answered the VHF. We finally got hold of someone off a phone number after circling around for a while and got tied up for the night.

Bar had an area on the Foreshore for Families to come, eat and play and it was good to see so many people there using it. There were Families everywhere and the facilities were great, especially for the Kids.

We left Bar, heading for Corfu on our first decent long trip which would take us 26 hrs. Along the way we had some fun when just off the Albanian Coast at the closest point (5 NM) around midnight on a Moonless dark night, we lost our depth data and the alarms were going off every 45 secs. Then the Auto pilot played up and was out 30 degrees which had us heading towards land. On top of  that the Shallow Water alarm started to sound. By my reckoning we were in 450 meters of water and 5 miles off the shore, but being so dark uncertainty entered my head and I shot down below to take a fix on where we were on the Chart just to check we were we I thought we were.

Then Shelly yelled out that according to the AIS there was a ship in front of us,  it gave me details of a large tonnage ship directly in front of us. Bloody Hell, all this going on and now we are going to get run down by a massive ship that we couldn’t even see! Turned out it was a yacht called Tainui from Australia which we called up on the VHF and they were just on the inside of us and confirmed also our position. All was correct so we set the course and continued on steering off the Boat Compass and taking Hand held GPS coordinates to back up occasionally. Then the auto pilot and depth data came back on line on their own for some reason. Technology can be a good thing but can’t be relied upon.

We reached Corfu at 10 am and the common theme of the Harbour master not answering the VHF raised its head again. Do they have some aversion to picking up a VHF radio perhaps?

 We sandwiched Falshator into the old town Inlet besides an English couple and proceeded to get checked into Greece.

What an unbelievable experience that was, it took 3 hrs  and much walking to collect many stamps and signatures on bits of paper and dealing with not very cooperative people to put it nicely, before we got our Transit log and were all done, just what we didn’t need after 26 hrs of sailng and being awake!

So it was back to the boat and a couple of beers with the English neighbours. We decided not to stay there as they were dredging the entrance and the water was not good so headed out and anchored just out of Gouvia Marina for the night for some much needed sleep.

The next day we were in the Marina and caught up with the German couple we met in Dubrovnik as well as a couple from Switzerland who had a Hanse 445 too. We had a night of progressive drinks at each others boats before heading off to Dinner at one of the Mariners restaurants and had a great meal and more drinks that went on for a bit and we got to bed at 2 am. Thought this boating life was supposed to be relaxing!
We spent a day exploring Corfu township and its history and even had a ride on a Horse and Cart while checking it all out.

After a couple of days in the Marina, we were off going south and stopped at a little bay called Mongonisi on North Paxoi Island which is a great little spot.

We anchored there and went ashore to the local bar as you do and were joined by a Norwegian couple who were anchored next door to us. They were doing a similar thing to us and had spent a year on their boat and were on their way home to spend time with their family. The next morning we had coffee on their boat and he showed me some good spots to see in the Greek Islands for our travels. We left the Norwegians and Mongonisi and headed for Levkas. The Gennaker was hoisted and we had an excellent sail all the way down to Levkas doing 8-9 knts all the way.

   The Gennaker attachment stretched after all my nice splicing-bought in Croatia, made in Taiwan :)

The sails came down and we prepared to enter the Northern entrance to the Levkas channel. This was a pretty unnerving experience as it was blowing nearly 20 knots at this stage and I was not 100 % on where the channel was which is only shallow at the best of times. It wasn’t where the Pilot book said it was nor the Charplotter so I had to navigate it just by the colour of the water and the odd little red buoy that was there. The shallow depth alarms were going off again as we gingerly entered in and a few more grey hairs appeared but we made it in. Then we had to wait 15 mins for the Bridge to open which opens on the hour every hour. There was a narrow channel of 6 meters depth in the middle and 1 meter on the sides, so I spent the 15 mins going in reverse and forwards as there was too much wind about to sit and wait.

The Bridge siren was set off at the top of the hour and a portion of the bridge was raised. This was only 6 meters wide so care had to be taken going through with only 700 odd mm clearance either side of the boat.

It was a small journey up the canal till we got to the basin by the marina where we had arranged to go onto the finger that is run by the local Volvo specialist.

Once again there was no water and we backed the boat into a 3 meter space pushing the other boats aside with the alarms going off for shallow water and the depth gauge reading 2.1 meters, at a draw of 2.25 meters we were sitting in the mud. After the experiences of getting in and getting tied up and finally relaxing, the beer tasted pretty good!