Captain Chaos here, taking a shot of the blog.
It’s now the 29th July and the following is a precis of the last week or so cruising in the Corfu region.
23rd July :
As we were now proposing heading South we decided to head back to Corfu to see a couple of places in case we do not come back this way.
The first was an anchorage we had seen, the day we had hired the scooter, under the old fortress at Corfu town.
This was a due West sail of about 12 miles .
We arrived late afternoon, anchored , had a swim and settled down for the evening. The night views of the fortess were impressive and all was peaceful until about 10:00 when a very loud club started up horrendous music. Yes I know I’m getting old and sound like Victor Meldrew, but it went on until 06:00 !
The starter motor was still playing up, sometimes starting, sometimes not. Not ideal.
I suspected we might need to replace it so we back tracked to our anchorage outside Gouvia where I dismantled everything and cleaned it again, to no avail. There was a Penta dealer in Gouvia so we headed in on the dinghy. Louise in the meantime had googled a guy in the marina that ran a charter company “Bob’s Yachts” who was also a marine engineer. We swung by him first and he was helpfulness personified and offered to test it for me. So back in the dinghy and we moved Camira into the marina for another night , he even let us use one of his charter berths to be close at hand.
I whipped off the motor and he confirmed the bushes where gone or going. He took it away that evening and returned it refurbished the next morning, fabulous service and a lot cheaper than a new starter motor from Penta!
We obviously took the opportunity to visit Zorbas again for a massive chicken souvlaki and also picked up a chart and bits & bobs from the chandlers.
Heading for & in Zorbas
With the starter motor now spinning like a fairground attraction we set off the next afternoon back to anchor off Sayiadha ,intending to head to Petriti the following day. Anyone watching us will think we are running Albanians from the mainland to Corfu!
Petriti is a small village 7 miles South of Benitses which gets few visitors by land. It’s a green place watered by a stream with a sandy beach and clear water, Oh and a Sunsail flotilla causing mayhem in a taverna until the wee small hours. We didn’t do that , did we ? No surely not.
We spent one night at anchor in Petriti then headed (once again) back across to mainland Greece. This time to Platarias.
Petriti anchorage off the beach just outside the town harbour
We had a great sail even managing a goose wing final approach. This was our first cross wind stern too anchoring and if I say so myself wasn’t at all shabby. No doubt that’ll be the kiss of death!
Platarias is a popular detour for yachts heading up and down the coast from Corfu to Parga. We have decided to stay here for a couple of days and when I’ve finished this we are off to the beach. We are now a stone’s through from Sivota Mourtos recommended by Susan , Camira’s other crew. So that’ll hopefully be our next stop depending on anchoring space and weather, as a blow is promised over the next few days.
Platarias and a really good fish restaurant the first I’ve had since the “Hughie” episode in Naples
