We’ve arrived in Greece! The favourable winds arrived on 7th June – in fact they were barely winds at all so we motored across a very calm Ionian Sea with numerous visits from dolphins. The only real action came in the early hours, just after moonset, when Cate was on watch. There’s quite a lot of shipping and no distinct shipping lane so a busy watch tracking 10 ships criss crossing our route. Happily we arrived in beautiful Lakka Bay on the north east of Paxos after a 24 hour journey. We dropped anchor and went below for a snooze only to wake with an increased wind from a different direction and had to rapidly re-anchor to avoid a collision.
Lakka Bay is stunning, with clear turquoise water and a lovely hamlet ashore full of restaurants, bars and shops. This makes it a very crowded anchorage with pilot guides all talking about this and the ‘comedy anchoring’ that ensues as so many boats crowd in. It’s still really worth a visit as it is so beautiful. Our plan had been to stay here just a couple of nights before heading to Corfu town to register our arrival in Greece but the Corfu Marinas were all fully booked with flotillas as the weather had turned stormy and unsettled. So we sat out incredible electrical storms and torrential rain on our third day before we were able to move on.
Reluctantly we headed north towards Corfu and, whilst still awaiting a marina berth there went to another anchorage on the mainland. This, by contrast, was magnificently wild and untouched. Igoumenitsa Creek lies inland up a broad creek that snakes through high banks of trees that drop steeply to the waterline. There are only a few distant dwellings and, apart from a couple of other boats, the only life is wild. As we made our way up the creek our first sight was a flock of storks, followed by herons and scores of other birds. There was a tiny beach used only by a few locals and a herd of cows and, by evening the fish were jumping in incredible arcs. Spectacular!
The next day we headed across the water to Corfu and Port Mandraki. This is a lovely, if basic, marina nestled into the base of the ancient fortress guarding the city. Once ashore there is a fabulous sailing club restaurant serving some of the best food we’ve ever eaten in Greece. The route into town takes you up through the castle walls and old garrison before you emerge across a lovely green to the old town which is really lovely and a real hustle and bustle compared to our past few days.
Then begins Greek bureaucracy….. Arriving from Italy meant checking in with Port Police who demanded a passenger list which they duly stamped several times before sending us to another part of the main port, crossing acres of tarmac in sweltering heat, to immigration. Then came a major disaster in customs where we needed to obtain a special ‘Transit Log’ to allow us to travel in Greek waters. Being on a UK registered boat, entering Greek waters post Brexit, they would not recognise that our boat had VAT paid status and issued us with a log allowing us to remain for only one month! Despite our protestations and waving all the papers proving VAT was paid we were shooed out of the office and told to go to the main customs office – not open for two more days because of the Whitsun holiday! We dragged ourselves away, heads low in despair, thinking of cancelling our trip across to the Aegean and the family and friends who were due to join us. We spent a fretful few days before heading to customs again, arriving as the office opened at 8.00 with reams of paperwork, proof of ownership, proof of VAT, proof of where Merryn had been kept and sailed over the past four years, old receipts we’d held on to for years. We were sent back to the boat to find yet more documents and then finally, at 1pm, after further frantic activity with multiple stamps, we were handed our proper Transit Log allowing us to sail around Greece at our leisure. Hurrah! The celebratory beers were cold and delicious!
Clutching our precious paperwork, we departed Corfu town and headed up the coast to explore. Each place we drop anchor seems more beautiful than the last as we stopped in Ormos Kalami and Agios Stefanou. We have now arrived on the most beautiful island of Erikoussa, the most northern in Greece and very close to Albania, and are anchored in a stunning bay of crystal clear turquoise water with golden sands and just a few tavernas ashore. It feels like the Greece or Thailand of 40 years ago and it will be very difficult to tear ourselves away!
Crikey! I think it was worth all the Greek bureaucracy: joie de vivre. Xx