At the time of posting we are back in Auckland, New Zealand- but the blog continues, and this post takes us up to 28/9/12.
Heading further south from Paxos Island to mainland Preveza a large and classic black-skied cold front with loud thunder and bolts of lightning overtook us, deluging us with rain. Visibility was so reduced that I had to switch on the navigation lights and radar. Before the visibility closed out I saw and tracked on radar a sailing yacht two miles directly ahead but traveling south like us. When the heavy rain arrived the radar image disappeared, even with the Sea Clutter control adjusted. Some of these fronts can generate very strong winds on their leading edge, and we were relieved to encounter only about 30 knots whipping up a choppy 1.5m following sea. The front took only about 30 minutes to pass us and then blue skies, a light wind and calm seas returned.
This nasty cold front overtook us from astern
Preveza is a town on the mainland reached by a long dredged channel, and here we anchored in a sheltered bay north of the town, and linked up with our Kiwi friends Bruce and Lesley Tebbutt aboard their sailing cat, Midi, as well as Australians Mike and Sue of the yacht, Skedaddle Again. They were all quite astonished when during cocktails aboard Midi we laid out a beautiful plate of sashimi, using the tuna we’d recently caught.
Bruce and Lesley had spent a couple of months in Croatia, Venice and Montenegro – all places we expect to head next year, so we gained some useful information.
Leaving Preveza it was stunningly calm. This photo shows the dredged and buoyed channel with an approaching yacht
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Lefkas is an island only due to the four-mile-long canal dredged through the shallow salt lakes separating mainland Greece from Lefkas. At the northern end of the canal is a well-preserved Venetian castle, which formerly guarded its approaches. This area is quite shallow with moving sand bars, and with many boats milling around waiting for the floating pontoon road bridge to be opened every hour some care is needed. The first canal was dug here in the 7th century BC – that’s 2,700 years ago! The present one dates from the early 19th century, and is supposedly dredged to a depth of six metres, but we encountered depths as shallow as three.
Passing by Lefkas marina, where Envoy will be wintered, we spent the next several days in loose company with Bruce and Lesley, going back to some nice bays we’d visited previously, and then to Vasiliki on the south coast of Lefkas Island. It gets a bit windy here as evidenced by Vasiliki being one of the world’s top 10 windsurfing spots, but we had little wind, and anchored off a great sandy beach where we could see our anchor on the bottom.
Midi and Envoy anchored in perfect calm off Vasiliki beach
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The small harbour village is particularly attractive and we had a great breakfast ashore making a change in our usual routine.
Quiet village of Vasiliki
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Close-up of Vasiliki's not-very-busy harbour
.JPG)
Every village has a bakery - this one is particularly atmospheric
.JPG)
With little wind on the sea this windsurfer tries out a wind-driven skateboard on land
TECHNICAL: Nothing to report.
LOG: Up to 28 September had spent 182 days aboard, and cruised 1,680 miles for 325 engine hours.
Heading further south from Paxos Island to mainland Preveza a large and classic black-skied cold front with loud thunder and bolts of lightning overtook us, deluging us with rain. Visibility was so reduced that I had to switch on the navigation lights and radar. Before the visibility closed out I saw and tracked on radar a sailing yacht two miles directly ahead but traveling south like us. When the heavy rain arrived the radar image disappeared, even with the Sea Clutter control adjusted. Some of these fronts can generate very strong winds on their leading edge, and we were relieved to encounter only about 30 knots whipping up a choppy 1.5m following sea. The front took only about 30 minutes to pass us and then blue skies, a light wind and calm seas returned.
This nasty cold front overtook us from astern
Preveza is a town on the mainland reached by a long dredged channel, and here we anchored in a sheltered bay north of the town, and linked up with our Kiwi friends Bruce and Lesley Tebbutt aboard their sailing cat, Midi, as well as Australians Mike and Sue of the yacht, Skedaddle Again. They were all quite astonished when during cocktails aboard Midi we laid out a beautiful plate of sashimi, using the tuna we’d recently caught.
Bruce and Lesley had spent a couple of months in Croatia, Venice and Montenegro – all places we expect to head next year, so we gained some useful information.
Leaving Preveza it was stunningly calm. This photo shows the dredged and buoyed channel with an approaching yacht
.JPG)
Lefkas is an island only due to the four-mile-long canal dredged through the shallow salt lakes separating mainland Greece from Lefkas. At the northern end of the canal is a well-preserved Venetian castle, which formerly guarded its approaches. This area is quite shallow with moving sand bars, and with many boats milling around waiting for the floating pontoon road bridge to be opened every hour some care is needed. The first canal was dug here in the 7th century BC – that’s 2,700 years ago! The present one dates from the early 19th century, and is supposedly dredged to a depth of six metres, but we encountered depths as shallow as three.
Passing by Lefkas marina, where Envoy will be wintered, we spent the next several days in loose company with Bruce and Lesley, going back to some nice bays we’d visited previously, and then to Vasiliki on the south coast of Lefkas Island. It gets a bit windy here as evidenced by Vasiliki being one of the world’s top 10 windsurfing spots, but we had little wind, and anchored off a great sandy beach where we could see our anchor on the bottom.
Midi and Envoy anchored in perfect calm off Vasiliki beach
.JPG)
The small harbour village is particularly attractive and we had a great breakfast ashore making a change in our usual routine.
Quiet village of Vasiliki
.JPG)
Close-up of Vasiliki's not-very-busy harbour
.JPG)
Every village has a bakery - this one is particularly atmospheric
.JPG)
With little wind on the sea this windsurfer tries out a wind-driven skateboard on land
TECHNICAL: Nothing to report.
LOG: Up to 28 September had spent 182 days aboard, and cruised 1,680 miles for 325 engine hours.
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