Envoy is currently anchored at spectacular Meganisi Island where we’re enjoying the last day of our 2013 cruise before going into the marina for the winter.
Laurie aboard Envoy in Paxos Island’s sheltered Lakki Bay (Amy photo)
We anchored in northern Cephalonia’s idyllic Foki Bay for a couple of days, from where it’s a short walk to stunning Fiskardho.
In Foki Bay there’s a lone taverna ashore, and while enjoying an evening drink there we heard the faint ring of a goat bell that shortly turned into a cacophony as a huge herd of goats passed close-by.
Herd of goats cross road outside Foki Bay taverna
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Going back to places we always find something different to see, and in Fiskardho visited the ruins of a Venetian lighthouse and a 6th century Christian basilica. Amy and Di also found some new shops!
Ruined Venetian lighthouse
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6th century Christian basilica – not bad after more than 1,400 years
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Having complained about wasps in Croatia, to be fair we must say there were many wasps in Fiskardho, making it difficult to enjoy this stunning village to the full if eating or drinking. Locals said that previously the nearby countryside had been sprayed with insecticide, but this year there were no funds to do this – most taverna and shop owners told us that business this year is down on last. Tourist numbers are similar, but they’re not spending as much.
In Foki Bay we again met our great Kiwi friends Bruce and Lesley from catamaran Midi, and next day Amy joined Midi for a sail to Sivota Bay.
Laurie, Bruce, Lesley and Amy at Stavros taverna in Sivota Bay
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Sivota Bay’s Stavros taverna has a great atmosphere, and provides free water to visiting cruisers.
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We needed to start heading north to Corfu again for Amy’s flight to London, and stopped off at Preveza, Gaios and Mourtos along the way.
We bought some olive oil from this dusty shop in Gaios where you taste the oil and they decant it into plastic bottles from huge barrels for 7 Euro (about NZ$12) per litre
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Great photo of Mourtos anchorage taken from Envoy by Amy
Back in Greece we’re again pleasantly surprised by the very reasonable taverna prices. Here is a typical offering: coffees from 1.5 Euros (NZ$2.45), full English breakfast 7.5 Euros (NZ$12.30), omelet 4.50 Euros (NZ$7.40), 1arge beer 3 Euro (NZ$4.90), 1 litre of house wine 8 Euro (NZ$13.10), bottles of wine ranging from 14 Euros (NZ$23), Greek salad 5.5 Euros (NZ$9), main courses 7 to 9 Euros (NZ$11.50 to NZ$14.75). Then they nearly always provide free dessert, so we generally end up paying roughly half what we pay in New Zealand for a meal out.
We had a fantastic two weeks with Amy aboard, and no sad farewells as we’ll be all be meeting up in Auckland in December.
After Amy’s departure we returned to nearby Gouvia Marina to have a problem with our generator checked, and stayed there several days at the reasonable off-season rate of 28 Euros (NZ$46) per night.
TECHNICAL Shortly after Amy joined us we encountered a similar generator problem to the one we had in May. If we applied a load of more than about 10 amps the generator dropped rpm and started smoking from the exhaust and emitting lumps of carbon. We had decided to leave fixing this until after Amy’s visit, and during that time because we wouldn’t be able to use the water maker (which needs the generator to power it) took on water from shore.
At Gouvia marina Leo and Theodore are very competent guys who’ve worked on Envoy before. They said it would be best to first address the issue of the failing bearing in the AC power unit. They explained the tolerances are very fine and maybe with the worn bearing the stator is getting too close to the rotor. The bearing was removed and found to be badly worn. Leo advised this is common and these bearings need to be checked and replaced every few thousand hours. The housing that seats the bearing had to be machined and shimmed to hold the new bearing dead-centre, and this was done within a couple of days.
View of the genset showing AC power unit
Close-up of AC power unit
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This housing had to be modified to hold the new bearing dead-centre
.JPG)
Although the genset now sounded better without the rattly bearing, the basic problem wasn’t solved. So next was a full check of the exhaust system, and the exhaust elbow was found to be badly clogged with carbon. These elbows are prone to carbonizing as this is where hot exhaust gases meet up with cold seawater before going out of the exhaust. In fact the Manual advises checking this every 600 hours and it was 1,050hours since the last check – I’d been planing to check it this winter. As soon as the elbow was cleaned the genset ran fine once again.
Also had a minor issue with the Seapower generator powered by the Lugger. One day it didn’t power up until we were about an hour into our passage. I don’t know why, and there’s more on this issue to follow.
Laurie aboard Envoy in Paxos Island’s sheltered Lakki Bay (Amy photo)
We anchored in northern Cephalonia’s idyllic Foki Bay for a couple of days, from where it’s a short walk to stunning Fiskardho.
In Foki Bay there’s a lone taverna ashore, and while enjoying an evening drink there we heard the faint ring of a goat bell that shortly turned into a cacophony as a huge herd of goats passed close-by.
Herd of goats cross road outside Foki Bay taverna
.JPG)
Going back to places we always find something different to see, and in Fiskardho visited the ruins of a Venetian lighthouse and a 6th century Christian basilica. Amy and Di also found some new shops!
Ruined Venetian lighthouse
On close scrutiny the “new” lighthouse didn’t seem much better than the old
as it had broken windows and crumbling stonework.
6th century Christian basilica – not bad after more than 1,400 years
.JPG)
Having complained about wasps in Croatia, to be fair we must say there were many wasps in Fiskardho, making it difficult to enjoy this stunning village to the full if eating or drinking. Locals said that previously the nearby countryside had been sprayed with insecticide, but this year there were no funds to do this – most taverna and shop owners told us that business this year is down on last. Tourist numbers are similar, but they’re not spending as much.
In Foki Bay we again met our great Kiwi friends Bruce and Lesley from catamaran Midi, and next day Amy joined Midi for a sail to Sivota Bay.
Laurie, Bruce, Lesley and Amy at Stavros taverna in Sivota Bay
.JPG)
Sivota Bay’s Stavros taverna has a great atmosphere, and provides free water to visiting cruisers.
Envoy anchored in Sivota, Midi is to the left![]()
.JPG)
We needed to start heading north to Corfu again for Amy’s flight to London, and stopped off at Preveza, Gaios and Mourtos along the way.
We bought some olive oil from this dusty shop in Gaios where you taste the oil and they decant it into plastic bottles from huge barrels for 7 Euro (about NZ$12) per litre
.JPG)
Great photo of Mourtos anchorage taken from Envoy by Amy
Back in Greece we’re again pleasantly surprised by the very reasonable taverna prices. Here is a typical offering: coffees from 1.5 Euros (NZ$2.45), full English breakfast 7.5 Euros (NZ$12.30), omelet 4.50 Euros (NZ$7.40), 1arge beer 3 Euro (NZ$4.90), 1 litre of house wine 8 Euro (NZ$13.10), bottles of wine ranging from 14 Euros (NZ$23), Greek salad 5.5 Euros (NZ$9), main courses 7 to 9 Euros (NZ$11.50 to NZ$14.75). Then they nearly always provide free dessert, so we generally end up paying roughly half what we pay in New Zealand for a meal out.
We had a fantastic two weeks with Amy aboard, and no sad farewells as we’ll be all be meeting up in Auckland in December.
After Amy’s departure we returned to nearby Gouvia Marina to have a problem with our generator checked, and stayed there several days at the reasonable off-season rate of 28 Euros (NZ$46) per night.
TECHNICAL Shortly after Amy joined us we encountered a similar generator problem to the one we had in May. If we applied a load of more than about 10 amps the generator dropped rpm and started smoking from the exhaust and emitting lumps of carbon. We had decided to leave fixing this until after Amy’s visit, and during that time because we wouldn’t be able to use the water maker (which needs the generator to power it) took on water from shore.
At Gouvia marina Leo and Theodore are very competent guys who’ve worked on Envoy before. They said it would be best to first address the issue of the failing bearing in the AC power unit. They explained the tolerances are very fine and maybe with the worn bearing the stator is getting too close to the rotor. The bearing was removed and found to be badly worn. Leo advised this is common and these bearings need to be checked and replaced every few thousand hours. The housing that seats the bearing had to be machined and shimmed to hold the new bearing dead-centre, and this was done within a couple of days.
View of the genset showing AC power unit
Close-up of AC power unit
.JPG)
This housing had to be modified to hold the new bearing dead-centre
.JPG)
Although the genset now sounded better without the rattly bearing, the basic problem wasn’t solved. So next was a full check of the exhaust system, and the exhaust elbow was found to be badly clogged with carbon. These elbows are prone to carbonizing as this is where hot exhaust gases meet up with cold seawater before going out of the exhaust. In fact the Manual advises checking this every 600 hours and it was 1,050hours since the last check – I’d been planing to check it this winter. As soon as the elbow was cleaned the genset ran fine once again.
Also had a minor issue with the Seapower generator powered by the Lugger. One day it didn’t power up until we were about an hour into our passage. I don’t know why, and there’s more on this issue to follow.
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