The rough plan is as follows but may be subject to change especially if the weather is against us.
Saturday 21 April
Set off south to see our daughter Leah in Farnham who has just got back from visiting Malawi.
Sunday 22 April
Continue down to Kent to visit Chris and Caroline old friends from university that live near Dover, they are putting us up for a couple of nights and it will be a nice chance to catch up on things.
Tuesday 24 April
Catch the 09:00 ferry from Dover to Calais then along the coast towards Dunkerque for a short time before turning inland to Lille on the E42, on to Mons around Charleroi and then south into Belgium and onto the E411 past Namur into Luxembourg where we might spend the night and have a look around.
Thursday 26th
We carry on towards Sarrbruken on the E29 before joining the A8 into Germany where we have booked into an alpine chalet in Schleirsee for a couple of nights that will give Viv chance to practice her German again. We can leave the boat at the chalet and pop across to Austria and don the lederhosen and sing songs from the sound of music.
Saturday 28th
Back on the road again heading south on the A13 then A22 into Italy towards Bolzano, Trento and then skirt around Verona where we turn left and head east towards Padova and Venice.
We turn south again near Podava and go past Ferrara, Ravenna and then down the coast road past Rimini and Pesaro and find somewhere to stop the night.
Sunday 29th
Hang around between Pesaro and Ancona for the day drinking Italian wine and eating olives, salami and local cheese in the sun thinking I would normally be getting ready to go back to work on Monday!
Monday 30th
14:00 catch ferry from Ancona to Ingoumenitsa in Greece arriving the following day after about 23 hours sailing and on a somewhat a larger boat than we will be using a few days later.
Tuesday 1st May
Arrive Ingoumenitsa in Greece at 08:30, which is on the Greek mainland near the bottom end of Corfu. Then south along the coast road which is supposed to be stunning to Preveza where we go through a tunnel under the mouth of the estuary. Exit the tunnel and sharp left to find Cleopatra Marina where we can leave the boat for a couple of days, as they cannot launch us until Thursday.
Wednesday 2nd
Day off from travelling so we might explore a bit of the Greek mainland above Preveza and maybe even go inland a bit seeing as we are going to be on the coast for a while.
Thursday 3rd May- Set sail
12:00 Mihangel gets wet in the salt water and hopefully if she floats we will be off and camping on the boat that night otherwise it is going to be a long stay in the marina until the ferry back in June! It seems strange we have to wait for a crane to lift us in as there is no slipway, still quite an impressive start being craned in rather than sliding down a beach or muddy slope.
We intend to sail around the Amvrakikos Kolopos estuary for a few days getting our sea legs and shaking the boat down before we head for the open sea.
If all goes well we will sail out from Preveza then hang a left (port turn) to the island of Lefkada going down the canal between the island and the mainland towards the island of Meganisi to the south east of Lefkada. From there we would like to go south along the coast for a couple of weeks towards Patra and cross over the straight of Patraikos Kolops near Mesolongi towards Akra Araxos on the Peloponnese peninsula. Then down the east coast of the Peloponnese peninsula to Akrotirio and across to the island of Zakinthos.
Tuesday 5th June
We make our way up the east coast of Zakinthos and across to island of Kephalonia where hopefully we meet up with our son Gareth on the 5th June at Sami on Kephalonia. All three of us then have a week sailing up the east coast of Kephalonia and maybe across to island of Ithika. We intend to try and camp on the beach where they filmed captain Corelli’s Mandolin (we can re-enact part as Captain Steve’s guitar with a cast of three). We need to be at Fiskardo in the north of Kephalonia on 11th June so Gareth can get his flight home and we can set sail for the marina allowing time for inclement weather.
Monday June 11th
We need to be at Fiskardo in the north of Kephalonia on 11th June so Gareth can get his flight home the next day. We sail north across the top of Ithika, Akrotirio and back to the island of Lefkada. Then continue up the east coast of Lefkada back to the marina for either Thursday 14th or Friday 15th June.
Friday 15th June
We take the boat out of the water 15:00 hours on Friday 15th the marina fees include a wash down before we put Mihangel back on the trailer for the journey home.
Saturday 16th June
Catch the midnight ferry from Ingoumenitsa in Greece back to Ancona Italy.
Sunday 17th June
Arrive Ancona Italy 13:00 hours and start the drive back home.
Monday 18th June
We have booked into an apartment near Nice for a couple of days.
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