Friday 15th June back at Cleopatra Marina, Preveza

Thursday 14^th June – Lefkas Town, Lefkas

Motored out of Ligia harbour and set full sail just south of the Lefkas Canal and then sailed up it tacking from side to side at first in a nice force 3 from the NW that steadily built to a good Force 4 gusting bottom end of a Force 5 at times. A bit of complaint from the crew in the gusts and when we had to dodge oncoming boats and power boats overtaking but a cracking sail all the same.

Moored up on the town quay at Lefkas next to the causeway that goes over the marshes to the mainland. They first started digging canals across the marshes before the Romans came to the area.

We had a visitor, a retired chap from the Army called Darren who joined us for afternoon tea on the quay, we provided tea and he brought a nice big box of dunking biscuits. He has been here since October and may head off towards Gibralter before deciding whether to turn left or right when he gets there. Nice position to be in and a lovely boat set for single handed sailing.

We decided to spend our last night on the boat and postpone a shower until we get back to Cleopatra Marina, both us and the boat will get a good wash down then.

Friday 15^th June – Cleopatra Marina, Preveza

Sad day today as back at the marina, boat lifted out a couple of hours early after a nice sail across from Lefkas in a decent NW that slowly built from a Force 2 to a good 3 gusting 4 as we approached the marina.

Learning point for doing it again next time, make sure you paint anti-foul on the hull as ours was thick with weed when we took it out. I had not even thought about doing it before leaving being so used to short stints in fresh water at the lake and just the off shore sea trip.

The people here are very helpful as the girl on reception phoned the ferry terminal to see if we could actually get one tonight and arranged it. So it was a question of unpack, then re-pack, shower and soon then off to catch the 23:00 ferry to Italy.

We both felt it would have been really nice to have just started again or gone on past the marina into the gulf again I suppose better than wishing we were already home.

Stopped in a little village on the way to the ferry for a few provisions and an ice-cream, as we were eating it outside the supermarket a Greek chap called Michael got talking to us and gave us a bag of small fruits that are like a cross between apricots and cherries and a big courgette. He said he liked the British from when he worked in a hotel in Corfu and was great to meet, he was typical of the friendliness and generosity we have found in Greece.

Minor panic when we reached the ferry terminal in that no place at 21:00 but luckily the check in lady found us a cancellation at 22:00 so caught the earlier ferry after all. Down side again was it did not arrive until after midnight and did not sail until gone one in the morning.