Thursday 19 September 2019 - Just outside Gouvia

The day has not turned out as planned.  There were no thunderstorms or rain over night and the sky was quite clear when the sun got up.  So Richard decided we should go to an anchorage called Ormos Stephanou which is highly recommended on the CA site.  It is at the northern end of Corfu.  We got there in good time, motoring (of course).  The weather was lovely and the bay and town looked very nice.  But it is a small harbour and although not really crowded, it was tricky finding a place.  We first put the anchor down close into the town.  The anchor seemed well set, but I was worried that we were too much in the harbour.   We decided to take up the anchor and go further out - big mistake.  We had three attempts as setting the anchor but dragged each time.  Most of the bottom seemed to be weed, which is no good for our Bruce anchor.  We tried a fourth time and thought we might be alright.  It was getting late, so we decided to have lunch first.  That was the beginning of our woes.  We were plagued by wasps who actually landed on our sandwiches and our legs!  Then we got worried about trying to swim because there was so much traffic in the bay. There was a constant stream of charter yachts and small day craft going back and forth.

Neither R nor I were convinced that the anchor was properly dug in. If we had swum R would have taken his face mask and snorkel and checked it. In the end we decided it was risky to stay the night.  Richard found that there were a number of bays on this stretch of coast where we could anchor, and we therefore went to find one.  We stopped in three bays (I think, we lost count) and in each one had the same problem, the anchor wouldn’t set because the bottom was weed.  On the last occasion the boat kept moving back when R went into reverse to set it, but when I took the anchor up it was so imbedded with weed and mud that I nearly couldn’t clear it.  We don’t understand why it wasn’t holding in those circumstances.

So we gave up and headed for Gouvia.  But neither of us wanted to go into the marina yet.  We don’t fly home for a week and tomorrow is more than early enough to start preparing the boat for the winter. Instead we have anchored just outside the approach to the marina.  We hoped to have a nice quiet night but finally the longpredicted thunderstorms have hit.  Just as we were about to eat dinner there were violent flashes of lightening and then it started to rain.  The storms lasted for about an hour, but the weather forecast says they may persist until the morning.