Coleman Sailing Trip 2019

Got up fairly early (8:30 but still feels like 2 hours earlier) and went straight to the big supermarket.     We filled a trolley to the brim and got a taxi back to the marina.     The charge for the taxi seems to have gone up from 10 Euro to 15.    But we had a huge load that we couldn’t have bought so cheaply in the marina. We hadn’t had any breakfast because we had no food but despite buying breakfast stuff we decided to eat out and have a brunch.  Back to the boat where it is stinking hot again.  I unpack the food that I hadn’t put in the fridge and that just about did me in. Richard washed down the outside of the boat and then pumped up the dinghy for the first time this year!  And we were off at 1:30pm.  I think this is a record time to leave the marina after arrival. We have left just over 36 hours from arrival. No wind is forecast and Richard hasn’t even bothered to take the cover off the ma...

Well, now back on the boat.  We flew in last night.  The flight was delayed by an hour because of flight control problems at Gatwick.  So we didn’t get to the boat until midnight local time.  We just made up the bed and fell into it.  We had a meal at the airport so food didn’t seem important. We got up at 9am (which with the time difference felt like 7am) to do our chores and be ready for the man who did our wood work (more later) to come.  We have no food on board so we took the washing left over from July to the laundry and then had breakfast in one of the cafés.  The problem is that it is terribly hot.  The forecast is for 34C and it almost feels like that already. Back at the boat I manage to unpack, but then just fell asleep on the bed under the fan for over half an hour. So the wood work.  We have had a man re-varnish the whole of the companion way.  It was in a sta...

I didn’t post on Sunday or last night because I fell asleep! The heat has been really getting to me. It has been at least 34C every day and there has been no breeze at all.  The cafes in the marina have all put on fans! Anyway we left St Stevens on Sunday morning.  It was a bit early to return to Gouvia, but we were running out of water and food, so we made our way back to our berth.  The adjustment made by the diver seems to have worked because we are now quite straight in the berth and a reasonable distance from the pontoon. Because of the heat we are doing everything in slow motion and spending every afternoon at the pool. We have had the engineer around to confirm that the water heater we have sourced from the original manufacturer will fit, so we have ordered that.  We have renewed our contract for the year and booked our lift out and relaunch.  We fly home tomorrow, so today is about finishing off cle...

We finally left our last anchorage.     Richard did some research and found this harbour on the north of Corfu.     We haven’t been here before, so we thought we would give it a try. The weather forecast is for some wind from behind, so at anchor we put up the mainsail and set off. Well, we were optimistic.  The wind was in the right direction but there was barely any of it.  It sometimes made it up to 5 knots but that was about it.  We had both sails up but had to put the engine on to motor sail as without we were doing less than 3 knots. We even put out a fishing line, but had no luck with that either. We arrived here just before 3pm.  The bay is small but lovely.  The town harbour is full of hire boats and some local boats, so (with exceptions I will mention) it is an anchor job.  There is a pretty looking beach and harbour front restaurants.   It really is a place where we...

We stayed here in the anchorage for the day.  It has been hot and windless again.  We have been in the water quite a lot.  Nothing more really to tell.  The weather forecast is for much the same tomorrow.  We will move on, but we are not sure where.  I run out of food after tomorrow!

It has been a curious day and it did not go to plan.     We got up latish.     We did manage to sleep in the end, but the heat has made me very tired.     The first thing we did was go to the Port police to see what we could do to prove we had paid the cruising tax.     The policeman is an angel.     He saw us, let us jump the queue and handed us the print out of our application.   He also then printed out the notice from our bank of the payment being made and seemed to think that was all we would need to produce if asked.     So that is another worry off our minds.    The next thing we wanted to do was get the boat services man around to measure the space for the water heater and confirm that the one the original company have suggested they make will fit.  They said they would come right over, but they didn’t.   We were getting more and more uncomfortable in the heat.  The...

We are still here.   The weather is if anything hotter.   I am not coping well.    Even the local Greeks are complaining about how hot and sticky it is. We tried to get more domestic chores done.  We first went to the port police to renew our Greek boat registration (called a Depka). Other than waiting in a queue that went well as far as the registration goes.  However, that threw up a different problem.  The port policeman strongly advised us that we print out and keep the application form and receipt for the cruising tax.  He said it could be checked at any time.  He even offered to print them out for us if we sent them to him by email.  The problem is that Richard can only find the application form, but no receipt.  He can’t remember getting a receipt but I am certain we had confirmation that payment was accepted and that was how we knew we had succeeded in paying it.  We do ...