23 September 2023 - Preveza (eventually)

After a more restful night we woke feeling more refreshed.  We planned to go just about 6 miles to the southern end of Paxos, so we were not in any great hurry to leave.  There was no wind and we were resigned to motoring all morning, with the expectation that we would arrive early, get a good space and then go ashore for a walk.


By late morning we arrived in the small bay at Mongonissi.  There were a few other boats anchored and we tried to select a suitable spot, in the right depth and far enough away from the other boats to allow us to swing.  We tried 4 or 5 times to get the anchor to set, but each time it refused to dig on.  Actually the one time that it did dig in, a guy from the restaurant came out and said we had to move as we were too close to his quay and would impede his potential customers.

In the end we gave up! Now for Plan  B.

We knew that the weather forecast is not so good over the next few days and we had only planned to stay at Mongonissi for one night before heading to some better shelter.  So we decided to head to Preveza, and we expect to spend a few days in that vicinity.  We managed to get the sails up for part of the trip, and when the speed dropped we added a bit of motor power to supplement the wind.  Eventually we reached the end of the narrow dredged channel that leads to Preveza.  This is prone to cross winds and can be a bit choppy, but neither were too bad. We had read that we had to keep clear of any coasters coming down the channel, but there weren’t any. In reality it was the charter boats coming towards us that provided the biggest challenge.  They did not seem to either know which side of the channel to be on, or actually be in full control of their boats.  Anyway, we survived without being forced out of the channel and soon arrived in a large spacious anchorage outside of the main marina.  It had seemed like a long day, but that is probably because our expectations had been set for an easy one, and we ended up spending seven and a half hours on the move, including our time trying to get the anchor to set at Mongonissi.

Miles today             35

Miles in 2023      1017

Steve (and Tricia) 

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