28 September 2023 - Vathy

At last the bad weather had passed and we could slip lines from Preveza about 8.00 in the morning and have a leisurely trip across the bay to the north end of the Lefkas Channel. This is a rather narrow channel with a floating road bridge, at the north end, which opens every hour to allow boats to pass. When you read all the notes in the cruising guides, etc, you could easily be put off attempting to go into this channel, and take the long route round the outside of Lefkas, but where’s the fun in that. There’s a challenge to be had.


There was a light breeze, allowing us to sail very slowly across the bay, to time our arrival at the entrance, so that we wouldn’t have any gilling around waiting. As we had been advised, we let the four other boats in the vicinity go through first, so we wouldn’t feel pressured by another boat that might be tempted to be too close behind us. There must have been twenty or thirty boats going in the other direction, but there is room for two way traffic and everyone moved in single file in a disciplined manner. Once passed the area around the bridge the traffic thinned out and it was an easy, picturesque passage down the remainder of the channel. It took about 45 minutes in all, at the speed limit of 4 knots.





Once out of the channel you are in a wide bay between the island of Lefkas and the mainland. Like the Solent it is an enclosed area of water, so will not get big waves, and we can understand why it is so popular for cruising sailing. There were a lot of boats about, still in the last week of September.

We headed to Vathy on the north coast of the island of Meganisi. We were meeting a friend who happens to be on holiday here. The town quay, where you can moor up for free, is too shallow for us, so we had to go into the marina. They would not allow us to anchor in the bay. The bonus of this is the easy access to the land and we spent a pleasant afternoon catching up with Sherida. She knows this area very well and sailed here for years, so it was fabulous to have her tips and recommendations. It is stunningly beautiful, very green, and I’m sure we will be returning to sail here a lot more in the future.

Miles today              18

Miles in 2023      1036

Tricia (and Steve) 

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