8 October 2023 - Preveza

Regrettably it is now time for us to start making our way slowly north and west, back to our winter quarters. We have to be in Corfu to pick up a guest in a week or so, and as always, this is when planning for the right steps according to the weather is the most important. 

We slipped out of Spartachori early, like a bar of soap being squeezed.  We were tightly between two other boats. 

A local fisherman departing, casually steering with his foot

The view back to Spartachori


Someone has banged into several of the buoys approaching Preveza...

.... this is what they should look like

Our destination was Preveza and so we knew that we had to transit the Lefkada Channel first, and time it to arrive at the swing bridge at opening time.  This meant that we were doing speed / time / distance calculations in our heads even more than normal.  The entrance to the Channel was about 8 miles away, and then there would be about 40 minutes of motoring in the Channel before we reached the bridge, which opens on the hour.  No stress! We adjusted our speed so that we made it with a little time to spare for contingencies. One such was a large tourist boat that came out of the marina just before the approach to the bridge and then just stopped.  At first we thought it was waiting in a slightly wider part of the channel, but then, as it made no attempt to move, we went past. The shallowest part of the exit of the Channel posed no problems, especially when we can see our previous successful path on the chart.

The remainder of the journey was windless and uneventful, and as there would be no wind overnight, we went to the anchorage.  We ate on deck (it seems like days since we have cooked an evening meal on board), and watched the local fishermen putting out their nets around the anchored boats. It was just as well no one came in during the night, as the nets were unmarked and unlit.  Shortly after the fishermen had departed, we saw a dolphin that was swimming along the lines of the nets.  It was clearly not inhibited by them at all, and we guessed that it was feasting on the fish trapped by the nets.  Easy pickings, but an annoyance for the fishermen.


A fort guards the entrance to the harbour at Preveza


The fisherman puts out his nets....

... and the dolphin comes for the fish

Miles today              18 

Miles in 2023      1078

Steve (and Tricia) 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

24 - 27 March 2023 - Amersham / Zagreb / Biograd

Image
Our Spring / Summer adventures started when the alarm went off at 04:20 on 24th March. The flight to Zagreb was completely full, the passengers including Welsh football supporters going to watch their team play Croatia in the Euro qualifiers, and a Para-Olympic Boccia team going to play-offs for next year’s Olympics. We had a superb 22 hours with our friends Stevo and Jasna in Zagreb, during which we managed to walk around the centre of the city. There are lots of late 19th century buildings, making it very attractive, along with the outside cafes and restaurants of European café society. The centre being largely pedestrianised and serviced by trams just adds to it’s appeal. The cathedral is undergoing some repairs after the earthquake a couple of years ago Ties were invented in Croatia, and there is a shop selling beautiful examples If you want a Tesla, this guy was the original On the way to the bus station, on Saturday morning, the taxi driver had said that, as we were travelling ...
Read more

1 June 2023 - Luka Jurjeva, Lastovo

Image
This is expected to be our last day in Croatia, we plan to head to Italy tomorrow.  We woke to a completely tranquil scene, with barely a ripple on the water. We headed ashore in the tender, and walked into Ubli, where there is a supermarket.   It is more than 4 km in each direction, but we needed to buy enough bread to last us today and tomorrow.    The road is mostly quiet, but there are no footpaths, and when the cars come, they are not expecting to encounter pedestrians, so it is a bit daunting at times. The views make it all worthwhile, and we were rewarded at the inland end by finding a larger and better stocked supermarket than we had expected.    The return was uneventful and we enjoyed our well deserved lunch when we arrived back on board. We have read that the chimneys on the island are unique, and are determined by your family and status.  We haven’t seen enough to have good comparisons, but we did see one that was quite noticeable...
Read more

20 September 2023 - Benitses and Kerkyra (Corfu Town)

Image
As we had booked into the marina for 2 days, but completed the necessary maintenance tasks in 1 day, we took the opportunity to go into Corfu town for some site seeing. The bus stop was right outside the marina, so it was very easy,  there was even a ticket machine at the bus stop (of which more later). Alighting from the bus, we started to wander through the narrow streets and alleyways of the old town. It was the sort of place to ignore the maps and just wander and see what you would find. Like many other places in this part of the world, Corfu has a very long history.   It was one of three Greek naval powers in the fifth century BC, with Athens and Corinth. Since then it has changed hands multiple times. It was part of the Republic of Venice from the 12th century, and there are still many buildings and avenues which seem typically Venetian. They built two huge forts to guard the city against pirates and the Ottomans, making it one of the most fortified places in Europe....
Read more