Crete to Corfu

Some of the many caves found along the coast of Zikanthos Island


Swivel bridge at Lefkas Canal, every hour the bridge ends lift up & the whole bridge swivels 90deg to let the boats go through.


Maurice Pete & Trish ready to go exploring a little island in Gaios harbour, Paxos Island



Mts in mainland Greece, the roads zigzag down the steep hill sides


Pete tests the water


Catch of the day, unfortunately not trout!!!


It's hard to capture the stunning beauty of the northern Greek mountains


Underwater dock complete with power & fresh water



Pot throwing at Corfu



Trish & Maurice at Easter celebrations, Corfu


Easter procession on Crete









Washing day in Corfu old town



We left Crete on 3rd April & made our way up to Lefkas, stopping off at Zikanthos few a few days on the way. We toured the island on our motorbike & enjoyed emerald blue waters lapping up to the high sheer cliffs on one side, & rocky out crops on the other side, with many caves along the foreshore. There’s a long sandy beach at Laganas where the Loggerhead Sea Turtles come ashore to lay their eggs each year. This is a major tourist attraction & if you like night clubs, strip clubs & sex shops, complete with head banging loud music then this is the place to come for a holiday. Certainly not our cup of tea & I can’t imagine the turtles would enjoy all the crowds of people who walk & drive along the beach. There are a lot of vineyards on the island, along with olive trees & unfortunately vast areas of pine forest & scrub were destroyed by fires last summer.
We said goodbye to our Swiss friends Peter & Leena, & departed from Zikanthos on 8th April. After a long slow trip motoring with little or no wind, we arrived at Lefkas (where we brought the boat). Wouldn’t you know it, half an hour after we docked the wind of 20-35 knots predicted for earlier in the day finally arrived!!! We’ve had a couple of days with strong winds & waves crashing over the footpath onto the road along the town quay where we were. On our way from Crete we had problems with our VHF radio, our wind instruments & the stove gimbals (pins that the stove pivots on to keep it level) sheered off. Consequently Pete’s been busy with repairs & maintenance since we arrived; luckily this is a great place for buying parts etc. Meanwhile I managed to borrow a sewing machine & made some new sheets for the front “V berth”, to replace one that’s sitting in the bottom of Fethiye harbour, that’s what happens when you don’t use enough pegs!!!! We’ve also been busy socialising, catching up with English friends who live at the marina, along with Kiwi friends Trish & Maurice. They are heading up to Croatia soon too, so no doubt we will see more of them on our travels this year.
Another Kiwi boat arrived, Cathy & Werner from Rotorua. They left NZ 2 years ago in their boat called “Legend II”, Pete remembers their boat from 25 years ago when he was anchored along side it in Fiji (they were different owners then). They stayed 2 days In Lefkas before continuing on their way to Istanbul. They are also planning to leave the Med at the end of the year for the Caribbean, so we are looking forward to catching up with them later in the year. We sold our motor bike to our English friends Mark & Lorna who live on their boat in Lefkas, a decision we may live to regret but never mind.

After 10 days in Lefkas we decided it was time to move north to our next port of call, Gaios, on Paxos Island, once again the wind died & we ended up motoring most of the way. Gaios is a lovely little land locked harbour & very picturesque, in fact it’s one of the nicest habours we’ve been to so far. Our friends Maurice & Trish joined us in Gaios where we stayed 2 nights. The tourist season still hasn’t started yet so we were able to enjoy the delightful town without it being too busy & overcrowded. The island produces olive oil that is superior to most Italian olive oil & is sold exclusively to “Harrods”.

Our next destination was Plataria on the main land of Greece. This was a great place to leave the boat & go exploring for a couple of days. Pete had read about trout fishing in the area, so we hired a car & headed inland to the rivers. Being spring time the country side was very green with the bright fresh leaves of the deciduous trees & patches of green pasture. Doted in amongst the greenery were trees covered in magenta coloured blossoms, it made a stunning picture. Some of the higher mountains still had remnants of snow on them & isolated mountain villages were perched on the sides of the steep mountains. We came across the shepherds minding their herds of goats or sheep; they take them back to their pens each night for milking. In the mornings you can see the locals on the roads waiting for their milk to be collected, some would have a big milk can, while others would have a small bucket (the size you use for making sand castles), but I guess every bit counts. It’s also a big poultry area, they were mainly down in the flat areas, but occasionally we would come across one of the long sheds which housed the hens perched on the side of a mountain. We zigzagged down almost vertical mountains to reach the valley floors where some of the icy coloured rivers were located. Pete caught 4 fish, but unfortunately they weren’t trout. Never the less we thoroughly enjoyed the trip & agreed it was some of the most spectacular scenery we’ve seen in Greece.
There were several German yachts wintering over in Plataria & we met a lovely young couple from Slovenia, Bostjan & Natasa who were living on their multihull yacht with their 2 young children. They spoke excellent English & gave us some very useful information for our trip to Croatia.
Friday 25th April we arrived in Corfu & met up with Maurice & Trish. We were just in time to join in their Easter celebrations, the Greek Orthodox Churches celebrate Easter up to one month after the rest of the world. Easter on Corfu attracts people from all over the world because of their unique local customs. On Friday they had processions around the old town with a priest carrying a cross or banner, followed by pallbearers carrying a flower coffin, then came children in their school uniforms or scout uniforms, the church choir was next & lastly was a band. The processions started from the local churches & went around the block to finish at the same church. As there are many churches in close proximity, only a few feet away from each other, there were often 3 processions on the same street at the same time. The processions started at 10am & continued 'til midnight. People came from far & wide & it was difficult to move around the narrow streets when the processions were passing. Saturday at 11am they had the pot throwing ceremony where the locals stood on their balconies & tossed clay pots onto the streets below. The pots were all sizes, some had a struggle to get them out onto their balconies they were so big, they were also half filled with water. Once again crowds of people arrived to witness the ceremony. Saturday night was candle night, everyone was in the streets holding candles, they gather in the town square after mass to watch a magnificent fireworks display at midnight, then the bands parade around the streets playing their tunes. Sunday was party day; we rode around the town & witnessed the lambs being roasted on spits in back yards, along with large tables set out in preparation for the big feast with family & friends. When we returned to our boat in the old harbour we could see a big party going on at the Naval Base, we enjoyed the traditional music & dancing. Monday was a public holiday so we cycled up to Gouvia Marina (about 30 mins north) & had dinner with Pete’s daughters’ friend, Grace, who is working on the charter yachts for the season. The church bells have been ringing like crazy this weekend, it’s almost like the different churches are having a competition. Easter on Corfu has been a really great experience & I'm so glad we were able to be here to enjoy all the celebrations.

We’ll be moving on in the next day or so & catching up with Trish & Maurice who are already in Albania. We will also pass through Montenegro before reaching Croatia where we pick up our first visitors for the year, Steve (Pete’s son) & friends from NZ John & Larraine.

We are having a little difficulty with making plans for the rest of the year as we are finding that there are very few anchorages in the Western Med & marinas are very expensive. We had thoughts of stopping off at Sardinia, however have just found out it will cost us 2,000 Euro (NZ$4,000) even if we go for just one day, so that’s definitely not on the agenda now, unless we take a ferry trip over.

The weather is still very erratic, one day you’ll be in shorts & Tshirt, the next day you’re back in winter clothes. This time next month should be a different story thou, we’ll probably be complaining ‘cause it’s too hot.