Chairetismoús Apó Greece! (Greetings From Greece)

When we checked out of Albania, Dan was able to go ashore and take care of the paperwork the night before (this was a new treat).  The only caveat was that we had to be out of the bay by 9:00 a.m the following day….otherwise, we would be required to come back in and check out again.  We made sure to set an alarm to give us enough time to get underway and meet the 9:00 requirement.  For some bizarre reason, our process went a little slow.  We ended up motoring out right at 9:02….really hoping they weren’t militant about being gone before 9:00.  As we came out of the bay, the Greek island of Corfu was directly ahead of us.  This would only be a 2 hour cruise to get to our next port of call (a big change from the last 3 trips of 55+ miles each).  Unfortunately, after a phone call to the marina, we learned that we could not check in until 4 p.m.  Ugh.  After another phone call, we were told they could probably accommodate us if we came after 1 or 2 p.m.  There was very little wind (as usual).  Normally we would motor, but since we had so much time to kill, we decided to sail it…..ssssllllllooooowwwwwlllly.  It gave us a lot of opportunity to play around with our sail trim and get a feel for maximizing our speed in light winds.  We were able to match our boat speed to the wind speed much of the time, so we were quite pleased with ourselves.  It was finally time to head into the marina.  Wouldn’t you know, the wind picked up quite a bit right when it was time for us to dock (and it was a crosswind)!  Needless to say, docking was a lot more “fun” than we would’ve liked….but we managed to get securely tied up.

We arrived in Gouvia Marina on the island of Corfu on Sunday, September 1st.  We purposefully chose this date since Greece had recently instituted a cruising tax that is paid by the month (literally by the month, meaning if you arrive on August 31st you will pay for the entire month of August).  Anyway, once we got the boat secured and checked in with the marina, we set out to get ourselves and Zoe cleared into the country.  As I may have mentioned in our first post of the sailing season, checking into and out of countries is often its own little adventure.  Not only does the process vary between countries, but it can vary greatly even within the same country.  Sometimes this can be rather frustrating.  Our arrival in Greece was no exception. We were advised at the marina office to grab a cab into the old town since they would drop us in front of the correct offices.  We headed over to the taxi zone and waited….and waited….and waited.  Dan tried calling several times to no avail.  At this point, we were both hot, tired and frustrated, so we wandered off to find a place to rent a car.  As luck would have it, there was a rental car place right there in the marina compound.  We were able to quickly rent a car and get on our way to the old town (big shocker….there was a cab sitting at the taxi stand as we drove away).

Zoe in her berth in Gouvia Marina, Corfu

We had no clue where to find the port police or customs/immigration, so we headed for the port in old town Corfu hoping our destinations would be clearly marked (they of course were not).  We drove by a building that said “customs” on the front, so we quickly found a place to park and headed over.  It was clearly a defunct building.  We found a break in the fencing, and squeezed our way through to the interior of the port.  After several attempts, we finally found the port police.  He then told us to go to customs and immigration, and then return to him once more.  He pointed us to the building with no instruction as to where exactly we needed to go.  Once again, we wandered aimlessly trying to figure out where we needed to be.  To make a long story a little less long……we walked over 2 miles trying to find these offices and spent 2 hours taking care of paperwork.  The majority of our time was spent in the customs office trying to show that we paid the cruising tax and trying to explain that we were pretty sure we screwed up when paying it because we forgot to put in our “ID” number that would associate the tax with our boat.  The agent was kind, but she was definitely flustered and tired of dealing with us.  In the end, we were finally checked in and on our way (although still very uneasy about this cruising tax because if you don’t have proof that you paid it, you get HUGE fines).

The culmination of hours of red tape….the “Transit Log” that makes Zoe legal in Greek waters
Nice of the Port Captain to make our destination the Ionian Sea instead of a specific place. Gives us lots of flexibility!

After that long and stressful endeavor, we continued on our way to old town Corfu to wander around and grab some dinner.  The town is a maze of stone streets lined with cute little shops and restaurants.  Surrounding the old city is an old fortress and a new fortress.  Corfu was once controlled by the Venetians (many, many years ago) since it was considered the gateway to trade in the Adriatic, so their influence on the architecture is very evident.  It is a beautiful place to explore.  Unfortunately, several huge cruise ships arrive in port every day making the old town extremely crowded with large tour groups and buses.  On our way back to the car, we stumbled on this little dessert shop that had more than 50 different types of exotic baklava.  Needless to say, we bought several of the more unusual ones to try out.  They were amazing!  The next day, we popped into the port police at the marina (they were closed when we had arrived the day before) to show him our paperwork and explain our dilemma with the cruising tax.  The money had come out of our account, but without proof we’d be in trouble.  He looked over our papers and showed us that customs had stamped us as paid, but the reality was that we were not paid and the money would likely be refunded since it did not have a way to associate it with our boat.  We told him that it was important for us to be legitimately “legal,” and we weren’t looking for loopholes.  He was kind enough to tell us where several banks were that we could go into and pay.  He also told us that his colleague had been very kind to us because he had stamped us into and out of the Ionian.  This meant that we were totally free to roam the Ionian islands without having to check into and out of every port we visited.  Awesome!!!

Corfu old fortress
Maze of charming walking streets in Corfu town
So much history here
Such beautiful sights
New fortress, built even stronger than the last one
Driving goat tracks trough the Corfu countryside in a rare summer rainstorm
Top of Corfu…too bad we were clouded in and not much to see

We ended up staying in the marina for 3 days before we decided it was time to continue making our way south.  Our next stop was on the east side of the island in a small town called Petriti.  We found a great little spot outside of the main bay in the hopes of avoiding crowds of boats anchored on top of us.  I swear charterers are like moths drawn to the light!  Every boat that came in anchored closely around us!  This was not suppose to happen!  Everything we had read said everybody anchors in the bay right outside of town.  Liars!  It wouldn’t have been so bad except we ended up with two different charter boats very close to us.  One in particular re-anchored 4 different times (every time equally as close) throughout the day and evening…..that inspired a lot of confidence that he wouldn’t drag into us in the middle of the night.  There would be no sleep for me this night.  I literally slept up on deck, popping my head up every hour or so to make sure no one was getting any closer.  Buy a boat they said…..cruising is fun they said…..it’s so peaceful at anchor they said…HA!  More often than not, it really is peaceful and fun…..but it’s the bad times that really stick with you 😝 The next few nights were much better.  We had a few, very well spaced neighbors and the hordes had filled the main bay as expected.  After a few blissful days, we decided it was time to move again (can I just stay here?). We headed south again to our next chosen destination.  It was packed!  We cruised through at least 8 different anchorages, and every one of them was uncomfortably full of boats (as in reach out and touch your neighbor!). Nope, nope, nope….not gonna do it.  So guess what we did?  Yep, headed straight back to Petriti (2 hours away).  This time I talked Dan into anchoring even farther from the town.  Our old spot once again took on quite a few boats…..but not us!  Score one for team Muzich!  We giggled and marveled when 40 boats crammed into the town bay, all on top of each other.  We, of course, were blissfully secluded with only a couple of boats also anchored a nice distance away.  We enjoyed it here so much that we ended up staying for 9 days!

Pretty fishing boats in Petriti harbor
So many boats at anchor!
We were treated to a dolphin show while eating breakfast
Fantastic stifado at Savvas restaurant

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  It was time to move again…..NOOOOO!  This was going to be a really long push.  Our goal was to make it to the inland Ionian Sea (about 57 miles away).  We had pre-selected a couple of possible anchorages in case we didn’t feel like doing a full 9-10 hour slog south.  Bet you can’t guess what we found???  Yep, each one we came to was full of boats 🤦‍♀️ Geez, I though we were finally out of peak season.  We did cruise through one bay in order to see the Acheron River where the souls of the dead were thought to descend into the underworld according to Homer’s Odyssey.  Supposedly we could’ve cruised up it a little ways, but once we saw how narrow and choppy the rocky entrance was…..we respectfully declined.  I am hoping to go back and explore it more thoroughly by land once we pull the boat out for the winter.  We finally had the channel markers in sight that would take us into the inland sea.  We also cruised past the marina where Zoe would be spending her winter.  I have never seen so many boats!  They can store 1000 boats on land!  Anyway, as the inland sea opened up before us, the winds had picked up quite a bit and there was a fair amount of chop and swell.  Storm clouds had begun to build off in the distance.  We had chosen a bay that would provide us with good protection from the predicted winds and made our way there.  When we arrived, there were only 2 other boats in the bay, so we found a spot that we were happy with (and well spaced from our neighbors) and dropped the anchor.  Unfortunately, the water here is not the typical crystal blue that we had grown use to….it was more like the murky green of a lake (clean, just not clear).  This would be a case of drop the anchor and pray.  Usually, we swim the anchor to verify it’s dug in and holding well.  Not a chance of seeing it here.

Pretty inland sea
All quiet in the anchorage with full moon rising

As the evening went on, two more boats joined us in the anchorage.  We continued to watch the storm clouds build.  This was not good…..when storms come in, so do big winds….and of course none of this was in any of the forecasts!  Not long after we sat down for dinner, all hell broke loose.  The winds were gusting to 30 knots, 3-4 foot waves came crashing into the bay, and big bolts of lightning rained down.  We were all now pointed in the direction of shore if our anchors let loose.  Every one of us was scrambling on deck securing things, closing hatches, and monitoring our anchor….oh, and of course night had now fallen.  Dan fired up the engines and I ran to the bow to monitor the anchor (my favorite place to be when there is lightning!). Whenever a huge gust would hit, Dan would give a little forward throttle to help ease the pressure on the anchor.  One boat ended up pulling his anchor up and moving to the other side of the bay.  Luckily, the storm blew itself out within about 30-45 minutes.  They say that sailing is 90% pleasure and 10% terror.  I think I’ve had more than my 10% of terror at this point.  The next day, all the boats had bugged out leaving us all alone in the bay.  We kayaked to another bay to check it out for future stays, and depth checked our bay close to the rocks just for peace of mind.  This little bay quickly became another favorite of ours, but after 3 nights it was time to move again.

Not so quiet as this thunderstorm blew through with 30 knot wind gusts!

We headed out of the inland sea and made our way to the swing bridge that opens your access to the Ionian islands.  This swing bridge is well traveled by many cars, so it only opens for boats to pass through on the hour, and the operator is very gruff about getting your butt through as fast as possible.  We arrived at the bridge about 10 minutes before opening and queued up with all the other boats.  As the bridge swung open, we all formed a single file line and blasted through the canal as the operator vigorously waved for oncoming boat traffic to get moving.  As we spilled out of the canal and into the sea, I was taken aback by the number of sailboats I saw.  If this is the decline of the season, I would hate to see what July and August look like here.  No thank you.  I have no plan to sail here in peak season!  Yuck!  As we made our way to several different anchorages, we found them stacked deep with boats.  I am so not ready for this.  I tell Dan in no uncertain terms that I do not want to do this….we need to find a place with less boats.  The conversation continued like this….Dan:  You’re not afraid to park a car between two other cars.  What is your problem?  This is just like parking a car!  Me:  (mouth hanging open and spitting fire) This is most certainly not like parking a car!!!  The wind does not push on the car! There is no current acting on a car!  You cannot possibly be comparing parking a car with backing a boat down in between 2 other boats and taking a line to shore so you don’t swing and hit them!  I’ll spare you the gory details, but our conversation rapidly devolved from there.  Cruising is fun….cruising is fun….cruising is fun!  We were at a loss as to where to go and the day was slipping away.  Fortunately, I remembered an email a new cruising friend had sent me with her tips for this area.  I quickly pulled it up and showed it to Dan.  We decided we would try Vliho bay on the island of Lefkada.  It was supposedly a huge bay with plenty of room for lots of boats.  When we arrived, it was certainly full of LOTS of boats, but there was plenty of room for us.  We chose a spot we were happy with and dropped the anchor.  Once again, we could not see the anchor through the murky green water, but we had read that you hold like glue in here.  We did.  It’s a beautiful bay despite the unpleasant looking water.  The major downside is that you can’t swim here.  Well, you can…..if you’re brave enough.  The bay is teeming with these giant jellyfish.  We’ve seen them before and read that they are not poisonous to humans (supposedly no painful sting), but I have no desire to be swimming around with them.  There are so many of them that you will be touched by them 🤢.  They are the size of a freaking basketball.  Nope….no thanks….that’s a hard pass on the swimming.  Since we were holding so well, we decided to dinghy into the town of Nidri and explore.  We wandered around this great little town that is lined with all kinds of shops and tavernas.  We both were really kind of digging it here.  Maybe we will just live here for the month 🤣 (You know that’s me, right?). 

Ancient venetian fortress protecting Lefkas town and it’s canal
Swing bridge that opens for maybe 10 minutes every hour
Man made canal between Lefkas and the mainland
Lots of boat traffic making it’s way through the canal
“Fried egg” Jellyfish were everywhere! No swimming here!
So many jellyfish! A night view.

After wandering for a bit, we decided to rent a car and go explore the island.  This is the first time we have left the boat on anchor and gone really far away….it was a little bit scary.  Ironically, we were more worried about the dinghy getting stolen than the anchor letting go and our boat ending up on land.  We drove all around the island….up steep winding roads with sheer cliff drop offs, overlooking beautiful crystal bays, and through adorable little villages.  We even stopped at an olive museum to learn some more about the making of olive oil (which of course came with some tastings of their products).  It was one of our nicest days in a long time.  Don’t get me wrong, we have been having a great time, but we have been at anchor for almost 2 weeks now and this was our first big adventure off the boat.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  So, at the time of this writing, we are still at anchor in this bay.  This will be our third night.  Neither of us is in a hurry to leave.  As a matter of fact, we are thinking of renting a scooter tomorrow and touring some wineries before heading to a beach along one of those crystal clear, turquoise bays we saw.  Stay tuned….our finale is rapidly approaching!

So much olive oil, so little time
Goodbye from the Ionian Sea, for now!!!

Albania or Bust

It was another hot and sunny day on the sea.  Despite leaving Bar, Montenegro with some decent winds, we seemed to struggle finding a sweet spot with the sails.  We started with the mainsail and gennaker up but the wind was somewhat shifty so our progress was rather slow (not what you want when there are 57 miles ahead of you).  We sailed along for about an hour before the winds started to get really gusty.  We were rounding the point where Montenegro and Albania converge, and the wind really took off.  We quickly dropped the gennaker (this sail is only used in light winds), reefed the main (lessened the sail area) and put out our genoa.  It wasn’t too far past the point that we soon discovered that we may have responded a little too quickly.  Just like that, the wind died down to nothing.  Since the sails were up anyway, we opted to motorsail our way down the coast of Albania.  After 8 1/2 hours, we arrived in the port of Durres, Albania.  This is a major shipping port in Albania, so navigating our way through the giant cargo ships and ferries was quite interesting (kind of like a game of real life Frogger).  At one point, we had to hover outside the breakwater while a huge cargo ship lumbered it’s way through the channel entrance.  Talk about feeling like a tiny fish in a huge pond!

We got ourselves tied up to the wall beside a very large, working tug boat.  He was at least twice as long as us and 3-4 times taller.  It definitely made for some interesting nights (he seemed to always have the night shift).  When he fired up his engines, our entire boat reverberated.  The force from his water intake exhaust was about mid-ship on our boat and sent us dancing about on our lines.  Then came his exit….his lights were so bright it made it like daylight on our boat, and as he pulled away from the wall,  we pitched around in 3 foot swells bouncing back from the wall.  The other fun part of our odd new home was the ridiculous angle our gangway was at in order to get onto the wall (the wall sat way above us).  If I thought the last marina in Montenegro was bad…..this took the cake.  We were surrounded by tug boats, tankers, and working cargo ships.  Behind us were walls of stacked containers just waiting to be loaded on boats.  Huge cranes were all around us and semi-trucks zoomed around from place to place.  What had we gotten ourselves into???

Our neighbor across the way was a huge ferry…this commercial port was a first for us.
A big tugboat for a neighbor. Whenever he started his motors our boat shook. Check out the angle on our passerelle!
Believe me the angle on this is a lot worse than it looks….see picture above.
Shade courtesy of huge cranes
It was entertaining watching the shipping come and go
We had a few yacht neighbors during our stay, but only a handful.

We spent our first two nights on the boat exploring the local sights.  The town outside of the port was very nice with lots of activity going on all over the waterfront.  We even encountered a fire dancing show which we stopped to watch for a bit.  Within the town, we saw the remains of an ancient Roman amphitheater and other evidence of past Roman occupation. 

Ruins of the ancient roman Ampitheatre
Strolling the Durres beachfront near the harbor.
Statues from a bygone era
Our first traditional Albanian dinner. $20 for drinks and multiple courses…
Out and about Durres
Former Venetian castle turned into a cafe

We had met a number of new friends on our way to Albania that had told us that the Albanian Alps were a must see.  After spending two days safely tied up, we felt comfortable leaving the boat behind for a couple of days.  We rented a car and made the 5 hour drive into the mountains.  The drive was quite beautiful, and the roads weren’t too terribly bad.  Of course, we did get to points where the road was a very narrow, two lanes with sheer drop offs….my favorite kind of drives 😬 Our biggest obstacles were small herds of cows and goats that occasionally blocked the roadway.  The mountains rose up into jagged peaks cut by deep valley gorges, and the road followed a crystal, clear, rapidly flowing river.  True to our nature (that seems to be our mantra), we had nothing booked ahead of time.  As we drew near the town of Valbone, Dan scrambled to find us a place to stay.  This area is very popular with hikers and backpackers, so there were an abundance of rooms for rent.  Unfortunately, I am not a fan of sharing sleeping quarters or a bathroom with strangers (I know….call me a princess).  Luckily we found a quaint little room overlooking the rushing river.  

Road trip! Deep into the Albanian interior
Rush hour traffic….
View from the inn we chanced on
Sunset from the Inn.
Gotta love the view!

The next day, we headed up to the end of the gorge where we would begin our hike.  We started out following a wide and rocky riverbed to the base of the mountain.  Since it’s been awhile since we’ve been hiking, we opted to do a hike to a waterfall rather than the amazing 6 hour hike (one way) that everyone recommended.  As it is, our hike turned out to be over 6 miles.  The views were awesome, but we were definitely hurting by the time we got back to the car.  That night we explored the riverbank opposite of our room.  There were a few ruins and a small gravesite.  The whole area was very green and peaceful.  That night, I started feeling a bit sick.  Uh oh.

The Albanian alps of Valbona National Park
Backpackers hired horses to carry their bags across the pass
Gorgeous Valbona

The next day, it was time to make our way back to the boat.  As much as we enjoy our inland explorations, we always find ourselves missing our boat.  We decided to take a different route home which would involve taking the car onto a ferry for a 3 hour ride down the fjords.  Although it was very hot and crowded, the views were spectacular.  Once on the other side, we still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us.  That turned out to be an adventure in and of itself.  You basically climb out of the valley on nothing more than a one lane road (but two way traffic) that is sometimes paved and sometimes not.  The paved parts are full of deep potholes, so it is very slow going.  Oh, and throw in some non-stop, hairpin turns and plunging drops to the river below.  Needless to say, we made it back in one piece!  Unfortunately, whatever was ailing me was really beginning to escalate.  I began processing what could be the culprit and soon came to a horrible realization….I have 2 cardinal rules when traveling in foreign countries (and especially countries that are not yet fully developed):  Never drink the tap water (bottled water only) and never eat raw fruits/vegetables that don’t have some sort of rind that you can remove.  Somehow, I managed to break both :(. My only excuse is that I got complacent.  I have been in Europe for 5 months now, and everywhere we have gone has provided bottled water.  Here, we were served up pitchers of fresh, mountain tap water.  What could be wrong with that, right?  Hmmm, remember those free roaming cows and goats I mentioned?  Oh yeah, I made a big mistake.  The next 24 hours were spent curled up in a fetal position in pain and unable to keep anything down.  For the next few days, I pretty much avoided food.  Great way to drop some pounds but not fun!  Being sick on a boat, far from home, really sucks.  You may be asking yourself, how did Dan avoid getting sick?  Dan is like a camel….he consumes very small quantities of water.  After the lengthy hike in the heat, I downed very large quantities of water over the next few hours.  Perhaps beer would’ve been a better choice 🤣

This ferry looked a little sketchy
We were the first ones on. Anxious I guess…
The views were amazing
Koman lake views

Our next stop was an anchorage outside the town of Vlore.  This was a 55 mile sail south.  Once again, we had no wind and had to motor.  As I sat watch, I suggested to Dan that he throw a line out and do some trolling.  He thought we might be going to fast to have any luck.  I told him that we weren’t doing anything else, so what could it hurt.  About 20 minutes later, we had a 16 pound bluefin tuna on the line.  It was a beautiful fish!  Dan had the fun time of killing and filleting it on the deck as we continued our journey (I couldn’t watch).  In the end, our back deck looked like a brutal murder had taken place on board.  Neither of us knew a fish could have so much blood!  We had a couple of fresh tuna meals and then vacuum sealed and froze the rest of the fish.  We spent two nights in the bay just basically killing time.  Our goal was to stage ourselves in such a way as to arrive in Greece on September 1st.  On the 31st, we made our last big push of the season….another 50+ miles….to Sarande.  We had heard a lot of good things about the sights here, but after a long day and a late arrival, we weren’t feeling much like exploring.  When we radioed our arrival, we were told to come stern to on the ferry dock.  The dock was lined with ferries coming in and out and we would be required to med moor (drop our anchor and back down to the wall where our stern lines would then be tied to the quay).  Neither of us liked this idea.  We have only med moored one other time this season, and it wasn’t pretty.  We had no desire to try it again amongst a bunch of large ferries.  So, we headed over to the nearby anchorage and dropped the hook.  When the extremely loud music started booming from the many clubs on shore (all blasting different music), we decided that one night here was all we wanted.  The giant, party gullet that cruised by 5 feet from our boat (with their music blasting) pretty much sealed the deal.  Tomorrow, we head for Greece!

My first real fish! A bluefin tuna….
Could not resist some fresh sashimi
Tuna steaks ready for searing

In the end, we did not experience as much of Albania as we would’ve liked…..but we also found ourselves ready to be done with the transit south.  It was time to get settled into Greece for our final 6 weeks of the cruising season.  Before long, it will be time to head home.  We are definitely ready to go home, but I also know that we will be longing to return to Zoe within a few weeks.