After returning to the U.S. for a couple of birthdays for our grandkids, the birth of our 4th grandchild, and a baby shower for the momma of our soon to be 5th grandchild, we made our way back to Italy for our final voyage with Zoe. While we were home, we had an offer from an Australian couple which we came to terms on before they even saw the boat in person. Our mission now was to get Zoe to Greece for them by August in order to complete the sale. In the meantime, we had already made plans with our friends from Switzerland to join us for 2 weeks of sailing. They arrived a few days after we got back to Zoe. We explained that we would only be able to do 10 days due to the amount of ground we had to cover to get Zoe back to Greece instead of Bari, Italy where we had arranged winter storage for the boat in the event she didn’t sell.
We had met these friends about 4 years ago while sailing in Greece and had lots of great times with them, so we were very excited to have them and their 3 1/2 year old twin boys join us. Once they arrived, we got them settled on board, provisioned up the boat and got underway the following day. Our first stop was Capo Vaticano (on the top part of the foot of the boot). It wasn’t a long journey, so we spent the day swimming followed by dinner on board and some new card games. The next day, our plan was to sail the short distance to a town called Scilla where we had a mooring ball booked. We were all very excited about our stop here to explore a castle and some interesting ruins. This was also a perfect staging position for crossing through the Straits of Messina the following morning. The Straits of Messina can be quite a challenge due to both funneled high wind speeds and very strong currents. It’s also important to make sure that the currents are flowing in a favorable direction.
Well, the winds were up as we made our way to Scilla, and we were soon notified by the harbor that coming in to the mooring ball field was not a possibility….uh-oh. We quickly looked at the winds and current in the strait. The current would be behind us initially but in the process of switching direction towards the end of the journey. We made the decision to continue through the straits and head to Reggio Calabria (just outside the narrowest part of the straits). We made arrangements to tie up on a mooring ball once we got through. As we proceeded into the straits, the wind picked up immensely. We flew through the straits with only a handkerchief of our genoa sail out, cruising over 8 knots! This is quite a fast speed for Zoe. This also meant the following seas were picking up, and the “surfing” ride was getting a little rough. We blasted through the straits and called in our arrival only to be told that it was too rough and windy for us to tie up to the mooring ball. Here we were once again with no home for the night! We made the painful decision to cross over to Sicily and the town on Taormina. This was a stop we had planned to do with our friends, just not this quickly. The passage was painful with 6 foot seas (2 meters) in very short periods. Nobody was having fun at this point. What was suppose to be a short passage turned into a 10 1/2 hour passage. We slid into the mooring field just as the sun was setting. We were finally tied up on our mooring ball in the beautiful bay at Taormina. What a relief! After such an ordeal, we opted to stay a couple of nights here and relax.
As I said, our friends were supposed to join us for 2 weeks, so we had a number of places we had planned to take them. Now we had to rethink where we would go as well as where it would make the most sense for them to get off the boat. Our original plan was to take them further down the coast of Sicily to Siracusa (another one of our favorite places). Our plan was to break up the passage since it was a long distance. After taking a look at the weather, we saw that a weather system was looming. Heading out that far was not going to be an option since we still had a fair amount of the Italian coast to cover before jumping across to Greece. Things were not going like we had hoped, and we felt bad that we had to keep disappointing our friends. Luckily, as sailors themselves, they understood the perils that weather has on your plans. They were even better sports as this next passage was going to be an overnight one. We left late in the afternoon for our overnight passage to Capo Rizzuto (at the ball of the foot). This was definitely one of the nicest overnight passages for us. With 4 of us doing watch, we each only had one stint in the darkness and more time to sleep.
Our next stop was the town of Crotone. Here we spent a couple of days in a marina enjoying the town and monitoring the weather closely. This was the point where we would make our overnight jump to Greece and the island of Corfu. Unfortunately, the weather system we had been watching had grown and was getting uglier. To make matters worse, it wasn’t going to clear for another week. Once again, we had to disappoint our guests and shorten their visit yet again. Sadly, their 2 week vacation with us turned into a short 8 days. Thankfully, they were very resilient and understanding and quickly found a way to fill the rest of their vacation time. We were all quite disappointed (not to mention we needed to leave at the crack of dawn)! We would literally be threading a needle with this weather system. There was a small channel cut through the middle of the system that would be closing in behind us as we made our way across the open sea to Greece. The closer we got to Greece the windier and rougher it got. Luckily we slid into the anchorage just as the sun was coming up. We got the anchor down and got some much needed sleep before heading in to port to take care of formalities. Then a funny thing happened. Dan got a text from some neighbors that they were in Croatia on a cruise and would be heading to Greece. They asked if we were anywhere near by chance. Their port of call the following morning was the island of Corfu….exactly where we were currently sitting! What a crazy coincidence! In case you are wondering. Italy did get hit with that storm that we were outrunning further illustrating that we had made the right decision to cut and run.
The following day we headed around the corner to our favorite anchorage in Corfu, right under the castle walls. Our neighbors finished their walking tour of Corfu and then came over to Zoe for a couple of hours of swimming. We had an awesome time hanging out with them and their family for a few hours before they headed back to their cruise ship. Many of our neighbors know about our adventures with Zoe (almost none have seen her in person), so it was fun to get to share what had been our life for the last 8 years.
Not too long after, another set of friends from our neighborhood decided to fly out and join us on Zoe. We showed them the highlights of Corfu town (a truly magical island). Soon we set sail for the beach town of Plataria on mainland Greece. This was our first time here, so we were excited to explore something new. After ensuring our anchor was well dug in, we headed ashore to a cool beach bar called Zanzibar. They had their own dinghy dock and came out to greet us and tie us up. We spent a fun afternoon having some great sushi rolls and interesting cocktails. The town itself wasn’t big or overly interesting. It was definitely more of a beach bar vibe on the bay.
Our next hop was a short distance away to Sivota (our first time visiting here). We tied up to a dock in a tiny little bay. It was a little hairball coming in as many boats were anchored and stern tied surrounding the bay, and the dock itself was super close to the swim area and in very shallow water. We were also tied very close to the rocky shoreline. The dock was free as long as you spent 30 euro per person at their restaurant. That was no problem…..the food and drinks were fantastic! The town of Sivota was a decent walk up and over a hilltop and back down. The town was a cute seaside village which we enjoyed exploring. We had a wonderful olive oil tasting/learning experience and of course our friends bought a number of items to enjoy on board.
From Sivota, we headed to the bustling town of Parga (another first for us). We found a nice place to anchor in this very busy bay. The anchorage itself was not great in the sense that there were tons of boats anchored. It was also a bustling tourist hotspot, so we bounced around in the wake of jet skis and speedboats towing inflatables. I definitely had no interest in swimming here due to all the high speed boat traffic very close to us. We enjoyed exploring the hillside town of Parga with all its great views. By nighttime, the town was packed with visitors making it very challenging to walk the narrow alleyways. Time to get out of the craziness.
Next stop was Lakka Bay (an old favorite). For the first time ever, we were able to find a spot to anchor and free swing without having to tie to shore. This bay gets loaded up with wall to wall boats which is why most will anchor and tie off to shore. Lakka is another cute little town at the northernmost point on the island of Paxos and always a treat to walk around and explore. It wasn’t long before a dumba$$ dropped anchor really close to us. Dan had a polite conversation about where he was anchored, but he insisted he was fine. I had us perfectly anchored with 3:1 scope (we usually anchor with 5:1 but space here does not allow for that). The guy began to explain to Dan that this is a tight anchorage, and you have to anchor close. Dan politely explained that we were aware of this and that we only had a scope of 3:1. He asked the guy how much chain he had out and upon doing the math he basically had like 6:1 or 7:1! So, you know this is a tight anchorage and you basically have enough chain for bad weather! Dan and our friends jumped in the dinghy for an exploration of the coastline. I stayed on board monitoring this guy’s boat getting closer and closer. While they were gone, the guys comes out and tells me that everything is fine. I explain to him that I have a range finder and he is far closer than any other boat around us. He tells me to let out more chain?!? I tell him that I most certainly will not. I am perfectly anchored at 3:1 and that he has too much chain out. Me putting out more chain is only going to close the distance between us! Duh!!! He eventually moves when he sees that he may in fact hit us, and we watch him try 3 more spots that do not work. He ends up back over in the area where we are but at least further away. The only problem is that now he has aggravated another boater who tells him he is way too close (actually quite a bit further apart than he was from us)! We were then treated to watching his new neighbor shining a very bright spotlight into the windows of his boat all night long.
This was the furtherest southern point we would go on this journey with our friends. On our way out of Lakka back to the island of Corfu, we cruised around this really cool rock outcropping in the middle of the sea. As we circumnavigated the outcropping, we were treated to finding a monk seal cruising in and out of the rocks. Monk seals are pretty rare, so this was a real treat! Before long, we continued on our way to our southernmost stop on the island of Corfu, the town of Petriti. We spent a night in Petriti before heading back to Corfu, and our anchor spot under the castle. Our friends’ 5 day visit was sadly over. We were glad that they were able to pull off one final visit with us before we parted with Zoe.
Two days later, our last set of friends managed to make a trip out for their last adventure on Zoe. We spent the day exploring the town of Corfu again since they had never been there. This set of friends would be traveling with us all the way to Preveza where we would meet Zoe’s new owners. We returned to Sivota and Parga with them before continuing our journey south. After leaving Parga, Dan and our crew dinghied into Aphrodite’s Cave. Since we could not anchor here, I stayed with Zoe. They tell me it was pretty cool….haha. We then pulled into a bay for a brief stopover to go explore the Acheron River by dinghy. Every time we have been here, the anchorage has been too full for us to fit. Today was the exception. We found a great spot, set the anchor and jumped into the dinghy to cruise up the river. We have hiked in this river to the Gates of Hades (much further in) in previous years. Unfortunately, we could not take the dinghy up as far as we would have liked because of the water activities that go on further up. Once we were back on board, we headed to Two Rock Bay to anchor for the night. This has always been one of our favorite anchorages for swimming and snorkeling.
It was now time to head into Preveza to let our guests off and meet our new buyers. We were able to land a spot at Preveza Marina (another one of our favorites) and take them into the town of Preveza. It felt good to be back even if it was for a short time. We explored the town with them, revisited some of our favorite spots for dinner and drinks before settling back in on board. The next morning we left early to go into Cleopatra Marina (Zoe spent 4 years wintering in the yard here). Our friends were scheduled to catch a flight the next evening, and our buyers were arriving the following day. Needless to say, we spent that last bit of time packing things and getting Zoe all cleaned up. When our friends disembarked, a cleaning crew arrived and spent 4 hours making Zoe shine, inside and out.
Our new buyers arrived around noon, just as the cleaners were leaving. We spent time showing them around Zoe and getting them settled in. We had agreed ahead of time that we would stay onboard with them for an undetermined period of time showing them how everything worked. We showed them our favorite restaurant in Cleopatra and took a road trip to Lefkada to buy a replacement part for something that broke right after we all signed the bill of sale (go figure, right?). Two days later, we set sail for Vonitsa on the inland sea. We enjoyed hanging out and teaching them everything we could about Zoe which I have no doubt completely overwhelmed them. After a night in Vonitsa, we headed to an anchorage outside of Preveza with them in charge of everything. This was very challenging for me despite it no longer being my boat. It’s a very weird feeling having someone else doing all the stuff that you have always been in charge of and keeping your mouth shut. You know….that urge to say “this is how we do it.” Haha. Everything they were doing was just fine….just not my way. You know how that goes. Anyway, after 5 days, we felt they had a good handle on operating Zoe. Plus, we had just found out that our daughter in law was going to be induced much earlier than expected, and we weren’t sure if we were going to be needed to babysit our other two grandsons. We said a sad farewell to our beloved Zoe, and felt good that we had found her new owners that would love her as much as we had. You can’t ask for more than that.
