Around the Ionian Islands

Every afternoon we saw a consistent increase in the wind as the thermals came into effect, so we stayed at anchor until around 1 pm and then set course for Gaios on the island of Paxoi, 20nm from Corfu. On a broad reach, we were able to arrive at the narrow channel to enter the town just a few hours later and tried our hand at Greek-style mooring for the first time.  This maneuver had us dropping an anchor from the bow, and then heading stern to onto the quayside.  We were happy to find it work very well for us and we were tied up right in the center of this beautiful and busy village before sunset.

Spending two nights exploring Gaios and the island, we planned to set off with the afternoon wind but were met with an engine that, once again, did not want to start. Thankfully, it was a quick fix to change an old contact and cable, and we were back on our way.  With a plan to sail through the night to the north of Kefalonia, we were very pleased to be met with wind far enough from behind to set the spinnaker and make more than 6kts until sunset.

As the day came to an end and we neared the island of Lefkada, we changed sails and continued South.  In the dark night, before the moonrise at 2 am, we were able to make our way down the channel between Kefalonia and Ithaki but found that the mountains greatly blocked the wind so our final 10 miles were much slower, but with the speedy start we had, we were able to make it farther than our original goal, and we dropped anchor and took a stern line ashore in the bay East of Andreas Point on Ithaki's southern tip after sunrise.  

Waiting in the bay until the wind increased again in the afternoon, we spent our morning resting after the night sail and visiting the beautiful goats on land. Just after lunchtime, we headed due South again but soon saw a nice gentle breeze reduce to almost no wind as we were sheltered by even taller mountains further south on Kefalonia.  Wanting to make it to Zakynthos for a crew change the next morning we used the engine to help us get out of this no-wind area and were happy when the wind came back as forecast between Kefalonia and Zakynthos and we quickly made our way sailing at a beam reach to this large city harbour, arriving in the dark.  

In the morning we said a sad goodbye to Carl but welcomed Nadia on board, and the Goden Wind's first all-female crew left in the afternoon with good wind much like that we had the previous evening. However, as we continued the wind quickly increased to a fresh breeze that was too much for our large number 2 foresail and the dinghy on deck so we headed more downwind to allow us to pack the dingy away and change sails.

By the time we were finished and ready to get back on course, we had continued almost 7nm farther east than we needed.  So, we enjoyed some more sporty sailing than what we had encountered so far on the trip, as we headed into the waves on a close reach to make it to Poros after sunset.