Saying Goodbye to Brindisi

The Goden Wind is off again! Leaving from Brindisi on a calm, sunny evening, after getting her back in ship shape and refueling on the city quay, it was a bittersweet goodbye to leave this unique little city that we had made a temporary home. However, mostly, we were so happy that all our major repairs were complete and we were able to get back out to sea.  

Hoisting the sails in the city's external harbour, we turned downwind and down the coast making course for Otranto.  Maintaining a slow but steady speed, consistently above 3kts, we happily sailed into this calm night. A few hours after sunset, we were awed as we watched a stunning moon rise almost directly on our course. This large waning gibbous made for a bright night, and just after sunrise, we dropped anchor in a cave-filled bay just north of Otranto.

Since we were only three crew to start our journey and the wind was very light for the day, we stayed at anchor to rest and were entertained by the small boats that came for the day and filled up the bay sometimes anchoring uncomfortably close. But, by nightfall, we were once again alone in this peaceful bay with the day trippers returning to port.  

With a crossing to Corfu ahead of us, we set off at sunrise the following day. The wind from the North steadily increased through the late afternoon and brought us within miles of Othonoi before lulling. We had time for a swim break before the wind returned, although with less strength than before, and we continued past the islands to Georgios Bay.  There we dropped the anchor at sunset and tested the new canoe dinghy to pick up crew members, Anni and Maren from the beach.  

The next day came with little wind so we planned to head to the nearby Alipa Marina to refill our stocks, but when we arrived a surprisingly strong thermal wind picked up making it very challenging to moor in this small harbour, and we opted to go for an anchorage instead at Chomi Beach. As the day wore on, we listened to the rain-like sound of pebbles falling down the steep cliff-side behind the beach.

With our water supply very low, we made a second attempt to moor in Alipa Marina the next morning and were successful. After filling up we enjoyed tacking into wind force 4 on our way down the western coast of Corfu. Unfortunately, this wind didn't last long enough, and we found ourselves drifting backward in a lull by lunchtime.  This led us to push with the engine a little, and we found a bit of wind again shortly at a broad reach to arrive at Issos Beach on Corfu's southern coast before sunset.