Squalls on the Horizon

After spending a rainy day anchored in Vroulias Bay, which proved to be a great place to wait out the storm, we headed for Corfu town. The wind changed and gusted significantly with the low pressure still lingering which made for very fun and sometimes rainy sailing.  We were lucky to spot a boat leaving the sailing club harbour just as we were about to arrive freeing up a berth for us for the night.

Mandraki Port in Corfu was an excellent base for exploring the city as we entered through the old fort and celebrated our last night with Lina with some Griechischer Wein.  After a goodbye breakfast, we set off for the large Gouvia Marina, just under 4nm away, to refill our water tanks and visit some LPG stations with the hope of refilling our gas bottles but ended up being unsuccessful.

We then set off again in the afternoon as we hoped to make some distance with the wind forecast to be from behind, however, we instead experienced more changing wind which came more from east northeast.  But even sailing at a close reach, we made good distance, 17nm, in the last daylight hours and anchored behind some fish farms in the Gjiri Rrojdhes bay listening to the sounds of the nearby farm animals as we fell asleep.

The next day, we took up anchor after breakfast and headed up the Albanian coast. Starting the day with clear skies and strong wind from the side changing to behind we made more than 7kts with small sails. We watched squalls heading our way and enjoyed taking down sails, reefing and hoisting sails once again as we adapted to the changing conditions that came with these localized cells. In the late afternoon we made a small stop in Grama Bay to check out if it would be protected enough for us to spend the night, but the swell was already rolling around the small bay, so we decided to continue on and luckily the wind picked up enough for us to arrive at Shengiergjit, another 18nm, before sunset.

The wind turned to north early in the night and swell from further in the Adriatic made its way to us so that we had quite a bumpy night. So, we set off early hoping to find shelter behind Sazan Island. Unfortunately, with the unsettled conditions that we had had for the past week, we could not find a place sheltered enough to spend the day and night before crossing back to Italy the next day. So, we decided instead to set off directly as there were few squalls on the horizon making for a peaceful crossing with a little help from the engine after a restless night.

With about 3nm to the harbour in San Foca, we saw a small storm cell in front of us and the wind quickly increased to a strong 6 Beaufort coming from directly in front and bringing strong rain so that we were grateful to arrive in the harbour just before 9pm in the dark.  The low pressure continued to blow with gusts of 30kts the following day directly from where we wanted to go, north up the coast, so we waited a day in San Foca for less wind and waves the next day.

Leaving early in the morning, we were very pleased to have more wind than forecast and also coming more from the side so that we very quickly approached the entrance to Brindisi with a few passing showers and some lulls.  Just before we entered the harbour a small squall with 30kt gusts came our way and we used the engine to push 1nm to get within the breakwater as the wind decreased again.  We then raised the sails once more and sailed downwind the last 3nm into the old town of Brindisi where we moored on the city quayside.

We were lucky to make it to Brindisi where we will bring the Goden Wind into the shipyard for repairs from the collision with the sperm whale and for a look at the engine which has had trouble starting since it overheated in the outer harbour on Heligoland at the start of our trip.