Cruising The Med - Sandy and Rob's Excellent Adventure

On the North East side of Corfu lies PaleoKastritsa, (Pronounced ' Paleokastreetsa') one of the most highly recommended places to visit while on Corfu.

To get there, we sped along roads across the island from Gouvia with really lovely views until we arrived at PaleoKastritsa which is really the edge of these dramatic cliffs.

There are grottos, beaches (many only reachable by small boat), a small marina, and many cafes and hotels carved into the cliffs with views that are truly fantastic.

We stopped at the top of one of the grottos and could see many young people at a cafe called "The Grotto" carved into the rock at least 100 steps down. Below was a popular swimming hole and a rope the daring can climb to a good 50 foot dive into the sea.

Next, we ventured up a road which took us to a spit with an old church and great views up and down the coast.

We could see some umbrellas way up high on the cliffs to the north so we decided to try and find them. Up a very twisted road through a village named Lakones, we arrived at the 'Golden Fox' which was a restaurant, cafe, swimming pool, and a few shops up top for tourists. What a view!! We could not only see up and down the beautiful east coast of Corfu, we could see right across the island to the west with the Adriatic and Albania in the background.

After a nice lunch, we continued along the most exciting road. Rob says he has never done this many switchbacks in one tour. We saw incredible olive groves, tiny villages and popped out at Prinylas which gave us a view of the entire top end of Corfu looking across to the small islands to the north, Othoni and Erikoussa (where we stopped on our way here from Montenegro).

We passed through Pagi, a small village where filming was done for the 1981 Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.

We made our way along intending to get back to the marina to meet the fellow helping us with our limping water maker motor. We wondered if we would have trouble as the gas light popped on and there was truly no sign of people let alone a fuel station.

As we passed through a tiny town, we saw a small auto service shop and they directed us to fuel. Whew!!!

We continued along switch back after switch back until we emerged through the mountain to the west side of Corfu. The road was straight from here and we could actually see all the way to Corfu town from where we were part way up the mountain.

Once back in Gouvia Marina, we enjoyed a capuccino and some ice cold water at the Skipper's Cafe.

Cappuccino before leaving Gouvia for Paleokastritsa

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Paleokastritsa!!! - Young people swimming off the raft with the Red Roof below

View from St. Nicholas Church - The white dot to the right on the water is a sail boat

Rob amongst the green - This Is unique to Corfu as the other Greek Islands are quite arid and dry

Locals

Another amazing bay

One of the Beaches reachable by land

Tripper boats take visitors to the bays, grottos, and caves

The view from the road on the way to the top of the cliff

Lakones Village

The view from the top - Taken from the Golden Fox Cafe

Nice Pool with a view

View back across the Island - You can see the Adriatic on the other side of the Island and the mountains of Albania in the distance

The Beach and Tripper boats in the centre - Marina on the left with the Breakwall

Rugged Coastline

View from Prinylas - Othoni in far background

Erikoussa in the background beyond the Island

Vatonies Village

Olive Groves we pass by on the twisted mountain roads

Pagi, where the Bond Film was made

Almost back at the Marina - Check out Grandma driving her scooter!

Road into the Gouvia Marina

Map - Palaeokastritsa is circled, follow the twisted orange roads north to see where we drove

Labels: Erikoussa, Golden Fox, Lakones, Olive Grove, Pagi, Paleokastritsa, Prinylas, Vatonies

We left our beloved Porto Montenegro in Tivat at 7am on Saturday morning.

With little wind in the bay we were able to reach the sea in only 1.5 hours versus the usual 2 hours. We enjoyed coffee and breakfast just before we reached the Adriatic in case the swells would make our cappuccino spill. We have really enjoyed our little Nespresso espresso machine and milk frother!

The seas were fairly calm with small swells and the winds were light so we continued to motor. A few hours into our journey we found about 7-8 knots of wind and were able to motor sail with both the main and jib for another couple of hours at which time the wind was too much on the nose so we furled the sails. The sky was slightly overcast which we appreciated as it limited the amount of sun exposure.

That was the last of the sailing. We were motoring along at just over 5 knots which we felt was a good speed to cruise along at.

We took 3 hour shifts taking turns resting and watching for ships and other boats while "Auto" did the driving. We saw several fishing boats in the first 5-6 hours and then it became quieter.

We had a fabulous lunch of greek salad and Procuitto as the seas were calm enough for me to be below cutting and chopping without losing my lunch!

The tour was turning out to be as we hoped. Boring and without incident. We each brought books and reading materials to pass the time which was great.

As the sun set, I prepared a dinner of pesto pasta with truffles and fresh grated parmesan with local tomatoes. We had purchased the pesto when we were in Rome and it was a delightful treat!

Rob took the first night shift from 9pm - 12am but he managed to stay up until 2am so I could rest. Rob had to steer around one cruise ship but that was about all the excitement.

From 2am-6am there were very few boats and they were all quite distant from our path. The skies were clear and the moon 2/3 full so it was quite bright. The cruise ships look like Christmas decorations in the night.

Rob was unable to sleep after 5:30am as the waves had again become large enough to cause the bow to slam into the sea making for loud noise and a jarring experience in the bow. He was able to get some rest in the cockpit and the sun rose to another clear sunny day.

After breakfast, Rob managed to get some much needed rest while I watched the cruise ships pass by. The winds piped up to 14 knots and were on the nose so we had to rev the engine to keep our pace of 5 knots.

We realized in the morning that there was no chance of reaching our destination on Corfu today. We would have to arrive in the dark which was not our preference.

We decided to stop at a small island mentioned in our Pilot Books called Erikoussa. We reached Erikoussa at 3pm in the afternoon. There were several boats already there and they kept arriving right until sunset. We anchored stern to onto a large stone breakwall. I was thinking a swim would be nice and I got my wish as Rob gave me a gentle push of the back so I could swim to shore and secure our line.

After we were anchored, we took the new dinghy off the bow and tested Rob's new lift system to get the motor from the back of the boat down onto the back of the dinghy. It worked perfectly and we went for a quick rip around the harbour and neighboring bay to test the new boat and motor. The new boat is quite deep and so we stayed dry and it handled really well in the swells of the bay.

We cooked up a load of chicken and had a great dinner, shower and got all our laundry done. We had a wonderful sleep which we both needed and were ready to finish to trip.

We left the harbour at Erikoussa at 9:30 am and headed toward the top of Corfu. The wind had changed direction and so the seas were confused and uncomfortable for the first couple of hours. After that, they settled into a nice flat water and we made our way.

Unfortunately, we discovered that our water maker was having some issues and we couldn't solve them after trying a few things and reading the manuals so we had our first project ready to be tackled when we arrive in Corfu.

We had a great lunch as we passed along the east shore at the north side of Corfu and arrived at around 3pm at the Gouvia Marina on Corfu. We stopped first at the fuel station and then moved on to our new slip where we now reside.

I checked us into the marina while Rob worked on the water maker and we got some great advice for dinner. We rode our bikes to a local taverna just a few hundred metres outside the marina to a spot where the owner grows all the cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, and even makes his own feta cheese.

Dinner was delightful and they brought us a great fruit plate for desert. The cactus fruit, watermelon, and fresh figs all from the owner's garden.

Our total trip was 39 hours so much longer than the 30 we had forecasted. It was however fairly calm and we had no major incidents or worries which made things really quite straightforward which was a relief.

We are now off to rent a motor scooter for a few days, check into customs, and start to explore the island. (After we fix the water maker of course.....)

Lunch our first day at sea - Greek Salad with Procuitto