The weather came right for our crossing to Greece, and we headed off after sunrise on Thursday May 9th. It took a little longer to pull the anchor as it had a chunk of old fishing net wrapped around it and it was full of mud.
The southerly breeze had a bit more East in it so we flew the spinnaker for an hour or 2 before getting back towards our buddy boat Polaris. This included a detour around a couple of tankers that were refueling mid ocean. The wind filled in and the first reef went in when it hit 20 knots, but we were still making 8-9 knots. The second reef went in after our boat speed was solid 10’s with a nice push to 12.8 knots, in 27 knots of breeze. This was typically a 48 hour passage so it was great to make some distance the first day. The wind fizzled at sun down though, so we motor sailed through the night maintaining 6-7 knots depending on current and breeze direction. It was a good night without too much shipping traffic and the off watch got some good sleep.
Day 2 of the passage was sunny, and the sea’s flattening out as the day progressed. We saw a few turtles bobbing around and had about 4 birds aboard. The dove was the most tired and sat at the bow, hiding his head like an ostrich while it’s body remained visible. It finally left late afternoon when a tanker came within a mile of us. One of the other ones seemed fascinated with me, and flew over and sat on my head! Then it sat on the Nook as I was reading. It finally left us when land was in sight. The last 2 were short stay guests, and I had to shoo one of them out of the salon twice before he got the message. It’s nice having these feathered visitors aboard, giving them a chance to rest and recover, and they give us something interesting to watch. (There is an unfortunate stain on one of our cockpit cushions though..)
We fired up the water maker and filled both tanks (which still feels like magic !), as the water in ports is usually dirty and will clog your filters quickly. We had a chat with Kate and Jim on Polaris and briefly contemplated going to Argostoli on Cephalonia to clear in. This would still be an after dark arrival though so we decided to stay on course for Preveza. Preveza was on the mainland, and we had heard it had a clear channel and easy anchorage close to the port. It’s always exciting making landfall, and making out the channel markers from the lights on shore can take some doing. There was a 3 knot current running as well, as Preveza is at the entrance to a big inland sea (Amvrakikos Kolpos). It was great to have a dolphin escort as we approached the channel, although there wasn’t much time to watch them play and no moonlight. Both boats made it in and we got anchored at 2 am Saturday May 11th…. And now we were in Greece!