Sicily to Greece 11th July 2022

We sailed from Sicily on Monday 11th July for the island if Corfu Greece. Winds for the first day were light, with a great forecast of a shy reach at 12-18kts from the NW for the remainder of the 3 day 2 night 260nm voyage.

A few more days cruising Sicily would have been magic, however I was due to deliver another yacht the following Saturday and the forecast looked good to get to Corfu so I could fly direct to Marseille.

The first two days we had some beautiful sailing with a 12kt wind 70 degrees off the port bow, though it was a bit bumpy at times with the Mediterranean chop from the north.

The second night was proceeding as predicted, and at midnight at the winds increased to 14kts I put a reef in the mainsail and checked the deck. At 4am wind suddenly increased to 25 kts and I dropped the mainsail and furled the Genoa. We were copping some water over the deck, the seas increased and things became a bit uncomfortable as gusts exceeded 30 kts.

Finally at 1700 we sailed into the beautiful bay of Lakka on the island of Paxol. The bay was stunning, though a bit more crowded than the brochure.

“Greece includes 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Greek Seas, of which only 227 islands are inhabited. The Greek coastline offers a diverse landscape: beaches stretching over many kilometres, sheltered bays and coves, sandy beaches, sand-dunes, pebble beaches, wetlands and deltas, caves formed by seawater and dark-coloured sand in volcanic areas. ”

We spent the next day swimming and relaxing in Lakka, and took a walk around the beautiful town in the late afternoon. In town every street looked like a postcard.

Everybody had a great sleep, and we kicked the next day off with a morning swim before sailing up to Corfu where we anchored in the Lee of the fort in crystal clear waters.

Corfu is a beautiful island and town. We were rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous as we strolled through the prettiest and cleanest streets I have seen in a very long time. It is as if the shopkeepers had polished each and every cobblestone and their was not one piece of rubbish in site!

On Saturday 16th July we motored around the corner to Govia Marina where I would be leaving the family for a week while I traveled to france for some work.

I can’t wait to explore Greece more. You could spend a lifetime exploring the 6000 islands in this beautiful country.