Corfu, New Crew, Stu,Jill, Chris, Jo, Mar

Collected the crew in phases, Jill an Stu first day, Chris next morning, Jo that night and Mark the next day. In the interim we tried to get the RIB engine fixed, refill bottles, do the laundry , tidy boat and fix various small maintenance jobs. Between these we managed swims on a couple of the islands lunch on a beach across the bay and overnight in a lovely bay near Gouvia Marina.

On Tuesday we got ready to depart but Hew’s has bottle had been filled but was stuck on a truck that had broken down so he needed to buy a new bottle and pick his up later. Then tried to get back to boat but couldn’t get a cab as 3 cruise ships in town!! So I had to catch a cab from the rank get it over to the gas shop pick up Hew. Driver thought firstly Hew was mad to try and get anything done on a day when 3 cruise ships were in town. Secondly, he was lazy to get his wife to come and pick him up. Thirdly, Corfu was a shambles because every summer they were invaded by barbarians from the north, the same as for hundreds of years in the past- Italians, Germans, Goths, Visigoth, etc etc but now it was every summer!!!

After three days in and around the town we seemed not to have really viewed anything but liked the town.

Very glad to get out of the old town port – away from the smell of sewerage. Port employee there very friendly and helpful and site very convenient. There are big signs saying you can’t park there, then they “fine” you so they can say they told you so and you cannot then take them to court for damages( apparently as one yachtie tried to when boat was damaged in a storm).

Departed with crew for a bay on the NE side wind up but only due to last for 4 hours so ended up returning to Kouloura Bay, site of Durrell White House.

Next day went on to look at the Northern Islands. Firstly, Erikoussa – swim and lunch and a change of anchor.

Our main anchor had not been holding well since it was bent so with plenty of manpower on board we finally made the effort to dig out the secondary anchor from below the floor of the port forward hold.

In the afternoon had a good sail on to Othonoi. parked outside bay.