Being hemmed in and the people you meet and things you see at anchor!

When you’re anchored somewhere new it is always nice to catch up unexpectedly with fellow yachties who you’ve met in other locations.

We were aboard Sunday in Garitsa Bay in Corfu, waiting for my sister Julia to arrive from England, when we heard “Ahoy Sunday” and there in a dinghy were Kath and Neal from S/V Priscilla with Claudine and Don and their sweet blind dog Zoé from S/V Okaliptüs.

We had last seen Kath and Neal in Montenegro but actually hadn’t met Claudine and Don before although we know their boat well – she was previously owned by our friends Jill and Shelley who we met in Fineke, Turkey. The boat was known as Eucalyptus at that time but it was changed by Claudine and Don to the Turkish version of the name.

We also had a good catch up with David and Jaynee from Adventurous and Aussie flagged DeliSiosa Cat with Peter and Melissa aboard who we met for the first time in Corfu.

Just before Julia arrived we went for a lovely walk along the seafront away from the old town of Corfu.

We were hoping to find the way into Mon Repos Park but we were waylaid by a a sign pointing to the Monastery of Agia Efimia.

As you know, we love to follow our noses and go wherever something sounds interesting, so of course we decided to climb the steep driveway to the Monastery.

We stepped through the arched entrance into a beautiful green oasis where fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and vines were growing in abundance.

We didn’t see a soul while we there but we did see definite evidence that people reside there – in the shape of an enormous box of laundry powder! We later learnt that just two (probably very clean) nuns live there at present.

Inside the chapel the shiny chequerboard floor tiles bore witness to the many thousands (maybe millions) of feet that had silently walked over them over the millennia.

The monastery was first established in 1478 but the current church was built more recently.

The anchorage was very close to the airport so I was able to walk to meet Julia off her flight from England.

Although there was drizzly rain falling the day she arrived, (causing red dust stains all over our beautiful clean decks!) we managed to walk back without getting wet – well from the rain anyway. Just outside the airport a car whizzed past me and drove through a massive puddle giving me a soaking. However, it was so warm that I dried out in minutes.

It was wonderful to welcome Julia back to the boat once again and her visit was made extra special as it was her birthday the day she arrived.

It was (early) dinner time so we went straight from the airport to a local taverna for a birthday meal.

Jonathan met us there and we had a really great birthday celebration. We were back on board by 9pm and the celebration continued with birthday cake and bubbles.

The following day Julia and I went to the old town for a browse round the shops and the gorgeous laneways while Jonathan did a few jobs around the boat.

While we were away he decided to take the rubbish in to land and at the dock met some young deck hands from a super yacht anchored not far from us.

They had bags and bags of garbage which they were transporting from the tender to a waiting van. Jonathan started chatting with them and commented that he hoped that the amount of rubbish they were getting rid off was more than a week’s worth. Apparently it was several weeks worth and included a whole bunch of healthy looking orchids, headed for the local dump.

I’m not sure how, but I think one of the crew noticed how incredulous Jonathan looked when he saw all these orchids being placed in the van and they offered one him one to take home.

We later found out that the super yacht Abeona belonged to Amazon Billionaire Jeff Bezos but it was actually only the $75million, 250 feet long support vessel for his $500 million, 417 feet sailing yacht, Koru.

You’ll be glad to know that the beautiful orchid (which we’ve named Jeff for obvious reasons) is thriving aboard Sunday!

Before leaving we had another funny experience aboard Sunday. We were sitting around relaxing when we heard the sounds of a band close by. We couldn’t believe our eyes when a large RIB went past with about six or seven people aboard playing folk music on various brass instruments and drums! The things you see at anchor!

A couple of days after Julia’s arrival we left Garitsa Bay, first heading north to Gouvia Marina to fill up with fuel at the fuel station there and turning towards the south of Corfu to Lefkimmis Bay where we spent the night and were treated to a stunning sunset.

Our next stop was the gorgeous island of Paxos. We anchored in the extremely well protected bay of Lakka which has stunningly clear turquoise water. The only draw back is that its beauty and the cute little village ashore makes it a very popular stop and can be extremely overcrowded.

Fortunately it was relatively uncrowded when we first arrived and we really enjoyed swimming in the beautiful water and getting to know the small village.

There were numerous tavernas and bars to choose from and some cute shops to browse in.

After a couple of days the number of boats in the anchorage increased hourly and watching the antics of people attempting to anchor provided hours of amusement! What was less amusing was being anchored safely and then having people hem us in on all sides. I don’t think we have ever been anchored so close to other yachts in our sailing life!