Last sail from Parga to Preveza - Just amazing

We're back to Preveza. In a couple of days we'll be on a plane going back home.
The last sail we had yesterday was just perfect. We stayed in Parga till early afternoon, Yasmin caught a fish, we could spend some time on the beach, and even swim in 20 degrees.
Sailing to Preveza, we had back wind of 5-10 knots (apparent), sea was smooth, and the weather was nice and warm. It was our last chance to use the Spinnaker - and we did.
At 7:02 we had a beautiful sunset (can't really see it in the pictures), we furled the Spinnaker and sailed with the mainsail and engine into the darkness.
Getting into Preveza with the long tunnel leading to it, was interesting. At that point Naama decided to try and steer the boat (between the buoys of the channel), and she did so just perfectly.
So this was a nice ending to this extended summer vacation we had in the Ionian islands.

Princess Nayeli - Parga to Preveza

naama's camers Princess Nayeli to Corfu

Parga to Petriti (South end of Corfu)

Yom Kippur was coming and we wanted to spend it in a Synagogue in one of the Jewish communities. The only one we found (on the Internet) was in Corfu.
We arrived at Mandraki Marina, in Corfu on Tuesday afternoon, a day before Yom Kippur eve.
Mandraki is a small marina, operated by a local sailing club (IOS). It’s a charming place, except the fact that each time the fast Ferry to Igoumenitsa passes by, we get an enormous swell in the marina that rolls us immensely for a couple of minutes.

The Jewish community at Corfu is really small. About 50 people left here. 2,500 people were sent to the concentration camps in 1944, and only 250 returned. About half of them immigrated to Israel and the rest remained in Corfu.
We were welcomed warmly by the community and joined the Yom Kippur service at the synagogue. The service was held by a cantor (hazan), that was brought specially from Jerusalem. So we really felt at home there. Actually, it was superior to the synagogue we have in Kfar Netter in any sense.
We visited Zino’s shop one day. Zino is the head of the community. It was important for him to show us his father’s holocaust striped shirt (see the pictures). Both his parents survived the horror of the holocaust and returned to their home town.
After spending some more time in the lovely town of Corfu, we had a nice quiet sail to Petriti. It was supposed to be an authentic Greek town (as described in the pilot book). What we found is a town that’s in the midst of a major change. Big fishing boats fill up the harbor, with a lot of Egyptian workers. A lot of land was bought by Germans who are now building new houses in the village. It will probably be a shiny pearl in a couple of years.

Princess Nayeli - Parga - Corfu - Petriti

The Fish!

On Monday morning Yael bought a fish from the fishermen and we were off to sea. I had a feeling that this is would be our luck day with the fishing rig, because we already had a fish.
So after dragging the plastic bate for 3 months, about an hour after leaving Preveza we caught a nice fish (see the pictures for a proof!). Then, out of nowhere, Naama started screaming that this is a murder and that we’re not allowed to do this, and she went to her room and wouldn’t talk to us for the whole day. She missed the beautiful close hauled sail we had in 20+ knot wind. The boat was heeling nicely, while I on the helm keeping the boat a little head to the wind, to avoid the aggressive heeling and speed. Eventually we decided to reduce the sail area and furled the mainsail one step. The boat straightened up a little bit, stopped jumping on the waves and went a little faster, as we could go full speed now. It was a lot more comfortable now. We kept going this way till we arrived at Parga.
BTW – Yael cooked the fish with tomatoes and other good stuff, and was delicious.

Parga is a lovely bay, surrounded by rocks, with a small fishing harbor at the west end, as you can tell from the tons of pictures that we took there. We’ll try to stop there again on the way back, to enjoy the lovely beaches, and maybe have some swim.

Princess Nayeli to Corfu

In Parga

We're now in Parga, after a good sail close hauled in 20 knot north west wind. It's amazing how the boat remains dry even when jumping on waves.
It's a small resort town, between Lefkas and Corfu, on the mainland. We're anchored in the bay outside the fishing harbour.
Planning to sail to Corfu today.

More details and pictures to follow.

Eyal

In Preveza

Hi,

We stayed the last couple of days in Preveza. Thge expected storm has finally arrived, with 30 knots of wind and high seas (as we were told by two yachts that came up from Kefallonia). We also had a lot of rain in the past 24 hours.

Preveza is a great shelter (at least for the west winds we had). No waves, almost no wind in here.

Sailing up here was special. We had a beautiful 12 kts wind on the channel between Kefallonia and Lefkas, we then had the wind on our back sailing at 7-8.5 knots up to the Lefkas channel.
A couple of miles before the channel we had some extraordinary scenery:
We were going 7 knots with the wind on our back, a heavy rain started with huge drops, the rain drew a dark blue circle of about 1/2 mile around us while beyond it the sea was a foggy white. Very mistirious. Getting closer to the channel, there were about 10 kite surfers, cutting the shallow water near the channel. I think it was one of the more beautiful sailing days we had.

Tomorrow, we hope to sail up towards Corfu. North West wind is expected so we should expect a lot of tacking or motoring up wind.
We'll probably stop in Parga, or in Paxoi, tomorrow afternoon.

Good night,
Eyal

Pictures from Preveza:

Princess Nayeli - Fiskardho to Preveza

And some pictures Yael took today in the bay, of a boat that was sailing there (Don Del Viento):

don del viento

2nd Round in the Ionian - waiting for weather in Fiskardho

Shana Tova,

We are now in Fiskardho, Kefallonia, waiting for the weather to calm down. We had some heavy rain today, with fresh wind.

The trip from Tel Aviv to Preveza is not that easy. We stayed overnight in Athens (Wednesday, 24/9) and took a morning flight to Ioannina, where we rented a car and drove down to the boat.

Noga made us stay overnight at the slipway in the boatyard because there were two cute puppies there that she and Yasmin wouldn't leave.

The next morning we motored across the channel to Preveza. We found Preveza very nice, with a lot of decent shops, and a nice playground whre Noga and Yasmin spent a lot of the time.

On Saturday morning Sagi, Nir and Shoham joined us in Preveza.

The day started with Yasmin dropping her sun glasses to the water. I tried to go down to fetch them but there was some sewage in the water that made the dive a bit unpleasant. A little later in the day, the water cleared up and I went down and got the glasses. (In the meantime, Yael bought her new ones...).

On Saturday afternoon we started motoring down to the Lefkas channel. We crossed the bridge and started our way through the channel. About 500 meters into the channel, we saw a sailing yacht stuck in the mud (they missed the polls that mark the channel). There were tons of boats crossing, but none of them stopped for help. We couldn't stand it and asked if they need any help. They all yelled together that they do!

Towing them out was relatively easy (we asked them to get the rope out to us with a dinghy). The only difficulty was all the boats crossing the channel that were rounding us, ignoring the fact that we're trying to tow a boat in not so easy conditions.

Anyway, once the channel was clear, with some remission in boat traffic, it took no more than 10 minutes to take them out of the mud.

We sailed down to Spartachori on Meganisi island. We wanted to go to the public quay, but there was someone there on a scooter, telling us to go further south to what was found to belong to his restaurant. The sea was more rough on his quay and we had to have dinner in his restaurant (which wasn't that bad after all). Well, we had all we needed for a nice dinner on the boat but we were trapped in his net...

From Spartachori, we sailed to Vasiliki. We left our bike lock there on a street light post and wanted it back. We also needed some provisions. We tacked all the way to Vasiliki and got there in the late afternoon.

It was raining a little that night, and then on Monday morning I went out to buy a new gas tank for the boat, and when I handed it over to Naama, it fell on her foot!!!

The pain was unbearable. I ran to town to get Yael, while Nir and Shoham are trying to help her with ice and water.

We decided to motor up to Lefkas again, to have her foot X-rayed in the hospital. She was constantly in pain and couldn't stand on her foot.

At the hospital, it all went very quickly, within minutes she was x-rayed, and diagnosed to have a small fracture in the 5th metatarsal. It will take a few weeks to cure...

Anyway, thanks to Nir and Shoham, she's in good mood and making great progress each day. She really wants to make it to the sea scouts 3 day event she has the day we get back!

So we celebrated Rosh Hashana in Lefkas, and yesterday, Tuesday the 30th, we sailed all the way to cave bay (as Naama calls it) near Fiskardho.

You can see some of the pictures she took in that bay in the link below.

Today, we woke up, the younger ones took the dinghy for a row and then the weather changed. Some fresh SE wind started with heavy coulds. We decided to move to Fiskardho (10 minutes away), to check the weather, get some provisions, and decide where we want to go.

Once into Fiskardho, the weather only got worse with heavy rain, so here we are, still in Fiskardho waiting for the weather to change.

Tomorrow night, Sagi's family is leaving, so we'll either stay here or sail to Evfimiya. It all depends on the weather.

Pictures from this week you can find at:

Princess Nayeli - Back to Preveza

Shana Tova,

Eyal