Cruising log – Ionian Odyssey
The adventures of a yacht and her 2 humans
By Lucy Burns & Keiron Shatwell
Morning arrived and time to launch. Black Gold could be described as looking nervous dangling in the crane as the crew transport her to the dock. As her keel touched the water you could almost hear her say “ooh that’s cold” before sighing with relief as her belly settled into her natural environment. Final checks for leaks, engine ready, we fired up and motored the half mile across the channel to Preveza town.
Saturday 7 August, 38°47.4’N 020°45.3’E
We set off towards Lefkas to transit the canal down into the southern Ionian. The floating bridge opens on the hour and we timed the 12 o’clock bridge perfectly. Safely through the bridge we ran into the common problem of someone holding up the traffic. See it’s not just the A82 that has that problem. The limit in the canal is 5kts so bloody well do 5 not 2!! Out of the south end and with the wind behind us we unfurled the jib then let out the main to broad reach down to Meganisi and our planned anchorage. Black Gold enjoyed her sail, cruising comfortably at 5kts in 10kts of wind and we made good progress before furling in the sails to enter the bay and find a spot. Would it be jammed full? Would there be spaces? Would we be free swinging in 20m or stern to shore? As it was the bay we wanted had lots of space so we tucked into a nice spot and secured stern to shore for a couple of days chilling out.
