We left Paxos with some regrets, but with the forecast of sea breezes in the afternoon followed by days of dead calm we felt we ought to move on.  As it turned out the winds gave us only 15mins sailing en-route and blew up minutes after we’d docked!  Still, this was our first day this year of sailing entirely in shorts & T shirts, so we had no real complaints.  The east coast of Corfu is fairly unremarkable but the Venetian citadel on the rocky eastern tip of Corfu town is bold and impressive.  They really knew how to leave their mark on places they valued – the whole of the east end of Corfu town is made up of very grand Italianate houses, many now rotting away.

There are several places we could berth here, so we made for the old port for the first night so we could explore from there.  Unfortunately the area is being re-built and some of the dock wall has been removed leaving the place very exposed to the waves whipped up by the evening wind.  This was not a place to linger, so we set off to look at the 2 private yacht club marinas on either side of the citadel (having ruled out the commercial marina at Gouvia, 4.5 miles away along a busy road).  Both looked good, but we liked Mandraki best and moved here the next morning.  So this is our berth for the rest of April, tucked under the Venetian walls and right below the university music school where we are entertained by some very bold piano practice all day long!

Looking down on Mandraki harbour from the music school/fort:

We’ve already had a good explore of the delightful old town and walked down the coast to one of the few ancient Greek ruins not destroyed by earthquakes (incidentally in the grounds of the house where Prince Philip was born 90 years ago).  We’ve also had our headsail taken away for major repairs, to replace its sun protection strip which has disintegrated in less than 2 years of Med sun.     

We are here for a few weeks (flying back to the UK for a week in the middle) so no doubt we’ll post another entry later on.  In the meantime here are a few more views:

Looking across Mandraki at a few of the Venetian mansions:

Looking landwards from the fort: