Return to Corfu

Minka of Southampton - Cruising Log
Edmund Wigan
Fri 5 Oct 2012 15:31

The flight back to Corfu was good and the taxi was a very reasonable 20 euros with the driver knowing Gouvia Marina well enough to drop me at the end of the right pontoon. Minka looked well in her berth but when I removed the cockpit tent there was an inch of water on the cockpit sole. A mild panic until I remembered I had turned off the cockpit drain seacocks assuming the tent would keep it dry. Very wrong as there had been some very heavy rain during the seven weeks I had left her.

 

The next few days I spent fitting various new bits and putting her back together. The most interesting, or least dull item, was fitting new deck organisers which guide the ropes from the mast to the cockpit. The original had 25mm pulleys in a row of four. Over the years these had worn flats on the pulleys almost to the spindles. Using larger pulleys would reduce friction and I managed to get new organisers which stack the ropes two high allowing her to have 65mm pulleys.

 

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The new organiser on the starboard side.

 

Minka had her birthday on the 25th of September so we celebrated by dressing her all over.

 

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Not a good picture but the other boats wouldn’t move so I could get a decent shot. That’s Germans for you…..actually they were a great couple on a beautiful 29ft Halberg Rassy from about 1986.

 

As a shakedown cruise we left for a little anchorage  Petriti on the south of the Island. Minka was very slow as she had grown a lot of weed on her in Gouvia. I was not very happy about this and did not want to get her lifted out to clean her bottom. With the help of a friend we managed to clean her bottom and I surprised myself in free diving and cleaning the propeller. She is fine now.

 

From Petriti we sailed to an island just south of Corfu called Paxos and anchored in a charming bay Ormos Lakka on the north side.

 

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This is the entrance to the Bay.

 

My plan was to then sail up to Albania and Croatia and maybe Venice before returning south for the winter. We sailed back north and  stopped in Corfu Town to pick up supplies.