After our visit to Erikousa and Othoni, we sailed back to Corfu town for a few days to stock up on supplies, do a few jobs and check out of Greece. 

It was with more fear and trepidation that we approached the Port Police (PP) for the last time in Greece. Having struggled to get our Unlimited Transit Log (UTL) we were determined that the PP were not going to take it away from us when we left. A limited TL has to be handed in to PP on leaving the country but an UTL has to stay with the yacht and does not get handed in on leaving the country. Try telling the PP this. On this occasion our fears were founded. Two police women in the office could not have been more officious. One didn’t even make eye contact, just sharply told us to wait. When we were eventually called over to the desk where a second police woman was sitting, she was not in a good mood. She did not listen to anything we said and assumed that we were there to get our UTL stamped as, “all TLs have to be stamped at every port of call”. She was not interested in our attempts to explain that this was not the case and the reason we didn’t have stamps in our UTL was because we didn’t need to get them since the beginning of May when the new legislation came into force. We showed her the official document that stated this, in Greek, but she didn’t even try to read it. Once she grasped the fact that we were here because we were leaving Greece, she relented and stamped our UTL to say we were leaving and going to Italy. Then she said, very abruptly, “good bye” and we were dismissed only to be called back again so she could take a copy of the official document we had offered her to read. Maybe she was going to read it after we left!

Feeling very dejected that our last contact with the Greek PP had been so officious, we slowly made our way to immigration to have our passports stamped so that the Greek visa could be finished and the Schengen clock could start when we entered Italy. This time we didn’t  have to wait long, a very nice customs gentleman come to where we were sitting and said that we didn’t need to get our passports stamped as we were staying in the EU. We tried to explain that after Brexit, we thought we needed to get our passports stamped to show that we had not overstayed our Schengen time, but he was adamant that we didn’t need them stamped (very strange for a Greek official not to want to wave a stamp at something). So we had no option but to hope that he was right and that when we got to Italy they wouldn’t insist on an exit stamp from Greece. 

The next morning we were going to make our way back to Erikousa for one night before making the crossing to Italy. However the weather had other ideas and the anchorage in Erikousa became untenable so we decided to start the passage from Corfu. Therefore a 36 hour passage was started on the 20th Aug in light winds from the SE. This did mean we could get the Parasailor up and try it with "Briso, our new windvane". The Parasailor went up and filled, just, but poor Briso was struggling to know were the wind was coming from in the very light airs, so we concentrated on flying the spinnaker and left Briso to show us what she could do later in the passage. 

A few hours later, the wind went forward and it was time for the spinnaker to come down. With the white sails flying again Briso was put into action and she proved her worth, sailing to the apparent wind and left us to find other things to do instead of steering. We did keep a good lookout though!

We had just cleared Othoni and were changing course for Crotone in Italy when we noticed that the sky was looking rather dark and menacing. Just as we were debating whether to take in more sail, all hell broke out. Muskie went onto her starboard side, the visibility went to 0, sheets of rain came down (or was it sea water going up) the wind shot up to 41kts and the thunder and lightning was right overhead. Chris steered downwind as we tried to get some sail in with the rig crashing around with the wind force. We managed to get some genoa in but we had to leave the main as it was, thankfully we had already put a reef in that before the storm hit, but it would have been nice to have had a bit less up now. We were now going very fast downwind in the wrong direction, so the decision was made to heave to and try to ride it out with the sails backed. This we did successfully but we were still moving and now heading back towards Othoni! Heading to a lump of rock in this gale, was not something we wanted, so we tacked onto the other tack and hove to again, this time sliding sideways away from land. We took a deep breath, both of us were soaked to the skin and a bit shaken but we had control. The wind abated as quickly as it appeared and soon we were sailing again under full genoa and a reefed main with clear skies, then, a full moon moon came out to light up the night sky.

We checked around the deck at first light and the only things we found from the storm was the topping lift had lost its shackle pin, come away from the end of the boom and had wrapped itself around the mast and the radar, this did mean it hadn’t disappeared up the mast and I was able to retrieve it. This was the only halyard we didn’t “mouse” because we tend to use it for going up the mast, or for an emergency halyard. This will now get moused like all the rest. Amazingly the shackle had stayed in the end of the halyard and we found the separate pin on the deck, so we don’t need to buy a new shackle. 

A main sail batten had been blown out of its pocket but had surprisingly landed on the deck not broken, so that was retrieved as well, now we will have to check the mainsail for rips to the batten pocket.

After it was all over my thoughts turned to Odyssey’s ship wreck and his swim to Othoni clinging onto his wreckage! I hope we haven’t upset Poseidon in some way. On the other hand did he help us to survive this time?

We managed to sail all the way to Crotone apart from the last hour when the wind dropped and we were left with a horrid swell putting Muskie first on one side then the other, so we motored into the anchorage. 

Parasailor flying on passage

“Brizo” steering 

A casualty from the storm

Crotone Italy

Crotone

Crotone castle/Fort