39:38.94N 19:51.10E

We waited 2 days in Marzamemi for decent weather before tackling the final long passage from Sicily to Greece. The passage went smoothly and the only point worth recording was when SWICOE did the final flag change.

“Shall we go straight to Corfu” asked Pat. “No” said the skipper. “We’ll get a better wind angle if we head for Lefkas” he lied. All part of Skipper’s secret plan. So that’s what we did and dropped a hook in Sivota at the Southern end of Lefkas after a 3 day passage. Next day we moved round to Vlycho Bay – one of our favourite places in Greece.

After a couple of days rest it was Pat’s 60^th birthday.

Aha - now I understand.

Once she got past that trauma she tucked into a 60^th birthday bacon roll for breakfast

We seemed to be for ever eating that day.

Next day the young skipper took his old wife for a trip round the island on a motor bike.

We had lunch at Rouda beach and then did what all sensible old people do.

Skipper reminded her that bits start dropping off when you reach 60

But then the weather turned nasty again and the skipper started fretting because now he wanted to get to Corfu.

“No problem” said SWICOE. “We’ll just wait for a couple of days and then leave and we can stop off at Paxos on the way.” And that’s when the skipper revealed his plan.

“Tomorrow is my 60^th birthday and I want this epic trip to end on that precise day. That’s why we went to Lefkas - if we’d gone straight to Corfu we would have arrived too early. Now we’ve lost a day with bad weather so it’s going to be tough to get to Corfu on time. We need to get up to the Lefkas Canal today and get the first bridge opening tomorrow morning and if we miss out Paxos we can still get to Corfu on my birthday”

And so he moved the boat up to the Lefkas Canal and anchored there overnight. Next morning he woke up his trusted crew at 0530 and they went through the Lefkas Bridge at 0600 and round the notorious sand spit in the dark. For once the wind was kind and we were soon making rapid progress.

And at 1800 hours on the skipper’s 60^th birthday - a mere 420 days after leaving - we arrived back in Gouvia Marina, Corfu. There was Wolfie, waiting to help us tie the boat up, just as he had been to cast us off over a year before.

That was it then – the voyage was over. 2 Ocean crossings. More than 13,000 miles chalked up. One man’s dream achieved. I wonder what come’s next?

Skipper – 27^th September 2010