Sicily to Greece

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 13 Aug 2008 08:24
37:37.85N 17:55.36E

Tuesday 12th August
Left the anchorage briefly at 9.00am to get fuel from the town quay and then
dropped the hook again back in the bay as we were not planning on leaving
for Greece until 2.00pm.

Did some shopping and found a fabulous market so we are well stocked up on
veg etc.! Went into the old town for a coffee and an ice cream and
eventually returned to Doris the dinghy to motor back out to serafina around
11.30am to find that 20 knots of wind had sprung up and that there was a
fairly large chop (lots of waves) in the bay. This meant us getting rather
wet in the return trip in the dinghy and it was not easy getting back on
board Serafina either.

As planned however, we were ready to leave at 2.00pm and we lifted the
anchor and set the sails and a course for Argistoli, on the island of
Cephalonia, Greece. Had a cracking sail for the first 6 hours and were well
ahead of the planned timings, however as darkness fell, so did the wind and
before long we were back to gently motor sailing and finally just motoring.
Joined by some dolphins for an hour or so around 1.00am but once the moon
dropped below the horizen, visibilty dropped right away.

Quite a few large ships crossing our route so far which keeps us on our
toes, but since daylight on Wednesday 13th August, we have seen no ships at
all and have just met a British yacht sailing on the exact reciprocal course
as us, heading for Sicily! 150 miles from the nearest land and we passed
within 20 metres of each other.

Oh and no fish so far!!