38:55.543N 20:54.177E

Friday 22^nd Aug

Collected paperwork for arranging to leave Serafina in Aktion (Preveza) for the winter and left the marina to explore the Gulf of Amvrakia.

This is a remarkably large natural harbour that surely rivals Poole in so many ways. For a start it is deep and very large! You can sail pretty much anywhere you want and it is full of beautiful empty bays and protected inlets which are all ideal for anchoring in for a secluded stay, sometimes without any other boats to be seen. Very few opportunities to moor up a boat of our draught in any of the villages, but anchoring off is fine. There are countless fish farms and we understand that turtles, pelicans and dolphins are all to be found here.

We firstly motored over to Preveza town just to look at the mooring opportunities for a visit another day. We then unfurled the genoa and sailed gently out into the gulf heading first to Vouvalos which is a collection of islets which are rich in bird life (pelicans and kingfishers included) and provide shelter from the prevailing wind. Of course in our case the wind was blowing 15 – 20 knots from the wrong direction which meant that they did not give us any protection from the sea which was running, so we headed South and sailed down to a beautiful bay just the other side of a an island (and connecting pedestrian causeway) from the town of Vonitsa. Above the town is a very large Venetian fort, itself built on the site of a former Byzantine fort. It must have a fabulous view out over the gulf and we may pop over in the dinghy tomorrow and go up and visit it, or perhaps leave that for another day.

Just a couple of other boats in the bay with us, which was very peaceful. Made use of the gas BBQ on the stern rail for the first time this evening and enjoyed some great sausages that we bought in Lefkas. Probably time to get the rod out again and see what we can catch and cook tomorrow!

Concerned that we must be beginning to fit in rather better these days, as instead of shopkeepers always assuming we are English (!) we are getting stopped in the street by drivers asking for directions! In my case there is the extra complication of remembering which language we are supposed to be using. Every time I begin to get the hang of greetings, thanks etc. we move onto another country and then I get all confused again. Greek is one language that we were able to use pretty well in this context, but having arrived, I cannot stop using my limited Italian. Then there are the boats that you moor alongside in the evenings. Always nice to exchange pleasantries in their language, but just to make things a little bit harder we have recently encountered a French family on a German flagged yacht, Italians on a British flagged yacht and of course Brits in Greek flagged yachts. Certainly revising my opinion of the Italians, since during the past two weeks, no less than three lots have come up to us to say how beautiful our boat is.