It was a stormy morning as the coast of Greece hove into view. The thunder storms that had been around all night became a gauntlet between us and our destination. We played games with the shifting winds and large swells until the entrance to our port, Preveza, came into view. Taking the sails down in a heavy rain, I also donned a wetsuit, and spent an energizing ten minutes or so diving on the starboard saildrive, which had some fishing line wrapped around it. Luckily I was able to cut it free without damage to seals or other important parts. Under the power of two engines once again, we motored up the channel and tied up in the eye-wateringly expensive Preveza Marina. We were there for two nights while all our entry formalities were taken care of by our agent, Supreme Yachting. This was painless, except to our bank account which was screaming for mercy. While we were at the dock, I took my new bike for a spin and remembered how much I had missed riding. It is a great way to see some of the surrounding landscape, and get some exercise. Thanks Matt.

After we were all squared away on formalities, we motored deeper into the bay and dropped anchor at Vonitsa. Nicely protected, it provided a good spot to wait while our repair schedule was arranged. Being at anchor is also free, which is a large bonus. Our repair schedule was at the top of mind. We had two major issues that needed to be addressed. First was our refrigerator. Some of the connections were faulty, and had leaked all the coolant out. These needed to be repaired. Next, and more critical, were our port windows. They were falling out of the hull, letting rain and sea water into the boat. This was dangerous, and we were uncomfortable sailing any further until this was addressed. Unfortunately, the tech that we had met at the Preveza Marina said that he might be able to get to it in 5 weeks. This was stressing us out, and we were considering doing the job ourselves, which is something I didn’t really want to take on. Luckily we have an agent, and Thanassis from Supreme Yachting called the big boss at the Cleopatra Marina, and we were scheduled for all the work to be done before the weekend. This was great progress.

In the meantime we relaxed in Vonitsa, doing some running and biking. Early on a Thursday we relocated to Cleopatra, and by Friday afternoon all the work was done. We left early Saturday, and pointed the boat towards Voutoumi Bay on Antipaxos Island. The sailing was marginal, and we spun in circles with all kinds of different sails, before making it into a magical bay and dropping anchor. I suspect that much of the magic was derived from the absence of all other people. This island and bay are jam packed during the summer, but in early spring we were alone. We swam, made dinner and relaxed. In the morning we went for a bike ride and run, covering the entirety of the island. Then we raised sails again, heading for Garitsas, the large bay in front of Corfu town.

The sailing remained challenging, and lots of other boats passed us, running their engines. We are stubborn, and persisted in trying to sail in the shifting, weak, winds. In the early afternoon a nice south west wind filled in and we started making a consistent 14 knots under full sail. Charging along, we were able to pass many of the boats who had passed us earlier in the day. This we did gleefully.

Corfu was alright, we were there mainly to pick up our friend Wes from the airport. While waiting I did a fun bike ride up to a radar tower, and saw a good part of Albania stretching out snow covered to the north. We ate some nice food and walked around an old fortification. Then we learned about the strike. Picking up Wes at the airport wasn’t going to happen, due to all the air traffic controllers being on strike. We made new plans.

Wes, who was arriving in Athens late at night, would have to spend the night there, before getting a bus to Igoumenitsa, on the mainland. We would sail there and pick him up. We woke up early, and weighed anchor, glad to be out of the rather rolly and noisy Corfu Town anchorage. We had nice wind across the channel to the mainland, and arrived just as Wes was getting off his bus.

When I first moved up to Humboldt County for college, I wanted to go kayaking, but didn’t know anyone to go with. I posted a singles ad on Craigslist, and Wes responded. The next day Wes, me, and Wes’ friend Jon went out to the Cal Salmon and ran Nordheimer. This was the beginning of a long friendship, as we boated rivers all over California and Idaho together. Always living just on the fringe of respectability, Wes can be found hard at lurk in a variety of questionable communities. We were excited to have him out on the boat for a couple weeks, and to explore this new country together.

After an exciting dingy ride through some waves we settled Wes in, and immediately got underway, setting our course for Lakka Bay on Paxos. We had a good amount of wind, and had an exciting sail before settling into a nice secure anchorage for the evening. We went ashore, but there was nothing open, and we ate dinner on the boat.

In the morning we got an early start, as we were trying to make it to Vasiliki, on Lefkada, a sail of more than 60 miles. The wind cooperated, and we had a good run under the gennaker, although the confused seas made some points of sail obnoxious. We entered the bay slightly before dark, and had an interesting time navigating the swirling eddies and currents in the air. Fun sailing. We spent two days in Vasiliki, and I did a large bike ride up to the high point on the island. The wind also picked up and I was able to do a bit of foiling. It is fun progressing with each session, and I am looking forward to getting to the Aegean, where winds are more consistent, and hopefully the water is a bit warmer.

The next week we bounced around in the Ionian, sailing in mostly light air. We visited Kalamos and Ithaca, enjoying the improving weather and warming seas. The Ionian islands that we saw were mostly covered in dense, chaparral like forest, with millions of olive trees. The people were mostly easy going, and accommodating. We ate some good food, and the highlight was undoubtedly the baklava, which was better than anything we have had at home.

The weather began to align, and we started thinking of heading east. We had booked passage through the Corinth Canal, but to get there we had a long sail through the Gulfs of Patras and Corinth. We spent one night in a fish farm infested, and very wavy little bay, before raising sail in the morning and heading into the gulfs. Starting out light, the wind slowly built, until we were flying downwind in close to thirty knots. We spent one night tucked into a shallow bay on the island of Trizonia before resuming the screaming downwind ride. We arrived at the terminus of the Corinth Canal around 4pm and were instructed to wait for one hour. A small tanker approached and we fell into line behind it and into the canal. This was the first time we had taken KODA through a man made waterway, and the first time we had navigated such a narrow passage. It starts out as a little inlet, and then the walls on either side build until they are quite tall. The people on the bridges far above wave and cheer as you pass underneath. It was a fun experience, and we were soon anchored in a little bay just to the north of the canal. We were now in the Aegean Sea.

We spent the rest of Wes’s visit hopping around, from Agistri to Aigina. We were doing daily swims in the water now, and we were able to get one foil session in some light wind. One of the days we went to the larger island of Aigina and rented scooters. It was fun to get up into the hills and check out the temple of Aphia and some old ruins near Paeleochora of Aigina. We had a good lunch in the main town, and bought some groceries and souvenirs. Then we sailed back towards the mainland, since Wes had a flight to catch in the morning. We anchored in a grubby little bay, with a bus stop at the top of it. In the morning Wes and I caught the bus into Athens, where we went to the Acropolis and did some tourist stuff around town. Later that night, under the cover of darkness I dropped Wes and all his stuff on a damp rock near the shoreline, and watched his light retreat up and over a hill towards the bus that would take him to the airport and then home.

Living at sea means that we see less of our friends, but when we do see them they come for longer, and the visit seems more meaningful. Both Matt and Wes stayed for a long time, and were great members of the crew as we fumble our boat slowly around the world. Hopefully more of our friends and family will come and visit, and experience a taste of what this remarkable existence is like.