Apologies for the delay in writing this post but at least it is here now and its only short so hopefully you won’t get bored!

Having left Ithaki we motor-sailed 23 nm north to Vliho on Lefkas where we met up with “Coriander” who had caught us up having left Kalamata a couple of weeks after us. We spent 8 days together having fun revisiting anchorages we had enjoyed two years ago.

We then parted company as we were going to Cleopatra Marina to be hauled out. You might recall that we had been booked to come out at Kalamata but the water level dropped too much.

I can’t say enough about the professionalism of the travel lift guys at Cleopatra. What a slick and ultra-careful operation they run.

We were only booked out for a week so had to get to grips with the work that needed doing including touching up the Coppercoat antifoul, polishing and greasing the prop, changing all the anodes, checking rudder and thru hulls and having the boat polished.

We know that we should probably get her painted but that will have to wait as it would take much longer than a week.

The marina was much nicer than I had expected. Having only previously seen it when looking across from Preveza I had imagined a rather gritty, dusty place.

It was actually kept very clean. The aisles were watered from time to time to keep the dust down, the toilet/shower block was cleaned at least four times a day, there were excellent washing machines and a drying area….

….and although there are hundreds of boats they are properly spaced.

There is a well stocked small shop – they had Marmite! There is a free ferry across to Preveza every morning which returns early afternoon and there is a very nice restaurant/bar.

The bar overlooks the wet berth area which seems to be used mainly by boats taken off the hard by the staff and awaiting their owners to return.

Just outside the marina is another restaurant but to be honest we preferred the one in the marina which was, surprisingly, less expensive.

It was very pleasant sitting in the evening watching small boats which turned up every dusk to fish in the fast flowing current.

Also close by was Aktion Fort. Unfortunately, no access inside….

….but it did have some great carvings at its gate.

Last year I wrote about the flying dolphins which ply their last remaining route between Piraeus and Aegina/Agistri. It was quite a surprise, therefore, to see two in Cleopatra.

From what we could tell, they have been bought by a private company who are doing them up for pleasure trips of some kind. Its good to know that they haven’t just been left as rotting hulks.

Whilst in Cleopatra we finally got round to fitting the new fender socks I had made just prior to leaving.

I’m not quite sure what Mike was implying when he wanted me to model one of the ball fender covers!

The week passed very quickly and on 18^th May we were back in the water….

…… and anchored in a different part of the large Preveza anchorage due to a forecast east wind.

We walked up to the village of Agios Thomas which was singularly uninspiring though the staff in the only bar/café were very pleasant….

…. and the sunset from the anchorage that night was quite spectacular.

Having really enjoyed the Gulf of Amvrakia previously we decided to spend another few days there so had two nights at Vonitsa and then had a lovely sail north to Koronisia.

We had walked ashore when anchored there two years ago but missed this small fort so we were glad we took a different route to the village this year.

We also enjoyed the view and the meal at the excellent fish taverna “Patentas”.

Instead of crossing back to Vonitsa we went to Paraglia bay just north and west of it where we “wasted” a couple of evenings swimming, playing boules and having sundowners at the very pleasant beach bar.

Just before our haul out we had spent one night in Preveza Town and, whilst wandering around we saw a poster for a Jazz Festival. We have a habit of seeing posters for great sounding events that we have just missed or that are happening when we have to be somewhere else so it was wonderful to find that the Festival was being held from 26^th to 29^th May.

This was the 20^th festival and in the 20 years 133 bands from 31 countries have played.

This year there were nine bands but we only saw four.

We missed two on the final night because of bad weather when the event was moved indoors to somewhere we couldn’t really work out how to find and didn’t fancy wandering the backstreets in a thunderstorm.

Overall though it was quite entertaining and Mike was so chuffed that he bought the T-shirt and a CD!