Syracuse to Lixouri

Leaving Syracuse

Well, here we are in Lixouri!

We set off from Syracuse at exactly 03.00 and our plan was to try and out-run the weather that would be building behind us.  And we did just that!

We had a tail wind of 10 knots, and, as we were largely keeping up with it, all was calm on board.

Now take a look at these screen shots, and remember – pink is good - blue to light blue - bad!

The red 'X' marks the boat's position

Now, 32 hours is a long time and there are highlights (but not many) so the most exciting event we experienced was, of course, my chilli (with loads of beans, Russ)  Fantastic!

Highlight 1-  One of the sunrises

Highlight 2 -  The halfway point

The main event!

So, two sunrises later, we arrived in Lixouri on a beautiful wind-less day.  It’s a quiet place and looks newly built and completed, but with still lots of work to do on the quayside.  All was quiet, being a Sunday, and there were no other boats here.  So we had the whole place to ourselves.  Brilliant!

Arriving in Lixouri!

Note the building materials on the quay...

It's a lovely place!

I just don’t seem to be able to sleep when we’re under way so after 32 hours I just couldn’t wait to hit the pillow.  I managed to stay awake until 10.00pm and then collapsed into bed…..to be awoken at 8.00am by a strange and very loud noise.  I jumped out of bed to find workmen and an incredibly loud cement mixer going full blast right outside my window.  They were finishing the quay!

We’d been to the marina office the day before with the ship’s papers but the little man there said, just come back the day before you leave and settle up.  Now this is a bit strange because they’re usually all over you like a rash – demanding dosh!

However, today we were visited by a nice lady from a local yacht services company who told us that we have to loads of immigration and customs stuff.  There are forms to be filled in which we then have to take to the local tax office.  Apparently, Lixouri is not used to yachts visiting from outside Greece and he would have assumed we’d arrived from a nearby island.

Upon entry to Greece the priorities are best described as:

Passport Control – Health – Customs – Port Police, whereas our priorities are along the lines of:

Beer – Bar – Restaurant – Bed.

But it is a nice place.  So, we’ll get the paperwork done today, although we may have to go to Argostoli (4 miles away by ferry – yes, I know we’ve got a boat but…), and then we have five days of chillin’ out, before Lynsey’s wedding on Saturday!

Probably won’t write any more for a day or two but tune in (if there’s anyone still out there!) around Thursday of this week.  And the girls arrive tomorrow so we’ve a bit of cleaning and tidying up to do before then!

Bye for now!