1^st-2^nd June Itea – Trizonia Island (Gulf of Corinth - Greece) 24 miles 2 days

 Motored from Itea on a glassy sea with Peloponnisos mtns to the south and those of mainland Greece to the north (all still snow capped). Trizonia is a small Island, a mile or so of the mainland coast with a small marina, a small village and a few holiday homes, all in all a very pretty spot. Dani had his first swim in the sea off the little pebbly beach on the north side opposite the marina. He didn’t flinch in the cool water and enjoyed splashing and making breaststroke movements with his hands, maybe he’s a natural. We followed the swim with lunch at the Ostria café under umbrella’s and the sea lapping at our feet, this is what makes cruising worthwhile!!

3^rd June Trizonia – Navpaktos - Patras (Gulf of Patras) – Oxia – Petalas (Ionian Sea) 66 miles 

Reluctantly left Trizonia (no charges in the little marina, no wonder there are a lot of cruisies basing themselves there) and continued westwards through the Gulf of Corinth. We took a turn around the little port of Navpaktos with its ancient stone walls only big enough for a few yachts and only big enough for a tight turn between the many small local fishing boats. The Cruising pilot says “The medieval harbour is one of the best examples of its type in the Med and is where the Turkish fleet refitted before the Battle of Lepanto where they were defeated by the Austro-Venetian forces”, so a visit was mandatory. We continued west passing between the southern columns of the huge suspension bridge being constructed near the city of Patras which will eventually join the Peloponisos peninsula with mainland Greece at this point. Our intended destination was Patras but the big city with ships and ferries didn’t have much appeal after Trizonia and Ratna said “west more” so we continued motoring on flat seas through the Gulf of Patras into the Ionian Sea and anchored opposite Oxia Island adjacent to the mainland. We put up with rolling in the wash from the distant passing ferries for a few hours then raised anchor and continued to the sheltered anchorage of Petalas where we arrived just before dark and anchored beside 3 other yachts (a long day of motoring, last time we had a decent sail was on 23^rd May more than 10 days ago).

4^th-13^th June Ionian Sea - Greece 188 miles 10 days (1 night Cephalonia, 2 nights Meganisi, 1 night Levkas, 1 night Paxoi, 1 night Mortous (mainland), 3 nights Corfu, 1 night Erikoussa)

Heading north (motoring as usual) in the Ionion Sea (between Italy and Greece) with pretty islands, lots of trees and nice little towns. At Ay Eufimia on Cephalonia we tied up to the town jetty whilst I had several unsuccessful attempts at cafes to connect the laptop to the internet and bought a few supplies. We then continued on to a little bay on the east coast where we anchored in a “farmyard”, cows ashore and ducks around us looking for scraps making loud quacks, much to Dani’s delight his first real ducks. Cephalonia was the Island that Louis de Bernieres brought to everyone’s attention in his book “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” about the Italian occupation of the island during WW II and the subsequent massacre of 6,000 of the Italian Alpine Division by their “Allies” the Germans in a seven-day period in 1943 when they had refused to cooperate. 24 miles north we anchored for a couple of days at the northern indented part of Meganisi with our stern tied to an olive tree, reminding us of our pleasant days in Turkey tied up to pine trees. We enjoyed swimming (Ratna’s first of the year) in the clear blue water, tho the number of yachts in the anchorages and bays was increasing alarmingly and it was still early in the season. We left Meganisi reluctantly and motored around the almost landlocked Vlikho bay on adjacent Levkas but in the windless conditions and with numerous yachts and motorboats churning the water it promised only heat and claustrophobia so we continued onto Levkas town at the north of the island passing up the narrow canal separating it from mainland Greece. Tied up to the town jetty we stepped ashore and into a little minimarket owned by an Aussie accented Greek and his Philippino wife who were most helpful with supplies including a well stocked section of Asian foods and sauces and information on Levkas town. We wandered around the quaint town with narrow streets and found a veg and fruit market and a nice restaurant where we sat in a narrow alley with candlelit table under overhanging flower pots and enjoyed a very pleasant meal with little D passed out in his pushchair. The next day we cast off and waited a few minutes at the swing bridge north of the town for it to open on the hour for boat traffic. Into the Ionion sea once again and onto the little Island of Paxoi anchoring in the south at Mongonisi bay big enough for about 6 yachts at anchor and surrounded by villas with masses of bougainvillea flower that made the place very colourful. A chap from Darwin came across in an inflatable and had a chat he was waiting for flotilla charter yachts to come and tie up at the adjacent restaurant jetty for the night. North from Paxoi we spent a night at Mourtous on the mainland (tied to a microcarpa tree for a change of vegetation) then onto Corfu where we tied up stern to at Gouvia marina enjoying the luxury of electricity (airconditioning!!) and heaps of fresh water. Adjacent to the marina was a big supermarket where we reprovisioned, a chandlery with Internet access for the laptop (caught up with everyone’s news at last). The marina dominated by lots of Brits on boats the majority of whom stopped by and enquired if we really sailed all the way from NZ and admired “Star of the West” with her traditional lines, a refreshing change from the bulk of the mass production boats floating around they said. Corfu was our checking out of Greece port which required a visit to Corfu town 7 kms from the marina and after missing the hourly bus into town I was hijacked by a taxidriver with a good argument that I would cook waiting for the next bus and after getting him to reduce his price by a third to E10 he sang the praises of boneless NZ lamb all the way to town (available all thru Greece at much cheaper prices than back in NZ!!!). Customs, Harbourmaster and Immigration complete I then tried to time my return to catch the No7 bus back to Gouvia but unsuccessful and ended up walking the 7kms back arriving in a ball of sweat. One bus passed whilst I was in between bus stops but unlike Turkey where they will pick you up at any point the Greek driver showed no interest in my frantic waves and hurtled past. Whilst enjoying the marina and anchorage north, Corfu rekindled sad memories of Heinz and Catherines son Owen’s demise here and more recently Ratna’s nephew Hendy in motorcycle accidents. We motored north from Corfu to Erikoussa, the northern most Greek Island in the Ionion to spend a quiet night before stepping off on the trip to Croatia.

14^th – 16^th June Greece (Erikoussa) – Italy (Brindisi) – Dubrovnic/Zaton (Croatia) 250 miles 3 days

The choice, heading north up the Adriatic sea (between Italy and Croatia/Montenegro) was to sail nonstop (2 nights at sea) or break the trip with stops up the Italian coast, we opted for the latter stopping once in the Italian port of Brindisi. Departing Erikoussa at 0100hrs in the morning an ominous little swell was coming in from the north in the windless conditions as we motored out from the anchorage. Sure enough we had wind building on the nose from the NW and spent the next 17 hours motoring, hobby horsing our way NW in uncomfortable short seas and adverse current along the Italian coast. Brindisi is a large busy port with two inner basins where we anchored in the innermost one in company with a few other yachts (One “Falcon Crest” had anchored with friends Keith & Kaye from “Achates” in Sardinia last year). It was a busy and tight little anchorage and we had huge tugs passing metres from our stern, numerous rowing skiffs (their occupants facing backwards) threatening to spear us as they practiced for the rowing competition the following day, and numerous fishing dinghies and yachts returning from their days activities. Not very relaxing and in the confusion of watching all the comings, belatedly and alarmingly noticed little D beside us trying to enjoy what looked like chocolate. Mmmm, his first attempt to eat his own poo that had squeezed out from the side of his pampers and which in the process of trying to get it into his mouth was covering his face and chair. The unsavoury smells of the harbour were much added to whilst we cleaned the whole act up!! A night in Brindisi was enough and we left early the next morning in lighter winds from a westerly direction but with a huge confused seas for the first hour or so as we made our way NE away from the Italian coast towards Croatia and lil’D’s first overnight passage. The 24hrs to Dubrovnic in the south of Croatia was uneventful with a big full moon and we even managed to sail for 6 hours, a bonus!!! Tied up in Gruz harbour Dubrovnic Croatia at 0630hrs on 16^th June adjacent to the veg/fruit and meat market and completed formalities with minimal fuss tho had to chase around looking for someone to write 3^rd party insurance. After several misdirection’s got that completed to the satisfaction of the harbourmaster who emptied our pockets of 1615 kunas (equiv to 215 Euros/ 430NZD) for a 12mth cruising permit and whose departing words were “enjoy your stay in Croatia you can bang into anyone you like now”!! We caught up with Bob and Sue off the US yacht “Rejoice” also tied up alongside, who we sailed up the Red Sea with last year and who had also just arrived in Dubrovnic. We stocked up with goodies from the adjacent market which was considerably cheaper than Greece then motored around to look at the ACI Marina up the channel under the huge new suspension bridge. A tight sortie past the marina looking for an anchorage up the shallow river saw us sitting on some underwater obstruction for a few minutes before sliding off and we opted for a nice quiet anchorage a few miles further up the coast at Zaton which was surrounded by waterside villas and an old flour mill peppered with bullet holes. Managed a call to cousin Tony Smyth on the mobile after a previous call whilst in Brindisi trying to coordinate a rendezvous somewhere in Croatia (Tony and sis Shirley were in the north of Italy at a family wedding). The logistics of them getting to a ferry port in Italy and then meeting up in Croatia in the time they had available were too formidable so our anticipated reunion went awry and we planned the next three weeks to accommodate a cruisers get-together in Starigrad on the Island of Hvar at the end of June and our must do sail into Venice. The Croatian coast promised lots of good cruising with huge number of islands aligned NW parallel to the coast and offering the hope of good sailing in flat waters.

17^th June – 22^nd June Slano (Croatian mainland) to Stiniva (Hvar Is) 112 miles 6 days

After a big steak/salad dinner the previous night and being short on sleep after our long haul up from Greece we awoke late on the morning of 17^th June and raised anchor and headed a little way north to Slano in a little bay further up the Croatian mainland. At Slano (10 Miles nth of Dubrovnic) we tied stern to the town jetty on 17^th June, helped by Claude and Jackie of the Motorsailer “Phryne” from Monaco also moored there. We spent two very enjoyable days in this quiet spot, comparing notes either sitting on the grass under the trees behind the jetty or onboard the boats. (Claude had also spent many years in Africa mainly the Congo but also South Africa so He and I knew many of the same places). They had the charred remains of their inverter/charger on the aft deck due to a recent fire they had onboard caused by a leaking pressure gauge oil line behind their inverter/charger and after a Mayday call, resolved by their “rescuer” who dowsed the fire with buckets of sea water over their inverter, saving their wooden boat but causing terminal damage to the inverter. Dani became aquainted with their cat, was gifted a large fluffy duck that had been Jackie’s daughters’ and granddaughters’ cuddly toy and he had his first crawl on grass which was treated suspiciously at first as it was somewhat more spiky than his usual teak floor. Slano was a little village of 3,000 people before the 91/92 war and most occupants fled after bombardment from the ridge at the back (Bosnia) or from the Montenegro navy from seaward. The harbour fee collector was a delightful chain-smoking old man of 75 years who would sit and recall (in Croatian/German) tales of the war where most of the town had been demolished. He was one of the few that had remained and he presented Dani with a little car and rubber ring to chew on, hand me downs from his great grandchildren. Slano was in the process of being rebuilt and there was a new post office and a few cafes and minimarkets amongst the remnants of houses pockmarked with bullet/shell holes. The last night at Slano was disrupted by an electrical storm which blew up waves onto the dock and had Claude and myself up checking anchor status and ensuring we weren’t blown onto the dock. An adjacent charter yacht with a Canadian honeymoon couple onboard spent a couple of hours banging her stern on the dock whilst her occupants were sound asleep in the for’d cabin no doubt recharging from similar earlier activity. The electrical storm resulted in several power cuts/surges which had our aircon on and off and did some internal damage to our inverter charger (out in sympathy with its mate on “Phryne”s aft deck) though it still seems to operate but with a flashing warning light (our first expensive equipment malfunction which will need addressing when we find a base for next winter). We left on the morning of 19^th June sadly saying bye bye to Claude and Jackie who were heading south to Dubrovnic (to await arrival of a new inverter/ charger) and then onto Greece whilst we headed NW. Over the next few days we motored as the wind was invariably light or on the nose and anchored at Polace (Mljet Is), our first real exposure to Austrian front bums and back bums on the increasing number of yachts we were encountering (Capt Pearce you’d be in your element!!), then Lumbarda (Korchula Is), Marinkovac (Paklani Is) more naturalists the colour and shape of garlic, then Stiniva (Hvar Is), with more naked bodies sunning themselves on the fringing rocks or stony beach, (Ratna says they should have the decency to present their private parts landward instead of seaward, tho this might have dire consequences on blood flow).

23^rd June – 28^th June Starigrad (Hvar Is) 7miles 6days. 

Arrived at Starigrad (Hvar Is) on morning of 23^rd June the venue for a “Med Cruisers rendezvous” 24-28^th June. Starigrad, is a small pretty town at the end of a long west facing inlet at the west end of Hvar Is and it has all the facilities a boatie needs to relax and replenish supplies etc. A total of 24 “Cruisies” participated, with the majority of the boats from the US or UK but there was also “Nerissa” from NZ who we knew from Thailand, “Rejoice” who we’d caught up with in Dubrovnic, and two others from Kemer marina where “Star of the West” wintered, Ron & Julie on “Gladlee of Guernsey” and Frank & Taree on “Vision”. We met new people and put faces to voices we heard on morning radio skeds and enjoyed the six day sojourn where we caught our breath after having been on the move most of the time. Little D did his usual anti-social heartbroken cries from his stroller whenever anybody got too close and we were continuously apologizing to disillusioned ladies who dearly wanted to cuddle him. With our stern tied to the town quay we had the usual admirers and enquiries as to whether we had really sailed from NZ but this time in German/Austrian/Italian accents, “Zu kom von Noi Zeeland vis dis shif?”. We also had another pesky thunderstorm, at daybreak on 27^th June with the storm blowing in from the west, the sea level built up so it overflowed the town pier and flooded all the shops and cafes further up the harbour and proceeded to flow backwards and forwards every 10 minutes with a rise and fall of up to 2 metres continuing for more than an hour. Our stern oscillated alarmingly above then below the quay and was quite a spectacle but the associated current overturned numerous moored dinghies and small craft and the harbour had to be cleared of half submerged boats after things settled. Electricians were in great demand as they were called out to fix waterlogged fridge/freezers in the shops and cafes whose food would be in danger of going off in the summer heat. The harbour chap in charge of the town quay says this frequently happens in winter when nobody is here but only once every 10 years in summer, I guess this was one of those years.

29^th - 30th June Potkucina(Kakan Is) to Kukljica (Uligan Is) 91miles 2 days

We left Starigrad on the morning of 29^th June after a very enjoyable 6 days, our batteries were fully charged, water tanks full, gas bottles refilled, fridge/freezer full, lockers bulging and new boats to share experiences with. Our mission was to get up the Adriatic Sea as quickly as possible to Venice before the summer heat and hoards of tourists detracted from the enjoyment, so we motored north west 53miles stopping at Potkucina on Kakan Is, (our first exposure to organized anchorages where mooring bouys were set and had to be paid for nightly though we anchored here and got off free). The next day we did a turn through Hrmina and Betina marinas on Murter Is with a thought to finding a winter base for “Star of the West” but neither appealed, (tho the surrounding islands were pretty and reminiscent of the Kekova area in Turkey), then onto the little village of Kukljica on Uligan Is and tied up to town marina for the night (next to a big Austrian owned Gulet type yacht from Turkey). 

1st - 6th July Zadar, Maracol (Unjie Is), Kuje, Pula, Porec, Novigrad, Umag (Istria Peninsula, Croatian mainland) 143miles 6 days