Gisela's nephew Felix visited us on board for five days on October 8th. He flew to Corfu and we picked him up in the beautiful Mandraki Marina, which is located directly below the fortress.
Felix rowed a lot as a teenager, including regattas. So we weren't surprised that he immediately had a feeling for the boat, and for the water anyway. What was amazing, however, was that he sailed well and safely right from the start, had a feeling for the right course to the wind and reacted sensitively to the boat, wind and waves. At the beginning, when we were still in the marina, the somewhat unpleasant swell was a problem for him, but that soon disappeared.
He was also a real relief for us, because sometimes sailing with two people, especially the sail recovery, can be a bit affording. And you can have a good chat with Felix, he is very interested and we had lots of topics.
What was really nice was that we had really good sailing winds in these days and so we were able to try out all the different sails - and of course sometimes, but rarely, the engine.
First we went to Sivota on the mainland, where Felix learned how to handle the lazy lines, which is always a bit confusing in the beginning because it feels like you have to pull the line in the wrong direction. As our “reward”, Felix invited us to a meal in a very good Greek taverna. Next stop was Gaios, “The St. Tropez of the Ionian Islands”, on the beautiful island of Paxos, on a south-easterly course. Mooring was a little difficult as there was no mooring available at the floating dock. Our friendly boat neighbor, an Argentinian, helped us and we were able to moor our stern to his boat.
Then we were already heading back north, heading for Petriti, a tiny, pretty fishing village on the south-east coast of Corfu. The harbor is very small and very shallow, we had a strong crosswind and our long keel combined with the effect of the propeller just didn't want to go to the pier. It finally worked and we went to eat in one of the good fish tavernas.
The next morning, we took our neighbor's anchor with us, when we raised ours, but that worked out quite well. We headed north-northeast towards Paganía Bay, a secluded green hidden bay with a house and lots of goats and cows, something quite exotic. Felix achieved his speed record in a good wind from the east-northeast: six knots! The wind then picked up sharply and even in the anchorage, which was sheltered on all sides, it was up to 30 knots. It all calmed down in the evening, the anchor was well in place and we slept on completely smooth water.
Unfortunately, we had to motor back to Mandraki/Corfu - no wind, but plenty of sunshine.
After a farewell beer and wine, the plane left at nine in the evening, our visitor was gone and we were alone again. It was a wonderful and varied week with Felix, very nice!
