To Lefkas and Beyond

After leaving Preveza we went to the Lefkas canal.

Sand Spit outside Levkas Channel

We anchored out front and decided that instead of going through immediately that we would just let time go by and swim to the sand spit and enjoy the day. We needed water, and the best place to get it is at a marina. We went into the Lefkas canal and I went closer to the buoys than the spit – mistake. The depth sounder registered -0.1 … so we were mighty close to hitting bottom.

Looking back at the swinging bridge.

It’s alluvial sand that’s quite coarse, so we could have probably gotten out fairly easily, but I was talking to someone who said that the fishermen deliberately move the buoys so they can charge yachts to haul them off the sand. Thankfully that wasn't us.

Anyway, we drove through the canal, with the guy in front of us going so slowly that we needed to put the boat into neutral half the time down the canal. What is wrong with picking a speed and sticking with it? Honestly.

Looking forward, in line, and towards
the marina at right.

Next up was the gas dock for diesel, gasoline for the dinghy and generator, ice for drinks and pop for the kids. We pulled into Lefkas marina and docked the boat. With eight people on board for a week Tara needed some TLC. The most useful thing about being in the marina is unlimited water for cleaning. We had a serious challenge with our aft holding tank – when we emptied it – OMG what a smell. I dismantled the panel off the mirror and began the process of figuring out what was happening with the venting system. After all was said and done, the vent fitting that goes through the hull had corroded shut .. meaning that whenever we were flushing or emptying the tanks, all the foul odors would get into the cabin instead of through the activated charcoal filter and out the vent.

Laundry also needs to get done.

 I bought a new vent for $15 and installed it, problem solved. It was good to know that it was a small problem … I remember back to the Catamaran where we were pumping raw sewage into the bilge – kind of hard to make a boat smell sweet with hundreds of liters of sewage sloshing about in the bilge. That was the kind of problem I was dreading and thankfully did not encounter.

Laundry dries pretty quick!

Anyway – a couple thousand liters of water later, constant contact on the Internet, and many movies watched by the kids, we were ready to bug out of Lefkas. We decided to go whichever way the wind was blowing – my interpretation of that is that we would head downwind. Marina’s was a bit different.

Chilling out while "Auto" drives.

A fair amount of "traffic" to watch out for.

Jessie started writing music.

She selected a place directly upwind of us so we ended up beating into 20 knots of breeze for around 15 miles. We were rewarded by finding a really nice bay in Sivota on the island of Lefkas, where we anchored and had dinner. After dinner on the boat Marina and I went ashore for appetizers and a drink (I agree that is a little backwards). What a nice little town … definitely a worthwhile visit.

 For some reason we are having difficulty making decisions right now about where to go and what to do. I think that it is because we’re winding down the trip and we just want something easy to deal with. So our adventure quotient is down a bit. We want a place that is easy to anchor, don’t really care if there is food or not because we have lots on board, we want the water be clear for swimming .. but other than that … we’re pretty easy.