Crazy Weather in the Ionian

People cruise the Ionian for lots of reasons … pristine crystal clear blue water, awesome anchorages, lots of villages to visit and most important settled and mild weather. In the several years that we have been cruising the Ionian we have found that most days you are powering between destinations. There is a general northwest wind that comes up in the afternoon and dissipates by the time the sun goes down. If you time it right you can get some reasonable sailing in when you want, and power against the wind before it gets too strong … pretty much perfect cruising sailboat conditions – probably why it is so crowded.

Not often you see 30+ knots at Gaios

From a chartering perspective it means that you can cover a fair amount of ground without worrying that you’re going to spend a few days hidden out somewhere against the weather or that you might have a couple of long days against some ugly wind and seas.

Blame it on kismet, global-warming, or the law of averages but the wind and weather in the Ionian has gotten more intense the last two years. The last couple of days we have been hiding out from the wind. A couple of nights ago we had our first ever collision with another boat at anchor.