Gouvia Marina, Corfu – 25 September 2018

Today was a prime example of why I don’t understand the weather patterns here in the Med. We had an extraordinarily calm night with not a breath of air.  I was so warm I was unable to sleep very well.  So it was a bit of surprise when at about 9am and we were thinking of leaving the wind started to build.  Eventually it blew up to a Force 6 just as we were pulling up the anchor.
       
When we got out to sea it was still blustery.  Eventually the wind was 17- 22 knots on the beam and we sailed for about an hour on Genoa alone doing about 6 knots.  That seemed good when all of a sudden the wind went round on the nose and dropped to 5 knots.  In all this time there was absolutely no change in the general weather. It was sunny with a bit of cloud and fairly warm in the sun (though the strong breeze when we had it was cool). Richard put the drop in the wind down to coming into the lee of Corfu Island.  But that didn’t explain why as we got closer to the island the wind started to pick up again and was blowing a force 4 on the nose!

Well despite these fluky winds we made it to the fuel pontoon at midday.  There didn’t seem to be anyone about and the wind was still blowing force 4 away from the pontoon.  So I was rather proud of myself when I picked up the lines from the pontoon and secured us at the stern and amidships.  Finally the fuel man came out and gave me a bow line (which I’m not sure was really needed).  Then we did our first job to prepare the boat for winter - we filled the fuel tank to the top.

I was able to set all the fenders and lines for mooring at our berth on the fuel pontoon and we were taken back to the berth we left three and a half weeks ago.  It is still a lousy berth with our boat at an angle to the pontoon.  They sent a slight girl to come and help us, but she couldn’t improve it.  They are going to have another look.

So we start to prepare for winter.  We didn’t do too badly.  We cleaned and stowed the dinghy and we booked the times for us to be lifted out and re-launched in the spring.  We also saw the people who will organise all our repairs and maintenance over the winter and will supervise the lift out and re-launch.  They will have a sail maker come over tomorrow morning to look at the lazy jack bag and advise what to do about it.  So we have 4 days to get the boat all ready and then we are off to our bit of luxury at a resort down the road.

I guess this will be my last post for the season.  Speak to you next year!

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