We have been sitting in Vliho for a week, The few minor things that needed to be done turned into a couple of larger ones. For one of these, we’ve been waiting for a part; for the other, we’ve been waiting for a conclusive diagnosis of the issue. Modern boats seem to be an amazing combination of good overall design and technology coupled with poor implementation decisions and execution at the detailed level. All this means is that the poor guys who have to do the maintenance end up scratching their heads in amazement, frustration, or some combination of the two. Our outstanding issue seems finally to have been resolved (thanks Mark!), but the cause is something remarkably odd that Beneteau will have to address for us.
The good news is that we’ve managed to get some good walks in over the past few days - working off the food and wine. The bad is that an easy couple of legs to Italy and Montenegro are rapidly becoming a little more challenging. (We may have to rely on our speed-sailing experience to get us to where we want to be in a reasonable timeframe). Let’s hope for no extended periods of bad weather.
To keep us even remotely on track, in the middle of all the work, we made a quick hop north to Lefkas. Lefkas is a vibrant little town that is running the risk of being completely overwhelmed by yacht charter companies who are abandoning the Aegean for the safer Ionian. However, it has some good shops and restaurants that make a couple of days downtime productive and enjoyable. Lefkas is the location of the other, much older, Corinthian-built canal. The canal is narrow, two-way just deep enough (if you take deep breath). It is especially fun when you meet a dredging barge coming the other way. The canal takes us pretty much directly into the marina that is the heart of the town. When we try to park there is 16 knots of crosswind; not good this early in the season and our execution was far from pretty. Practice, practice, practice …. Did someone mention 10,000 hours?
The immediate plan is to head north from Lefkas to Corfu and from there to the south-east coast of Italy. We will hug that coast for a day or so, spend some time in Polignano and then head over to Montenegro. All this will take about the next four weeks. There will probably be two overnight sails in this stretch. If the weather is fine and the sky is clear, these can be incredibly pretty(who knew there were so many stars) and very relaxing.