Days 1-5

June 4-8 Corfu Greece

We’re here! Once again, I can’t quite believe that we’ve started our adventure and are now aboard our boat in Corfu.

The first moment we saw our boat, we knew it was the right one for us and that Matt had picked a winner (sigh of relief!) It’s a Beneteau Oceanis 473 2003. The previous owner, Paul, has looked after it like it was his “other woman” and to say it’s immaculate, is an understatement. The woodwork has been polished to within an inch of it’s life, everything has been labelled, stored correctly, beds made…he really has set us up with everything we could possibly need. I’m really not exaggerating here. I find myself thinking that I could do with something and of course, there it is in the first spot I would go looking for it. I know he found it hard to let go of his baby (we’ve been told there were tears at the end) but after 16yrs of owning the boat, he decided he needed to move on and has passed her onto us. Now it’s our home for the time being and are going to have to treat it with care if we want it to carry on looking as good as it does (thank god Matt’s a perfectionist so this comes naturally to him…not so much me and the kids!)

On Friday we left Gouvia which was exciting but nerve wracking not having sailed the boat before. Matt spent ages checking and rechecking everything and making sure we were covered in case we forgot anything. The weather was calm though and there wasn’t much wind but we got the sails up for a short time and made our way to Agios Stefanos, on the NE coast of Corfu. It was your typical Greek bay, beautiful, with a few tavernas on the shore, a couple of shops and was super quiet until a flotilla came in for their last night and partied until the early hours. It didn’t disturb us that much, I was kind of wishing I could join in (always up for a party!)

The kids experienced their first proper snorkel and were amazed by the fish, feeding them was fun too…Seb obviously got bitten trying to feed them with bread between his toes (twit).

We were planning to head up to Nisos Erikoussa today which is slightly north east of Corfu and about a 4hr sail but saw a small secluded bay just outside of Stefanos and decided to nip into there for the day/night. Settling into the chilled pace of life has come very easy, I have to say. I think it’ll be bananas and chocolate baked on a beach fire tonight with a few beers thrown in for good measure.