Gouvia Marina, Corfu

A very early start for us this morning when the alarm went off at 3.45am - we got ready and were out the house by 4.30am. The flight was delayed by 45 minutes but we still managed to land at Corfu on time. We had a transfer arranged but that seemed to cause much confusion and after looking for the correct collection service for a while we realised that there wasn’t one, so we got a taxi to the marina. Welcome to Greece!

At the marina we checked in and we knew the boat would not be ready until 5pm as Saturday is changeover day and they were still cleaning the boat. It is sunny and hot at 31C, and will be like this all week. We relaxed and had some lunch at a casual restaurant at the marina while we were waiting. The skipper came over to meet us, a lovely young man called Ioannis, and we also have a host called Giorgos who is doing all the provisioning and cooking of meals. They have immediately gelled with the young adults who are enjoying learning some Greek from them. In winter Ioannis is an actor performing in theatre!

We boarded the boat and discussed the route with Ioannis. He had planned to take us south to Paxos, but because we have to be around here for when Luke arrives tomorrow, we are sailing a short distance north and then having supper in the old town of Corfu. I only took two photos today and neither are great, but I want to upload this now before we set sail as we may lose roaming. We have paid for wifi for the week but we are waiting for the router to arrive, and I am not sure how strong the signal will be. I am sure I will get some beautiful sunset photos later on but I thought it better to post now. (We have just been told there is no router available after we have already paid for it - even the skipper says Welcome to Greece!)

We have been very surprised how nearly every tourist around us seems to be German, and there are many German registered boats moored here. In fact we walked past one German boat that had two Hungarian Vizslas onboard, so of course I had to talk to the owners. Their dogs are seasoned sailors! 

We are about to set sail, and tomorrow we have plans to go to quiet bays to drop anchor and swim and relax.