Greek Ionian (lots of pics)

[Nick_H]

We spent the middle two weeks of July cruising around the Ionian. We were on a friends sailing yacht, but I thought i'd post the pics here as the area hasn't been covered much on mobo forum. In fact, the area just doesn't seem popular with mobos at all, despite the fabulous settled weather, beautiful scenery, crystal clear seas, lovely villages, cheap mooring costs, and protected cruising and anchorages. I can only guess it's the more difficult access (longer flights and transfers) and lack of formal marinas that puts mobo owners off, unless anyone knows better? I have to say though, it's lovely to anchor off a beach without any wash from passing motorboats!

The photos are roughly north to south, covering the east coast of Corfu, Paxos and Antipaxos, through the Levkas "bridge" and canal to Meganissi, Ithaca, and Kefalonia. Despite being peak season, and there being a huge number of charter yachts in Levkas, the area was not at all crowded, in fact on the panoramic shot below there was not another boat in sight for miles around us.

 

[Nick_H]

 

[Trundlebug]

Great stuff, thanks for posting.

We've spent several holidays based in Lefkas and really loved it.
I always remarked at how few mobos there are compared to yachts, I can't understand it either.

It has lodged in the brain that it's a dream destination when I get the time (i.e. after retirement), but the problem is there are now so many places on that list I'll either run out of money or won't live long enough to visit them all!

 

[gjgm]

Looks stunning...
So, two weeks..how was sailing vs mobo in such a location?

 

[Nigelpickin]

Looks lovely, we have a couple of guys from the offfice who charter there every year; from your pictures it's easy to see why.
Tempted to go over to the other side and get a boat with a big stick and rag?

 

[Nick_H]

Looks stunning...
So, two weeks..how was sailing vs mobo in such a location?

I honestly went expecting to be blown away by sailing (if you'll excuse the pun), to the point that I was thinking our next boat may have a stick on top. We did enjoy it, but compared to our current flybridge we decided we couldn't live with the loss of usable deck space, reduced helm visibility, constant lean, and no option to speed up occasionally. Also the wind is usually either too light or from the wrong direction, so the motor seems to be on more than half the time anyway.

It was good to scratch the itch, but we're thinking modern trawler style for our next boat, Azi Magellano or similar, but that's a long way off.

 

[Nigelpickin]

I honestly went expecting to be blown away by sailing (if you'll excuse the pun), to the point that I was thinking our next boat may have a stick on top. We did enjoy it, but compared to our current flybridge we decided we couldn't live with the loss of usable deck space, reduced helm visibility, constant lean, and no option to speed up occasionally. Also the wind is usually either too light or from the wrong direction, so the motor seems to be on more than half the time anyway.

It was good to scratch the itch, but we're thinking modern trawler style for our next boat, Azi Magellano or similar, but that's a long way off.

That's exactly where we are or where we have been. Magallano 53, elling e6, norfhavn 52 or lagoon.... it's just that we want to go slower and enjoy the journey. Just a matter of getting the cost to change in pocket. I think that the aweful truth is that if we end up in the med we might get distracted by the loa arms race. Did you/have you considered a catamaran?

 

[Hardmy]

Thanks for those nice pictures! I promises myself to post a photo reportage of this cruising area where I am based since 2 years with my mobo. I do not understand why there are so few of them either, because the wind conditions are really not that interesting.

The downside of the Ionian are the very bad flight connections and in the winter it gots even worse. Then, all regional airports shut down and I have to drive 3.5 hours in a rented car from Thessaloniki. Suboptimal is also the high number of boats on the water in high season, but fortunately we are flexible enough to avoid those months.

Otherwise we feel very comfortable here, we'll do another year and then our plan is to move to the other side of the Corinth canal. There are so many options in Greece!

 

[Nick_H]

That's exactly where we are or where we have been. Magallano 53, elling e6, norfhavn 52 or lagoon.... it's just that we want to go slower and enjoy the journey. Just a matter of getting the cost to change in pocket. I think that the aweful truth is that if we end up in the med we might get distracted by the loa arms race. Did you/have you considered a catamaran?

Well as I say it's a long way off, so I wouldn't discount anything for now, and I do like the idea of the natural stability at anchor of a cat, instead of relying on complex technology (gyro or fins) to reduce the roll of a monohull, and needing to run the genny all day. There are other compromises with cats though, of course.

You're fighting a losing battle if you get involved in the med arms race, that's one you can never win!

 

[oceanfroggie]

Super photo blog. Thanks for posting.

 

[Nick_H]

The downside of the Ionian are the very bad flight connections, in the winter it gots even worse. Then, all regional airports shut down and I have to drive 3.5 hours in a rented car from Thessaloniki. Suboptimal is also the high number of boats on the water in high season, but fortunately we are flexible enough to avoid those months.

Yes, I thought the flights may be a problem out of season. One option we're considering is to winter the boat in Otranto in Italy, because it's easier to reach in winter, and I think it would also be easier to arrange servicing and repairs.

Do the crowds get noticeably worse in August than July? I ask because we didn't find it that crowded in July, especially in open water, and there was room in every anchorage we visited. The most popular ports were quite full, but again we always found a space for a 45' yacht. We are limited to school holidays, so our time would be mostly in July and August.

 

[Hardmy]

Yes, I thought the flights may be a problem out of season. One option we're considering is to winter the boat in Otranto in Italy, because it's easier to reach in winter, and I think it would also be easier to arrange servicing and repairs.

Do the crowds get noticeably worse in August than July? I ask because we didn't find it that crowded in July, especially in open water, and there was room in every anchorage we visited. The most popular ports were quite full, but again we always found a space for a 45' yacht. We are limited to school holidays, so our time would be mostly in July and August.

After some bad experiences I found good tradesmen in Preveza. But I manage to travel to the boat only twice a winter. You have to show up and supervise / coordinate actively otherwise your boat won't be ready for launching. At the time we were in Croatia, we wintered in a a family run yard Monopoli which is very conveniently located between Brindisi and Bari airport. Nice and reliable people there. Should I need to carry out some bigger works, I might return there just for this purpose.

As regards July/August, it's maybe because we are spoiled but I find it definitively too much. But true, it's still manageable. You can escape in some places on Corfu, the mainland, the Peloponnese. In any case, would be happy to help you should you consider to relocate,

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

That's exactly where we are or where we have been. Magallano 53, elling e6, norfhavn 52 or lagoon.... it's just that we want to go slower and enjoy the journey. Just a matter of getting the cost to change in pocket. I think that the aweful truth is that if we end up in the med we might get distracted by the loa arms race.

We're also thinking along those modern trawler yacht lines too for our next boat which begs the question why no Brit boat builder is in that market but thats for another thread. With regard to the Med LOA arms race, as NickH says you're never going to get close to winning that one. In fact sometimes I find myself thinking the opposite in that wouldn't it be nice to have a small boat to sneak closer to the shore inside all those powerboats lined up cheek by jowl in crowded anchorages

Thanks to NickH for the lovely pics. I half thought about going to the Ionian this year myself but as Hardmy says, the flights are non existent in the winter and, as I've already found out in Croatia, thats a real PITA

 

[Tranona]

While there are no direct flights to Corfu between November and April there are daily flights from Athens, so not difficult to get connections with UK athens flights. For Preveza and Levkas, either Thesselonika and hire a car, or Athens and hire a car or take the bus - not as bad as it sounds now the bridge over the gulf is open.

 

[Davy_S]

The crop sprayer flights can be useful, I fly into Athens then catch the crop sprayer to Kefalonia, it saves messing around with the ferries. even in winter the ferry runs between Fiskardo and Lefkas. or you can fly from Athens to Corfu, or Patra to Igo by ferry. there are various permatations to suit,

 

[jfm]

@Nick - thanks loads for those pictures. It looks great. I was actually toying with idea of doing that region this summer, basing boat in corfu, but I junked the idea due to some busy things at the office. Another year maybe, and your pics have whetted appetite. I guess you can live on anchor while cruising, but what did berth availability look like for 24m?

@Nigel - the arms race isn't so bad if you plan to drive the boat yourself and limit any crew to assisting, because you can't practically go above 24mLLL as an owner driver. And arms only become nuclear above 24m - for us owner drivers you basically are limited to water pistols

@ Nick again, be careful with that thought that cats don't roll. I've chartered them (in 45 foot territory) and of course watched them often. They really do roll in plenty of wave conditions, and you cannot stabilise them. I agree with you about lack of deck space, compared to size of boat overall - I think sailboat manufacturers have just got this completely wrong. Separately, completely OT, Seabob did a full warranty repair on the orange beast, foc. We got it back yesterday :encouragement:

 

[Trundlebug]

The crop sprayer flights can be useful,

Aren't the low level dives and hedge hopping a little uncomfortable, and disconcerting?

 

[Davy_S]

Aren't the low level dives and hedge hopping a little uncomfortable, and disconcerting?

They can be! I have always liked the flights, it takes around one hour and the airy hostess manages to serve everyone a coffee and a cake, I flew once and we could not land at Kef due to bad weather, it seemed strange, it was like a flypast, then back to Athens.

 

[Nick_H]

@Nick - thanks loads for those pictures. It looks great. I was actually toying with idea of doing that region this summer, basing boat in corfu, but I junked the idea due to some busy things at the office. Another year maybe, and your pics have whetted appetite. I guess you can live on anchor while cruising, but what did berth availability look like for 24m?

As far as I can tell there are only 3 marinas, Gouvia, Levkas and Preveza. We went to the first two, and they certainly have berths for 24m boats, not sure about Preveza. The other "ports" are town quays, where you drop anchor and tie back to the quay. Some of the visitor quays we used were quite tight, and you'd struggle with a 24m boat, but often there were bigger boats on other quays, but I don't know on what basis they were there, and whether those places are available to visitors

There was generally plenty of room in the anchorages, and most of them were very protected

@ Nick again, be careful with that thought that cats don't roll. I've chartered them (in 45 foot territory) and of course watched them often. They really do roll in plenty of wave conditions, and you cannot stabilise them. I agree with you about lack of deck space, compared to size of boat overall - I think sailboat manufacturers have just got this completely wrong. Separately, completely OT, Seabob did a full warranty repair on the orange beast, foc. We got it back yesterday :encouragement:

Yep, I appreciate cats also roll (though I haven't been on one at sea), but I imagine it can't be the kind of violent roll you can get in a planing monohull when a big wake comes through, the kind that sends plates flying off tables.

Good news on the Seabob.

 

[Tranona]

You have identified in part why MOBOs are not common in the Ionian - lack of marinas and traditionally a more "rustic" shoreside lifestyle. However, as you may have seen Gouvia does have a small population of very large motor yachts, some of them doing the cruise itinerary and others connected with the rich set that inhabit the north east coast. There are also a lot of Italians visiting in August.

The rich Greeks do have MOBOs, but prefer to keep them close by Athens or the Aegean as the Ionian is remote for them (and considered backwards by many!).