TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

So Thira is one of the first Jaguars to leave, something that the other crews will get used to before the trip is over.  I’m an early riser and, after the amount of trips that I have done out here, all I really need to know is where I have to get to that night…

Out of the marina, past all of the Super Yachts on the outer wall and out to see if we can get to grips with the in-mast furling main.

I’ve sailed Jaguar 27’s on three other trips out here, but this is the upgraded model with in-mast furling (Or sometimes it furls, as we will learn during the trip).

We spend a few hours messing about in the bay north east of Gouvia and then it is time to head south toward Corfu Town and its mobile hazards. Corfu is a major ferry port and Greek ferries don’t tend to allow for upstart little “play vessels”.

Ok so I have never seen one actually run a yacht down but if they do have to alter course to avoid you have your fenders ready, because they don’t alter any more than they really have to.  Actually seeing them alter course is good because it means that they may have seen you, and actually may have been keeping a lookout. 

A few years ago in the Aegean a major ferry hit a rock on its regular passage, why? Well Greece were playing a soccer international and all the crew off watch were down below watching the TV, and the on-watch crew decide to put it on auto and join them when Greece scored a goal….

As we get down toward the Corfu citadel we start to get RT chatter from the other boats in our flotilla being given instructions from Elpida, our lead boat, as to how to find tonight’s harbour.

“It the little harbour just under the Citadel on the Northern side of the headland…”  Pardon? Not if its NAOK it isn’t! Oops Jamie got NAOK and IOK mixed up at the briefing and we are actually going into the IOK, the Corfu Yacht Club harbour and not NAOK.

IOK is actually within the citadel complex, but you can go into town through the citadel gates and the security guard will let you back in when you stagger back after a meal ashore even if you are after the public opening hours for the citadel.

We get to IOK and tie up in time to get some photos of some of our colleagues trying out Mediteranean mooring for the first time.

Aim at the quay, drop the kedge off the stern and aim at stopping the boat before the bows hit the quay, and pass the bowlines ashore.  It is actually easier than coming alongside, but newcomers just get worried about it.

Some Mediteranean harbours now provide “Lazy Lines” which are mooring lines attached to fixed moorings on the bottom outin the harbour with a pick-up line taken to the quay. You come in as if doing a normal bows or stern to Mediteranean mooring but without dropping an anchor, pick up the “lazy line” and take it quickly aft (or forward if stern to) and then pull it in as if you were using your anchor. They are easier on the back than dropping and retrieving your kedge but can cause trouble if mooring in a cross wind (unless you can pick a spot with another boat to leeward that you can “lean” on whilst getting the line into position. 

Look at the attached photos of the crew of Lia doing their first bows to (in a harbour without “lazy lines”) and spot the two obvious whoopsies…