GIBRALTAR TO THE IONIAN ISLANDS

Wow, where to start?  It's taken us three weeks, a whirlwind trip!  And this morning I stepped onto the dock.....in Greece :)  In fact, in beautiful Argostoli, Kefallonia, our first port of entry in Greece where we've been issued a "Transit Log", valid for six months.  This is truly a buzzing place, not at all a sleepy island which we were expecting.  Need some buzz after all the "togetherness" on board ;)  I haven't downloaded the photos from this morning so they'll have to wait until the next blog.

So, from Gibraltar - marinas in Almeria (grows much of Europe's fruit and vegetables in huge greenhouses stretching from the mountains to the sea, Cartogena (conquered by the Romans in 209BC), busy anchorage in Formenterra (southern-most island in the Balearics), anchorage at Port Salinas, south-west tip of Mallorca (after having had to turn back during the night to seek shelter from northerly winds and heavy seas, Mahon Harbour - Menorca (great anchorage between Isla Lazaretto and Isla Cuarantina - largest deep-water harbour in the Mediterranean and 18th Century British Naval Base), Sardinia (see photos for "voted best anchorage so far"), Calabria Reggio, Italy (reputed to be a recruiting ground for the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and an experience not to be forgotten with Salverio our taxi driver!), Straits of Messina (unbelievable whirling tidal streams up to 4 knots found us travelling at 9.5 knots without even trying, and then as we moved into another stream we came to a virtual standstill) and then brief stop at a fuel jetty (0.5m under the keel in Messina, Sicily) - to a fabulous sail in NW winds 15-25 knots virtually all the way to Argostoli.

We were very very tired when we sighted the first lights of Kefallonia.  There was no moon and we knew there was a "rock" to negotiate before we could breathe easily and work our way into the harbour.  The rock was the easy part, the harbour having dimly lit structures built out almost into the passage, and when we finally saw yachts stern to at the quay, with winds still gusting it was all too hard and so we dropped our anchor right in the middle of the bay and went to sleep!!  Kinabalu is now safely moored at the quay with stern lines and anchor (traditional Med mooring which I'm sure we'll become very slick at doing pretty soon!)

Almeria greenhouses - very hazy but you can see them even on the top of the mountains

Sunrise over Cabo de Palos, south east Spain

Small bay in Mahon Harbour, Menorca where we dinghied for my looooong birthday lunch :)

Looking towards the entrance to Mahon Harbour.  Our anchorage was on the opposite shore to the left...

Birthday pressies in Mahon

"Sleeping Warrior", Teulada Bay, southern tip of Sardinia

Sunset in "perfect anchorage" Teulada Bay

Vowing to return to Teulada Bay as we head eastwards

"Tower Mail";) would definitely be faster than Sardinia's email system!