Gulf of Amvrakia

 After shopping the afternoon wind is up and we raise anchor from Preveza to sail into the Gulf of Amvrakia the inland Sea which is about 20 miles long, shallow and full of marine life.

The replacement autopilot is ready but as we gain speed in the gusty conditions it is hard to set it up so I steer the familiar course by hand. We come to a favourite quiet bay, Ormos Ay Markou and anchor at the west end in 2 metres of water, well protected from all but east winds.

It is time to chill out after the frantic past days and catch up with some little jobs.

Here we saw again the iridescent kingfisher bird, always a thrill.

We swim a few times a day to cool off. Friends Bart and Anne-Marie anchored close by in Pico" and we spent an evening on their Maldives catamaran with them.

After 3 nights we motored in the still morning the mile to Vonitsa, anchoring in front of the town to buy food. This time I had the autopilot set up properly. 

Stocked up we motored round Koukouvitsa Island to the sheltered Bay to the west of Vonitsa. Here we can find good drinking water for out tanks and bottles but the main taps are turned off, perhaps vandalised? However the supply to the island's little church is still on. We managed to shower at the tap as well as filling the bottles. A walk around the island gave us a beautiful sunset.

Tony and Ann on Dazcat 920 Razzmatazz dropped by for a drink with their flask if chilled white wine. Another day we went to them to look over their boat. 

Catamarans are popular these days for cruising. Apart from the Lagoon types which have sacrificed in later models looks for more accommodation we saw an earlier Catana 41 Frida and met Ralf and Nina ashore. Nina has lower leg in plaster cast so can't swim for now. They have plans to sail to Costa Rica this winter.

Another boat we have seen before and admire is the older style Outremer 42, which left the same morning as we did.

Before leaving for Preveza we raised the mainsail, only to find it drop down. The halyard had disconnected from the head of the sail needed retrieval. 

We sailed under genoa back to Preveza, passing Largyalo going the other way.