And just like that…you sail into Greece! After a great time in Albania, we crossed over to Greece. It only took an hour to sail from the south tip of Albania, Sarande, to the north coast of Greece. Back to the euro, but the language is still hard to understand and read 😉.
Since it was so quiet with sailboats in Albania, we had to laugh, that in this 1 hour trip and arriving in a lovely bay in Corfu, we already had seen more sailboats than 10 days sailing Albania!
We spend 2 weeks sailing around Corfu, starting in Corfu Town and then counterclockwise returning in Corfu Town again and we visited these places:
Meeting our friends in Corfu
Already on the first day in Greece, we had a wonderful time! That had to do with meeting our friends, Frits and Marianne and their 2 childern, Emi and Tieme! They had sailed with us in October 2023 when we were in Sardinia and had a great time with them. Now they had rented a sailboat for 2 weeks at Corfu together with their friends, also with 2 children. This was their last day aboard before returning the boats to the rental company and flying back home the next morning. So it was now or never!
We invited the 8 people (!) on our catamaran for a BBQ. When we arrived in the afternoon, one of the first things we did in Greece, was to buy out the small supermarket to have enough food for the 10 of us!
We didn’t know that the families brought also a lot of food (and plates and cutlery!) to our catamaran, because it was their last night at their rental boats. So they treated us to lots of fruit, water, beers, etc.
They arrived at about 18.00h, still light and the 2 younger boys enjoyed a swim under and around the catamaran, while we took a picture with our friend Frits.
The BBQ was lovely and a lot of fun. The bay slowly got dark and the high walls with all the lights from the houses and restaurants was like a painting surrounding us.
The next day, the family took a picture of the bay flying back to the Netherlands. Quiz question: can you spot our catamaran in the bay on the right sight😉? And a couple of weeks later, 1 of the children was busy playing with technical Lego and suddenly the catamaran appeared, including the little boat in the back! Children can sometimes think back to fun experiences for a long time and also give shape to them in a drawing or otherwise like a 3D ship!
Corfu Town
Sailing into Corfu Town is impressive! High above the city rises The Old Fortress, originally built by the Byzantines and later reinforced by the Venetians. The city below had a lot of nice streets with shops and restaurants, all in bright colors and very lively.
What we didn’t know is that this part of Corfu Town is not the old town. That’s on the other side of the bay, with even more older buildings. This Greek orthodox Greece introduced us to their special way of decorating the interior of their churches. It places more emphasis on mysticism, ritual and symbolism, while the Roman Catholic Church is more hierarchical and juridical. For visitors, a Greek Orthodox service can offer a more intimate and ritualistic experience, with a greater emphasis on the sensory aspects of worship, such as icons, incense and chanting.
And this gate below, led to a beautiful little monastery garden, where a number of ladies kept the abundant gardens well maintained as we walked.
Kassiopi
We welcomed my brother Lendert on the boat in Corfu Town and the three of us sailed north to Kassiopi. It’s a picturesque fishing village where we anchored and walked to the old fortress to enjoy the quiet bay with a beautiful view of the coast.
The water is incredibly clear and has a great temperature, so we swam in it a lot. In the picture below, you see Gilles and Lendert floating, because since we are in the Med, we noticed that this was much easier to do than the North Sea water that we were used to living in the Netherlands. And did you know that the salinity of the Ionian Sea is around 38-39 grams per liter of seawater! This is due to the limited supply of fresh water from rivers at that area of the Mediterrean Sea and the strong evaporation due to the warm climate, so more salt stays behind in the water.
What was less pleased, was that our anchor got stuck at the bottom when pulling it up. Luckily we were able to see because of the clarity of the water and only 5 meters of depth what is was: a small old anchor. We could even pull it up above the water and then see it. We were able to drop the old anchor, so we were free to release ourselves and back to freedom, start sailing again along the coast of Corfu!
When we sailed further, a bit relieved that we were able to move forward again, I started to think about how you sometimes get stuck as a sailor, but also in work or in live. Attached to old ‘anchors’ like your own beliefs, people’s opinions, the culture mindset. I posted a LinkedIn message about my thoughts and got a lot of positive Comments and Likes on it, see above on the right.
5 facts about Corfu
Corfu is an interesting island, some facts that we didn’t know:
- Corfu (to the Greec population known as: Kerkyra) has about 100,000 inhabitants. The majority of the population lives in the capital, Corfu Town , which itself has around 30,000 inhabitants.
- The island is about 64 kilometers long from north to south and about 32 kilometers wide.
- The coastline of Corfu is approximately 217 kilometers.
- Corfu is part of the Ionian Islands, a group of seven large islands including Paxos, Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos.
- The island is known for its vast olive groves: over 4 million olive trees are grown on the island! Some of these trees are centuries old and form an important part of the agricultural heritage of the island. The Corfiot landscape is therefore lush and green, unlike many other Greek islands.
Canal d’Amour
We sailed further in the north of Corfu, from Kassiopi to Sidari, because that is where the Canal d’Amour is. This beach is surrounded by impressive sandstone rock formations, which have been eroded by the wind and the sea over the centuries. This has resulted in beautiful bays, caves and narrow waterways that are characteristic of the area.
The most famous part of Canal d’Amour is the underwater tunnel. Legend has it that if lovers swim through this tunnel together, they will stay together forever. So we wanted to try that 😉. We anchored our catamaran in front of the beaches and rocks.
We took our drone and filmed the entrance of the tunnel, the Canal d’Amour, and the beautiful surroundings.
Then it was time to take our dinghy to the Canal. It was a nice experience to swim through the tunnel, it was 1.50-2.00 meters deep, so sometimes your feet touched the bottom.
It was a special experience to swim through this natural formation and end up on a small secluded beach on the other side.
You could stand on top of the high rock, where people also jumped off or dived into the water.
Agios Georgios
We kept sailing along the northern coast, the white sandstone rock formations kept shining. And when we came to the western coastline, we enjoyed the broad beaches where we anchored. Also beautiful rocks here.
Palaiokastritsa
Above the bay of Paleokastritsa there is a monastery. First we had to anchor our boat (see the white arrow in the middle), then take the dinghy to the harbor and then start walking towards the monastery.
It was one of the most iconic religious sites in Corfu. It dates back to the 13th century and has a small church, a museum and a picturesque garden with olive trees. This monastery is famous for its serene atmosphere and the beautiful icons on display.
When it was mentioned that the place offers stunning views of the Ionian Sea, they were right!
Sinarades
Half way this western coast of Corfu, the rocks started changing into green walls.
In front of Sinarades, was a large rock that we wanted to explore a bit better. We anchored here:
The water was almost transparent turquoise and had a great temperature.
We took our drone out and filmed the beautiful scenery.
Paramonas
After having cooked ourselves for a week now, and not having a dinner in a Greec restaurant, it decided it was time for our first Greec restaurant during our first stay with the catamaran in Greece! We spotted on the Navily app for sailors a restaurant called Sunsetview Restaurant Beach. That sounded great! We anchored in front of the beach and took our dinghy ashore. It was a nice restaurant and a great dinner.
The sunset was amazing. And I realized that this was actually the first time that we watched the sunset from a distance, not sitting on the boat, but looking at the boat. Again, this inspired me for a post on LinkedIn:
Paralia isos
The next day, after the dinner, we sailed a little more towards the south of Corfu. We stopped at Paralia Issos, it is one of the largest sandy beaches in Corfu, where we anchored the catamaran.
We were more interested in Lake Korission that was behind the beach. That is an inland lake separated from the sea by only a narrow strip of land.
On the southern side of the lake and the beach, where you pass the lake, you will find a series of impressive rock formations. The sandstone rocks have been eroded into bizarre and bizarre shapes, giving them a dramatic appearance. These rock formations create a spectacular contrast with the flat sandy beaches of Issos. The colours of the rocks vary from yellow to red and give the area a different atmosphere compared to the rest of Corfu.
So far, we are positively surprised at how varied Corfu is in landscape!
We went around the southernmost point of Corfu with the catamaram. You say both sides of the island and I saw this picture on the internet, which is funny because you see that there is a beach on both sides, but people don’t know that they are sitting together like that.
Lefkimmi
On the east coast of Corfu, is Lefkimmi one of the first villages we saw. And it has managed to preserve its traditional style. In contrast to the more touristy places on the island, you will find a quiet, local atmosphere here with narrow streets, stone houses and picturesque squares.
One of the unique features of Lefkimmi is the Lefkimmi River, which flows through the village and is the center of daily life.
The Church of Agios Arsenios (left side) is an important religious and historical site in Lefkimmi. This impressive church is dedicated to Saint Arsenios, one of the patron saints of the village.
Mouse island
On this island is a Greec orthodox church that we visited. It was nice to stop at this island, near the coast of Corfu, and walk up the hill towards the church.
It never ceases to amaze us how warm and at the same time how green Corfu is now. You expect this with a lot of rain, but not the many sunny days that we are experiencing now!
Pontikonisi Island – Vlacherna Monastery
Close to Corfu Town, so we almost sailed around all of the island, we found the probably most photographed monastery in Corfu, located on a small island reached by a narrow footbridge.
The picturesque white monastery has a characteristic bell tower.
It’s a very charming and peaceful place. But the peaceful part was not so much happing all the time, only for half an hour in a row or so, because it is located close to the airport runway! That also made for spectacular views of planes taking off and landing. This is a picture that I took from a plane landing, you can see how close it gets to the church!
And speaking of planes, after a week it was time for my brother to fly back again to the Netherlands after a great time on the catamaran! We have seen a lot, swam a lot and enjoyed the island of Corfu together!
