Cruising Around the Ionian Islands on a New Catamaran

 I met my first crew: Andreas, Christoph, Hans-Christoph, Michael, Peter, and Robert at Hotel Armonia in the south of Nydri in Lefkas on Saturday, 13th June 2026. After completing formalities and buying provisions we boarded our boat, a brand new Lagoon 43 named Emerald, chartered from Athenian Yachts. We had an authentic dinner at Tasty and slept our first night on board moored to the small Athenian pontoon.

Next morning after breakfast at myBakery we motored south passing the west coast of Meganisi. Leaving the channel we checked the new sails. Despite light southerly winds we were happy with the sailing performance: with 7kn of true wind beam reach we were able to do 4kn speed over ground. In the afternoon we anchored in the middle of Filiatro Bay on a sandy patch of 7m in the NE of Ithaka and had sardines in buckwheat breadcrumbs for dinner prepared by Andreas. Next day at 09:00 we continued south with nice NE winds of 14kn reaching 7kn SOG near Akra Skinara at the NE tip of Zakynthos. We looked at the impressive Blue Caves, passed Agios Nikolaos and finally anchored at south of Xigia Cove on 9m sand with a faint smell of the nearby sulfur bath and had Tagliatelle Bolognese for dinner carefully prepared by Andreas and Michael.

On Tuesday 16th we motored with no wind into Zakynthos port, moored with anchor in the southern harbor alone at the Athenian pier, and got a stronger folding chair as a replacement for a broken down plastic chair from the friendly manager. We replenished our provisions at Kritikos Supermarket and visited the harbor cafe. Early afternoon we left the harbor and motored to the Nature Reserve for turtles in Laganas Bay in the very south of Zakynthos, where we anchored in the north of Laganas Beach in sand at 4m.

 

Early next morning we rounded Keri Caves SW of Zakynthos, visited Porto Vromi and looked at the Panagiotis shipwreck at Navagio Beach. With some NE winds and waves we sailed north and anchored in Spartia Bay on 6m in the south of Kephalonia. Next day we motor sailed along the west coast of Kephalonia, passed Ak. Gerogompos, Ak. Atheras, and Ak. Daphnoudi, and crossed Diekplous Kephailinias. We anchored in the south coast of Lefkas at Standing Stones Beach in 21m in Ormos Kastri where Robert and I prepared pancakes with buckwheat flour worth remembering.

On our last cruising day we sailed east between Kalamos and Kastos, passed Schinas Bay and Kalamos Marina, rounded Asporgiali Light and continued north to Paleiros, where we anchored south of the port on 5m sand for a swim. Finally we continued SW back to Nydri, where we moored to the Athenian pontoon for a crew change and service of the watermaker. We celebrated our cruise at Taverna Roza with a exceptional Greek dinner.

We logged 220sm in 6 days. You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on GoogleMaps.