Enjoying Ionian Seas in Late September

Crews at Sirtaki Restaurant

Saturday, September 19th at noon old and new crew members had lunch at Sirtaki Beachfront Restaurant in Paleros. My second crew (Biggy, Christiane, Dorly, Eva, Evelyn) replenished our provisions at the nice Express Supermarket, who again delivered everything to our boat "Junior Mary 1", a brand new Bali 4.2 catamaran from MG Yachts in Paleros. We had an authentic Greek dinner at Sto Spitiko Mas Restaurant and spent a quiet night on board in Paleros Harbor. 

 

 

 

 

Grilling Ionian Fish

 

 

Sunday morning we set sail south to look again at the wild pigs in Atakos One House Bay  and sailed east to the Echinades Archipelago, where we anchored alone east of Agia Sophia in 10m and grilled some Dorades. After a quiet night and some swimming we bought some more fish from two nice fishermen and then motored with no wind southwest to Pera Pigadi Islet at the southeastern coast of Ithaka, where we set anchor in the southern Pigadi Bay  in 12m. Again we enjoyed our new fish on the grill.

 

 

 

 

 

Apero by Christiane

Early Tuesday 22nd morning we were woken up by thunder, lightning and heavy rain. After a healthy breakfast we set sail north again and spent the night on route anchoring in 4m sand at Thilia Island in the channel between Lefkas and Meganisi. Wednesday morning we continued back to Paleros Habor because one crew member had to leave us for urgent family matters back home. 

 

From Paleros we sailed south again with light westerly winds and finally anchored alone again in beautiful Kefali Cove  in 8m on a spot of sand.

Junior Mary 1

 

 

Thursday 24th we decided motor sailing 30sm southwest to the famous Ageredes Caves in Kolpos Mirtou in nortwestern Keffalonia to enjoy the turquoise waters in a famous Caribbean setting. Anchoring in 4m on sand we did a lot of swimming, stand up paddling, and savored a nice fish soup ambitiously prepared by Christiane. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUP Paddling at Ageredes Caves

 

Sailing Track 2nd Crew

Next morning after a final swim we motor sailed with nearly no wind back to Paleros Habor. We celebrated our relaxing cruise at Sto Spitiko Mas Restaurant.

 

We sailed 160sm in 31h during 6 days.  

You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on GoogleMaps.

Exploring Ionian Isles

 

1st Crew Dinner at Sto Spitiko Mas 

Before starting our Ionian September cruises we spent three peaceful days in the laid-back atmosphere of Paleros with Evi, Ilse, and Martina of my first crew in brand new Azzurro Apartments. After our daily breakfast at To Sokaki Cafe and Deli and a refreshing swim at the small village beach we explored the surroundings and visited the Holy Monastery of Saint Demetrios. We savored authentic Greek meals at Sto Spitiko Mas Home Cooking  and The New Mill Tavern. When our last crew members Eva and Jutta arrived we stocked up a lot of provisions at the nice Express Supermarket, who delivered everything to our boat on Saturday 12th.

 

Pigs Bay Atokos Island

We boarded our boat "Junior Mary 1", a brand new Bali 4.2 catamaran from MG Yachts  and happily spent our first night in Paleros Harbor. Early Sunday morning we set sail south to visit the wild pigs in Atakos One House Bay  and sailed west to the eastern coast of Ithaka, where we anchored alone in a small bay south of Agias Ilias  in 10m on sand. Next day we continued south, visited Poros harbor, rounded the shallows of Agios Ioannis Point at the SE tip of Kefallonia, and anchored in Spartia Bay north of Takos Rock in 4m. 

Sailing Junior Mary 1

 

Early Tuesday, 15th after some thunderstorms we sailed west along the southern coast of Kefallonia with light rain and strong easterly winds, rounded Geogompos Point, and then north to Ortholithia Point where we finally anchored in quiet Petani Bay in 10m sand. Next morning after a good swim we continued further north, passed Atheras Point and Kakata Point. We continued to the Assos peninsula with the Venetian fortress, looked at the small harbor and tacked against NE winds to Vliotis Point, the most northern tip of Kefallonia. As we found no place near Stavros in Polis Beach we finally anchored in Doulina Cove in 20m depth protected by Daskaleio Islet in the channel between Ithaka and Kefallonia.

 

Kefali Cove, Kalamos

 

Next day with nice southerly winds we sailed north and then east along the southern coats of Lefkas and Meganisi, continued to the southern coast of Kalamos island, where we found no place in Gerolimionas Cove, but anchored alone further south in beautiful Kefali Cove  in 8m on a spot of sand. After a quiet night and a lot of swimming and stand up paddling we sailed north at noon and spent the next night in Ormos Paleiro at Ai Giannis Beach  anchoring in 7m sand. Saturday 19th we moored to Paleros Harbor to welcome my next crew and to celebrate our safe cruise with a nice lunch at Sirtaki Beachfront Restaurant.

 

 

 

Track 1st Crew

 

 

We sailed 170sm in 37h during 7 days.  

 

You may download our track in gpx-format  

or view it directly on GoogleMaps. 

Indian Summer in the Ionian Sea

 

On Saturday, 12th September 2025 my fabulous crew (Biggy, Dorly, Eva, Evelyn, Evi) and I arrived at Marina Cleopatra south of Preveza. We had ordered some provisions from yachtness, which arrived reliable ahead of time. At Check-In we discovered some maintenance problems with our boat S/Y Paspartu, a nice catamaran Bali 4.1 from Riginos Yachting. So we could not sail as planned in the afternoon and had to wait for absolutely necessary repairs and the replacement of 2 missing fenders.

 

Early next morning we motored to the northern end of Lefkas Canal, where normally the Floating Bridge "Agia Mavra" should open at 10am. But it had been removed due to the expiration of its safety certificate. Now the ferry “Faneromeni” should operate as a temporary connection between Lefkas and the mainland at 08:00, 10:00, 14:00, 17:00, 19:00, and 22:00. It is a shame that those times were not easily available online. At 10:00 a.m., the intermediate ferry gave way to a seemingly endless line of boats heading south.

We continued south, passed the south eastern tip of Meganisi and the south western tip of Kalamos and anchored in Abelakia Bay on the eastern coast of Kastos where we went for a refreshing swim and enjoyed Greek Salad and Spaghetti ai Legumi.

 

Next morning with nearly no wind we continued further south to the fine sandy Kaminia Beach SE of Kephalonia, where we anchored in sand with some swell. After a long swim we prepared our dinner with potatoes and a lot of vegetables, accompanied by delicious salads.

On Tuesday, September 16th we tried to sail and found the rigging of our boat in total disorder. The 3rd reef line was much to short and the topping lift was mounted wrong. After some arduous work we were able to sail with a rather short main and visited the Blue Caves at the northern tip of Zakynthos. Then we did some MOB training and finally moored in Agios Nikolaos Harbor. 

 

 

 

 

In the evening we replenished our supplies and had a nice dinner at Taverna Porto, so we had nothing to pay for mooring and electricity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next day with our rather short main we sailed north to Ithaka accompanied by a handsome dolphin. 

In the afternoon we anchored in the beautiful Filiatro Bay on the eastern coast. With the help of my ambitious crew I prepared Risotto al Limone with some fennel and we spent a quiet night at anchor.

With nice easterly winds we sailed further north to the south of Lefkas, where we anchord south of the long beach of Vasiliki. We prepared Fussili al Tonno with some salads and admired many ambitious surfers and sailors training around our boat.

Early morning to start our last leg back to Preveza we rounded Cape Lefkatas Lighthouse and sailed north with strong easterly downwinds along the impressive west coast of Lefkas and stopped for a short swim at Agios Nikitas Beach with strong currents. 

Refreshed we continued to the fairway into Preveza harbor, refilled our diesel tank, spent the afternoon in Agios Thomas and finally moored our boat ending our cruise in Marina Cleopatra. We celebrated our harmonious sailing week at Restaurant Celeste with an exquisite dinner.

Saturday morning we left our boat and visited the Archaeological Museum of Nicopolis, enjoyed a fine Branzino at Filippas Tavern and finally took our flights home.

Despite all those problems with the poorly maintained boat from Riginos Yachting we enjoyed a beautiful sailing week. You can view some photos of the defects in this Google Album.  

 

We sailed 183sm in 36h during 6 days.  You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on GoogleMaps.