Thursday - Preveza

We arrived in Preveza just after 8pm last night and headed into the first marina - named Cleopatra. Apparently this is near the scene of a famous naval battle between Anthony and Octavius - won by Octavius - which effectively made him emperor (Augustus) in succession to Julius Caesar. Anthony did a runner with Cleopatra in the middle of the battle to Egypt where they then topped themselves.




Now that the history lesson is over, I have to report that it is RAINING. We have had THUNDER and LIGHTENING - this is not what we ordered at all. We are staying put for a while until it abates and then we were planning to go and see Vonitsa which is in the 'inland sea'.

Later:

It eventually stopped raining and so we motored off to Vonitsa - which is an interesting old town with a Venetian fort (remains of). The inland sea feels quite different from the rest of the ionian. Perhaps because it is comparatively sheltered from the weather there are huge fish farms here. Although generally the water is deep (30 Metres +) there are extensive marshy shallows and lots of  small islands. Chris saw a seal in Cleopatra Marina and we all saw dolphins on our way to Vonitsa. You could spend several days exploring here, but sadly our time is almost up.




We went for dinner in a Pizzeria and it all took longer than we planned - so we did not get away until about 6.45pm. The idea had been to make some progress northward up the coast to avoid too long a trip tomorrow. As has happened so often in the past, the weather intervened in our return-to-base schedule. As we left Vonitsa it was looking ominous ahead. Suddenly, as we rounded a headland, a 36 knot gust of wind appeared from nowhere followed by a ferocious downpour. This soon eased, but the wind continued to howl at 27 knots or so and we were headed straight into it. We decided this was not the evening for a dusk voyage, so we identified an anchorage just off Preveza and have joined a dozen or so boats taking refuge.

So, it's an early start tomorrow - we need to make substantial progress before lunch. The forecast is OK so fingers crossed.