What time is it? What day of the week is it? What month is it? I do know it's 2011. This summer is flying by and I have been far too busy on and off the water to be able to update my blog. I will try and remember what I have done in the past month…..

My first charter skipper work finished on 30th May. I flew back to Corfu then and spent a week as a shore based skipper doing basic manual labour jobs. I then spent two weeks on the water teaching (from June 5th to June 26th).

My first week on the water was an eventful one. I was informed at the turnaround that I would be taking a yacht that needed to be lifted out of the water to repair the gear box on the next day. So that's what we did. Fortunately it was a rainy morning when the boat was lifted out so we spent it in the bar teaching all the theory on the courses. In the afternoon, with our repaired yacht, we were motoring out of the marina and the gear box failed completely. We did have forward and reverse gears before, although they were a little dodgy (technical term) but now we had nothing. So we sailed to our destination and as we were nearing the bay, the wind picked up and I ended up sailing into the bay and dropping anchor in a very crowded anchorage all under sail. A flotilla was there and the engineer came and had a look and said it was b*****ed (another technical term). Management called me soon after and were very straight with me. They said they knew what was going on, (my boat was broken) and they were organising another boat for us to move on to. So the next morning I got in a taxi, drove to the marina, signed boat papers and drove back, all on the company's expense. At midday James and Rachel turned up in EMIL, a Bavaria 41ft yacht. My crew were very happy, enjoyed the bigger boat and did not mind moving across at all. The rest of the week went very well. We had an excellent evening and night sail from the faraway islands, down the west coast of Corfu to the bay of Lakka on the island of Paxos. The rest of the week went well.

My second week on the water was very memorable. Firstly, I had five crew on (normally the max is 4) and the only boat available with enough cabins was a Bavaria 46ft called Mythos. She is very luxurious and spacious and fast under engine, but was not ideal as a training boat. We managed well though and I took the opportunity to sail the furthest south that I've been able to so far this summer (not including my delivery to the Saronics when we motored straight through). We did a night sail down south to the Gulf of Amvrakia, past Preveza (it has an international airport if the name sounds familiar) to a town called Vonitsa. This is where the location of this blog is. The night sail was eventful for a number of reasons. Firstly, we had the worst (or you could say best) weather - strong force 5-6 winds, thunder and rain shower. So my crew all dressed up in oilskins and I hid in the companion way. We also were looking for a buoy that we expected to be flashing, as it was on the edge of a sand bank. We went past one buoy which we thought was it, turned down the channel and the depth reduced drastically. I pulled out my iphone which has a chartplotter on it and it showed that we had not gone past this unlit buoy and had ventured onto the sandbank. So I took over, manoeuvred us back into the channel and we carried on. We were eventually secure in Vonitsa harbour at about 1.30am, where Hannah and Charlie (another flotilla skipper and hostess) greeted us on the quay and invited us out for a drink. They said later they thought I was the boss and so came to give us a hand berthing! They still would have come if they had known it was me, of course. All the best to Patrick, Peter & Ottie, Merlin and of course Mary for an excellent, memorable week.

After two weeks on the water I had another week shorebased and on Wednesday I hired a car and drove down to Kavos, on the south of the island where my sister Jen and friends Maxine, Beth, Laura, Vashti, Jenna and Mel, were on holiday there. I drove them to a fantastic sandy beach on the west coast of Corfu and we spent the afternoon there catching some rays and swimming. I went out with them for a meal and just a couple of drinks afterwards. I enjoyed the ratio of 7 girls to one guy too! Sadly I had to drive back to the north to be ready to work at 9am on Thursday morning. I hope you had a good time and cheers for letting me cramp your style for one evening girls.

Last week was different again. It was my first time sailing James Flemington's baby - Knight Odyssey. K.O. is the main training boat and has been really well maintained and improved by James. I'd helped a bit during build-up. She was sailing really well and really fast this week. The wind was never what was forecast, meaning a lot of changes to the plan for the week. Of note was the very first full day, when the wind was forecast to blow up to force 5 or even 6. All three flotillas in the harbour stayed in and we were the only boat to venture out. We were half way through our passage to Corfu Town at about 3pm and it was a perfect force three. We are all wondering where the wind is, when at 4pm it then blew up to the forecast force 5. While there were a few yelps and scared faces, everyone endured and said they enjoyed the experience at the end. We had some strong winds in the beginning of the week and some perfect winds at the end of the week. Also of note was our night sail. I'd asked us to be arriving in harbour at about 11-12pm and we were a little later than that! It was another good, varied week. Cheers Ruth, Neil, Karen and Sweet Caroline.

I have also added photos to my first bareboat skipper cruise from back in May. They are Yvonne's photos and have more of me in. Enjoy!

Love,
W x