Yep, we went back to Greece! You might recall that we were in a hurry to get to Albania the first time we went to Corfu. We stopped there just to check out of Greece. We expected to return to spend some time with friends who live in Corfu. And that’s just what we did.

We know people in Corfu because we served as crew on their catamaran when they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. We got to know one another other pretty well during those 22 days and we were eager to see them again. Thankfully, they were home and happy to see us as well. <3 (That is supposed to be a heart.)

When we reached out to them about coming to see them, they asked us if we would like to stay at their villa. What? We didn’t even know they had a villa. We thought we would just be able to spend a day together. We aren’t crazy (?) so we graciously accepted their offer. Oh, and they offered to let us use their car while we were visiting as well. Seriously, these are the most generous, kind, and fun souls! We were so excited to see them!

We sailed overnight to Corfu and anchored in a small bay. We made it just before sunset. It was – I think – the fourth bay we tried because the others were full. We were just glad to find an anchorage before it got dark.

Our friends picked us up at the beach the next day. Michael and I didn’t bring all of our stuff with us right away. We can no longer remember why we did that, but we did.

We all went to Corfu Town so Michael and I could check back into Greece. Then we walked around a bit, had a big lunch, walked a bit more, and stopped for groceries. Yulia and I also visited the fortress in Corfu Town, which has wonderful views from the top. Here are a couple of pictures from “below” as well as the top.

And now it is time to prepare yourself to be wowed! This villa is a work of art! Our friends designed it and had it built. They are so talented!

It was not getting a bit late in the day. Michael and I had packed two duffle bags full of dirty clothes (the villa has a washing machine), a backpack and a Broncos bag (thank you, Martha Phillips!) with everything we needed for our stay. As I’d mentioned earlier, we didn’t bring all of our stuff with us when our friends picked us up, so it was time to go get them before it got dark.

We took the Suzuki to the road Kirill had told us to take to get to the bay where Seahike was anchored. We did, and we took another turn after being on the road, thinking it would take us to the beach. It didn’t.

I need to take a step back here. Michael had put a waypoint on his phone to let our friends know where to pick us up (i.e., Seahike’s location), but he’d left his phone at the villa, so we didn’t have any “evidence” as to where Seahike was anchored. This is also where I need to remind you that we had tried three or four bays (I think four) before we found one with space to anchor, so other than Michael’s waypoint, we weren’t really sure where Seahike was! 🙂 🙂 🙂

So we went back to the main road to see if we could see Seahike from land. We couldn’t. Michael used my phone (sans waypoint) to try to see where the road Kirill had told us to take led if we hadn’t taken the turn we’d taken the previous time. That seemed promising, so we did that. And there was the beach, and there was Seahike! We crack ourselves up sometimes. We also cracked up Yulia and Kirill when we told them the story.

So, we got to the beach. Michael and I took the dinghy ashore to load our stuff in it, then put it on the shore (with Michael). I took the dinghy back to Seahike and swam ashore. We didn’t want to leave the dinghy on the beach for five days – that seemed ill-advised, so this seemed like a great solution! We had our stuff, the dinghy was on the davit on Seahike, and we were both on land.

And now, back to the villa. We were so glad to be at this beautiful and peaceful place that we only went sightseeing one day. And we were so lazy that day that we didn’t have time to do all that we could have done. But it was fine. We took a road trip in the car our friends provided. (By the way, that Suzuki was fun to drive!) Our friends provided waypoints for the first part of our trip and we then chose to take the northern scenic route “home.”

We saw our friends two other times while we were in Corfu. It was such a joy to visit with them again. Our hearts were full.

But it was eventually time to head to Italy, so we had to go back to Seahike. We’d had a sail delivered to our friends’ house, so we took two cars to Seahike, then I swam to Seahike to get the dinghy, took it ashore, loaded the sail, and Kirill and I loaded it on Seahike. Then we went back and picked up Yulia and Michael so we were all on Seahike. Our friends took a quick tour of the boat and we took them back to shore. They were on their way. Goodbye for now, but not forever. . .

We’d received conflicting information about leaving Greece since we were going to another Schengen country. We were told that we just needed to check out with the port police. Another person told us we would also need to go to Customs. Well, we went with the “port police only” advice because that person seemed to be credible.

We went to a marina somewhat near to where we’d anchored to get fuel and check out with the port police. Turns out I had to wait 90 minutes for the police office to open. Then I waited another 15 minutes for my turn. After dealing with the police, they told me that we now had to go to Corfu Town to see Customs.

Had we known this, we would have gone to Corfu Town from the get-go because their port police office is open 24 hours a day and we could have dealt with everything much faster. But we weren’t in any super big hurry, so we did what needed to be done, just in a longer time that it needed to take.

This was our last view of the fortress as we left Corfu for the final time this year.