Dining out and the first night on board

Occurred 12 Aug

It is around 6 pm when I arrive, just in time for the borrel. We crack open a beer against the beautiful backdrop of Avlaki bay, in the north-east of Corfu, see the map. The mountains contrast with the beach and bay and also keep the wind out.

Corfu, in front of Greece and Albania.

Location of Avlaki bay on Corfu

A beer with a view

Corfu is at least as much in front of Albania as it is in front of Greece. Which the taxi driver apparently saw as a cue to share his views of Albania and its inhabitants with me. I'll leave it to your imagination whether his opinions were generally positive or generally negative! The mountains of Albania are even higher and steeper than Greece's, making our sailing area look even more impressive.

We finish our beer and I receive a quick tour of the SaltyPaws. More on that later but let me just say that that boat is BIG. If you've ever been on a 'normal' monohull sailing boat you know the space is cleverly laid out, and has everything you need but it's not very big. The cabin is usually standing-height but then you have to crawl into your narrow bed. Well, forget everything you knew about boats. This one is big. Did I already mention it was BIG? I mean, come on, which yacht has three bathrooms? And no, I don't mean one of these 'wet cells' which are toilet, sink and shower all rolled into one refrigerator-sized cubicle. I mean bathroom.

It's dinner time now and we make our way to the beach. Not with the dinghy but we take the inflatable canoe. Never one to expend physical effort unless really necessary, Walbert retrieves an electric pump from the bowels of the ship. We paddle the 200m to the beach in my first canoe trip. This one is quite uneventful- but that wouldn't always be the case! I would do a lot more exciting canoeing later...

The captain hard at work inflating the canoe

View from the restaurant

Cavo Barbaro. My taxi drop-off and our diner location.

The restaurant has s fantastic location and looks very nice. There are about 20 tables of which the first row has great views of the bay. The restaurant looks a little over the top for the almost deserted bay, which only has a handful of houses and was at the end of a road which, in the 10km since the turnoff from the main road, kept getting smaller and smaller until it was only one car wide. There is only one table occupied and the waiter comes up to us.

Walbert: "Do you have a table for two?"
Waiter: "Do you have a reservation?"
Walbert: "... errr.. (puzzled) ... no"
Arjen: "But we are very hungry"

He points us toward some table in the back but Walbert suggests we sit at a table in the front and the waiter agrees. The food is lovely and we are surprised to see car after car pulling up while we dine and all the tables are full as we ask for the bill!

We paddle back to the boat and retire for the night.