In June I had the pleasure to spend our holiday on “no excape 2”, my friend Christian Stas’s brand new X-46, together with my 7 months pregnant wife Isabelle and our two year old son Loïc.
Proud X-382 owners
Christian and Freddy; another good friend and proud X-382 owner, sailed the boat from home, based in Malta to Gouvia Marina in Corfu, where we came on board shortly after the arrival. Freddy and his wife Jeanine stayed the first week on board together with us. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Corfu and the Gouvia marina which is only 5 miles away from Corfu town. It was spacious, encapsulated by beautiful surroundings, not to mention the good facilities including a fantastic swimming pool which we got to know quite well due to our two year old Loïc, whose first words every morning were “zwembad” (swimming pool in Flemish)!
Wonderful bays and restaurants
We started our journey to the north of Corfu, in the open Adriatic Sea, but with 22 knots of true wind on our nose, although only a joke for our boat, it was too much for our Loïc. Mama Isabelle was very happy that daddy and Freddy decided to turn the boat and go for a swim in a nicely sheltered bay. One finds plenty of these bays around Corfu, many a time we anchored close to a restaurant where we tied the stern mooring line to a wooden pontoon just in front of the restaurant. Freddy’s excellent cooking and Jeanine’s help with Loïc made life easy for us, so we really did have a relaxing first week.
From a tent to a 4 star hotel
The next morning we sailed to Mourtos at the mainland south-east of Corfu. This village is surrounded by some beautiful islands,where we spent two fantastic days sailing and swimming. We specially sailed to a beach where I, twenty five years ago, had spent one of my first holidays with a girlfriend, just in a tent on the beach in the middle of nowhere. At the place where I once set up my tent, there is now a 4 star hotel. Things change. By the end of the first week we headed back to Gouvia marina as Freddy and Jeanine had to fly home, and another crew member, our friend Wim would arrive. We also wanted to visit Corfu town. So when we passed the town, we spotted a good place to anchor just next to a very nice bar. We dropped the anchor and had a drink just next to the centre of town. It was a real pity that our friends had to leave the next day. But at the same time we looked forward to receiving our old time friend Wim. Wim owns an excellent restaurant and is a very good cook. We took the time to rent a car and drive round Corfu and were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the island. Especially the area of Paleokastritisi, which was lovely.
Admiration does not last long
We soon left once again for the islands of Paxos and Antipaxos at the south of Corfu. We passed the islands which we had visited only 4 days ago and of course dropped the anchor for a quick dip. Afterwards, we had an enjoyable sail, quickly passing Paxos with 25 knots of wind from the southwest, again right on our nose. We spent the night in the beautiful bay of Lakka where we enjoyed a fine dinner in a very quaint little town.
As I understood the weather was changing and becoming unstable, we headed the next morning to the main port Gaios which was well protected. When we entered the harbour, we saw that many sailors took out their binoculars and were watching the good looking, dark blue boat with white stripes. It felt good to be admired. But admiration can change very fast. Once we had moored the boat and had the half village on our stern, suddenly all eyes were on a new boat which arrived in the little port. A nice Wally 70. But also he could not enjoy attention of the crowd for very long. Twenty min. later a brand new Swan 112 came in and caught all eyes!
Gentleman’s wind
The nice thing about sailing in the Ionic sea is the gentleman’s wind, meaning no wind in the morning, giving you plenty of time to get somewhere on the engine without having to suffer any headwind, followed by a good breeze every afternoon, mainly from the north as we soon found out. A further bonus is that you sail most of the time in flat protected waters due to the various islands.
Shorthanded sailing
The next few days we cruised around the beautiful surroundings of Paxos, Antipaxos and the main shore which was only 7 miles away. Of course we enjoyed overtaking other boats a lot.
Before long it was time to bring Wim back to Corfu as the last week we were to be on our own. Isabelle was a little afraid as she had already a 7 month belly from the pregnancy and not forgetting a fast moving Loïc to watch while I was doing all the manoeuvres with the boat. But fortunately the boat was so easy and forgiving that it really was very easy to handle on my own. The only thing I would recommend is to have an electric mainsail halyard winch. Most of the times I pulled the sail up two or three times a day. After three weeks my arms were starting to have nice muscles and my belly was completely gone. So maybe I should recommend not having the electric halyard winch? Isabelle would vote against it.
Also mooring single handed was very easy with the X-46. I brought her backwards to her birth, once there I gave the rudder and bow thruster to the hands of Isabelle, who I had taught in 20 minutes how to keep the boat at the same place. In the beginning she was a bit stressed to do this as she had never manoeuvred such a big boat, but in the last week, she really enjoyed it. Once she had the controls of the boat in her capable hands, I stepped off and took my time to moor all lines without any hurry. Therefore I would recommend having a bow thruster for all boats in the Med.
My crew has increased
In the meantime my crew has become bigger as our son Tim was born mid September. Next year we hope to be able to sail again in Greece, I just need to convince my friend Christian, but I don’t think that will be difficult.
Eddy Verbinnen
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