Cres to Corfu, Greece

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Donley Cruise – Cres to Corfu After the low wind ORC regatta the new crew of Beth, Brian and Kat brought wind with them. The Donley cruise was from the island of Cres, Croatia to Corfu island in Greece. Five hundred miles of sailing with such famous islands as Losinj (had a nice swing bridge), Dugi Otok (the long island), the Kornati archipelago – a Croatian national park of over 140 islands and finally the island of Vis – the last of the Croatian islands. A quick overnight and the Grateful Red was in Greek waters. When the Greek god Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra he abducted her to the island of Corfu to be certain no other god saw her and they would have martial bliss. Wonder if this strategy worked. The capital of Corfu is the city of Corfu – a city from when Greece ruled the world. Jumbled streets, small shops and a terrific night light. Perfect place to stop and change crew.

Corfu Greece to Italy, Steve and Vicki

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We Found plenty of place at the small harbor for us, but our first attempt at anchor mooring. This is where you drop anchor and then back into the quay to tie up. Usually, we would find laid-lines from the Quay that we would tie our bow to their permanent underwater anchors. This first attempt went extremely well considering at this time our windlass decided not to work and the “boys” had to manually drop the anchor.

We found Steve waiting for us on the dock and Vicki in the closet café guarding their luggage. We decided to stay at Kosiopi, Corfu until Monday with both crew. As it turned out, Brian, Beth and Kat decided to taxi to a hotel near the airport for their Sunday departure. Steve, Vicki, Charlie, Ken and I stayed on the boat and spent some time discovering the town of Kasiopi. Found great internet in a covered outdoor café that also had good food. We spent several hours there using the internet and getting tips for fuel, food, and ice from the local patrons. Our fuel would be delivered by truck and I had to ride with the driver back to the station in order to use our Visa card. We purchased a larger jerrycan for extra fuel on the boat and the kind man carried this full can back to the boat for me. While we were here, we had two great rains that did a great job of cleaning our dirty deck. It is impossible to keep it clean with the dirty mooring lines we bring on the boat.

The Donley’s – June27-July 2 Cres to Greece

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Charlie, Ken, Beth, Brian, Kristine & Kat

Our next guests, Brian, Beth and Kat arrived Monday morning to the boat and with Charlie’s help started to shop for provisions for our next adventure. We will sail down the Croatian coast stopping at different spots than before. You would have to sail for many months to hit all the wonderful places along Croatia.

Tuesday, after arriving back to the boat, we paid our marina bill, got the last bags of ice, along with a treasure of 2 large bottles of Bicardi, and left allowing time to sail or motor to Orso where we would catch the 5pm swingbridge.

This route allows us some different places to stay on the inside of islands. We arrived with plenty of time in Orso to allow for some lunch and time for some people watching. Along the swingbridge were boats of all types, camper trailors filled with families on vacation, and people swimming in the canal. We ended up getting a great spot to tieup as we waited for the bridge to open. After the traffic from the South came through the bridge, we were given the signal to come through.

We arrived at Otok Ilovik around 7:30, finding the last spot in the harbor to tieup to a concrete pontoon. Otok Ilovik is a small island south of Otok Losinj and was very charming. No ice or internet of course. We at dinner at the first quayside restaurant and had excellent Risotto and fish.


Wednesday, we left harbor at 4:45 and sailed along Kornati Islands, where we found a large area of National Parks along the Islands. Our plan was to anchor off at O. Levrnaka and have some lunch. When we got settled, the Rangers approached us in their dingy and charged us the customary entrance fee of 40 Euro’s. Heading to Greece, we had used most of our Euro’s and had some time scraping up loose change and what Euro’s we had left. This was followed by some swimming to shore and a nice lunch on the boat.

Our overnight stay would be O.Smokvica. Thursday, we started our 3 day, 2 night sail. We were able to sail most of the day and night. During the day we did one stop at Otok Vis for provisions, lunch and fuel. In the morning, Hople-pople for breakfast and pasta for dinner.

We lost wind and ended up motoring all through Friday night. During the night, on Beth and my shift, we saw dolphins for about 30 minutes swimming along the boat. They would turn on their sides and their under side would glow with the lights of our starboard green nav light. It made our shift go much faster with this entertainment. No moon so it was dark and clouds only allowed a few stars to shine for us.

The evening shifts went well and I think everyone had a chance to get some decent sleep when they were off shift. Saturday, I woke to see the Albanian coastline. It was huge and lovely in the morning sun. We will arrive in Corfu Greece around 1-2pm. We made contact with our next crew, Vicki and Steve who are waiting for us on Kasiopi City on Corfu.