Sailing from Sardegna to Lefkas
Our old boat Bavaria 41 - Liberty was sold to our step father Jarda. He was always helpful to me, when I needed to maintain something on the boat and also when I needed to move the boat around the Mediterranean sea.
In July 2020 we decided to move the boat back to Greece. 3 years ago we moved the boat from Athens to Sicily. You can read about our journey here.
This time, Liberty will stay in the marina Lefkas on Lefkas Island. The total sailing route is about 600nm.
This time we decided, that instead of man’s crew, we will take our ladies and kids. Totally unknown crew for such a long journey and weather conditions which might hit us.
Our route plan was to spend one day swimming at Villasimius bay, which is our most favorite place on Sardegna. Kids got tired early, so we could set sail to leave around 5pm on our first leg towards the Eolie islands, concretely Vulcano island.
All the night we had southwest wind which was constantly blowing around 25kts. Next day we could see shape of mountains around Trapani in Sicily.
This was amazing memory for times, when we had a boat in 2018 here. All the island Favignana, Levanzo and Maritimo gave us so much fun and pleasure back then. This time we did not have time to stop there as we had to be on certain day in Lefkas.
But what we could not miss was Vulcano island. It reminds us Caribbean, there is huge Vulcano above the marina, the fish restaurant in the marina is absolutely great, the hot water spots at the beach, sulfur mud spa and much more. Spent two nights here, but if we could, would stay longer.
At 4am we set sail towards to Messina straight where we had to be around 9am to catch the stream which in the peak has power of 3-4kts towards to south. If we would come later after midday, we would have the stream against us. Great planner of Messina straight is on this link: http://www.correntidellostretto.it/
This year we were lucky, we had a nice 15kts Southeast wind, so we could nicely sail thru the whole canal. When we were turning Riace capo, the wind suddenly died. Literary no wind. All the afternoon we had to use our engine to move further.
Unforgettable bath we had in the late afternoon. Enormeus amount of dolphins were greeting us before the last passage towards to Greece.
When the sun disappeared, hugo fog appeared. We could not see even bow of the boat. Around 10pm Moon started to appear and also strong Northeast wind came within few minutes. Suddenly started to blow 25kts.
This was a test for the crew to spend 2 days on rough sea. Everybody made it well, kids enjoyed her mom as they did not enjoy her before. 36 hours locked together in one cabin.
This was our last sailing experience with our loved Liberty. She has new owner who will give her nice treatment and we will use the experience she gave us on our new love LibertyII.