From: Phyl & Fred Denton <denton@flash.net>

To: Crews List

Date: Thursday, 4 October, 2001 6:58

Subject: 4 October Gouvia Marina on Corfu, Greece

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

If you go to the Tunisia web page for tourism, the third or forth paragraph tells you that the women's bill of rights was enacted in the 1950's. This is significant for an Islamic country. In recent years, four marinas have been built with the intention of attracting European yachtsmen to Tunisia's sailing waters. Tunisia is on the north coast of Africa between Libya and Algeria, two hot beds of Islamic terrorism. Before 11 September, we were going to winter Perception in Tunisia. The price was right. The weather was better. The prospects of seeing the Sahara and possibly going on a safari was there. The prices made 400 mile passage reasonable. And it was a good starting place for the western Mediterranean next spring.

After 11 September, it is not a good idea. The political and religious leaders who tried to bring their country into the world of the 20th century lose. The ones who enacted the women's bill of rights lose. The investors of the marinas lose. The people who work at or near the marinas lose. We lose. The Islamic Fascists win this battle. It is one very small example. These battles are being lost by the minute everywhere around the globe.

On a different front, there is the question of where is safe? Obviously, lower Manhattan and northern Virginia were not last month. Where is next? Just two years a go, Matthias, a Concerto colleague from Germany, told me what a great sailing area Croatia is. I responded that it probably was not a smart place for an American to be. We sailed there last August and we will probably go back. It was great. The people were very friendly. Crime is unheard of. We were concerned before we started this journey about traveling with an American flag this close to the Arab world. After the tales that Englishmen tell of the Caribbean, the Mediterranean is probably safer.

In the cold war, we knew where the bad guys were. Where they trained. What their targets were. In this war, they train in Florida and bomb New York. Their airfield is in Boston. If they trained in Florida, their brothers in arms are probably training in Texas, Kentucky and California. There may be one or two in Corfu or your neighborhood who is looking for a practice target. If we ignore this, we are stupid. If we worry about it, we lose.

Perception can stay here in Corfu for the winter. It will cost more. The Greeks will win more than the Tunisians will lose. It means we have some sailing time in Greece still this fall. We are back to casual island hopping and sightseeing. There are flights available. Would you like to sail the Ionian Sea in October or November this year? It could be arranged.

Shirley Heald has prepared a trip log for the time that she sailed with us. It follows:

It was of course, beautiful beyond belief, but overshadowed by the tragedy in New York and at the Pentagon. On Tuesday we took a short afternoon sail up the coast of Corfu with a fantastic luncheon at "Toulas". It is a taverna and beach that Fred and Phyl had come to look on with a certain degree of endearment. The proprietor seemed very glad to see us. We had just come back into Gouvia Marina when we heard the news. The dock master came out to meet us. As we were coming back into the slip, as I was tossing him a stern line, he told us the bad news. I thought he surely must be joking at first, but when he had so many details of flights, airlines, and the other sordid details, I just started shaking. A British couple on a power boat two slips down came over immediately and offered us the use of their television. We poured a stiff drink and went to see the devastation. CNN put it right in their salon.

Security was MAJOR tight on the way home. I got a physical frisk from a female agent even in Gatwick on the flight home. Flights were back on schedule by that time, though I must admit I was more than nervous about crawling on board.

After we confirmed that the other members of the crew would not be able to join us, we struck out on the beautiful "Perception" for points south in the Ionian chain on Wednesday, navigating the beautiful Corfu Channel, stopping at Paxos the first night, thence through the Levkas Canal, originally built by Queen Cleopatra. We just made the 4:00 swing bridge opening situated at the North end of the Canal that only opens on the hour (what luck), and proceeded down the shallow canal with much trepidation and minute attention to the depth meter, arriving by late evening at a small port on Levkas called Nidri, passing by Onassis' Island of Skorpios near by. The Christina O. was moored just on the spit of land opposite Tranquility Bay (or anchorage at Nidri), and Skorpios. Got some good pics of her, especially on the way back, when she steamed down upon us and nearly ran over us. The weather was beautiful. We were able to actually sail most of the time. The first day we motored up the Corfu Channel in light winds that quickly picked up as we left the Channel for the open waters between the southern tip of Corfu and Paxos. It became quite choppy. We only awoke the sleeping Captain from his nap once, and he was not in too bad humor about it. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the "glass bottom boat tour" we gave him over the shallow end of the sand bar where Corfu Channel empties into the open waters of the Ionian. Able bodied first mate, Phyllis, successfully negotiated us out of harms way after showing us the underwater sights only some three to four meters below us! Perception requires a little more than two meters to float.

We went on south, circumnavigating Skorpios, and then tacked up the beautiful Meganisi Straight and out into open water again, anchoring for the night in the small town of Fiskardo on the North end of Cephallonia. The crew complained bitterly that day about the helmsmam,(moi), who made them tack so many times up the Megainisi straight as the wind was directly on our nose! We had to put out a stern line ashore in addition to the bow anchor to keep us from swinging, wishing we had longer lines with us. As luck would have it, that night the wind in Fiskardo blew up out of the southeast, which the guidebook says it seldom does, making the anchorage more than choppy. We had a good rock to sleep that night after negotiating the sharp rocks to shore for dinner at the famed "Captain's Table" Restaurant with Perception's Reality. Perception's Reality is the inflatable dinghy. She came through the ordeal remarkably unscathed, but none the less, committed an act of truancy the next morning by "taking a ride" on her own and having to be escorted home by watchful neighbors. Bad dinghy!

The next day found us at the neighboring island of Ithaca in the small northern port of Friskies (Frikes), home of the legendary Odysseus, Ulysses, and his wife, Penelope of Homer's famed tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey. We first moored stern-to here on some new piers placed earlier in the year adjacent to the original mole in the harbor, but soon found them quite dangerous from the back wash created from ferry wakes traveling by miles out from the harbor. The first night was a bit apprehensive, but we were able to moor out about two meters from the piers to keep the stern out of harms way of the bucking piers. As the yachts began to leave the next morning, we were able to move along side the ancient mole where the water truck was also able to reach us and deliver enough water to keep the ladies happy with hot showers. We got a nice afternoon storm with some rain that cooled the temperatures down considerably and sent me scampering for warmer clothing. Having sailed only the Aegean areas before where it was "hotter than the West Gates of Hell", I was ill prepared clothing wise for the cool temperatures, but had brought one sweater aboard. The afternoons in Ithaca bring winds down off the mountains that are quite gusty and cool, and when they meet the warm winds of the Ionians, small afternoon squalls are common. We found this to be true throughout the region as on Corfu where the winds blow down off the Albanian Alps (just 3 Kms across the channel from Corfu), and meet the warm waters of the Ionian causing substantial rainfall there as well. As such, most of the islands in the region are lush and green, a stark contrast to the barren, rocky, sparsely vegetated islands of the Aegean.

We spent some time on the island there, hiring a cab that took us up narrow, 180 degree hairpin turns as we climbed higher and higher. Saw a wonderful museum run by the local schoolteacher containing artifacts found in nearby cave that dates back to the times of the Iliad and the Odyssey. An earthquake destroyed the cave in 1953.

Going on to a monastery on another promontory point, we had a great vantage point of almost the whole island. We could see the breathtaking view of the main harbor at Vahti, as well as the beautiful Ithaca Straight on the other side of the Island that runs between Ithaca and Cephallonia. We carefully negotiated our way through the goat dung to tour the local monastery, being careful to close the door behind us so that the goats did not get in!

That same afternoon in Frikes, we witnessed a busload of war veterans who came on an annual pilgrimage to honor a World War II veteran from Frikes who secretly boarded a German sub and was able to sink her. Quite a grand little ceremony, with a Greek Orthodox Priest in full regalia and a small altar set up at the site of the monument and picture of the hero. Due to the recent events in New York, it seemed quite fitting that this ceremony to honor freedom at all costs was happening at the same time.

All too short on time, we started working our way back north. Backtracking a bit, we saw the opposite side of Meganisi and Skorpios on a beautiful broad reach. We once again reached the southern entrance to the Levkas Canal, marked on each side by ancient ruins and salt marshes. We took down the sails and fired up the "iron genny", continuing up the canal, we were once again smiled upon by the great god Poseidon. Thinking we would miss the 3:00 hourly opening of the swing bridge by only 5 minutes, the opening was miraculously delayed until about 3:15. Once the bridge was open, we saw the nature of our good fortune coming southbound through the bridge opening, a Greek Coast Guard vessel, for whom the bridge operator had obviously waited to open up.

Chapter 2 in the next Crew's Letter we hope.

During the last two weeks we have waited for Elan and Atlante Yachting to send the things and the service that could complete the boat. We also worked on the "To Do List".

The next big task is to put Perception on the dry and close her up for the winter.

A NEW SECTION *** Some readers send questions or comments that are of a general nature. For these, I will include the response in the next Crew's Letter.

Letters to the Bridge

Frederic Leglise wrote, " Next time I want to hear about our great fight against savage pirates..."

Hello Frederic,

Savage pirates today are not people to fight with. Especially when the port police and customs authorities of most countries look very dimly on the possession of guns. This isn't Texas you know.

In this marina in 1997, an English captain was shot and killed when he objected to two Albanians who were stealing his dinghy. Dinghy and motor couldn't cost $2000, new. They were in a high-speed powerboat with automatic weapons. The Greek Coast Guard was unable to intercept them and the Albanian authorities were not interested.

Please do not wish for me pirates. I don't make these things up. Fiction is a different department.

The Schedule

2001 is winding down. 2002 holds a lot of promise. During the winter while we are in Dallas, our only scheduled guests for 2002 will help us decide where we will go from Greece in order to be in the Canaries by November. We will try to leave Greece in early April and work our way west and north through Italy, France, Spain and Gibraltar. There are lots of places to cruise between here and there. So many islands and ports, so little time.

If there is part of the Mediterranean you would like to sail or a time that you can do it, let us know.

Keep a Tight Luff,
Phyl & Fred

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