Lefkas

A short motor from Preveza brought us to the Lefkas Canal, a short waterway between the Island of Lefkas and the mainland. There is a swing bridge which opens on the hour and we were a bit early so we had to do a ‘general hover’ which brought back fond memories of Charlie Dee and waiting for the lock gates to open in Holland. There were lots of boats waiting in the general area of the entrance to the canal, and we were very pleased that there were, because we couldn’t for the life of us work out where the entrance actually was. In the end we just followed the other boats and the entrance miraculously opened up behind a sandbank!

A siren blasted on the hour and we were off.. the swing bridge turned out to be nothing more than a floating road pontoon which they pull to one side to let the boats through. Apparently if they built a permanent structure, then Lefkas would lose its island status and lots of subsidies, grants etc. which go with it.

Lefkas Town looked a pretty dreary place so we decided to push on through the canal until we reached the ‘inland sea’ at the other side. The canal itself was also pretty dreary, and we even passed a massive rubbish dump. The markers for the channel were mostly broken or at least leaning over at such a precarious angle that you were hard pushed to see them. I wouldn’t like to navigate this at night. However, safely through we came out into one of the most beautiful areas of the Northern Ionian and Headed for Nydri on Lefkas. again we motored all day, passed beautiful islands and after two nights of noise and people in Preveza, we decided to anchor in the bay just opposite Nydri – we couldn’t resist it, it is called ‘Tranquil bay’! Although there were los of boats who had all had the same idea, it was better than going into Nydri which looked very touristy. Justin swam ashore to take a long line to a rock and we had a brilliant night’s sleep. Tranquil bay lived up to its name – we had a lazy morning and left for Spartochori on the island of Meganissey.