Ionian Regatta

The reason we were keen to get back to Greece before the 18th of Sept was because we had the opportunity to crew on a 52ft Dufour in the Regatta. The Regatta itself was over 3 or 4 days but we were only doing the last day, the longest race. From the top of the Meganissi channel, round Sparta Houri and across to Sivota. We got down to the start line, downwind start so we sailed across the channel a couple of times to decide where our best start place would be. Like all things to do with boats and especially racing it doesn’t always go to plan. The first group set off and we were on our 10 minute countdown. Within 5 minutes of the first group crossing the line the wind started to die and continued to die until there was none!! We sat in a windless hole for nearly ½ an hour on the wrong side of the channel while boats on the other side had some wind and slowly crept forward leaving us in nearly last position L. There were 130 boats in the race and when the wind finally did come back we had a lot of work to do. Did we do it. Course we did, from nearly last we managed to pull out all the stops and charge across the line a credible 8th. Of course on handicap we would have had to finish an hour before any other boat to get a place but we had a good day and a great evening to follow and an even greater hangover to recover from the next day.

More pictures of the Regatta here