We had been sailing chartered boats in Greece for about 20 years. With retirement approaching and more time for ourselves we decided that we would buy our own boat. After quite a lot of research we settled on the Moody 422, which we bought in July 2006. Since then we have sailed her from May to September each year. Our blog only starts in 2011, but below we summarise where we have already been.
2006
We spent our first summer pottering around the Ionian, between Preveza and Kefalonia, covering about 500 miles and getting used to the boat and the area, before laying up in Aktio Marine in the middle of September.
2007
Durres
For our first full summer we launched at the beginning of May and sailed around the northern Ionian until late June, when we sailed up to Croatia, spending a wonderful week in Albania, stopping at Saranda, Vlore (Orikum) and Durres, and a week in Montenegro. This left us only two weeks to spend in Croatia, and visitor schedules meant that we did two one-week round trips from Dubrovnik to Korcula, before going back to Kotor, where we left the boat for a week to go back to the UK. When we returned we sailed directly back from Kotor to Corfu at the end of July and spent the rest of the summer sailing around the Ionian, this time down to Zakynthos. We covered about 1550 miles and laid up at Aktio in the middle of September again.
2008
In 2008 we just cruised in the Ionian from late May to mid-September, covering just over 1000 miles and laying up again in Aktio in mid-September.
2009
It was time to move on. After a couple of weeks revisiting old haunts and saying goodbye to Paul and Cathy we set off for the Gulf of Corinth in the middle of May and went through the canal at the end of the month, to spend the rest of the summer sailing between Kea and Monemvasia, spending quite a bit of time in the quiet Eastern Peloponnese.
Russian Bay, Poros
We laid up at Asprakis yard on Aegina in the middle of September having covered about 1300 miles.
2010
We launched towards the end of May, having Coppercoated our bottom (applying the Coppercoat was a doddle, but stripping off all the old antifouling was a nightmare), and sailed up the Gulf of Evia to Skiathos and the Sporades, where we spent most of June. We then sailed across to Khios, Ikaria and Samos, before three expensive days in Kusadasi. We spent the rest of the summer sailing around the Dodecanese, covering 1400 miles before laying up at Partheni, Leros, in the middle of September.
 |
| Agathonisi |
 |
| Arkhangeli, Leros |
 |
| Captain Kai |
 |
| Dolphin off Alonissos |
 |
| Kai jumping |
 |
| Another Kai jump |
 |
| Nissiros with Tristan |
 |
| Lifting out at Partheni |
 |
| Jade and Amie on Patmos |
 |
| Pothia, Kalymnos |
 |
| Steni Vala |
