The Spice Island

We had been in Sarandë for a few days, during that time the wind had blown from all directions so as we swung on our anchor, Ziggy was pirouetting in the bay.

It was time to leave Albania so we checked out with our agent which was very easy, she did it all for us, and all we had to do was collect the paperwork from her. We were free to go so started lifting the anchor. As chain was coming up the windlass was struggling and it soon became apparent why! I could see a long piece of metal that had managed to weave itself around our chain several times. It was approximately 4 metres long, rusty and bent up at each end which had obviously caught our chain each time we swung around in the bay, this was not going to come off easily.

We started trying to untwist it but as we turned the metal to unravel it at the top, it just added another twist onto the bottom.

Next we tried lifting the metal with a hook and loosening the chain to try to unwrap it, but due to the length of the metal this was also very difficult. I then got into the water with Paul holding up the metal, but it was all too heavy.

Thankfully, a kind fellow sailor who we had met the previous day came past in his dinghy, with the extra pair of hands we eventually managed to free ourselves. He then towed the offending object over towards the shore to prevent anyone else getting caught up in it.

At last we were on our way. We headed south 15 nm towards Corfu town. There was no wind so we had to motor all of the way. We stopped first at Gouvia for fuel, we hadn’t refuelled since leaving Monastir so were running on fumes. Once we had filled up, (almost 3 times the cost of Tunisian fuel) we continued another couple of miles to Potomos bay where we dropped our anchor in the large, almost empty bay close to the ferry/cruise ship terminal and port authorities.

We dinghied ashore to check in, unfortunately, we didn’t have an agent here so had to deal with the various authorities ourselves. All whilst maintaining our best friendly demeanour. It was very busy but quite straight forward until the passport control officer noticed a simple error on their paperwork. He made us walk back to the port police at the other end of the port, in the sweltering heat, to get it corrected. Paul’s friendly demeanour did slip a bit at this point. When we returned, the officer had mysteriously disappeared and left his young apprentice to deal with us.

On our way back to ZigZag we were looking for a cold beverage when we stumbled upon an Indian restaurant. We initially walked past as stopping for a curry at 5pm when the temperature was still in the high 30’s did not seem sensible. However, we had only walked a few metres before the prospect of tasting Indian spices for the first time in many months had us heading back to become their first customer of the day. It was a good decision the quality was excellent and the beer was ice cold.

The next day we walked into town, passing the 16th century ‘new’ fortress on the way. We wandered around the streets visiting some of our favourite shops to stock up with herbs, spices and fruit teas.

We eventually arrived at the 19th century Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George which is a grand building overlooking the Liston and the old cricket pitch.

It is the largest and the most significant building of the Ionian State period, 1815 to 1864, prior to the Ionian Islands being unified with the rest of Greece. It was then used by the Hellenic state and became residence to the royal family of Greece whenever they visited the island.

Today, it houses the rather unexpected Corfu Museum of Asian Art, the only one in Greece, solely dedicated to the art and antiquities of Asia. We went inside to take a look (also to escape the heat for a while).

Founded in 1928, the Museum was set up following the donation from a Greek diplomat, Gregorios Manos, of his extensive Sino-Japanese collection. The Museum then attracted many other donations, resulting in a collection currently comprising of approximately 15,000 works of Asian art from private collections and individual donations. This includes works from Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Siam, central and southeast Asia, dating back to the Bronze Age.

There were displays of religious figurines of stone, bronze, gold plated brass with precious stones and wood, and the development of early Buddhist iconography and sculpture.

Also on display was a range of pottery, handmade rugs, textiles as well as traditional garments, embroideries, jewellery and Japanese painted screens.

A small room was dedicated to the life and power of Samurai warriors, the military elite who dominated Japanese politics between the 12th-19th centuries.

Initially Samurai women were respected warriors, often fighting alongside their husbands. However, as the Samurai’s political power increased, female warriors were sidelined and became regarded as essential for the production of children, they were seen to be incompetent in fighting alongside men. This view was hardly surprising given that they only had a small dagger!

At the ground floor entrance to the museum many of the rooms have been restored to reflect how they would have been used by the Greek royal family.

After an hour or so of browsing we left the museum and walked back to ZigZag passing the 15th century ‘old’ fortress on our way and enjoying the views of Albania in the distance.

There is a ‘Tram Crepe Cafe’ overlooking Potomos bay. The kitchen was set up in the style of an old tram inside the cafe. We stopped for a crepe which was very good, you could have it filled with an almost unlimited choice of ingredients.

We returned to Ziggy just as the sun set and the crescent moon was rising.