Kaparelli at speed

[Graham W]

NE Corfu enjoys a fairly predictable wind pattern - not much wind until noon and then a steady increase until late afternoon. Yesterday afternoon I gave Albania a miss and did a quick blast to Kaparelli, an islet in the northern Corfu Channel and site of one of the oldest (and most decrepit) lighthouses in Greece. It is inhabited by pure bred rock doves (from which town pigeons are descended) and little egrets. Photo below.  Winds gusted up to F6 apparent from the NW, I was solo, unreefed and unballasted. As can be seen from the chart below, I exceeded theoretical maximum hull speed for quite long periods, especially on the way back when I was sailing against a northerly current of up to a knot.  4.5nm in under an hour.

[david]

Nice Graham. Looks like an exciting ride!
David.

[Andy Dingle]

Many thanks for your reports from far afield. Cracking stuff, but I am quite interested in the screen shots of your chart plotter and speed/distance profile chart.

What equipment and software do you use to get these images?

Apologies for my ignorance in these matters!


Andy

[Graham W]

Andy,

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 556s, which can download its track data to an SD card.  This data is then input to a program on my Apple MacBook called Garmin Homeport. As the latter does not allow any sort of publication, I use a screenshot of the results which can then be posted as a .jpg to the forum. Just to rub it in about the sort of weather we are enjoying, attached a chart of the sea temperature during the same trip.

Jonathan Stuart has done something similar and probably at much lower cost using a portable Garmin GPS and a web-based program called Garmin Connect - see http://connect.garmin.com/activity/322707845

[Rob Johnstone]

Hi Graham
Certainly an exhilerating sail. I assumed you towed your boat down to Greece. I was wondering several things:
How long did it take you to get from the UK (I assume) to Corfu?
How did you find launch sites on Corfu and is there a problem parking the trailer and car when off on the water?

Rob J

[Graham W]

Rob,

The route is Shropshire to Kent (overnight with friends) to Airolo in Switzerland (hotel) to near Ancona in Italy (hotel), then an 18 hour ferry ride to Igoumenitsa on the Greek mainland and finally a short ferry hop to Corfu Town.  We take a fairly leisurely four days door to door and drive 1,250 miles in total. We listen to audiobooks which make the journey fly past.

I use the slipway at Gouvia Marina and pay to leave my trailer there.  I'm sure there are plenty of cheaper or even free ways of doing this at the various little ports up the east coast of Corfu.