The Levkas Canal

We left Port Zákinthos at 11am on 29 July heading north towards Ithaca. We had deliberately left late in the morning so that we could take advantage of the afternoon wind. The only concern was that it might be more northerly than we wanted which would mean beating our way north, a potentially slow process.

Fortunately the wind was quite northwesterly and so, whilst we could not sail directly towards Ithaca, we were able to make good progress to the north-northeast on port tack with the odd short starboard tack west to keep us on track. It was gentle sailing because the wind didn't really build above 10 knots until early evening. One advantage of the smooth sea was that Nicky could work easily in the galley creating masterpieces for lunch and the light wind meant that the garnish was not blown away when she brought the plates into the cockpit.

Ák Áy Koutaria

Our rough plan for 29 July was to get as far north as we could and then find an anchorage. We got as far as the southeastern part of Ithaca and took a look to see if there was space in a small bay there just to the west of the Ák Áy Koutaria peninsular. It was quite a deep but narrow bay and there were already 3 yachts there in the shallower part so, on balance, we decided that there was not room for us. We moved out of the bay to the slightly more exposed area under the cliffs of Ák Áy Koutaria and dropped the anchor there at 8pm.

Ák Áy Koutaria

We had a more detailed plan for 30 July. Sailing north from Ithaca we passed though the narrow strait, Stenon Meganisiou, between the islands of Levkas and Meganísi and up into the northern Ionian. The channel was full of yachts trying to sail through but the wind seemed to completely change direction within the gap making progress under sail alone tricky. The area to the north of Meganísi is very picturesque and has a good handful of islands with pretty anchorages. We had hoped to stop in an anchorage off the island of Skorpídhi but whilst we were in Zákinthos Barry and Catherine from Dinah had warned us that they had been chased off from one of the bays by a speedboat full of burly security chaps. The legality of that is questionable because the sea and the land below the high watermark is technically public. Sadly the new Russian owner of the island appears to have come to an arrangement with the local authorities and all of the nice bays off the island are now buoyed off and Prohibited Entry signs are posted everywhere. We sailed past under the watchful eye of the security team standing by their speedboat on the quay.

Órmos Varko

Our route took us north to the Greek mainland just east of Levkas. We’d read about Órmos Varko, a pretty bay, in our pilot book and so had picked it out as a suitable night stop location. Once we got there it was clear that lots of other yachts had been reading the same book. However, it’s a big bay and so even with several yachts there it was not overcrowded. There seemed to be little ashore there, so we just enjoyed swimming from BV and had a nice dinner in the cockpit.

Órmos Varko

We’d picked this route north towards Corfu so that we could experience going through the Levkas Canal. The gap between Levkas Island and the mainland is mostly very shallow and it is said that Levkas would not be an island were it not for the canal. The current canal was built (dredged?) at the beginning of the 20^th century, though canals were previously builts, even as far back as Corinthian and the Roman times. The canal is primarily marked out from the surrounding salt lagoons by withies and is just wide enough for a couple of yachts to pass each other except at a wide point ¾ way north where there is a large marina in front of Levkas town. At its northerly point there is a low floating bridge so we needed to time our arrival there with its opening times.

Thursday 31 July dawned as a grimly overcast and thundery day. Everywhere we have been, locals have told us how unusual the weather is this year. Apparently clouds, strong winds and rain are just not normal for this time of year; we’ve had all of them and this morning there was a very grey sky overhead when we lifted our anchor in Órmos Varko. Black clouds appeared and the heavens opened with ferocity that the visibility dropped to less than 100 metres and Nicky started to run a radar plot as we made our way north to the entrance to the canal. My traditional duties on board are fixing things and steering in the rain and so we dug out my oilskins; we certainly hadn’t expected to need a full set of wet-weather kit to be worn during our time in the Ionian! At least the decks got a good wash with fresh water.

Slowing down for the poor visibility meant that we would miss the hourly bridge opening so we slowed even more and made very leisurely progress; we really didn’t want to be navigating a narrow canal marked by sticks in the mud in <100 metres vizibility! Fortunately the weather improved and our initially grey passage through the canal ended in bright sunshine. We anchored just off the Levkas town quay for 20 minutes and then joined the queue of yachts waiting for the bridge to open. The hooter sounded on the hour, the bridge opened and then it was mad dash to get through before the bridge closed again.

a waterspout forming off Andípaxoi

Tim Severin sailed and rowed through the canal in his Bronze Age galley and controversially proposes that the northern end of the canal was the location of Charybdis (the whirlpool), the Sirens, and that Scylla’s cave was high up on the cliffs to the north east (named Cape Skilla on the charts). He used geographical and hydrographical surveys as part of his evidence to expose what was the most likely old path of the channel and how that would disturb the waterflow into a whirlpool. Our passage was though the modern canal so we were not assaulted by Charybdis. However, a little further north in our passage we did see the beginnings of a waterspout forming. One theory is that Scylla was a waterspout which sucked the unfortunate crews off the deck of passing boats. Perhaps Scylla still lurks here!

Having charged past the floating bridge we then needed to slow right down. The narrow channel entrance to the canal still silts badly and there are some very shallow sandbanks to negotiate. One yacht ahead of us helpfully ran aground on one of the sandbanks (top picture above) so that the rest of us would know where to avoid. Fortunately they managed to get off the bank as we gingerly made our way past the end of the sandy spit. Looking back we could see the impressive fort guarding the northern end of the channel and to its right the sandy spit extending out to the west (bottom picture). The small cluster of trees are the site of some ancient burial tumuli which Tim Severin proposes as where the mythical Sirens (with the face and bodies of beautiful virgins but from the waist down the legs and feathers of birds) lured passing sailors with their sweet music. Maybe the ancient tumuli are the site of the fabled meadow ‘piled high with the mouldering skeletons of men’?

We will be visiting Préveza, which is close to Cape Skilla, in about a week’s time, so we will try to take a closer look at Scylla’s lair then. For the time being, the priority was to head north and for a while we had a good wind from behind us, so we poled out the genoa and headed north with speed. Then the wind abruptly veered around to the north, so we took down the pole and had just set the sails for a nice fetch when the wind died off completely, only to return with gusto from the northwest an hour later. Much playing with string in the cockpit was required but at least we were sailing and making good progress. The wind steadily built and we ended our day beating into wind with the main and genoa reefed down for the last few miles to Párga.

It was exhilarating stuff and a great way to round off our day. At 5pm we dropped our anchor in the bay just to the west of Párga town; it is dominated by a Venetian castle on the high ground and makes a scenic anchorage, though it is very busy with watersports boats. Despite having just spent 8½ hours sailing, we quickly sorted out BV and got the dinghy inflated so that we could go ashore to explore.

Párga