Surprising sea turtles (Malta to Greece)

One of the reasons we chose Zakynthos as our starting point in Greece was that it offers beautiful diving sites. On the island’s south beaches, there are breeding sites for the loggerhead sea turtles. To our surprise, we already saw sea turtles swimming by as we were making our way south of the Italian boot. We did not expect to see them so far ashore. All in all, the passage from Malta to Greece (350 nautical miles) took us 3 days in very smooth conditions.

Smooth ride

On the first day at noon, we left Mgarr (Gozo) with a forecast predicting that the light winds would increase as we reached the south of Italy. Unfortunately, there was less wind then expected and we had to motor-sail a lot. While not very satisfying from a sailing perspective, these calm conditions were very comfortable.

Watching sea turtles

On the second day, we were delighted to spot sea turtles in the blue and transparent waters of the Ionian sea.

Not only once, but repeatedly, turtles were drifting by Fabule in small groups, as if floating at the surface to take in the nice sun. They were very far ashore and we are curious to learn more about their migration pattern.

During the dark of the night, we saw bio-luminescent medusas in the wake of Fabule. Probably the turtles’ dinner.

Enjoying the views

We spent 3 nights offshore, taking turns to do 3-hour watches. Yan was on watch during the sunset, while Silvia was awake during the sunrise.

During the second night, we were sailing at a snail’s pace of 2-3 knots. We were so slow that in the early morning, a group of tuna fish was following the boat and playing in Fabule’s wake.

Approaching Zakynthos

As the sun was rising, we approached Zakynthos, the most southerly of the ionian islands. It was smelling of pine trees.

Town of Zakynthos

The main town, called Zakynthos or Zante, was an ideal starting point to get the customs and cruising tax cleared.

The town has a nice center, with a long pedestrian road. It was easy to organise a local internet plan (very interesting summer offer by Cosmote) and do some provisioning.

The Venetians ruled over the island for 300 years and left their mark. However, after a destructive earthquake in 1953, the city was rebuilt almost from scratch.

We climbed up the hill to the Venetian castle which, unfortunately, was closed. On the other hand, the views were magnificent.

Now that we are all set, we will move to the south of the island for some swimming, snorkling and diving.