Arrived in Corfu after 36 hours of relatively unpleasant seas, but good sailing.

We left from Riposto about 6 am in calm seas and no wind, which soon gave way to seas and then wind. The seas were forecast to be a maximum of 2 meters (6 feet) towards the last of the trip, but about 2 hours along, the seas built to 2-4 and by afternoon the first day they were 6 feet and held all night. The wind came up, so we were able to sail most of the way, using only the genoa. The sky was dark, and the new moon gave no light, and other than a small sailboat (?) that gave no AIS signal and only showed up on radar occasionally, we were without company. The midnight watch mind goes something like this: IS that lille boat still there? watch radar….1 out of 4 or 5 sweeps shows a blip….get the binoculars…see the running light…forget it for awhile, check it again later, same thing. In this case, it became apparent the little boat was moving faster than us, meaning: a) it wasn’t smaller than us or b) it was a motorboat or c) it was a smaller sailboat that was using its engine at full throttle because we were holding 8 knots, or d) most likely, it was a boat full of Syrian refugees that would intercept us soon, board Amante, and throw us all overboard. That was obviously the choice, or at least sitting alone in the cockpit in dead dark with no other boats to answer a mayday, it became the likely scenario. Do I wake up Neal? no, he’s the one who watched it for hours before your watch. Do I remember it and write about it? You can, but it’s boring and no one will care because it didn’t actually result in kidnapping or going to jail with the Russian Prostitutes (stollen from my buddy Mary). By mid-morning we saw GREECE! By 6 p.m. we were in Gouvia Marina and I posted on Facebook that I was finally in Greece eating Octopus and drinking Ouzo, which I stole from some movie quote that made it sound way more glamorous than my soggy, salted version at a marina bar proved, but it was well earned and quite tasty!