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View from Preveza on the mainland to Lefkada island The origin of the name Preveza is contested, but is probably Slavic Albanian for “ passage ”. Maybe it means the north-south passage across the neck of the Ambracian Gulf, or the passage through the neck itself from the gulf to the open Ionian Sea? The vista I’m enjoying now is of the neck out towards the sea and Lefkada. In 1798, this vista would have been French, as Napoleon's French forces had taken Preveza, and the islan

The Greek Immigration Officer (we assume?) In these days of jet travel, you can get from Cirencester to Greece in about four hours. Our journey took four days. Admittedly, we took a circuitous route via Fleet, London, Fleet again and eventually Gatwick, so I suppose we shouldn’t complain (Amanda, perhaps we borrowed C’s satnav?). You may have seen on Richard’s post, “Back on the water”, which was the reason for our trip up to Town. When we found out that we had won the CA Ha

We had a lovely evening at Cruising Association House in Docklands. Although we have been members for a year or so, it’s the first time we have been to an event in person. In fact, it may have been the first physical, non-Zoom event there since Covid-19 rules have been relaxed? It’s really wonderful to be able to meet real people in person once again, as opposed to via the ethereal IT cloud. Because we live outside the M25 now – a vague region that an ex-City work-colleague d

The open sea One of the joys of sailing out in open water is that there are no roads, no road markings and no road signs. There are written ‘Rules of the Road’ you must know, in case you encounter other vessels and need to avoid an embarrassing collision. But subject to the wind direction, you can sail in whatever direction you fancy; as the bird flies or maybe as the fish swims? You very rarely come across a fence or a wall in open water causing you to stop or alter course.

The winged lion of St Mark It is said that Venice was the first true European colonial empire. It has also been said that Venice gave Britain the blueprint for its own future empire - both were small maritime powers that gained global reach. Do we see any other similarities in how Venice and the early British endeavours were organised? Let’s start at the end. Two main factors led to the waning of the famous Venetian Republic: i) a prolonged war with the Ottomans, which we tou