Anchorages around Corfu, Part 2: North Corfu

1. Kaissiopi

This is the largest town in north Corfu and worth a look around, the town has plenty of history and a nice little square fronting on to the water. There is room to med moor a few yachts inside the fishing port, but its shallow. Occasionally yachts anchor stern to the breakwater, but most yachts anchor in the bay outside the port. This isn’t the most attractive spot to anchor and was a bit rolly the day we were there so we headed for Ormos Vourlias instead.

2.Ormos Vourlias, South East of Kaissiopi.

We took shelter here in mid September awaiting a strong southerly to blow through. It’s a big bay, exposed to the North, but protected from the East, South and West. The bay is covered in Sea grass, however if you tuck in close to the beach then you can find a good sandy bottom, particularly at the east end of the beach. The beach shelves up steeply, so you can go in closer than you might expect. The Southerly arrived and we rode it out for a couple of nights with our friends on Antigone and two other yachts. There are nice taverns and quiet bars ashore and Kaissopi is only a 30 min walk away.

3. Arrilas

 We spent a quite night here with Calyxa. It is quite deep, 12m or so, and gets a lot deeper towards the sides of the bay. The bottom is covered in weed and it took both yachts a few attempts to set our anchors…but it was a calm night so we weren’t too concerned. Lovely spot with a quite pebble beach.

4. Ormos Stefanou

 Nice little inlet with lots of restaurants and bars. There are a number of restaurant wharves you can med moor too. It’s a narrow anchorage and gets busy, so swing room is limited and boats are very close together. We tried to anchor 3 times and couldn’t get our Rocna to set in the weed so we headed around the corner to Arrilas.

5. Gouvia Bay

Gouvia Marina is a major charter destination and the marina is big. It’s easy to get spots there all through the season as long as you avoid the charter boat change over nights. If the weather is forecast to be particularly blowy it’s a good safe spot to be. Being a charter destination you can get almost all conceivable work carried out to your yacht at Gouvia and the marina staff are incredibly helpful. The Chandlery’s used to be great, but sadly the Greek credit crunch has sent some of the better ones to the wall. But there are still a few good ones around. If you have kids, Gouvia marina also has a pool, so while you work on your boat the kids can go nuts…

Outside the marina is a good anchorage, although with a decent fetch it can get a bit lumpy in any wind with an Easterly component to it.  Holding is genaeally good, it’s not to deep and can accommodate a lot of yachts. I wouldn’t recommend it if anything above a F4 south easterly or easterly was blowing.

6. Corfu Town – Ormos Garitsas

 This anchorage is right off Corfu town with all its amenities close by. It’s a large bay with heaps of space and in the summer it is often busy, but you would be unlucky not to get a spot here given its size. Small yachts generally go near the shore and the super yachts further out in the bay. You are generally anchoring over sand in about 3-8m of water.

There is the NOAK yacht club here too and there are a number of berths for visiting yachts, but in the summer you will need to book well ahead. We anchor in the bay and take our dinghy into the NOAK yacht club and tie it up there so it is safe, before heading into Corfu town.

Its also not far from this anchorage to the airport if you are picking up friends. In fact, its that close, you can actually walk to the airport in 45mins.