Ionian Sea: From Otranto to Corinth

With Otranto and Italy left in my wake, I crossed the deep blue Ionian Sea under the push of a brisk north-westerly, and the ride was inebriating. I soon came with great expectations into Greek waters, travelling south to the small island of Antipaxos, where I dropped anchor for the night. Sailing breezily across waters that were once the theatre of ancient epochal conflicts pitting West against East, I first came into the enclosed Gulf of Ambracia. The Gulf hosts an isolated, critically endangered population of bottlenose dolphins that remains confined within the narrow limits of this small inner sea. Later continuing into the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, I was treated to memorable encounters with two of the most endangered Mediterranean marine mammals: first, a small school of common dolphins that greeted me as I came into the archipelago, and, second, a colony of the mythical monk seals. The following day, as I proceeded across the Gulf of Corinth, I was visited by yet another marine mammal species, this time a group of striped dolphins from an isolated, vulnerable population that had established its residence within the narrow but deep-water body of the Gulf. The journey across the Ionian region ended in Corinth, ready to undertake the next step across the Corinth Canal.