Corinth to Galaxidi

We finally made an escape from Corinth that had held us hostage for 5 days whilst the final gales from Storm Daniel ran their course.

From the sea wall it looked moderate; the wind was F4-5 on the beam, so we set off west, well reefed, to make the 30 mile trip to Galaxidi.

A mile or two into the trip, we were hit by a sudden 40kt gust that knocked us down to about 75 degrees off the vertical and if that wasn’t enough, we righted to get knocked down a second time. Sails were taken in at record speed, without words – our well practised procedures were implemented at lightning pace. We were both somewhat traumatised by such a dramatic event, never before has the wind taken us so fiercely, it was not an experience we ever want to repeat. Fortunately the boat behaved well and righted quickly and most importantly no-one was hurt or fell out. Thank goodness for the solid Sunbeam build. Mo has a photographic image of the event forever etched in mind and had there been a camera in the moment, it would have been on the front of many a yachting journal!

As is not unusual in Greece, half an hour later, there was no wind at all and we motored most of the way into Galaxidi, a favourite stop on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. Our friends Dick and Amanda had, quite coincidentally, arrived minutes before us and they greeted us warmly helping us to tie up to the quay. It was a huge relief to be still after what had been a chaotic week and to be amongst friendly faces was a real tonic. We had met Dick and Amanda in the Gulf in 2022 and we shared a fish supper with them onboard their boat Thalassa. Returning the compliment we invited them to eat the sea bass we acquired in Corinth, and on the second evening in Galaxidi we had a super meal on board with pan fried bass.

There are always jobs to do, but it was urgent to hose the boat with fresh water as it was totally encrusted with salt, both from the spray in Corinth and the knockdown en route. Nigel also had to clean our the pre-filter in the fuel system as, once again, there was evidence of diesel bug (see below). We have one clean tank and when we get to the end of the season, we plan to clean out the second one and hopefully be rid of the bug once and for all.

Galaxidi has been an oasis of calm, warm and sunny, we have enjoyed swimming round the bay and exploring the pretty hilltop town. We met a local artist and his sister who run a pretty taverna in an old olive press building. It and they were charming and yes we did buy one of his prints.

We set off again tomorrow further west along the Gulf to the island of Trezonia and then on to Messalonghi before arriving back in the Ionian in a couple of days. We are hoping for plain sailing!