It is time for a chart of the Peleponnese to help you see where we have been and where we are going, clockwise round! Our track is shown through the Gulf of Corinth, along the top, east of Kefalonia, through the Corinth canal at the eastern end. Our final destination is Kalamata at the top of bay between the two western fingers of the Peleponnese, but at this point we are in Monemvasia, shown by the red arrow.

We set off from Ermioni on the eastern most penisular above, on Wednesday 20^th June and had a great 10 mile sail with 12-14 knots behind us, on the beam then on the nose, past the island of Spetses to Porto Heli, a reknowned safe place for yachtsmen with a sheltered anchorage. That was really the best part of it as our dinghy ashore reminded us that this port with its part built new marina (familiar story?) left a few things to be desired. We were now in serious weather forecasting mode to plan the journey west, so took advantage, eventually, of wifi in the local bars.

We did not stay long in Porto Heli having anchored off shore and make a quick departure on Thursday 21^st striking west to Leonidion on the Elous peninsular.  A really warm welcome here from the helpful young harbour master  and also from Michael, the  proprietor of one of the local restaurants who bequeathed a carrier bag full of organic tomatoes and cucumbers, locally grown we were told. He certainly knew how to secure evening customers. Food was good there!

We had laid 40m of anchor chain and later on we wished for more as the black clouds gathered over the towering mountains in front of us and let loose 25-30 knots westerly winds pounding the moored boats back into the quay. A couple of boats lost their anchor holds and slewed sideways into other boats. We had our engine on and motored forwards for the duration of the onslaught, luckily only about an hour. It was the sort of excitement one can do without, but glad to say no one seemed to suffer any damage. Needless to say as we had decided to spend another day here, we re-anchored the next day and laid closer to 70m of anchor chain in readiness.

Unfortunately our study of the weather systems are seriously depressing with very strong winds forecast in the south for the whole week ahead, severely restricting progress with our passage. Our vision of pottering around these parts, anchoring in the beautiful bays, swimming and enjoying the stunning scenery is rapidly receding, as we plan now how to get from one bolt hole to another. The problem being that there are not many of these.

We spent a couple of days in Leonidhion and took a taxi ride to the local tourist attraction that was a stunning monastery high up in the surrounding mountains. This took us through the local village of Leonidhion which was charming and although the monastery is not a working concern, it held quite a special atmosphere and claimed some significant donations from most . We came away with a jar of local honey and some great photos.

We took the opportunity of a gap in the weather and some reasonable northerly winds to go south . Leaving late just after 10am we did have a cracking sail in an albeit lumpy sea and averaging over 6knots under sail we arrived in Monemvasia soon after 3pm, having covered 32 miles. Not bad we thought.  We sailed past the huge rock that is Monemvasia, with an amazing ancient village clinging to its seaward side. It is clearly a must see place, so we look forward to exploring it soon.

The harbour was busy with charter boats so we were fortunate to moor up alonside yacht Eira, belonging to a very friendly and welcoming German couple, Eva and Frank, knowing that when the charter boats departed the next day we would have the opportunity to go alongside the harbour wall behind Eira. There was quite a premium on this position, so luck seemed to be with us. Safely tied up on the harbour wall on Monday 25^th June, we soon worked out that we would  be here to stay, storm bound, for about a week.

It was great to have Brian and Michele on board to share the transit experience and they were very familiar with the areas we were to visit. They had honeymooned on Poros almost exactly 40 years ago to the day, and also visited Ermioni many times, as had we, to enjoy the company of our mutual friend Peter, who had built a house in an olive grove in Ermioni and lived there for 14 years.

Our first port of call was Korfos, some 15 miles south of the canal and here we spent a couple of days whilst some strong winds and significant rain blew through. Brian and Michele were impressed with the daily entertainment afforded during our week with them, and on this occasion it comprised getting our anchor stuck in fishermen’s mooring tackle necessitating finding the very young and good looking local diver, Yannis, to release our tangle. We were also caught in a severe and unexpected blow on the visitors’ pontoon and all helped the boats on the windward side as anchors dragged and general mayhem let loose. The upside was that we did make some new friends and shared a beer with Alistair and Mary McDonald on yacht Cormorant!

Next stop Poros, nostalgic for Brian and Michele, we let them retrace their steps to the hotel they had stayed in all those years ago! We explored the rambling hill clad town which was picture postcard pretty. The quay was very crowded with all manner of boats and we were fortunate to have arrived at lunchtime to secure a berth!

We had been monitoring the barometric pressure and were fed up it was still only 1004 with no sign of it increasing any time soon. The low systems were bringing cloud, rain, thunderstorms with unpredictable winds which was not good for mid June in Greece.

After a  good sail to Ermioni past the island of Hydra, we moored in the afternoon southerly breeze onto the south facing quay, and bounced around for a while before the sea breeze gave way to the northerly forecasted and it became calm.

Ermioni is a characterful town, quite abuzz both on the north and south side of the peninsular. It had been a good choice to be on the south quay as the boats on the north quay were bouncing mercilessly most of the night. We met up with Neil and Martine, Peter’s previous neighbours, over breakfast before Brian and Michele caught the Flying Dolphin to Piraeus. We had enjoyed their week with us and hoped their departure might bring the settled dry weather we need for the next part of our journey!

Passing through the Corinth canal on our own boat was a real privilege and special experience which we enjoyed enormously. Not only could we admire the engineering achievement of forming this 4km long, 25m wide channel through limestone towering nearly 80m above us, but we were also changing seas from the Ionian to the Aegean, which was quite a watershed moment.  At the far end of the Canal we had to tie up and pay the transit fee.  The Corinth canal is officially the most expensive waterway in the world.

We did have some fun and games in the couple of days leading up to the passage though.

We had enjoyed a broad reach from Galaxidi to Kiato, a town with a little used commercial harbour and small fishing harbour, where we expected to be mooring alongside on the commercial dock. As we approached we realised a change of plan would be needed. Taking up all the dock was a large cargo ship, with cranes and lorries on the dock busy unloading what seemed to be a very dusty cargo. Not an option to go anywhere near this operation and our brief excursion into the fishing harbour convinced us that we would not find a suitably deep place to stop here either.

It was 5pm and the wind was abating, so we decided to make a further two hours and try to berth up in Corinth harbour, which did offer the option of anchoring as a fall back option. Within an hour we were motoring into a strong headwind as a local north easterly whipped up a lively sea in the cul de sac of the eastern end of the Gulf.  Apparently this is quite the norm, so we found out later. The harbour at Corinth offered a commercial dock and a small yacht harbour, but it was all open to the northeast and the very shallow approach to the yacht harbour was untenable, as was the anchorage! No ships here, so a quick call to the Port Authority gave us permission to go onto the commercial dock. This turned out to be not so easy but we managed to find a space between the huge rubber fenders where the boat could come alongside sufficiently close for Mo to leap off with the warps! The wind did not help, but a charming Greek fisherman minding his own business did help haul in the ropes and get us tied up. It was a very bumpy night. First thing for us in the windless morning   we made our way into the tiny yacht harbour where the only space we had identified the previous evening had been taken by a yacht that had come in stealthily in the calm of the early hours before we woke up! Fortunately some friendly Norwegians on a large 54 ft yacht allowed us to go alongside and this is where Brian and Michele arrived late afternoon on Tuesday 12^th June.

The pictures that follow tell the story of the canal transit. We did take some video footage of the transit and caught a pod of dolpins on video the day before, but sadly we haven’t yet got video editing software so cannot upload yet!

 

I should have said in the last blog that we found Efimia on Kefalonia a really well organised place for boats, probably the  best we have found so far in Greece outside of the marinas.

We set off early on 2^nd June into a windless sea and motored towards the Gulf of Corinth. The afternoon breeze did eventually appear and we enjoyed a couple of hours sailing to the buoys marking the channel to take us up to Mesolongi on the north coast at the entrance to the Gulf. A deep water channel has been dredged here through  otherwise inaccessible shallow salt marshes to access the town where a few large boats go to load up with salt. The channel ends in a wide basin which makes a useful anchorage and it also supports a respectable sized marina which is unhelpfully not open to visitors! The story on this is long and complicated and involves licences as yet not granted, so one day a marina will welcome visiting yachts!  There are very few safe havens for yachts making the journey through the Gulf, so the importance of Mesolongi cannot be overstated, particularly in view of the yacht marina in Patras on the south coast being closed due to winter storm damage with no prospect of them reopening!

The channel to Mesolongi is very pretty with local fishermen’s houses on stilts in the shallow marshes. Paths and roads link them to the shore and  it was surreal to see cyclists just across the water,  quite close to where we were motoring. A convenient overnight stay here with plenty of company from the local mosquito population.

Off by 8am, we set a course for the famous Rion Bridge spanning the Gulf of Corinth from Patras on the Peloponnese to the  northern mainland. A beautiful feat of engineering with 3 spans, each over 25m, and 45m high at the tallest point. With Deja Vu having a mast height of 21m this was quite important and it still felt quite counter intuitive to pass beneath it!

We had to seek permission from the Bridge authority to pass under the bridge, reporting our position 5 miles off and then again 1 mile off.  It was not helpful when the ship’s radio decided not to work at the last minute, so the trusty alternative hand held radio was used to good effect although had a narrower range requiring an apology for missing the 5mile announcement at 3 miles off!.

The wind arrived as soon as we cleared the bridge and had put the camera away and the decision to carry the jib only was a good one as 20knots behind us became 25 and more. Needless to say it was a fast sail to the island of Trizonia still off the north coast, and we were quite glad to arrive even though 30knots was promising a difficult mooring situation.  Other yacht crews came to assist and we were soon moored alongside in a totally derelict half built marina.

We are astonished that so much hard work has been done building jetties, harbour walls and installing a good lighting system and yet unfinished as there is no infrastructure of marina facilities,  no staff to take mooring fees that every mariner would have been delighted to pay for the provision of concrete for us to tie our boats to in a safe and sheltered bay.

We spent a couple of days here to explore the village, which comprised 3 or 4 tavernas and bars in a delightful setting, walking around the island and doing a few jobs on board.  There was no getting away though from the depressing surroundings of sunken boats, derelict craft abandoned to deteriorate and eventually sink on their moorings. There was evidence of work being done to raise a sunken ship from the inner harbour, but once again, a job half done.

Our walk around the island was interesting, beautiful flowers and flora but hazardous with the incredibly robust webs woven by rather large spiders across the pathways, swinging wildly in the wind, yet remaining intact and certainly effective at catching all sorts of flying insects and the odd cricket. Nigel was sent ahead  ducking and weaving around the webs, it was a sight to behold!

Time to leave Trizonia, we had a lovely sail along the north coast in moderated winds to the pretty village of Galaxidi and here we stayed for 4 days. It is a charming port, very Greek and not very commercialised. We have just found out that Lord Byron lived here at some point.

It provided the wnderful opportunity of renting a car and taking a trip high up into the surrounding mountains to the north, to Delphi, one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites. It did not disappoint. Nigel had been before some years ago, and the advice to go early was well heeded. We were in at 830am soon after opening and got ahead of both the extreme heat and  members of a large crowd  who had just spilled out of one of the many coaches. Quite athletically we climbed up through the ruins to the Stadium at the top of the site, to be the first to arrive and savour the atmosphere for a few minutes all on our own. It was incredible to imagine civilisation living here hundreds of years BC and it is remarkable what relics and treasures have been preserved both on site and in the museum. Full sized statues on display in superb condition had been found in the 19^th century by French archaeologists. They had been buried by earthquakes over 2000 years previously, escaping the removal and looting that befell other items over the passage of time.

We drove further up into the mountains, to, would you believe, the winter ski resorts.  Once again we saw a lot of investment into half built ski chalet and hotels, so much potential, so much opportunity, so much waste, or is there a plan for it all to happen in the future?

Lunch in the pretty hill town of Arachova  was followed by a scout around the port of Itea, another half built marina full of potential.

Galaxidi is a relaxing place with harbour master and harbour dues to pay for a quayside berth, power and water supplies. We cycled around, found places to swim, Nigel had a much needed haircut, the winches got serviced and the blog has got updated!

Actually our stay here was planned to be this long  due to the weekend gales forecast. They blew with some ferocity so we needed to stay on board  as we rocked around a lot hoping our anchor is well dug in!

By midnight the wind abated and we fell into a welcome sleep only to be horribly disturbed by a local bar playing loud heavy music until 6am. Nigel was ready to commit murder but we were reminded that this is Greece! Sunday dawned bright so we washed down the boat as there was still plenty of red dust about, but the skies blackened over and we caught a heavy thunderstorm late afternoon. We enjoyed a long leisurely lunch in a very Greek tavern across the bay with another English couple we have met along the way. Tony and Ann Montgomery Smith, fellow Cruising Association members, on catamaran Razzmatazz,  were delightful company.

Next stop will be Kiato, hopefully Monday 11^th June and Brian and Michele will be joining us there on Tuesday 12^th.  It is well known that Michele is the harbinger of wet weather on holiday, but we are hoping that today’s storms and extensive rain will be on her account!

All  being well, winds look to be moderating for a quiet passage through the canal on Wednesday 13^th June. We are hoping to try out a new little video camera.

Lots of photos in this post and a poem!

On our final day on Lefkas with Julie and Matthew we set off to find the beach, and very lovely it was. A pleasant walk before the airport run.

As one set of visitors departed, Tom arrived from Manchester straight from his sick bed, having had a dose of flu earlier in the week. We scooped him up from the airport and by Monday morning 21^st May, he was rallying and in great spirit looking forward to some warm fresh air sailing.

Re-provisioned and refuelled we left Lefkas marina in brilliant hot sunshine and sailed down the inland sea to the south of Lefkas where a berth on Stavros’ pontoon in Sivota Bay awaited. Stavros has extended his pontoon and is now able to accommodate quite a few more boats. Always a warm welcome there and an enjoyable overnight stay.

Ithaca had evaded us last year but the time had arrived to bust the myth surrounding the towering black and foreboding island! Matthew had left us with this wonderful poem by C Cavafy, so our trepidation seemed to have some foundation!

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas means.

Not everyone agrees but Homer claimed that Ithaca was the home of Odysseus and the locals make quite a play on this. Acutally when we got closer the black mountains showed their green faces and it all seemed much more friendly.  The peaks here, and on Kefalonia rise to well over 1500m.

We stayed overnight on the sheltered north quay in Vathi Bay, visiting Dimitris Taverna for the occasional  and supper. Mo entertained herself with the camera taking lots of great colourful fishing boats,

We ventured out the next day into the adjacent  Bay where we anchored to swim and read, a real lazy relaxing day. It was very hot and frequent swims were essential.

However on our return to the anchorage in Vathi Bay we encountered the full blast of the afternoon breeze which blew with some force until well after midnight preventing us going ashore as we did not fancy getting soaked in the dinghy! Before we left Vathi the next morning was calm and we did go ashore for bread to discover a very pretty and well stocked town with plenty of restaurants and boards to amuse us.

In light winds we sailed south to round the bottom of Ithaca, heading west to Efimia on Kefalonia. As we crossed the narrow channel between these two islands we met a Force 7 bursting down from the north which went cyclonic as we approached the coast of Kefalonia. A fast burst of sailing peaking at 8.5knots with a beam wind to start with but as it got cyclonic, it was sails away and a motor into the harbour. We moored up in the teeth of the strong afternoon wind with the very able help of the obliging harbour master. We had 60m of chain to hold us off the quay and were quite glad of it as all afternoon as we rode out the relentless gusty wind screaming over the hills.  This area is famous for these wind effects.

Sadly it was time for Tom to head back to the classroom with half term coming to a close. He took a taxi to the airport and we have just heard a report from him that the other side of the island is flat and very uninteresting compared to the mountainous side we are on. We set off tomorrow for the mainland coast and into the Gulf of Corinth for the next phase of our adventure.

Julie and Matthew, both relatively new to sailing, arrived on time late on Sunday evening, 20^th May, full of enthusiasm for a week afloat. Recently retired, they are building up quite a portfolio of experiences and adventures and so when the opportunity of a week sailing in the Ionian presented itself, they were keen to come.  Matthew had, on one occasion some years ago, been one of Nigel’s less than well cross channel crew members, unfortunately suffering from seasickness. We were forewarned and prepared for any eventuality!

Our planned route was to travel from Corfu to Preveza or Lefkas, a journey of about 70 miles which we hoped to do in several easy hops. We left Corfu in sunshine and visited Platarius and Lakka Bay on Paxos in unusually windless conditions. The forecast ahead was unsettled with a variety of storms, strong winds and rain in the next three days. A triangulation of forecasts indicated a break south to Lefkas on Wednesday would b e the best option with northerly winds promised around midday.  What we did get was southerly winds all day, increasing to 30knots as we approached our destination, not at all what we expected.  Julie resorted to the seabands and sleeping, Matthew overcame his previous form and survived the experience in one piece!

Nigel realised that there was too much wind to approach the floating bridge near Levkas and so a change of plan took us into Preveza and a sheltered night in Cleopatra Marina.  The next day we took the marina ferry into the town to show Julie and Matthew the sights but when we returned to the boat the wind was well up again and so we set sail for Vonitsa to anchor off the Island in sheltered water.

The next day gave us a pleasant sail back to Levkas and on through the canal to Babis’ restaurant on Meganisi.  A good meal was enjoyed that night and the next day we had a lively but enjoyable sail back up to Levkas where Julie and Matthew departed, sadly to be horribly delayed on their flight home.

We enjoyed their good company and they proved to be very willing, uncomplaining and well behaved competent crew! Thanks for coming we will miss you!

The hard work done, we launched on May 12th, the Cleopatra Marina team lifting Deja Vu gently from tractor trailer to hoist to lower her into the water, where she is definitely most at home!

We spent a couple of days on the town quay at Preveza whilst we provisioned for the season as best we could and got sorted out with all the necessary legal documents and most importantly organised some onboard wifi.  We enjoyed re-aquainting ourselves with the delights of the town, walking around the tiny backstreets and calling in at the occasional cafe. In particular we had our fix of the superb music played in the art cafe and this time Mo avoided the strong Belgian beer, so it was most enjoyable!

After an evening anchorage round at Vonitsa to avoid the strong southerly and associated rain, we set off north on Wednesday 16th. It was a disappointingly windless trip and although we looked in on Gaios, Paxos, we ended up anchoring in the lovely Lakka Bay a little further north on the island and enjoying a swim and walk ashore.

We set off for Corfu the next day and arrived off Gouvia to anchor for the night before heading into the Marina to get the boat ready for our visitors due on Sunday. More shopping and cleaning but we made time to take the bus into Corfu old town which is still a favourite haunt of ours. We were thrilled to see the stunning Wisteria tree, unusual for us to see, but quite commonplace around the town.

 

It is Friday March 2nd 2018 and from my office in the UK I am watching heavy snow falling over the prematurely hopeful snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils. Although hard to turn our thoughts to sailing in Greek waters we do have considerable planning to do this year as we are wanting to go further afield to explore the Gulf of Corinth, the Corinth Canal and the east coast of the Peloponnese.

We were fortunate to have taken a trip out to Greece in January to check up on Deja Vu and to take some gear out. We landed in Athens and drove along the southern side of the Gulf of Corinth, over the magnificent bridge spanning the Gulf, and then north west to Preveza. It was a beautiful drive with the sun shining in a bright blue sky although the air temperature was struggling to get into double figures. The water looked lively and the mountains looked resplendent with their peaks capped in glistening snow. It was a useful preview of some of the area we hope to sail through and a forewarning of the propensity for wind acceleration in the Gulf and the rather scant facilities at the ports we intend to call into! I have no doubt it will all look more inviting in the early Summer and we are looking forward to it.

Before we left Corfu we were thrilled to meet up with friends Colin and Sandra Baxter in Corfu old town, where they were spending a couple of nights before a week’s holiday in a villa further up the island. We had a great lunch and tried to put the world to right, but there was not enough time before we had to head back to the Marina on the bus.

We wanted to make our trip from Corfu to Lefkas last as long as possible as we were on countdown for going home and our last week was looking settled. We spent a couple of hot, windless days anchored off Petriti on the south coast of Corfu and with the promise of wind we set off towards Lefkas planning to stop over at one of the bays on the mainland coast. We fetched up in Two Rock Bay quite late in the day and the pretty bay was quite busy with anchored boats. A catamaran obligingly decided to leave creating a useful space for us to drop our anchor. The hard sand was not the best of holding but we had a calm night ahead. We spent most of the next morning exploring the bay in the dinghy to discover a nice beach, interesting rock formations and a surprisingly small sandy anchorage area. In line with the rocks that gave the bay its name was a seriously rocky bottom not at all suitable for an anchor, and we were rather shocked to see a charter boat drop in that area. Wonder if they ever got away!

A brisk afternoon sail got us to Preveza and we spent the next couple of days enjoying the inner sea behind Preveza which is the Gulf of Amvrakia. It is a vast area of water with the towns of Vonitsa, Loutraki, Amfilokhia and Meidhion flanking its shores over its 20 mile length.  Unfortunately for sailors there are lots of fish farms occupying great swathes of coastline both to the north and the south and they move around all the time, limiting the places to go and explore. We did enjoy visiting Vonitsa and spent one night in a delightful anchorage behind an island in the bay of Vonitsa and another night in the harbour at Vonitsa.

This mainland town was surprisingly quiet and we took advantage of an empty carpark adjacent to the harbour wall to fold up and pack the foresail we had to remove as part of our closing down preparations. Sadly these had to continue in Preveza Marina where unusually hot temperatures in the mid thirties, made the work a real chore.

As I write the wind is howling and forecast to continue with vengeance through tomorrow which is our lift out day. Assuming we do lift out, it looks like we will be lacing up Deja Vu’s cover during Monday or Tuesday night which seems to be the only time when there will be a lull in the wind!

All  being well we will be home on July 5^th and Nigel will be having his hip revision operation towards the end of the month. This marks an early end to our sailing season for this year. We have sailed 600 miles in Ionian waters, travelling twice to and from Corfu to Lefkas, but we have enjoyed our visitors and exploring some new places. With Nigel all fixed up we hope to pick up where we leave off next May for some more adventures.

On our trip south last year we had some rather alarming creaks coming from the boat. We had been in conversation with the company about this and Manfred Schoechl said he would come and fix it. Manfred designed, builds and sails the sunbeam range (he also owns the company) so if anyone was going to sort a problem it is him! He was due to arrive the morning of the 20^th but we waited and waited but no Manfred. We eventually heard that they had missed their flight from Munich due to roadworks (at 4am) on the way to the airport.

He arrived with Hannes, one of the retired Sunbeam boatbuilders and they immediately set to identifying noises and rectify them. It was amazing that a couple of pieces of trim rubbing together could make such a load and worrying noise. The main creak was tracked down to slight movement on an internal partition which was then glued into place. All done in a day.

Manfred was delightful company we enjoyed several happy hours chatting over a beer or two about boats and what his company is up to.

The next day we took the boat out to ensure the noises were fixed. Sadly it was flat calm and we were only able to motor until the wind came up at 3pm. Manfred then set to tuning up the boat which responded by sailing faster than it had ever done and looking great.

That evening we all dined together along with Damian Raffell who had just arrived in his Sunbeam 44 from Croatia via Italy.

The following morning we decided to change the anchor chain for heavier grade and Manfred and Hannes, who now had a spare day, were enlisted to help. It was great to have such expert help and more pairs of hands to complete what turned out to be a difficult job.

We were grateful to Manfred and Sunbeam for their excellent service and great company and help and were left pleased with our choice of boat and a feeling of confidence in the boat and the people that made it.