14 August 2013, End of sailing

In order to get to the island Aegina, where the boat would be lifted up on land, early enough before the meltemi would set in, we got up already at 06:00. We prepared everything with the boat in case of a stuck anchor (which we suspected since the holding had been so good) so we would be able to handle a situation with as little delay as possible. We had even got a phone number to a diver the previous evening. But to our surprise we had no problem getting up the anchor. What a relief! And what an anchor!

No wind at all, so we headed north towards Aegina by motor. We reached Planaco shipyard, which lies on the north coast of Aegina, around 11 o clock and there still was little wind. Contrary to the neighbooring shipyard, Planaco has a breakwater for moderate winds so it was easy to moor at the shipyard. Very friendly personnel and while while we were arranging all papers and formalities the boat was taken up on shore.

Next step was to visit the port police in Agina town some kms away to get a lift permit. Back to the boat the hard and time consuming work of taking down and packing sails, lines, sprayhood and bimini. Preparations for the winter. 

We stopped the work at seven o’ clock and had a lovely dinner at the simple local tavern close to the shipyard. A good night`s sleep in the boat on land and then continuing the work tomorrow morning.

This was probably the ending of sailing 2013. The rounding of Peleponesos that never came about due to the strong winds. Perhaps we can do this on the way back westwards instead, but another year. It is much easier and comfortable to sail with instead of against the wind. We have something more to look forward to.

13 August 2013, World class acoustics!

We started the day by taking one the small “ferries” (max 20 passengers)  over the small sound between Poros and Peleponesos mainland. We were aiming to visit the famous ancient amphitheatre and site at Epidhavros and our plan was to rent a car. First thing we saw when landing on mainland shore were two signs for rental cars at very cheap price, only 27€ a day. But, of course, the two operators only could offer cars from 45€ and up J … So we took the bus for 11€ per person instead!

One hour bus ride later we arrived at the site! The theatre is really magnificent! It is still said to have the best acoustic features in the world, and it was built 2500 years ago…We read that the theatre actually was considered as role model when Hitler built his stadium in Berlin for the 1936 Olympic games! And it is still used every weekend during July and August for plays and concerts! It was quite windy so we couldn’t prove its acoustic by the prescribed test – to drop a coin on the centre stone of the scene and be able to hear it from the top back row. However, some brave French guys went down to the centre and sang “Frére Jacques” beautifully, so we still got some proof of the acoustics.

Unexpectedly, I received a telephone call from Planaco Shipyard that they did not recommend us to lift the boat on the coming Friday due to expected high winds. Thursday was a bank holiday, so the only option for us would then be tomorrow, Wednesday. This was shortening our sailing vacation with a couple of days, but why not use these days to explore Athens instead? Decision.

On the bus trip back we got acquainted with two English girls, Sue and her daughter Stella who were on their way to a four day stay in Poros as part of an Island-hopping holiday. We invited them for a drink on the boat before having dinner together.

Back in Poros we visited the marine shop and bought a gadjet we have been looking for in many harbors! A small fan for 12V, i.e. battery powered! When temperature is above +35 C outside the boat, it is even higher inside the boat in the afternoon. The fan gave some cooling, but not that much. So we bought another one as well. Larger, with much greater cooling effect. But limited in usage for harbors where we have access to 220V.  

I had found a restaurant on the hill which had got good ratings in Tripadvisor. It felt like we were walking 3 kms to reach that restaurant, so it better be good, we said. It was not. The first 3 dishes of our choice from the menu they didn`t have, and what we then ordered was a disappointment. This was the second time I had trusted Tripadvisor and found a mediocre restaurant – which makes me suspect that people close to the restaurant owners wrote the very positive reviews. I hope Sue and Stella got some better meals at their remaining staying in Poros. Despite the meal, we had a pleasant evening!

12 August 2013, Poros next!

We slept with one eye open all the night and morning until 06:30 when we went up, before the sunrise. During the night there had been breezes from all kind of directions and the boat had turned 360 degrees more than one time. And when we went there was of course a breeze from the most unfavorable direction blowing us and anchor quite close to one of the permanently buoyed boats.

We skipped the breakfast and headed away with Poros as target. I needed to participate at a phone conference at work at 11:00 and I wanted to have moored in Poros before the conference was starting. We had two hours of wonderful sailing with beam reach winds, 7-9 m/s and we made good speed 7-8,5 knots. Then the wind dropped and we rolled in the genua and started the engine and kept good speed with some support from the main sail.

We moored at Poros town, which lies on the Poros island, 10:30 and I had my phone conference on board as planned. However I was not pleased with the scope and the anchor chain angle when stretched was too steep to ensure a good grip. So after the phone conference we re-anchored, now with all chain out. This time the anchor got a really good grip, but too far out – we could not come close enough to the quay, some 5 meters missing. But with almost full speed reverse and help from neighbor boat crew on the quay and my genoa winch we managed to stretch the anchor chain enough much to reach the quay with one and a half meters gap. Which is perfect actually, since there is swell coming in from the ferries. Only worries left now are that the anchor got a too good grip, due to it might be stuck in something horrifying at the sea bottom. We’ll see when we leave…

We also decided to stay another day here, since we have such a good anchor grip, and rent a car on the nearby, 200m, mainland to visit that amphitheatre by tomorrow instead.

Poros is a real tourist hot spot with probably twenty water front restaurants. We chose another one, a so called garden restaurant, up the hill which had really nice food and atmosphere.

Poros is also known for having one of the most beautiful entrances from water. Since there is only 100 m between the island and mainland at its most narrow passage and the town on the island is climbing up the island hillside it feels like you could almost touch the houses when sailing in from south. We came from north, though. We plan to leave it through the south entrance.

11 August 2013, Korfos – Epidhavros

Jennie and Klaus came 10:00 and picked us up in their car for a visit in their house and a possible swim in the community’s pool up the hill. A cute little house in a quiet environment and breathtaking view over the Korfos bay including their and our boat.  So is something this a possible resort for us after retirement? Perhaps. As Klaus and Jennie said, they did not like the climate in Germany or England – and who can disagree? Here in Greece the lowest temperature in winter at night is like 6-7 degrees, but during daytime they can always have coffee or lunch at their balcony looking over Korfos and the bay. One alternative is of course to rent their guesthouse (ferienwohnung.de>Greece>Korfos>St Helios) like the other German family we met yesterday. We met them again, Daniel and Tina with their two children, at the community pool and had a water polo game together. Daniel and Tina had met each other in Greece seventeen years ago and had every year since spent some of their vacation in various places all over Greece.

After some provisioning and a walk down to Korfos village it was time for departure. We were aiming for Epidhavros harbor and the famous amphitheatre there. We were also told by the restaurant owner that we had to leave since he had an agreement with a boat charter company to let 12 of their boats use his restaurant quay for shifting crew and of course to have something to eat. I prepared the main sail with 1 reef, since I expected winds over 10 m/s. Almost everything was well prepared when we left. Almost. Everything but the bl-y power cable which still was plugged in both the boat and the restaurant quay. It snatched off without any hesitation and the remaining part in land dropped in to the sea with some beautiful sparks. Well I was not in the mode of enjoying it. We had to drop anchor just some 50 m away and Sally got the shameful mission to row back with the dinghy and fetch the remaining land connector and possibly to pay for any damage caused. I have made so many departures in almost 20 years without this happening, but some time must be the first. Silly.

Epidhavros from anchor position

Anyway we went off by sail and it was the wind I expected. Neo Epidhavros was just around the corner, just one and a half hour away. The harbor was full, though. Some boats had their dinghies blocking any further mooring, and left their boat. No one came out to help us either, and with this wind we decided to go another half an hour to the other larger Epidhavros harbor. This was also full, with charter flotillas. But here it was possible to drop anchor outside the harbour, still quite well protected. We got a good place with possibilities to swing around without hitting any other boats. Provided we hadn’t dragged with the anchor, that is. Laying on a sway anchor meant we had to drop the idea taking a half an hour taxi up to the amphitheatre. We settled with taking the dinghy into shore and had a nice meal in Epidhavros town.

When we came back to the boat in the night we discovered that the boat and anchor had dragged a bit. But the wind had now dropped completely and the sea was flat. We put all the fenders out and promised ourselves to have an anchor check every time we woke up during the night.

10 Augusti 2013, Sailing the Corinth Canal

Today was the day! To go through the Corinth Canal which has the world’s  most expensive passage fee if you consider the short length of the canal, only 6 km. As you can see from the pictures, it is quite a spectacular canal with its steep walls with the highest point 76m. It is one way canal (at time) so you might have to wait for the boats going the opposite direction. 

We arrived to the breakwater outside the west canal entrance around 9 am. We were in radio connection with the canal pilot authorities who asked us to wait outside the breakwater. Only 5 minutes the last westward going boat had left the canal and the authorities called us over the radio and asked us to enter the canal. 20-30 minutes later we reached the canal authorities on the east side of the canal where we had to stop for paying the fee. The longer boat the higher fee, 225€ for us. I guess you can more fun for that money, still it was an exciting experience. The authority personnel were not unfriendly, but worked like robots and asked each boat owner to immediately leave the quay after had paid the fee.

We left and hoisted the sails. We had good winds and aimed for the armada of cargo ships lying for anchor some few nautic miles away. The wind was not stable, it changed both the directions and the intensity a number of times. After been tacking amongst the cargo ships for some time we got tired and took down the sails and continued south along the Peloponnese’s coastline by motor heading the little town Korfos.

Two hours later we were moored at Stavedo’s taverna for free including free water and electricity, of course under the condition we had at least one meal there.

After a light lunch we took the dinghe to a closeby beach and spent a few afternoon hours swimming and sipping drinks under the olive trees of the cafeteria garden next to the beach. A nice relaxing afternoon.

Sally then called the German/English couple we had met in Corinth together with the unofficial harbor master of Corinth Town, Jonathan, yesterday and asked them if they would like to join for dinner or a drink. We had got their business card and we knew they were living in Korfos.

They came along with another German family, who had rented one of their two houses,  including two children and all the eight of us had a wonderful dinner and a pleasant evening together.

9 August 2013, To Corinth town and the end of the Gulf

The alarm was set to 06:00, it was dusk. No breakfast and we and the boat was prepared for departure withing 15 minutes. The evening before we had moved the boat to alongside the lighthouse quay. We were lucky to get up the anchor easily. So this morning it was just to let go of all the lines and glide away.

The sea was calm, almost mirrorlike and we could have breakfast listening to the sound of the boat engine. Outdoors at least.

We sailed along the cost southeast heading for Corinth. And we had started early to avoid the strong meltemi wind which we had suffered from the last two sailing days. After an hour we got wind, but not as strong as we had feared. We could sail closed reach with a easterly wind.  And no waves – just lovely! And sufficient boat speed towards our destination, 4-6 knots.

 After another hour we left the coastline and the wind suddenly turned 180 degrees to westerly and we got a comfortable beam reach. Out in the Gulf the wind behaved very strange, sometimes dropping completely and sometime turning 45 degrees in various directions.

During this lovely sailing day we had three encounters with dolphins at a distance. This has never happened to us before. At 11:00 the meltemi wind caught us up with its typical 10-12 m/s, but this time from the beam and we noticed a speed record for the boat at this vacation, we were sailing for two hours with speeds always between 8-9 knots, with a maximum of 9,3 knots at several occasions.

Entering the Corint harbour a guy on the quay was waving us in for a alongside mooring which went well without incidents in spite of the strong winds. The guy was some kind of unofficial harbour master and on top of it, he was English, brought up in Plymouth but had been living in Greece for the last 45 years.

We went to restaurant Mediterranean of his recommendation for lunch and met him and another sailing couple there in their late sixties. We had a delicisous lunch and conversation. It is really nice to meet so many new acquaintances as you do when you sail

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The other couple, Klaus from Germany and Jennie from Oxford in England, were living in Greece and had sailed around in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for many years. They had two houses with sea views above the little town Korfos on Peloponnesus and offered us to rent one of them. Korfos is one of the places we had planned to sail to anyway. They could recommend the bay there to be excellent for anchoring, well protected from the meltemi.

The unofficial harbor master Jonathan was a really nice character and had have a colourful life so far. He left England for Crete when he was 18 and made a living from fishing together with the Greeks there. So he did now as well in Corinth. He had also been sailing over the Atlantic in yachts four times, been working on trading ships and been everywhere in the world. For a while he lived as a hippie in Crete (Caves of Matala), in India (Goa) and of course he had experienced the famous Woodstock festival in USA 1969. And many, many more histories. We asked him to write a book about his life.

8 August 2013, Blown in

Woke up early 6:30 by the 52 feet South African neighbor sail boat casting off. But they were unable to get up their anchor. They tried different ways by motoring forward and backward from different direction. In the end they discovered their anchor was hang up by some old thick rope laying on the bottom, attached to something. After a while they somehow managed to get up the whole thing and released their anchor. I’ll bet they were really relieved. We have experienced the same thing a couple of times. And now we got a bit anxious that there are more junk down there making trouble as well for us when we will leave. The other neighboring boat who moored yesterday did it to our surprise without dropping anchor. Perhaps the skipper knew the bottom situation. Well, we’ll better be prepared for the worst to happen.

But not today. The forecast showed exactly the same winds as yesterday, so we decided to stay here and leave very early Friday morning instead.  

The forecast was correct, the wind blew with 18 m/s and the sea was furious. We spend the day reading, sipping a juice and an ice-coffee on one of the cafés. We also had a swim and made some more provisioning.

We talked to an hotel receptionist who informed us that this town really does not have anything special to offer tourists. It did not even has a car rental agency. So we were really stuck. What to do?

Sally finished reading her romantic drama novel. I re-read a very informative book about maneuvering a boat by motor. Sounds easy, right? Just like driving a car. Nope. A car is not exactly acting as a piece of soap on ice like a boat. And when you reverse straight, you don’t have to consider that the boat at first at slow speed turns the aft quite significantly towards starboard. Learned, among other things, how to use ropes to maneuver the boat in difficult situations and how to turn the boat around when there is not much space.

 Did you for instance know that a boat turns much sharper if you put the gear in neutral? I.e. without influence from the propeller.
Lunch on-board and we’ll be having dinner at some of the waterfront restaurant. But their menus don’t promise anything extra, all dishes are very basic. No tourists, but standard tourist menus as in every place in Greece and after a couple of weeks you get bored of souvlaki, stuffed peppar and grilled vegetables. We will get up early tomorrow and leave this place, if we’ll get up our anchor that is…