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

.

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…

7 August 2013, Water, wind and dolphins

We woke up before the alarm was set to ring, 7:15. We had decided the evening before that if the wind had dropped we would try to go to Andikiron, a litte town also on the north coast of the Corinth Gulf some 15-20 nm eastwards. The sailing guide promised that there would be a quay equipped with both electricity and water, and we were beginning to feel desperate about that. So how was the wind?

It was almost dead calm, so off we go – but first breakfast. The day before, Tuesday, Itea had a bank holiday and no shops were open. So we were short of food. We went into town hoping to find a café open at this early hour. We were lucky and got some kind of pastry with Philadelphia cheese inside, a cup of coffee and a glass of juice at the café close to the bus station. I must say that I have some difficulty in eating these very fat pastries, almost like a Danish, early in the morning. But nothing else was on offer.

With more or less only mineral water as provision, we untied the moorings and sailed away southwards by engine. A gentle northerly breeze made small waves, otherwise very calm. 10nm later we would turn east and if the breeze had increased a bit the idea was to hoist the sails.

The wind increased indeed. Just when we turned eastwards the wind started to haul, and the meter displayed the usual 10-12 m/s. Increasing. 5 minutes later the wind was 16-19 m/s easterly. Right in the nose again. Not fun.

More fun was that to our surprise we discovered a group of dolphins heading along us at high speed through the waves some 200 m away from us. We were not fast enough, banging against the wind at 2-3 knots, to come very close to them, but we managed to get some decent photo`s.

We arrived around 2 pm at Andikiron and found that the only possibility to moor to the only small quay available was to drop the anchor and go backwards with the aft first towards the quay. Not that easy in such strong winds, but we managed to do it without incidents. It felt really nice and safe when all lines were in place. And we got what we were looking for, the little town quay had both water and electricity facilities installed. This is the first time we`ve had these facilities for a week!

As all small Greek towns by the sea, this one also had a row of tavernas at the water front with great views towards the mountains on the other side of the bay. The town does not seem to have much else to offer for tourists, and we hardly found anyone else but us. Only three other guest boats arrived after us, and the restaurant guests were almost solely greeks. This we even noticed by the prices, which were significantly lower.

6 August 2013, Delphi

We decided to take a day off the sailing and caught a bus to the ancient city of Delphi, some 30 minutes inlands from Itea.

During the antiques Delphi was regarded as the center of the world and as you probably know also inhabited the Oracle of Delphi, giving advices to rulers of that time. This era lasted from like 800 BC to 200 AD. We are talking about 1000 years, a long period.

The ancient city is really beautifully situated on a mountain slope with spectacular surrounding views.

It was of course very hot walking up and down in the sloping city, but gusting winds gave some ventilation – and stirred up huge amounts of dust. The mixture of salt from the sailing and dust form Delphi made Sally’s hair feel like steel wool, or rather used steel wool.

We saw the stone representing the center of the world, Sally even touched it, the remainings of the Apollo temple where the Oracle was to be found. And the well preserved amphitheater and stadium for the games held there (not the Olympic though).

A nice lunch in Delphi town at a restaurant with panorama windows over the Itea bay and the bus back to Itea for a rest in the boat ended the journey.

5 August 2013, Heading for Itea

We overslept and had a late breakfast around 10 in the morning. Not so good since the wind had started to haul again, yes it was the same strong wind coming again.

We were heading east, just making a short trip like 3-4 hours in the rough wind we thought. The target was to take a stop at Itea, a harbour furtherst north into a bay of the Gulf of Korinth. So two hours west, and then rounding a corner and another hour northwards.

The wind was of course blowing from east, 12-15 m/s. The sea was not that bad, the waves did not exceed 1m. But it was still a very jumpy road going straight against them. First 2 hours by engine, partly to charge the batteries again and partly that I thought this was the quickest way to the target. In reality we was moving at a speed of 2-3 knots only in average, so this two hours stretch took four hours instead. The good thing was that we did not get sea sick. After the two hours by engine we tried to sail, tacking. With two reefs on the main and only half of the genua out, we were not making better speed towards the target. Could not get good enough tack angles. It felt like were zig-zaging but not gaining any distance. Well, after four hours were finally reached the corner where we were supposed to turn northwards again. We did. And was now facing northerly winds of the same strengths. Again the jumpy road, one hour became two until we finally reached the “marina” in Itea. A well protected harbor with plenty of space, but totally deserted. No water, no electricity – and no fees on the plus side.

We aimed for mooring along the long almost empty concrete quay and prepared well with all the fenders we had and two lines ready to moor. A man was waving on the quay indicating that he would help. Excellent! While I was slowly approaching the quay in correct angle Sally threwed the mooring line from attached on the front of our boat to this guy. Who immediately took the line and secured it on a quay pole. At a position corresponding to the mid of our boat. I had no time to react. The boat was immideately turning the front towards the concrete. All the fendering alongside the boat did not help. The boat smashed into concrete with a bang. Ok, we did not have much speed, but still there was a clear mark on the boat. The guy had of course a good intention to help, but with poor knowledge of the effect. Lesson learned. Give clear directions to the guys helping you.

As we have mentioned before all the last days have been extremely hot, +35-40 C. Impossible to even stand still in the shade without sweating. It probably also has made all vegetation in the landscape very dry. The bay of Itea felt like a war zone. Why? Seven big sea-airplanes were shuttling just 50m above us between fetching water from the bay and dropping it off on a forest fire near the famous ancient city of Delphi, which we were supposed to visit the following day. They kept on flying the whole afternoon and evening and seemed to be successful in stopping the fire. The locals told us it was a real tragedy since vast areas of olive cultivating was on fire. It takes something like 30 years to get an olive tree productive for harvesting, and even worse if the soil now were drenched in salty sea water.

4 August 2013, Gulf of Korinth

It was still dead calm when we woke up and the boat had not drifted at all. We took up the anchor and went by engine and had breakfast in the saloon with the some speed wind ventilating the boat meanwhile. It was a really hot day.

Suddenly we discovered dolphins at some distance! They were in two groups with 3-4 individuals in each. We turned and came slowly quite close to them. It is a magnificent view seeing these big animals (3-4 m long) swimming close to the boat, especially when it is clear water. You see their white-gray body some 5-6 meters below in contrast to the really blue water. We got hundreds (puh) of photos and spent some 10 minutes with them. It will be a hell later sorting out the best shots, all looking about the same…

Some 2-3 hours later we passed under the big impressing Korinth bridge between Rion and Anrrion. We had to call the Bridge Control center to get permission to pass under the bridge. The bridge was build and ready for use in 2004 and according the sailing pilot (guide) it has the longest cable lifted bridge span in the world.

Just another hour eastwards we dropped anchor outside a medieval city, Navpaktos, with a quite big fortress with walls facing the sea. We had lunch under a big tree with a view to the very small marina inside the fortress walls. We could not see our boat since we anchored outside the walls. But with the excellent app BoatMon R (for Remote) and two local Greek phone prepaid SIM cards we could leave the iPad onboard functioning as a GPS sending positions every second minute to my Iphone which could display the position on a Google maps picture. So if the boat would have started to drift I could have seen this on my iPhone. This is a really great help when leaving the boat on anchor.

Heading out from Navpaktos an Easterly wind had developed - against us. A bit surprising since the sail pilot says that Westerly winds prevails in these waters. The wind increased to some 10-12 m/s and we sailed with one reef against it. After a while we got tired of zig-zaging and started the engine. We arrived to the island Trizonia and some kind of marina there around 7 pm.

Still 12 m/s wind from East, so the mooring became a bit difficult. There was no space left in the marina, and when asking an Italian boat if we could moor along their boat (this is the way we always do in Scandinavia, often 5-7 boats outside each other) he refused. We were lucky, suddenly one of the boats left and with an empty space with the size of our boat along the concrete quay. But with the wind blowing off the quay at that force it is difficult to come close enough with the boat to the quay. The wind puts out the boat. After a couple of attempts and with help from people on the quay we managed to get one line in the front attached both to the quay and the boat. And then we could throw over a really long line to them which I could use to winch in the aft of the boat and reach the quay. Some stressy moments, but no damage and now we are lying comfortably alongside the quay. Looking for food later, we managed to miss a number of nice restaurants close by and walked instead up to the only restaurant we thought was present on this island some 30m up the hill. We had an ok meal there, but the best advantage with this restaurant was the spectacular view over the nature of the island and the marina.

We went to bed at 23:00 but it was still very hot, and the wind had disappeared completely. It is difficult to sleep in +30 C so I went up for some blogging instead J.

3 August 2013, Sailing towards Korinth

We departured around 10:30 after returning the car and preparing the boat. We sailed away by engine but after an hour the wind came. Against us, but the sea was still rather calm and with a number of tacks we rounded the north east corner of Peloponnese a few hours later. We got a better wind angle, about 60 degrees and had a wonderful sailing day with speeds around 8 knots until 7-8 pm when the wind started to drop.

We aimed for a small place some 10 nm west Patras. The intention was to drop anchor outside the beach there but we realized that it would be dark when we would arrive. So we found some kind of a holiday resort on the way where we believed we could get a dinner if we dropped the anchor there. This was not a harbor at all. And it was shallow quite far out from the resort. No other boats around. The bottom was full of sea weed, not good for anchor. We could not get a good grip, but the sea was dead calm and the weather forecast promised a very calm night. So we took the chance and left the boat out there with a lot of chain out for the anchor and headed to the beach and resort with our dinghy. It was pitch dark when we reached the grit beach some 500m from our anchored sailing boat.

We were right, it was a holiday resort mainly for the locals we think. People looked very surprised when we came from nowhere and asked for food. It was too late at the resort restaurant, but the waiter could show us a neighboring outdoor restaurant at the beach. Very simple and plain but with a lovely grilled fish, a Greek salad and some beers and at very low price and lots of charm.

We managed to find our way back to boat out there, of course we had the anchor light switched on so it was not that difficult.

2 August 2013, Pass

A 2^nd look at the weather forecast for south Peloponnese revealed that heavy winds (>20m/s) right in the nose was expected half a week ahead for several days without any break. With the delays we already have had we could not afford to be blown in some harbor for several days. So my dream of rounding Peloponnese has to wait until another year when we have more time.

Taking the other route, the Korint Gulf and Canal, we could expect a rather smooth journey with few surprises. It was also much shorter, so we decided to stay another day in Katakolon and drive a bit further away to visit the Apollo temple. And on the way there we could drop off Kimberley at Pyrgos bus station.

We waved Kimberley goodbye at the bus station for her bus to Athen. We have had a wonderful week together and it felt empty now when she had left.

Halfway to Apollo’s temple by car we heard the phone ringing. I thought it was one of my phones, one of these Swedish sales men ringing so I wasn’t that keen taking the call. But then we found out it must have been Sally’s – which was lying in the back of the car. “It can wait” Sally said. “But think if it is Kimberley”. Ok, we stopped the car and Sally discovered it had been Kimberley calling. So she returned the call – Kimberley was already 1 hour away towards Athen in the bus and was missing her passport! I had to take all passports to the port authorities who never came in Sankt Nikolas at Zakynthos. So all passports, including Kimberley’s, were still in that big envelope where I carry the boat documents. What to do?

After some calculations we realized that the only option for Kimberley to catch the planned flight was that we took our car and drove after her after a visit on the boat first of course. So we did, Apollo have to wait until another occasion. Kimberley had jumped off the bus outside Patras and two hours later we picked her up there and managed to get in time for her flight at Athens International Airport! Puh! So we took another farewell to Kimberley, and hoped her continuous journey back home now would go more smoothly.

Being in Athens we took the opportunity to visit a good marine shop in Piraeus to buy some new fenders that we had lost in Zakynthos. We also bought some new lines so that we would be able to take down the main sail more easily and directly from the cockpit and also to make it able to lift the boom from there.

On the way back to Katakolon we took the road over Tripoli, we have heard this was a faster road. And it was, but only to Tripoli. We did the mistake taking the exit just before Tripoli towards ancient Olympia, that seemed to be the shortest way on the map. It might have been, but it was also definitely the slowest way as well. We are talking about some 120 km mountain road, where if you are lucky, you could drive 50 km/h. But at the many zig-zag roads you could only drive in 20 km/h. We passed may surely very beautiful places and small villages/towns on the way, but it was pitch dark so we did not see much. We arrived Katacolon 01:00, extremely tired.

1 August 2013, Olympia!

Get up early so we can avoid the expecting strong wind in the afternoon and reach Olympia before it is getting late afternoon.

Hanna’s birthday, but it is way too early to ring her up at this hour.

Planning to leave 7:00, so I walk to the port police 6:55 as told yesterday with the filled in form. Am I surprised? No one at the port police office, closed. I waited another 20 minutes, but still no sign of any police men so I decided to skip it. Ok, breaking the law but who knows when they were coming? And I told them yesterday that we were leaving at 07:00. Getting up the anchor without any problem, we hadn’t crossed the anchor line with our Italian neighbor as he insinuated when we were mooring, hah! So off we went, still without any sign of the police.

Very calm sea. Heading south by motor for Katacolon port on the west coast of Peleponesos. The only exiting thing happened was when two big commercial ship passed us by.  And of course the mandatory swim tour out in nowhere but with 27,3 C water temperature. Hardly refreshing, but still nice. We arrived the harbor with an incident free, almost perfect, mooring aft to the quay. A very friendly harbor captain greeted us welcome to Katacolon and informed us of all the necessary stuff.

Tried to ring Hanna a couple of times again, but failed.

The target of the day was obviously the nearby ancient site of Olympia. When we arrived the only trip there by train had departure some hours earlier. In spite of the 30+ tourist buses parked next to the yacht harbor no one of them seemed interested in driving to Olympia, in fact we did not met any driver or passenger at all. Only option left was to rent a car. After a while walking down the village main street Kimberley and I found the magic sign – “Car rent”. 5 minutes later we were driving a 10 years old Opel Corsa back to the boat to pick up Sally. Olympia is some 38 km away from Katakolon, and we passed the county capital Pyrgos on the way and found out which bus Kimberly must take on the Friday to her flight in Athens.

We also have a simple but lovely lunch in Pyrgos, the dishes were really price worthy and tasty – 3,5€ each for a good and tasty meal. I.e. not tourist prices, as this was not a tourist town at all. However they had almost normal Mediterranean prices for drinks, beers etc. It seems that drinks have international prices.

Suddenly Hanna ringed me back and I and we got the chance to congratulate on her 26^th birthday! Hurra!!!

Olympia was actually much better and interesting than I had thought. They started to use this site for Olympic games 1000 years BC. And they kept on in 1200 years!! Compared with the modern Olympic games which have been held only for some 115 years. I only had an elliptic running track in mind for these ancient games, but there was so much more. It was almost like a modern Olympic village with (the ruins of) a great number of arenas and buildings covering an area like 1km x 1km. Quite exhausting to explore in +36C, I can tell you, but very interesting and thoughtful. One detail, they had a “walk of shame” for all athletes to pass on their way to the big elliptic arena. All athletes that had been convicted by the judges to have played foul had their names in scripted in a long row of rocks as warning examples of the shame they would suffer if cheating.

 I asked the girls to do some wrestling at the wrestling arena for camera shots, but this was not all appreciated by the guards and we were told off to stop it immediately.

The day ended at a restaurant at the port water front. Really nice food, but the waiters had their thumbs in the soup if you know what I mean. I hope we will not suffer from that during the night.  Topping up with a couple of ouzos with ice in another bar nearby and it was time for bed.

31 July 2013, Stuck in Saint Nicolas, Zakynthos

Stuck in the harbor due to the continuing strong winds, 15-20 m/s. We took a long sweaty walk along the village road upwards in the mountains and ended up in a restaurant “The old windmill” 205m above the sea level with a really amazing view towards mainland and the island Kephalonia. We rewarded ourselves with some ice cold Mythos beers. Sally and Kimberley had fish soup, way too expensive in comparison to its flavor. I had a much more price worthy moussaka which was ok.  In the evening the wind finally dropped. The port authorities came around and distributed the forms amongst the boats they were short of the day before (how can you have a shortage of forms??? – we only got copies anyway). Anyway, we were asked to fill them in with all the details and hand over them to the authorities before departuring the morning after.  I informed them that we were planning to leave early at 07:00, and they responded that they will be open by then.  A nice pasta dinner on-board with some white wine and cognac afterwards completed a nice day.