In my last update the Greek referendum was in full swing, and the
uncertainty of Greece and the Euro etc was still in the hands of the
politicians...
...well, as you have all no doubt seen, it was all sorted out in the
end, the status quo prevailed, and nothing much has changed for us. We continue
to enjoy the country, its islands and its people.
10th July - New Epidavros
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| Leaving Poros |
So, let’s back to the real travel stuff. We left Steve and Jenny and
the island of Poros and headed to New Epidavros, and on route were met by
another pod of friendly dolphins.
This harbour is new to us; we have visited Old Epidavros, but not New Epidavros. It is a small town quay, newly constructed with all the facilities we require; water, power and lazy lines – this means we do not have to put our anchor down; instead we attach ourselves to a very secure line installed in the harbour.
We had a couple of lazy days,
watching the weather to make the trip up to the Corinth Canal and beyond.
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| Dolphins en-route |
This harbour is new to us; we have visited Old Epidavros, but not New Epidavros. It is a small town quay, newly constructed with all the facilities we require; water, power and lazy lines – this means we do not have to put our anchor down; instead we attach ourselves to a very secure line installed in the harbour.
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| New Epidavros beach |
12th July - Corinth Canal
to Corinth Harbour
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| Corinth Canal |
Once again, we took the 30-minute motor through this amazing engineering structure. This is now our third trip through the Corinth Canal, and no matter how many times we see it, its construction still astounds us. Below Wikipedia gives some more insight...
The Corinth Canal is a canal that
connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts
through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the
Greek mainland, thus effectively making the former peninsula an island. The
builders dug the canal through the Isthmus at sea level; no locks are employed.
It is 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) in length and only 21.4 metres (70 ft) wide at its
base, making it impassable for most modern ships. It now has little economic
importance.
The canal was mooted in classical
times and an abortive effort was made to build it in the 1st century AD.
Construction finally got under way in 1881 but was hampered by geological and
financial problems that bankrupted the original builders. It was completed in
1893 but, due to the canal's narrowness, navigational problems and periodic
closures to repair landslides from its steep walls, it failed to attract the
level of traffic expected by its operators. It is now used mainly for tourist
traffic.
We spent the night in Corinth Harbour, a small harbour serving the
reasonably sized town of Corinth. It’s an OK place, from where you can get
buses to visit Old Corinth, but we just used it as a ‘stop off’ on our way back
to Messolonghi.
14th July: Galaxidhi/16th
July: Trizonia/17th July: Messolonghi
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| Galaxidhi restaurant |
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| More dolphis |
We stayed a couple of days, and then managed to sail (yes sail) to
Trizonia. This is another unusual little spot. A small island off the mainland
coast; normally at this time of year you would not expect to be able to get
into the harbour. We looked through the binoculars and it looked pretty full,
but on arrival, we found a spot, side to, on the inner wall. Perfect. A drink
in the harbour before bed and then the last leg to Messolonghi.
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| Rio-Antirrio bridge |
Again, this part of the journey back to Messolonghi can be fraught with
‘ups and downs’. The wind is unpredictable, the seas can be bouncy and steep,
but the Rio–Antirrio Bridge is always a remarkable sight. It is yet another
piece of amazing engineering. Here’s what Wiki says...
It is one of the world's longest
multi-span cable-stayed bridges and the longest of the fully suspended type. It
crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the
Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road.
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| Just to give a bit of scale |
The 2,880 m (9,449 ft) long
bridge (approximately 1.8 miles) dramatically improves access to and from the
Peloponnese, which could previously be reached only by ferry or via the isthmus
of Corinth in the east. Its width is 28 m (92 ft) — it has two vehicle lanes
per direction, an emergency lane and a pedestrian walkway. Its five-span
four-pylon cable-stayed portion of length 2,252 m (7,388 ft) is the world's
second longest cable-stayed deck; only the deck of the Millau Viaduct in
southern France is longer at 2,460 m (8,071 ft). However, as the latter is also
supported by bearings at the pylons apart from cable stays, the Rio–Antirrio
bridge deck might be considered the longest cable-stayed "suspended"
deck.[citation needed]
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| Passing under the bridge |
This bridge is widely considered
to be an engineering masterpiece, owing to several solutions applied to span
the difficult site. These difficulties include deep water, insecure materials
for foundations, seismic activity, the probability of tsunamis, and the
expansion of the Gulf of Corinth due to plate tectonics. (Wiki)
We arrived back in Messolonghi, took up a usual spot on pontoon 1 and
spent the next two weeks sweltering in 40C+ degrees. Thank goodness for
electric fans!
31st July – Petalas
Ionian bound: And we’re off. We stop off in a large bay, one that most
people use as a ‘half way house’ en-route to Nidri/Ionian. Most people love it
here; we still can’t seem to get the whole point of it! Too windy over night
for us – ho hum, can’t be pleased all the time.
1st August: Nydri/ 4th
August: Port Atheni
Back in our usual haunts within Nidri, we say hello to old friends
(many of whom have not seen us since last year and my enforced hospital stay,
and we were pleased to be able to tell them that all was OK). Having met up
with a ‘Messolonghi friend’, we headed off to Port Atheni, one of our favourite
bays, to ‘chill out’ for a couple of days. Dinner on board Alhambra the first
night, followed by a BBQ on Bengal Light on the second...or so we thought.
Day one was lovely, as expected. Day two brought the first of a week of
unseasonal, un-forecast, un-expected thunderstorms, along with a bunch of unprofessional
sailors who made the next few hours most uncomfortable. The winds came, along
with the rain and then one of these ‘helpful’ soles tripped our anchor out,
which normally is not a problem, but as we have 100ft lines tied to the shore,
and it is blowing at 30+knots, it makes it a little problematic to release
ourselves from this situation. Fortunately, David managed to swim and get one
line and the other we managed to pass to Steve on Bengal, who was still firmly
in place. We ‘bugged out’ and went around to the main anchorage. Expecting to
find a multitude of boats all trying to anchor out of the wind and sea (which
there was), but there was also a spot on the town quay that no one had taken –
out with the lines, sort the fenders, whoop-de-do, and we’re on the quay. We
jumped in the dinghy to make sure Steve was OK, and to see whether he wanted to
come round. He decided to stay put...but no BBQ for us that night. However,
three boats had managed to lose their anchors and ended up on the rocks, one
man was flipped out of his dinghy in the process of helping to re-anchor!
The following 10 days saw unseasonal storms rolling continually in from
the mountains. We stayed put in Nidri, and managed to stay out of the storms.
However, stories of boats in difficult in that first storm began rolling in.
Many of the ‘safe harbours’ had ended up in carnage, boats on rocks, damage and
dragged anchors. A lesson on Greek weather learned very quickly!
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| Little Vathi |
We spent the next couple of weeks ‘pottering’ around the usual bays and
harbours, waiting the arrival of mum, her cousin Maureen and husband Alan. They
have been staying a local hotel, but we managed a couple of day trips on
Alhambra, although sadly for them, no wind to speak of to do any proper
sailing.
However, a hectic, active week was had:
Sunday: Maureen's birthday.
Tuesday: shopping and pool day.
Wednesday: parasailing and sailing in afternoon.
Thursday: coach trip around Lefkas island.
Friday: boat trip to Kalamos and Kastos islands (yes we went too!).
Saturday: shopping and pool day – phew!
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| Last stop on boat trip |
Our next visitors are already in Greece (in a villa), and we are not
sure when we will be able to get there to collect them...we do not need to meet
them until Saturday, but with this unpredictable weather... you’ll just have to
watch this space.
Util next time
Take care, stay safe
Michele and Dave
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