Through the Corinth canal to the Aegean

Motoring through the Corinth canal

Our friends Melanie and Derek arrived on 17^th May to spend a week with us on the boat. We were up early the next day ready to sail through the Corinth canal to the Aegean. We called up the canal office to ask if we could go through and were told to proceed to the canal as quickly as possible. But first we had to escape from the tight corner we were moored in. It wouldn’t be easy with the wind blowing us on to the small boat moorings, but Cliff had the brilliant idea of backing the genoa to turn the boat into the narrow channel, and it worked a treat.

Once out we steamed down to meet up with three other boats that were getting ready to transit. We were told to follow a motor launch and quickly found ourselves in the canal with the walls towering high above us. In less than an hour we were out the other side and mooring up to pay a whopping 180 euro fee for the privilege!

With Melanie and Derek at Angistri harbour

There was so little wind that we had to motor sail from the canal down to the small island of Angistri, but as we arrived the wind suddenly got up, making mooring in the harbour a difficult business. It took us two attempts to get in, providing lots of entertainment for the other boats who were already on the quay!

The theatre at Epidaurus


After a couple of relaxing days on Angistri we moved on to the busy port of Epidaurus where we took a taxi to the nearby ancient site of Epidaurus. This was originally a sanctuary for healing but the main attraction is the impressive, 14,000 seat theatre which is set among the rolling green hills and still used for performances today.  We enjoyed wandering around the theatre and the museum and would have like to have had more time to explore the huge site with its stadium, temple and sanctuary, but it was very hot and the taxi was waiting so we will have to return another time.

The smaller theatre on the headland

 

Back at the port we were told there were the remains of another theatre on the headland, so we set out on a very pleasant early evening stroll along the beach and then inland through orange and lemon groves until we found the theatre (small, but still impressive) and other remains that are still being excavated. The remains are on a rise just above the sea, and apparently you can still see the foundations of the old town in the shallows below.

Sunset at Poros



Our final stop with Melanie and Derek was Poros, the main town on the island of the same name. We have fond memories of a week we spent here with Melanie and Derek  over 30 years ago! The town is as lovely now as it was then, spanning two sides of the headland with views across the narrow strait to the mountains on the mainland. We moored on the north quay and were quite smug about the location which was away from noisy bars and had a perfect view of the sunset.



Cliff with the broken boarding plank

We weren’t far from the ferry dock and had read there could be some wash, so we made sure the boat was pulled well off the quay. The first few ferries produced a bit of a bumpy wash, but nothing prepared us for the tidal wave that came when one of the ferries did a fast turn. Sandpiper suddenly surged backwards, and the ball fender we had positioned on the back crashed violently into the quayside.  The next day as we lowered the gangplank to go ashore we had another ‘tidal wave’. This drove the boat towards the quay and pinned the plank under a mooring cleat then bounced it up and down so violently that it cracked and splintered all down one side. The plank was new this season – and was now useless! Luckily we still had our old (rather dodgy) metal passerelle so this was put into use until we could find a replacement plank. Once Melanie and Derek had left to take the ferry back to Athens we moved round to the South Quay away from the ferries, reasoning that a bit of noise from the bars was a lot better than a damaged boat.

We were really sad to see Melanie and Derek go. They had been brilliant company for the week, up for anything and always making us laugh!

Time out in Corinth

The original engine for the rack and pinion railway

 

11th May With strong winds predicted (again!) we sailed down to Corinth where we knew there was a safe harbour. We were greeted by Jonathon, a bushy-bearded, eccentric English seafarer who has made Corinth his home and acts as an unofficial harbour master guiding boats into the berths. He suggested we took a tight space in the corner of the harbour in among the local boats. It was tricky manoeuvring between the mooring buoys, but once in we were well protected. The one disadvantage was the slight spray that came over the harbour wall when the wind got up. I made the mistake of leaving my washing out one day when we went out, and came back to find it nicely salted!

On the train cutting through the Vouraikos gorge

As the wind was too strong for sailing we decided to hire a car and visit a couple of must-see places on our list. The first was the rack and pinion railway which runs from Diakopto through the Vouraikos Gorge to the alpine town of Kalavryta. The railway was built in 1896, and part of the line runs along a shallow shelf that’s been cut into to the side of the sheer rock in the gorge. The ride was exciting and provided some great views along the gorge and down to the rapids. Then, as we came out of canyon, the scenery opened up to reveal Kalavryta in an alpine valley that wouldn’t look amiss in Switzerland.

Memorial at the Museum of the Sacrifice of the People of Kalavryta

It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful place has a dark history, but in 1943 the Germans staged a savage reprisal against local members of the Greek Resistance here. The German soldiers locked all the women and children, along with a few prisoners of war, in the primary school and set it on fire, while over 500 men and boys were marched up to a ridge above the town where they were summarily shot. Fortunately the prisoners of war managed to break the school doors down so most of women and children were able to escape, but their husbands and sons were already dead.


Memorial at the site of the massacre



We visited the small museum recording the events, which was built on the site of the school, then walked up to the ridge where there is a memorial to the men. It’s a peaceful spot, with only the sound of the wind in the pines and the tinkling of goat bells to break the silence, and we both felt incredibly moved as we looked back down over the town and valley and contemplated all that had gone on there.

The fortified city of Acrocorinth

The next day we were joined by fellow sailors Martin and Debbie for a drive up to see the ruins of the medieval city of Acrocorinth. The old city is  perched on a 500m high mass of rock a few miles from modern Corinth and was one of Greece’s best fortified sites. There’s not a lot of the old city left, but site gives you stunning views across to the islands of the Aegean on one side and the Gulf of Corinth on the other.

Remains of a medieval chapel



Wonderful views from the top

Back down at ground level, we decided to go and have look at the Corinth Canal as we would be we sailing through it in a couple of days’ time.  It’s slightly scary walking along the pedestrian bridge and looking down the 300 feet of sheer limestone to the narrow canal below. We hadn’t realised quite how long it is (4 miles) and we were duly impressed by the engineering that went into its construction at the end of the 19^th century.
 

The Corinth canal





Earthquakes and ruins

The impressive Rion-Adirrion suspension bridge

8^th May After leaving Messolonghi we sailed towards the new Rion-Andirrion suspension bridge near Patras, which links the Peloponnese peninsular with the mainland. We had to call Rion Traffic when we were a mile away to be told which part of the bridge we should pass under to avoid meeting with some of the large cargo boats coming the other way. We were instructed ‘one pillar to the left, three to the right’ and sailed under the impressive bridge with hardly any other boats in sight.

Sunken yacht in Trizonia marina

We stopped for the night on the pretty, tiny island of Trizonia, mooring in an ‘unfinished’ marina. There seem to be a lot of these in Greece now, we’ve been told that the government loaned money to local councils so that more marinas could be built to attract visitors, but they have remained unfinished to avoid having to pay back the grant. Whatever the reason, they are a gift to yachtsmen who can moor there for free. Sadly, in Trizonia the marina has also become the resting place for abandoned yachts. We saw several rotting hulks tied up alongside and a ketch had sunk between the pontoons.

We had a great sail down from Trizonia to Itea, where we planned to stop to take a trip up to Delphi.  At around 6.30 following morning we were woken by an explosion that rocked the boat. We shot up on deck expecting the worst but could see nothing. Cliff was convinced it was an earthquake while I thought it more likely that someone had been rock blasting nearby. Well, Cliff was right, we later discovered there was earthquake (4.3 on the Richter scale) with its epicentre just a few miles away!

The amphitheatre at Delphi

Later that morning we took the bus to visit Delphi, which was built in a spectacular setting high on the mountain overlooking the valley that goes down to Gulf. This is the site of the Ancient Oracle, where, from around the 8^th century BC onwards, pilgrims, including kings and generals, would come to seek divine direction on anything from war to their love life. They submitted their questions to a priestess who went into a trance and gave an unintelligible answer which was then translated by a priest. It’s thought that the priestess was a local villager who sat on her tripod inhaling ethylene gas that leaked up through the rocks, which would account for her ‘trance-like’ state!

The Tholos, Delphi

Delphi is an impressive site with temples, a theatre and a stadium, but it’s the setting that makes it special. We were lucky to visit when it was relatively quiet with only the occasional group of tourists disturbing the peace.

Temple of Apollo, Delphi

 

Vathi and Messolonghi

Vathi on Ithaca

 

We left Lefkas on 30^th April to start our journey towards the Aegean. We had a perfect two hour downwind sail in the sunshine to one of our favourite spots, Spartahori on the island of Meganisi, where we had an excellent evening in the beachside taverna.

The next day the wind refused to appear so we had to motor down to Vathi on the pretty, pine clad island of Ithaca. As we slowed and got ready to moor in the harbour the engine cut out. We started it up and it was fine, but as soon as we slowed it stopped again. We managed to keep it going long enough to moor alongside then Cliff spent a frustrating hour checking everything in the engine but couldn’t find the problem.

We had hoped to make the most of some good westerly winds to cross from Ithaca to the Gulf of Patras the next day, but instead we had to wait around for an engineer, who took two hours to find the fault (a tiny air leak in the fuel pipe) and another hour to replace it. We then had to hand over a very large wad of euros, not a good start to the season!

The motor had a good test the next day as the wind was on the nose for most of the 7 hour crossing to Messolonghi. As we approached the harbour black clouds gathered and we just managed to finish tying up before the heavens opened and it poured with rain.

Statue of Byron in Messolonghi

 

Messolonghi is a peaceful spot, set on a flat plain surrounded by shallow lagoons and marshes and backed by magnificent mountains. It is here that Lord Byron died in 1824. When he arrived at the town he was made commander in chief of an army that was fighting the Ottomans. He died of fever before he could lead the army into battle but still became a Greek national hero, and we visited the statue dedicated to him in the local park.

Fisherman's house

We spent a couple of lazy days in Messolonghi while we waited for some strong winds and storms to blow through. We had a great cycle ride along a causeway between the lagoons where the local fishermen live in houses on stilts and trawl the shallow waters in oriental-looking boats. The area is full of wildlife and we spotted turtles, egrets, pelicans and even flamingos.

Fishing boats on the lagoon


 



Flamingos on the lagoon

Pindus mountains in Greece

The Vikos Gorge

We flew back from the UK to Athens on 5^th March and after a night in a hotel we made the 5 hour bus journey from Athens to Lefkas. The journey was brilliant, a comfortable, air conditioned bus that drove down along the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras, giving us panoramic views of the snow clad mountains of the Peloponnese towering above us and the coast and sea below.

We arrived back in Lefkas to be greeted with gale force winds and pouring rain, much like the weather we’d had all winter in the UK! We've found the  weather here is very changeable in the spring: one day it’s hot and sunny and we’re out on deck in t shirts and shorts, the next there can be thunderstorms with hail and we’re down below with the heater on full blast.

After three weeks of getting the boat ready for the sailing season we decided to hire a car and escape to the Pindus mountains for a few days. Our destination was the mountain village of Monodhendhri near to the Albanian border, it's up near to snow line and at the mouth of the Vikos gorge, which is the deepest in the world. 

Ioannina on Lake Pamvotidha

To get there we took a scenic route that follows the river through gorges to the lakeside town of Ioannina where we stopped for lunch. This is now a fast growing, modern capital of the Epirus region, but it was under Turkish rule for almost 500 years, from 1430 to 1913, and wandering through the old citadel with its two mosques and wood and stone houses we felt we had been transported to Turkey. It was on our list of places to see as it housed the court of Ali Pasha, one of the cruellest Ottoman rulers who wreaked havoc on this area and thought nothing of having his adversaries beheaded then thrown in the lake.

Gate to the Old Citadel in Ioannina

Local craft exhibition



The old mosque from the Citadel

Leaving Ioannina we wound our way up into the mountains through alpine pastures (having to stop occasionally to let the cows cross the road) until we reached Monodhendhri, a lovely old stone village clinging to the hillside. Our hotel was built entirely of wood and stone and was tastefully furnished with antiques. Our bedroom was very cosy with a wood burning fireplace and a view from the balcony of snow-capped mountain tops. However, when we went down to the restaurant for dinner we found we were eating alone with two wall mounted televisions for company, blasting out two competing Greek programmes, which rather spoilt the ambience!

The 'Stone Forest' near Monodhendhri

Cliff at the Vikos Gorge

 It was early in the tourist season and we hardly met a soul as we hiked between mountain villages and around the edge of gorge the next day. The views down into the gorge were spectacular and we were also fascinated by the pack horse bridges that spanned the rivers. These were built entirely from dry stones (no cement) in the 18^th and 19^th century and are still in use as foot bridges today.

Plakidas stone bridge at Kipi

We made two important stops on the drive back down to Lefkas: one to visit the site of the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona where, in 1900 BC people came to find out what the future held for them, and then to visit the temple of IKEA, where in 2014 people come to discover the future of home furnishings!

Dodona, site of the Oracle of Zeus

Back in the UK

A Lagoon 440, a little different from Sandpiper!

22nd November  This will be our last blog entry for this year as we're now back in the UK. We returned earlier than planned as Cliff is crossing the Atlantic (again!) in December, this time on a 45ft Lagoon catamaran owned by a couple we met in Cartagena. I will be flying out to meet him in Antigua in January, then we will spend some time with our friends Richard and Rowena on their boat, Galene. After that we are flying to Florida where we will visit Cliff's friends Carolyn and Gary before heading back to the UK. We expect to go back to Greece at the end of February, so I'll start updating the blog again then.

Lefkas town

Lefkas town from the inner harbour

 

2^nd October We sailed down to Lefkas town today and are now in the marina on our official winter berth. The boat will be based here now until the end of April next year. It's a lovely marina, very smart for Greece, with a bar, restaurants, a chandler, supermarket and even a gym on site. There seems to be a thriving live-aboard community with lots going on. The weather is less settled now, with occasional thunderstorms, high winds and rain, but we're hoping to fit in some day sailing and cycling over the next few weeks before we leave for the UK in early November.

One of the church clocktowers

  

9^th October We are now getting know our way around town and have discovered a baker that sells delicious local pastries and a shop where you can buy nicely matured wine, sold by the litre and decanted from the barrel into plastic bottles.

The buildings in the town are unusual in that the ground floors are built from stone but the upper floors have a wooden framework covered with corrugated iron. This is to minimise the effect of earthquakes and prevent a repeat of the devastating damage caused by the quake in 1948. For the same reason, the church clocktowers are built entirely from steel and look a bit like something out of a Meccano kit!

The bell tower of the Santa Maura chapel

12^th October  Today we cycled to the fort of Santa Maura at the end of the canal. This was built in the 14^th century to protect the island and, over time, was home to Spanish, Turkish and Venetian armies.  The fort itself is now derelict, with cannons  scattered in the wild grass, but you can see the remains of the Roman galley port and the little chapel within the walls and is still used for services. 

The Roman galley port at Santa Maura

After the fort we headed out along the narrow spit of land that separates a shallow lagoon from the sea.  The seaward side is one long, white beach and we planned to stop at the far end for lunch, but  we had an enforced stop half way along while Cliff mended a puncture on his bike! 

 

The bike engineer at work

The wind got up as we approached the end of the beach at the village of Agios Ioannis and we weren’t surprised to learn that this area is used for wind and kite surfing championships.   At the very end of the beach is the tiny church of Agios Ioannis, the oldest on the island and said to have been visited by the Apostle Paul.  The village is very quiet at this time of year, but we managed to find a taverna open and had an excellent  lunch overlooking the bay.

 

Headland at Agios Ioannis