Argostoli and frisky turtles

 

The lake at Argostoli


10^th May We are now moored in the harbour of Argostoli on the island of Cephalonia. We had an easy, four day sail down through the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras, but with little wind we had to resort to the motor at times.  We were entertained by pods of dolphins who came to play in our bow wave and we spotted several turtles feeding on the plentiful supply of jellyfish. Just as well it’s still too cool to swim!

11^th May The wind got up today and the flotilla boat next to us began to drag on its anchor and drifted onto us.  There was no-one on the boat, but we finally persuaded another crew from the flotilla to go on board and haul in the anchor before Sandpiper was damaged. When one of the boats on the other side of us also started dragging we decided it was time to move, so we’ve motored across to the abandoned marina on the far side of the harbour which offers much better protection from the wind.



Sandpiper in the marina at Argostoli

12^th May The marina is very peaceful. It’s on the opposite side of the bay to the town and is backed by green hills. It was built some years back with grants from the EU, but was abandoned when it was time to pay back the loans! There’s no water or electricity, but the concrete pontoons are sturdy and stop most of the surge when the wind whips down through the bay. It's home to several ‘ghost’ boats that have been impounded by the police for drug smuggling then simply left to rot. There are also a few cruisers here who, like us, are making the most of a free mooring.  Beyond the marina the space left for offices and a car park has now been reclaimed by nature and provides a grazing ground for the local sheep.

Sheep grazing by the marina

13^th May Our walk into town today took us across the long bridge that separates an inland lake from the sea.  We knew this was a popular spot for turtles and as we scanned the water we spotted what looked like a big, oddly shaped turtle thrashing about in the water. After a moment we realised there were actually two turtles and they were mating! We’ve been told these loggerhead turtles come to the quiet waters of lake each year to mate. Later the females will go to the beaches beyond the town to lay their eggs.


The turtles in action

Our plan is to sail from here straight to Sicily. It's a two day sail heading due west, but guess where the wind is coming from for the next few days? The west. So it looks as though we will be spending a bit more time in Argostoli.



Donna catching up with the washing

15^th May We are still in Argostoli waiting for the weather to improve. Waiting can be tedious, but we are lucky to have a lovely couple in the boat next door who have kept up sane.  Donna and Ricky arrived after a pretty gruelling sail down from Sicily, so they are taking some time out before heading up through the islands.

19^th May We hired a car today to drive around the island. The weather was mixed, with heavy clouds threatening rain, but the island is just as beautiful as we remembered.


The pretty port of Assos

23rd May This morning we noticed a new boat moored in the bay and a quick check with the binoculars confirmed it is Sulaire, home to Charlie and Alison who spent the winter with us in Cartagena three years ago. Needless to say, this called for a few drinks in the bar to catch up with all the news. They too are planning to cross to Sicily once the wind has moved round.




It was great to see Charlie an Alison again

26^th May The wind has finally turned, so we will be heading towards Sicily tomorrow. We can’t wait to be out at sea again!

 

NIght time intruders at Korfos

Korfos

3^nd May 2016 We have sailed to Korfos, which is just round the headland from our next destination:  the Corinth Canal. But after a night in the port we hear that gale force winds are forecast for the canal area over the next two days, so we decide to head back to Epidaurus and explore inland.  As we turn the corner out of the bay the wind is on the nose and the horizon disappears into a wall of white.  Then the wind speed suddenly accelerates from 10 to 40 knots, the rain pelts down and the sea begins to crash over the bows.  We don’t fancy the idea of this for another two hours, so we turn back again and tie up on the pontoon Korfos.

The 'pirate' fishing boats

 

4^th May I am woken at 2am by the sound of footsteps on the deck. I climb up the companionway steps and find two Greek men busy undoing our lines! I shout at them to stop, but all they can say is ‘fish’! I then notice that the small motor launch that was moored behind us has been tied alongside our boat. My shouts of ‘No!’ wake Cliff who joins me in trying to evict the men. Eventually Eric, a Norwegian from another boat on the pontoon, arrives along with Takis, the Greek owner of the motor launch. Much shouting ensues in Greek, and Eric explains that the intruders are fishermen from the island of Salamis near Athens, who want to rearrange the boats on the pontoon to make room for their two large fishing boats so they can offload their catch. Eventually we reluctantly agree to move. We later hear that these fishermen are not welcome in Korfos as the pontoon was built for leisure sailors who provide essential income for the many restaurants.

Liz at Palamidi Fort

Liz would like to visit Nafplion, so in the morning we take a cab across to this lovely old town, first stopping at Palamidi Fort that sits high above Nafplion and offers stunning views of the town and the Argolic Gulf.  Then we drive down to the port and wander through the narrow streets admiring the Venetian architecture which has survived from the 14^th Century.

Nafplion town

5^th May At 6am we are woken by footsteps on deck again! The fishermen are busy tying Takis’ boat alongside ours and insist that we should move back. We are planning to leave this morning and so we stand firm – we will move forward so that they can berth behind us, but we cannot have the motorboat tied alongside us. At 10am Takis appears with the police. The fishermen took his boat off the pontoon and anchored it out in the bay - he is furious! The police interview Cliff to confirm what happened and then talk sternly to the fishermen. They are still shouting at each other as we head out of the port towards the Corinth Canal.

Liz helming Sandpiper through the Corinth Canal

Our transit through the canal goes smoothly and Liz gets a chance to take the helm. We are soon tied up on the port at Corinth where we are going for a farewell meal with Liz before she leaves to take her flight to the UK tomorrow.

6^th May 2016 We were up early this morning to wave goodbye to Liz as she took a taxi to the Metro station to go to Athens.  Later we discovered that Liz arrived at the station to find the Metro is on strike! Luckily her taxi hadn’t left, so she jumped back in and headed for the bus station, where she finally found a seat on a bus to Athens. 


 

A guest and Greek Easter

Sandpiper is launched for the new season

19th April We are finally back in Kilada, Greece where our boat is out of the water in the yard. She’s been on the hard for 11 months but, apart from needing a good clean and polish, she’s looking good. Our plan this year is to bring Sandpiper back to the UK, which will mean sailing her down through the Corinth Canal to the Ionian islands, then across to Sicily and onto to Sardinia, the Balearics, Spain, Gibraltar and up the Atlantic coast of Portugal before crossing the Bay of Biscay to the UK. The plan is slightly complicated by the fact we also need to fly back in the UK for our son Chris’s wedding at the end of June.

20^th April There’s always something that needs fixing. Today we found that the anchor windlass (the device that raises and drops the anchor) has stopped working. We had some problems with it last year and did a temporary fix, but now it needs a permanent solution. We call Andreas the electrician and he helps us re-route the wiring and install a deck fitting for the control unit.

25^th April Sandpiper is finally launched. We sail round to Porto Heli as my friend Liz is arriving tomorrow from Canada to spend 10 days sailing with us.

Cleaning out the bilges

26^th April Liz has arrived but we can’t leave the port as our automatic bilge pump has stopped working. We call Andreas who tells us the problem has been caused by oily water in the bilges. He can replace the pump and sensor but first we need to clean out the bilges.   So I spend the day on my hands and knees scraping gunk out of the bilges and scrubbing them clean. Liz appears to find this very amusing and takes lots of pictures.

Liz at Ermioni

Is this what happens to naughty children in Greece?

28^th April While Andreas and Cliff sort out the fitting of a new pump, Liz and I take the bus to Ermioni, a lovely little town just along the coast. We walk around the pine-clad peninsular just beyond the town where you can still see the remains of the ancient city. Then we stop at a waterfront  taverna and tuck into a delicious lunch with wonderful views across to the island of Dhokos.

Great lunchtime view

29^th April We are now in the port of Epidaurus where we will be staying for the weekend to see the celebrations for Greek Easter. Easter is almost as important as Christmas for the Greeks and everywhere we go there are decorations,  from  special street lights to wooden cut outs of rabbits decorating the verges.

Easter bunnies and (in video below) the midnight celebrations

On Good Friday evening we follow the candle lit parade up to the church above the town where we can hear the sombre sound of priests chanting. Then at midnight on Saturday the mood changes as we join the crowd down by the harbour.  Candles are lit again, but this time Church bells ring, boats sound their horns, fireworks are set off and Chinese lanterns are released high into the sky.

Liz emerges from the Sunken City

During the day Liz and I walk through orange and lemon groves to the small Roman amphitheatre  and then on down to the beach where Liz swims out and snorkels over the ruins of the sunken city. It’s chilly, and as I’ve already seen them I opt to stay on the beach. Later, as we walk back we see people walking down from the hill above the amphitheatre. A German tells us the remains of the temple to Apollo is at the top of the hill so we climb up and are rewarded with stunning views across the Gulf.

Liz at the Temple to Apollo 

1st May On Greek Easter Sunday all is quiet as families stay at home to feast on roast lamb. Andreas told us that the lamb’s entrails are considered a special treat! We spend the day doing boat chores while Liz goes on a long hike round the coast. On the way back she stops at a beachside shack for a glass of retsina and the owners refuse to let her pay for it. Our Greek Easter meal is a delicious vegetarian chilli cooked on board by Liz.

Berthing bother and a prehistoric cave

One of our favourite tavernas in Ermioni

29^th May 2015. After a week in the Gulf of Epidaurus it was time to start making our way towards Kilada, where Sandpiper would be stored in the yard for the winter. We spent our first night anchored off the island of Poros and our next in the bay at Ermioni, one of our favourite spots. Then it was on to Porto Heli and finally, on 3^rd June we dropped anchor in the bay at Kilada.

We weren’t due to be hauled out until the following week, but Sandpiper had developed an oil leak that Cliff had tried and failed to fix, so we had allowed extra time for Dimitris, the local marine engineer, to take a look at the engine.

The bay of Kilada

The main harbour was already full, which left us the challenge of finding somewhere suitable to berth. The only option was the (very shallow) small boat quay, so we sounded our way in, and eventually found a berth squeezed between two fishing boats. Soon after Dimitris arrived and found the cause of the leak, a poorly fitted oil seal gasket.

That night we were glad to be tucked in a sheltered spot as the winds blew hard. But by the next morning we were regretting our decision as the winds were gusting to Force 7 and our anchor had dragged, pushing our stern dangerously near the wall. We needed to leave the quay,  but we were surrounded by a cat’s cradle of mooring lines and buoys, making it very difficult to move without getting a line wrapped around out propeller. Eventually there was a lull in the wind and we decided to go for it - I began hauling in the anchor while Cliff gently eased us out.

All was going well until suddenly the anchor chain jammed. At the same time the wind gusted and put Sandpiper’s stern on a collision course with a concrete pier. Luckily, the quick actions of a local man helped us avoid potential disaster. From his dinghy he could see that our anchor was wedged firmly under an abandoned fisherman’s anchor, and he helped raise it until we could get ours free. Lesson learned: avoid small boat harbours in high winds!

The impressive Franchti cave

With the boat safely back at anchor  we took off in the dinghy to explore a famous local cave on the far side of the bay. The prehistoric cave of Franchti achieved international fame when archaeologists found a skeleton there that dates back to 23,000 years BC. This makes it one of the oldest sites of human habitation in Europe. We had assumed it would be one of the small caves we could see hollowed into the hillside, but in fact it’s a huge, cathedral-like structure big enough to house a small community and their animals. There was no one looking after the site, but there were information boards in English that highlighted where the skeleton had been found and how the cave had been used over the years.

Sandpiper being hauled out at the Basimakopouloi yard

On the 8^thJune Sandpiper was hauled out of the water and lifted into the steel cradle that would be her home for the winter. Then on 10^th June we flew back to the UK to begin a different adventure: putting our house up for sale and looking for a new home for our retirement.

Volcanoes and a sunken city

The peaceful gulf of Epidaurus

23^rd May 2015. A relaxing, four hour sail took us from Poros to the harbour at Epidaurus. This is at the head of an impressive gulf surrounded by pine clad mountains on one side and the rugged volcanic peninsular of Methana on the other.  We visited Epidaurus briefly last year and really liked the area, so we were looking forward to having more time to explore.  We had read that there was a sunken city on the other side of the peninsular from Epidaurus, which has been underwater since the volcano at Methana erupted in 230 BC. So the next morning we set out on a 20 minute walk through orange and lemon groves to Kalymnios beach to try and find it. It wasn’t difficult, there’s a painted sign saying ‘Sunken city’ that points straight out to sea!

Cliff opted to stay on the beach as I donned mask and snorkel and waded into the water. Five minutes later I was swimming over paved roads, the walls of houses and huge, pottery storage jars half buried in the sea bed. What an amazing experience, and what a shame I don’t have an underwater camera! Afterwards we walked back along to the restaurant and relaxed on the beach over a very good lunch.

Lunch on the beach after exploring the sunken city

After a couple of days in Epidaurus we decided to cross the gulf to explore the Methana peninsular. The area is known for its 32 'volcanoes' which are actually lava domes created from volcanic activity over the years.

The port of Vathi

Our destination was the little harbour of Vathi,  a fishing village in an unspoilt corner of the peninsular, quite a contrast to the busy resort of Epidaurus. It’s also good base to visit the volcano, and the next day the son of the taverna owner gave us a lift to the bottom of the track that leads up to it.

On top of the volcano

After a half hour hike we were scrambling over the top of the lava fields with stunning views across the water to the islands of Aegina and Agistri. Then another couple who had walked up with us pointed out a track leading to a sign saying ‘Volcano’ and a small opening in the rock.  Inside was what looked like a man-made mine shaft, but as we climbed down into it we realised it was a blow hole with incredibly smooth, flat walls  which had been created by the rock sheering as the volcano erupted.

The entrance to the blow hole

At the bottom of the blow hole

Crossing the Aegean

The marina in the bay of Ekincik, near Marmaris

14^th May 2015. We had decided to put our house in the UK up for sale, and were due fly home from Athens on 10^th June, so we now had exactly four weeks to get Sandpiper from southern Turkey across the Aegean to a Greek boatyard in the Peloponnese. You need to pick your time to cross the Aegean to try and avoid the dreaded ‘Meltimi’, a wind that can blow at Force 8 or more for days at a time. Last year we were storm bound on Naxos for a week while the Meltimi blew through, so this year we had chosen to cross in May when the winds tend to be lighter. The plan was to do the crossing as quickly as possible.

After an overnight stop in the beautiful bay of Ekincik near Marmaris, we sailed on up to Datca where we officially exited Turkey. From there we sailed to the Greek island of Kos, and then headed to the island of Leros. As we pulled into the marina at Leros we spotted Debs and Martin on their lovely wooden boat, Solon of Toorak. We last saw them in Corinth a year ago, so it was great to catch up with them again.

The weather looked good to make the long crossing from Leros to the island of Paros in the Cyclades, so at 5am the next morning we slipped our lines and headed out to sea. The forecast was for a light wind on the nose which would back and increase later to give us a good beam reach. What we got was almost no wind at all, so we motorsailed for 12 hours until we finally arrived at village of Naoussa on Paros in the late afternoon.

Cliff outside the café we had visited 38 years ago

 We visited Naoussa on our honeymoon 38 years ago, so it holds very special memories for us. It’s grown from a small village to a popular resort, but still retains its old-world Greek charm. We allowed ourselves a day off sailing to wander around town and revisit some old haunts. The little café where we used to breakfast on Nescafe, Greek village bread and honey is now a large and rather plush Greek patisserie complete with an expresso machine. The narrow cobbled lanes through the village where we bought our groceries are now full of beautifully restored houses and upmarket gift shops. But one thing hadn't changed - the restaurants that line the small fishing harbour still sit you at a wobbly wooden table and serve the best fresh fish, straight off the boats.

Decorated wooden doorway

The fishing harbour at Paros

The winds stayed light for the next two days while we sailed from Naoussa to Loutra on Kythnos, and then across to the Greek mainland. On the 22nd May we anchored in the channel between Galata (on the mainland) and the island of Poros, relieved to have had an uneventful crossing. We had travelled from Gocek to Galata in just over a week, and could now look forward to relaxing for a while before Sandpiper was hauled out at the yard in Kilada.

Sunset at the Galata anchorage

Visitors on the boat

Looking down from the castle at Kalekoy

On 4^th May 2015 we finally left Finike to start our sailing season and head west along the Turkish coast towards Greece. Our first stop was in the beautiful Kekova Roads. We had planned to anchor for the night in a quiet bay, but as we tried to drop anchor our electric windlass, which provides the power to drop and raise the anchor, refused to work. Neither of us fancied the idea of hauling in 60m of anchor chain by hand, so we headed back to the village of Kalekoy, hoping to find a mooring there.

Kalekoy is a magical little place that nestles under the remains of a Byzantine castle built in the Middle Ages to fight off pirates. In the summer it’s rammed with tour boats so there’s little chance of finding a mooring for a yacht, but in early May the place was almost deserted and we received a warm welcome as we approached one of the restaurant pontoons.

Anita above the Kekova Roads

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours wandering around the castle and the surrounding area, which is full of Lycian tombs. Then we enjoyed an excellent, candle-lit fish dinner sitting out over the water – a great start to the season.

There are Lycian tombs everywhere, even in the water

We were planning a long sail the next day so needed to set off at first light, but we were also concerned about negotiating our way out of our very shallow berth in the early morning light, as it was surrounded by rocks. We mentioned this to the couple that ran the restaurant and they said ‘No problem, we will help!’ Sure enough, they were up at 5.30am the next morning guiding us through the narrow channel to deeper water.

Now we were on a mission, we needed to reach Fethiye by the end of the day as Cliff’s sister Jean and her husband Ron were arriving to join us for a few days sailing. The weather Gods were kind to us, and after an 11 hour (motor) sail we arrived in Fethiye. After a night at the strangely named 'Yes Marina', we moved to a  pontoon at the Yacht Classic Hotel, close to where Jean and Ron were staying. This is a rather plush establishment with two pools and a very good waterside restaurant.
 

As we approached the hotel pontoon we were directed to a tight spot which involved reversing down a very narrow channel then making a sharp turn into the berth. We held our breath as we inched down the channel, but Cliff did such a good job manoeuvring that the neighbouring boat applauded as we tied up.

Dinner with Jean and Ron at the Yacht Classic Hotel

Our first priority was to sort out our broken anchor windlass. Luckily Ron is an electrician, and with his help Cliff quickly identified the cause of the problem, a corroded junction box, and they worked out a temporary fix until we could find a suitable replacement.

Jean and Anita exploring at Kapi Creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the next few days we enjoyed a leisurely cruise around the beautiful islands of Skopea Limani, the gulf between Fethiye and Gocek. Jean and Ron were great company and we enjoyed showing them some of our favourite spots. We were very lucky with the weather, the sun shone and a light breeze provided some gentle sailing.

Ron takes the helm

At the end of our cruise we headed down into Gocek and were surprised to find that the Town marina was full, so we decided to book into Marinturk Village marina. The downside was that this was a ten minute walk from town, but on the upside it was part of a holiday development with a very nice pool! Unfortunately all was not as it seemed… as Cliff and Ron walked towards the pool they were intercepted by two burly security men who made it clear that (despite there being no physical barriers) the holiday complex was a separate enterprise and marina visitors were not welcome.



Waiting for the taxi at Marinturk Marina 

The following day Jean and Ron took a taxi to Dalyan for the next part of their holiday and the settled weather left with them. We spent two more days in the Gulf dodging the thunderstorms before the forecast looked good for us to continue on our travels.