BLOG 8
AUTUMN
CRUISE 2019 – PELOPONNESE PART 1
17
September – 22 October
We are now anchored
off the island of POROS on the north-east corner of the PELOPONNESE
‘island’ – south of Athens.
Aegean
Sea Areas with the Peloponnese ‘island’ highlighted in orange
The objective
of this, our Autumn 2019 Cruise, is to explore the east coast of the PELOPONNESE
before returning Island Drifter to ‘our’ boatyard in Partheni, LEROS for
the winter.
Route
taken to date across the Aegean from LEROS
Until the late-nineteenth
century, when the Corinth Canal was constructed, thereby linking the Saronic Gulf
to the east with the Corinth Gulf to the west, the Peloponnese ‘peninsula’ (as
it was), remained stubbornly attached to mainland Greece by the narrow Corinth
isthmus. Today, rail and road bridges
cross the Canal, which is so narrow that if one blinks when driving over on the
Athens– Peloponnese highway one could be unaware of its existence.
The
Peloponnese ‘island’
Next year we
plan to go from LEROS through the Canal into the Corinth Gulf in order to
explore the Ionian Sea on the west of the Greek mainland.
We made our
way here from LEROS via NAXOS, PAROS and SERIFOS after spending nearly four
weeks based in Moor & Dock’s [M&D’s] 30-year-old boatyard in Partheni
and then, for a few days, on its quayside marina in Lakki, having enjoyed
nearly three months of the summer in the UK.
(M&D, incidentally, was previously named Agmar Marine.)
Sunset in the boatyard. Needless to say, you need a
torch to move around at night!
Aerial view of Lakki Harbour – M&D’s quayside
marina on the left
Photo courtesy of
Markos Spanos
‘Our’ UK
summer very much followed the format of previous years: based in either our
beach chalet on the Solent or home in Harrogate; a bi-annual trip ‘around’ the
UK; visits to/by family and friends; beach parties; dinghy sailing and the
sorting out of our property and administration, which don’t always get the
attention they deserve when we are away! Time flew by.
Emmy making Helen’s birthday cake during one of her
three summer visits to Calshot
Mike careening the Wayfarer on its drying mooring in
front of our chalet
Our friend James Hurst, a newly ordained Catholic
deacon,
proving that he can walk on water – when at Calshot!
Chalet ‘sail past’ by Mike and James in our Wayfarer
LEROS
We travelled
back overnight with Aegean/Olympic Air to LEROS, via Athens, on 16–17
September, with the intention of doing some serious refurbishment work on ID
– given that when we return to Greece in 2020, ‘Brexit’ could well have
happened and we shall probably therefore be restricted, as are other non-EU
citizens, to a 3-month stay in any 6.
Basic
servicing, repairs and recommissioning of ID usually take a week. Major
projects invariably take longer and ‘rogue’ projects arise more frequently than
we’d like. This year, after some 20
years, it was necessary to grind back the hull to the GRP before applying new
primer and antifouling. This project alone
took two weeks. During that time, however, Helen was inspired, among other
tasks, to effect a major clean, service and repair of our oven and related gas system,
which in itself took three days. (It has
been noticed that she has not used the oven since then!)
Mike
painting over the new silver primer with black Greek copper-based antifouling,
as used by the local fishermen
Helen
taking time off from work to feed a black cat that had taken a shine to us
By delaying
our launch and thereby being able to leave ID in the safety of the
boatyard, we took four days off to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary on
4 October in the Crithoni Paradise Hotel overlooking Alinda Bay on the east
coast of LEROS.
View
from our hotel balcony
Roger
& Freda Collinson (SY Maresca) joined us for lunch at Zorba’s
Taverna, Panteli,
on the day of our Golden Wedding anniversary
One of our
subsidiary objectives on this Autumn Cruise has been to watch selected games in
the Rugby World Cup currently being held in Japan. Apart from safety (our Number 1 priority) our
cruising schedule is being planned around matches and the quality of the WiFi signal
in ports and anchorages.
Watching
England (on our new 15” Dell laptop) beat Australia in the Quarter Finals
One has to
admit that our time in Lakki was not all work!
Eating out does not need to be expensive, providing one eats (and
drinks!) local produce. If it’s
imported, forget it.
Enjoying Popi’s delicious baked ‘home grown’ lamb at Sunset
Taverna, Merikia
Yet another meal, locally caught squid – one of Mike’s
favourites
Socialising
is a major part of cruising and during our time in LEROS we caught up with a
number of friends and indeed made new ones:
Roger & Freda from Lancashire on Maresca; Dave &
Anne-Marie from Yorkshire on Rappel; Julien & Josianne from Belgium
on Taurus; John & Debbie from Canada on Ambrosia; John &
Maggie from Wiltshire on Lazy Pelican; Frank Markwort from Germany on Poseidon;
Glenn & Margaret from Devon on Cynosure, and Michael & Roseanne
from Plymouth on Ethel. We’re also closely following the activities of
various friends who are still out there cruising other parts of Greece: Yoshi & Takako Wakao from Japan on Crow's Nest 7; Phil and Sandy Wise from Australia on Southern Wing;
Ian & Melian Thomsett also from Australia on Indian Summer I; Jupp
& Maria from Germany and Hungary on Walkabout; Kelvin & Caroline Lowe on Ondina
(on their way home to New Zealand), and Rita & Sten on Shantaram from
Canada. Phill Evans from Australia returned to Partheni, just after we’d left,
to work on Helios, the boat he purchased in the spring from another
Australian friend Simon Bain before returning home for a break. His experience, having worked in boatyards,
shows in that he completes any task better and dramatically quicker than most
of us. Very impressive!
Apart from
general interest, the exchange of information with others is an enormous help
in determining where to go, what to do – and what NOT to do!
NAXOS
Given the
strong winds forecast for the following week, we headed west on 15 October,
with a view to crossing the Aegean Sea to the Peloponnese Coast before being stopped
from doing so by the even stronger northerly winds forecast for the central
Aegean. We had no specific route in mind, other than reaching the Peloponnese
coast, since we accepted that the 25+knot winds from between the north-east and
north-west, in which we would be sailing, would influence our course. Even so,
logic dictated that we should aim to reach the north of the Peloponnese if
possible in order to enjoy a southerly sail thereafter.
Naxos–Paros
group of islands, our logical first overnight stop after LEROS.
Fortunately we were able to lay the course to
them
As we
approached the NAXOS–PAROS group of islands, we decided to pull in for the
night at Dhendro Bay at the south of DHINOUSSA (to the east of NAXOS). We’d
recced it before in the spring (Blog 4, Spring 2019). The anchorage is well sheltered from northerly
winds. Our engine, however, had other ideas.
As we approached DHINOUSSA it stalled – an unresolved problem that we’d
been having since launch. After trying
to restart it half a dozen times in a rough sea, we then tried to sail into the
anchorage itself but lack of wind once in its shelter, a restricted area in
which to manoeuvre, nightfall and the presence of a submerged wreck made us change
our objective and adopt an alternative, safer strategy.
Google Earth view of DHINOUSSA where we failed to anchor
We therefore
headed for the south-east corner of
NAXOS in the expectation that once in the lee of that island we would be able
to work more effectively on resolving our engine problem, since the sea would
be flatter and we would be in a more stable environment. We still felt that the problem was almost
certainly a fuel/air issue due to one or more of the following most common causes:
worn washers on nuts; loose bleed screws,
and/or loose connections between fuel pipes.
NAXOS
Having
addressed each issue in turn on the 15-mile passage to NAXOS, we were immensely
relieved when the engine re-started and we ended up motoring and finally
anchoring in the bay of Kalado on the south-east corner of NAXOS, which we’d
considered when we visited it in the Spring (see Blog 4, Spring 2019). It proved to have superb protection from the
Force 6 that was blowing outside the bay and also had excellent holding. We therefore felt more than justified in
downing a large G&T and collapsing into bed at midnight.
The Bay of Kalado proved to be an excellent port of
refuge since, with NAXOS to the north
and the Little Cyclades islands to the south, it has almost all-round
protection. It also has an excellent little fishing harbour, which appears to
welcome visitors.
Surprisingly, the area
looked remarkably uninhabited!
Subsequently,
to put it mildly, we were ‘disappointed’ next morning when the engine again wouldn’t
start. Fortunately we had the confidence
to conclude that regardless of our previous efforts, there must still be an
air/fuel problem. On carefully rechecking
the system, we discovered a slightly loose nut on the water separator. Once the system was re-primed and the nut
tightened, the engine started – and indeed has continued to behave to date!
PAROS
From Kalado Bay
we headed round the south of NAXOS and then due north up the channel between NAXOS
and PAROS. The forecast was for light
winds but the channel is a wind acceleration zone and in consequence we took
some eight hours to tack the 28 miles up to the excellent, large harbour of
Naoussa at the north tip of PAROS. We’d
been there before in May and were confident that it would be a good location in
which to leave ID overnight. (See
Blog 3, Spring 2019, covering our Spring visit to PAROS.) Our only ‘shock’ came when we discovered that
the marina, after a 6-year delay, had recently been licensed and in consequence
this time we actually had to pay to stay there!
Naoussa harbour, PAROS, viewed from the west
with part
of the enormous, almost land-locked bay of Naoussa behind
In 1989 we’d
spent our twentieth wedding anniversary at Logaras Beach on the east coast of
PAROS, 12 miles south of Naoussa by road, and although it hadn’t been practical
to get there earlier (flights and ferries there and back from LEROS would have
taken a total of 4 days!), we’d always planned to visit again on this Autumn
Cruise. Hence by the time we berthed in
Naoussa, we’d already packed, organised en route a room in the beachside hotel
at Logaras and booked a car for 24 hours.
While at
Logaras, we enjoyed a very pleasant anniversary meal, breakfast on the beach, a
long swim in warm water and shared a great lunch with Larry and Sheila from
Minehead whom we’d met at breakfast.
They visit every year and know the island well.
Fisilanis Taverna and beach at Logaras, which we’d
previously enjoyed visiting 30 years ago. It hadn’t changed that much, although
it was about to close
for the winter on the following weekend!
Rare shot of Mike relaxing on a beach – just before an
enormous wave generated by the Blue Star ferry passing by crashed over
him! A missed photo opportunity!
After a
night back on ID, we were up at 5
a.m. with a view to reaching SERIFOS, our next intended destination, before the
winds which were still forecast to increase significantly in the late afternoon
arrived. To our surprise, the Polish skipper and crew of the neighbouring chartered catamaran also got up early and appeared
to enjoy watching our preparations and departure. (Always a good spectator
sport!) Hence, we avoided any shouting,
acted as if we knew what we were doing, and actually departed in a text-book
manner – not always the case!
SERIFOS
We’ve also been
to SERIFOS before, on our spring cruise with Max and Sue, and had decided then that
it would be a very useful stop on our as then forthcoming autumn Aegean
crossing from LEROS to the PELOPONNESE. (See Blog 5, Spring 2019.) It is
well protected from all but southerly winds, has a good harbour and, most
importantly, excellent WiFi reception since we intended to watch the Rugby
World Cup Quarter Finals there over the weekend.
Google
Earth view of SERIFOS with its excellent harbour, port and anchorage at Livadhi
Livadhi Harbour, SERIFOS, viewed from the Chora above
ID in
Livadhi Harbour, SERIFOS, with the island’s distinctive
Chora spread over the
hill in the background
Over the
weekend we enjoyed watching as planned the four Quarter Final matches in the
Rugby World Cup. However, we felt it
necessary to leave immediately after the last match, since even stronger northerly
winds continued to be forecast from Monday and we did not want to be headed by
them.
POROS
We made
excellent progress en route – undoubtedly the best sail we’ve had this
Autumn. Equally importantly, we were
able to lay a course directly to the north-east corner of the Peloponnese and
therefore decided to anchor in Monastery Bay to the south of POROS. It had the
advantages of being well protected from the wind, appeared, from the pilot book,
to have reasonably good holding with no surrounding rocks or obstructions on
the sea bed, and hence it was relatively easy to approach in complete darkness. (At this stage we resisted the temptation of
continuing through the narrow shallow south-east
channel between Poros port and the Peloponnese coast into the even
better-protected bay and anchorages to the west of the island.)
Google
Earth view of POROS, where we anchored in Monastery Bay,
and the north-east
coast of the Peloponnese
We arrived at
4 a.m. and after a traditional celebratory G&T slept through until 8.30
a.m. On looking out, it was obvious why
it was so dark when we arrived since the very large hotel in the bay had
already completely closed for the winter.
The 18th-century Monastery, which gives its name to the bay,
looked very attractive in the morning sunlight nestling on the hill among thick
pine woods.
Hotel
already closed up for the winter. No
wonder the bay was so dark when we arrived
Attractive
18th-century Monastery overlooking the bay
GOING FORWARD
The forecast still
clearly indicates that we are in for 4 days of fairly strong northerly winds, which
will limit us visiting a number of interesting locations on the northern east
coast of the Peloponnese. Tomorrow we’ll look around POROS’s well-protected harbour and anchorages and if necessary find
a better location for at least the night. We’ll also carefully watch the weather, which
fortunately is forecast to improve significantly from Friday.
Happy Golden wedding anniversary ����❤️����
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