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The Gulf of Corinth, June 2003Sunday 1st June After a rainy Saturday in Patra it dawned sunny again, so we traversed the Rhion Straits which mark the border between the Gulfs of Patras and Corinth. The Straits are now the subject of a major construction programme to span them with a very high and wide bridge. You have to call up on the radio to get permission to pass, which we duly did, but were still intercepted by a coastguard launch which tried to tell us we hadn't got permission to pass! This little misunderstanding was quickly resolved and we soon made landfall at Navpaktos, our first port of call on mainland Greece, being on the North side of the Gulf of Corinth. Navpaktos is better know to most British as Lepanto - they only changed the name about 500 years ago. It was here that the Turkish fleet was refitted in 1571 before its disastrous engagement with a smaller Holy League fleet. It's a tiny gem of a harbour and the kind of place we love - lots of character, friendly people, lovely old buildings. Only a few boats can get in as it is so small and so we anchored off the beach - which probably gave us a better night's sleep anyway as the harbour is lined with cafés full of groups of Greek youth eyeing each other up. Within minutes of anchoring a Greek boy swam out to the boat and minutes later we had nearly a dozen on board - all full of fun, very inquisitive but polite. I gave them a ride round the bay in the tender and they all eventually jumped off into the sea laughing and giggling. In the cool of the evening we climbed up to the fort which rises 200m above the harbour. It's a vast sprawling and now ruined place but wandering around the old battlements with the scent of the pines growing all around and hearing the goats bells tinkling across the other side of the valley was a delight.
Monday 2nd - Thursday 5th June We had a prediction of a nice Westerly breeze for Monday, so we waited till late morning for it to spring up which it duly did. Up went the spinnaker and we floated over to Nisos Trizonia at a gentle 5 knots - all very peaceful and perfect. The wind even bent round the island for us so we could keep the spinnaker up until just off the harbour.
Trizonia is a funny place. It can't have more than a hundred inhabitants who live off farming and fishing - it's only a mile or two long. But yachties have taken quite a fancy to it. A marina has been partially built and there are about 40 yachts in there, some of which seem to have taken root - it's a very sheltered harbour and it's not uncommon for people to leave their boats for the winter. We didn't fancy the hot concrete pontoons, so anchored off in a lovely corner of the bay and went ashore to chat to other yachties over a beer and then had an excellent lamb souvlaki on the harbour front.
We were going to leave Trizonia the next day and I got the dinghy and outboard ready for taking on board once Léonie was up but then decided to stay another day. We went back to the same restaurant in the evening for a different sampling. Just as we were returning in the dinghy and were approaching the boat, the outboard jumped off the back of the tender and into the sea. It weighs 50kg so when Leonie suggested we pull it up by the 1/2 inch rubber fuel line I thought we'd have no chance. But though the line stretched and stretched up it came eventually. By this time it was nearly 10pm and dark, but luckily there was no wind and we managed to hand paddle back to the boat - saving us the embarrassment of calling for help from other boats! We sluiced the engine down with fresh water and the next day I stripped it all down, put it back together and it started! I realised the cause of our problem was that I had loosened the outboard ready to take it off in the morning and forgotten all about that by the evening when we went ashore. I was amazed that such a heavy outboard would jump off the back of the tender but I think what happened is that, as we came off the plane and slowed down for the approach, the tender sank down into the water which gave enough upward push to jump the outboard off. Lots of lessons learned! But that's sailing for you - a peaceful return to the boat one minute and the next you are worrying about drifting out to sea in the middle of the night with no engine!
Once the outboard was fixed and 'road tested' with a whizz round an adjacent islet we set off for Galaxidhi, which as promised proved to be a lovely sheltered port, and just found room on the quay to dock. This was important to us as we wanted to leave the boat the next day to go to Delphi, which is about 30kms away. We debated taking a taxi (expensive) or the bus (fun but hot and slow). Then we saw another Belize catamaran had come in and they came over to chat and invited us back for an Ouzo. Paul and Blandine (French and Madagascan respectively) are gradually taking their Belize down to Madagascar with Christophe, their Madagascan crew, and kindly offered us a ride to Delphi in their rented car. We delightedly took them up on this and the next day set off for Delphi at 7:30am. This was great timing as we arrived before the crowds and the heat, when the place was very quiet. There are some impressive ruins there but it is the site itself which is so glorious, set as it is some 1200 metres up - it has a very special feel. On the way back we visited a Greek mountain village then said goodbye to our hosts - who had proved very good company - as they had to leave to get through the Corinth canal before nightfall. Friday 6th to Saturday 7th June STATS TO DATE:
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