Running the tide in the Mediterranean Sea.....

With a precious 24 hours of 'alone' time in Zea marina we set to the task of preparing our home for our next guest.   We madly rushed around doing laundry, provisioning, cleaning etc etc.  The wind had increased in the afternoon and the waves were smashing over the break water outside the entrance.  Tucked away as we were we had an illusion of safety however as I returned from a shopping jaunt in the afternoon I noticed that one of Shirley Valentines big balls was very black (these are big round fenders that we tie on the stern to help hold us off the quay) and her skipper was looking very frazzled.  It transpired that the chain holding our slime line to the bottom had corroded through leaving us to the mercy of the wind.  Thank goodness for big balls!  Apart from some discolouration we sustained no damage.


Maggie arrived on cue at Athens airport the next day bringing with her a lovely gift for Shirley in the form of a handmade, nautical themed patchwork quilt.  Thanks Maggie!  It will be treasured.  Being an old hand at living on board she quickly settled in and we were soon traipsing around Athens in a hop on, hop off bus which took us all the way into the city from our marina near Piraeus.  A two day ticket cost us 18 euros a head and we were actually very impressed with Athens this time around as it really seems to have cleaned up its act.  We made good use of our tickets traversing the entire route several times and checking out the usual tourists haunts such as the Parthenon and the changing of the guard at Parliament house.  I would love to know the history of those pompoms on their shoes!

Maggie with our beautiful gift made by her fair hands!

View of Athens from the Parthenon

Maggie posing at the Parthenon

The skipper and I posing at the Parthenon

These poor women must get awfully painful necks! What a weight to bear for eternity....

There's more to Athens than the Acropolis however it dominates the landscape

A subtle visitor to the docks at Piraeus

A pompom clad soldier at the changing of the guard, Athens

The tomb of the unknown soldier

Not often you get your photo taken with a chap wearing a skirt and pompoms!

After dragging ourselves away from the architectural wonders of Athens, the starbucks, pizza huts and fantastic supermarkets of Piraeus we left Zea marina on the 2nd of June on the next leg of our adventures.  We had been unable to fill up with diesel at Zea as we weren't big enough and required less than 1000 litres of fuel, but we were otherwise well provisioned as we headed to the Methoni peninsula. 


We tied up for a few nights in the lovely little quay in Vathi which immediately sucked us in.  It was a beautiful, isolated little spot and we could feel the grime of the city peeling away.  Apart from me chickening out a the last minute whilst trying to park Shirley in this tight little harbour things couldn't have been more perfect.  The winds we had had in Athens had done some damage to some boats in Vathi however apart from some heavy rain and an electrical storm we had no troubles.  On the morning of our departure we had to hose the boat down as it was thick with red mud from the rain.  I acknowledge that this sounds a tad strange but according to my skipper the winds pick up the dirt from the Sahara, pick up moisture as they cross the Med and then dump it all on our boat periodically.  The harbour master was strictly observing our time limit of 20 minutes from our trickling water hose (for which we paid the sum of 1.5 euros) as there is little water available in the village environment and all the boats had the same idea of getting the mud off before it baked hard on the decks in the sun.  With reasonably clean decks, we headed off to our next port of call, Palaia Epidavros, so called as it is the site of the old port for the archaeological site of Epidavros further up the hill.  It even has it's own mini amphitheatre.

Evening reflections at Vathi, Methoni peninsula

Preparing for a nights work.  These guys have a thankless task as the Med has been fished out.

Excavations at Palaia Epidavros

The mini ampitheatre at Palaia Epidavros

Always a cat and an olive tree with character to be had in this part of the world.....

Washing day at Vathi

Waiting for the boat to come in......

Shirley Valentine tied up stern to in the little harbour at Vathi on the Methoni Peninsula

After another brief rendezvous with Broke Aweigh and a lovely dinner on board Shirley Valentine with Keith, Sue and the crew of a South African boat called Catbaloo we headed off the next morning to beat our way north.  We anchored for the night in the bay beneath the temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.  Although the anchorage was a bit lumpy and rollie there is something very special about wakening up under the shadow of an ancient temple.

Leaving beautiful Palaia Epidavros

This guy just kinda crept up on us!

The Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion from the deck of our yacht.

Continuing north bound the next morning we tried several anchorages on the west side of the island of Evia (the second largest Greek island) before we found a spot side on to the quay in a town called Eritria.  This is definitely not a cruising ground for live aboard sailors.  Although the towns were very pleasant, all the seemingly large harbours we entered were chock full of local fishing boats and shoddy fixed moorings leaving little room for even a relatively small boat like ours to tie up.

The sunset at Eritrea was our reward for a long trip!

Morning reflections at Eritrea

A common sight in Greece unfortunately.  Space in harbours which may attract paying guests taken up by sunken wrecks!

The excitement of navigating through the Evia channel went up another notch the next day as we passed under the first bridge between Evia and the main land.  This bridge resembled a mini Rion-Andirrion suspension bridge (the magnificent bridge which crosses the gulf of Patras between the Peloponnisos and the rest of Greece) and we approached with the conspicuous cement works on the port side my adrenaline flow increased a little.  Although we had oodles of room between our mast and the bridge there is always that dreadful optical illusion that tells your brain that there is no way you are going to fit beneath the span of the bridge.

Approaching the 'new' Evia to mainland bridge

......and safely through the other side.

View of the new bridge from the castle on the mainland.

Surprisingly we were fine (with only about 100 metres to spare I believe!) and we headed into the marina in Chalkis on Evia which is run by the local yacht club.  This place is fantastic and is a haven for yachts to moor up whilst waiting in the southern harbour to go north through the bridge.  For the princely sum of 7 euros a night (after the first night for free) you have a lovely safe haven to hole up in whilst you organise your passage with showers, toilets and water thrown in for good measure.


The span of the actual bridge in question is only 38 metres however there are rocks on either side.  The bridge is the old bridge separating Evia from the mainland and is a busy thoroughfare for traffic.  It opens once at night at no specific time (usually sometime between 9.30pm and 3am).  At first I thought that this was just at the whim of the port police, however it's not quite that simple.  Standing above the bridge one afternoon the water seemed to be rushing through at about 8 knots.  The tide comes in from one side of the island, then around half tide the water changes direction and comes in from the opposite side of the bridge resulting in a mish mash of tidal flows under the bridge in a very narrow channel.  Not for the faint hearted, going through appeared to be like shooting rapids.


Whilst waiting for a suitable weather window for our onward journey we hired a car and did the tourist things around Evia which is a lovely mountainous island.  There is a church at Prokopi where St John the Russin is enshrined.  There is a lot of Russian visitors to the area and apparently even Vladamir Putin has been spotted eating souvlaki in one of the restaurants!  There is also a fantastic Byzantine (or maybe Ottoman) fort on the mainland which we also roamed around. 

Water flowing under the old bridge at Evia

Sunset over the mainland

Boats tied to the quay in the north harbour waiting to go through the bridge to the south

The bridge at night from the town of Chalkis

The beautiful mountainous landscape of Evia

Vladamir Putin eating souvlaki at Prokopi

Church of St John the Russian, Prokopi, Evia

Our evening to pass through the bridge finally arrived.  If you are lucky enough to actually locate the port police office in Chalkis, you turn up somewhere around 6pm on the day that you want to make your trip, pay around 18 euros and book in.  Procedure duly noted and fees paid we cast off from the marina and joined the other 12 or so boats waiting on anchor adjacent to the train station to the south of the bridge to await our signal.  We tried to take it in turns to rest as we anxiously clutched our VHF.  We had been told that we could be called to prepare our boats from 9.30pm onwards and the time chugged on relentlessly.  Around 2am the call eventually came.  All the boats going through were called individually with the male skippers being awarded the title of 'Captain' and the females who responded to their ships call being curtly dismissed!

Waiting for our passage through the bridge which actually slides sideways when it opens.....

Still waiting......   Very hard to take a clear photo on a moving boat!

We upped anchor a few minutes later and we were off.  I was on the helm as we excitedly scuttled through in single file.  As with most things in life that you spend time preparing for it was over in a blur and it is now just a memory.


Safely through the bridge we motored through the night to pastures new.  We spent a lovely peaceful couple of nights in a little isolated anchorage in Ormos Vathoudi in the Gulf of Volos recharging our batteries.  Our peace and quiet was only interrupted by a cranky fisherman who was obviously not happy with where we had parked and basically surrounded Shirley with his net.  When he came to haul it up the following morning around 5am he got his net caught in his prop and ended up hanging off our bow while he tried to retrieve it.  We were definitely not his favourite people!  Maggie and I spent a lovely day pottering around the local villages and rustic tavernas, drinking frappes and generally having a good time but when the fisherman appeared the following morning at 6am we picked up our hook and headed off to the town of Volos where we planned to do some provisioning and get some diesel.


Volos proved to be a bit of a disappointment.  The town itself is not much to speak of and the town quay is totally consumed by private charter boats with nowhere for visiting yachts to park.  After completing our chores we decided to head off early the next morning before the resident charter yacht whose berth we were tied up in returned.  Our spirits soared once again with a visit to Trikeri island on the Trikeri peninsula.  This adorable tiny little island has a surprisingly large monastery with one caretaker monk who was an absolute character.  After giving us a personal guided tour of the monastery we spotted him in the village that evening catching up on the latest world cup soccer match.

Fisherman laying his nets around us in Ormos Vathouri

Ormos Vathouri.  What a lovely restful place......

The taverna

Father and son returning from a fishing trip.  You have to feel for these fishermen!

Shirley Valentine tied up stern to on Trikeri island

With the caretaker monk at the monastery on Trikeri island



Picturesque Trikeri island

Next stop the Mamma Mia islands.........

Between the islands and the deep blue sea (part 2)

After arriving on Folegandros we tied up on the town quay at Karavostasis.  This sleepy town was very quaint.  We needed something at this stage to drag us kicking and screaming out of our island fever as they were all starting to blend into one in my mind (I know, I know......  a REALLY high class problem!).  Another island we had been told not to miss, we only just got here in a weather window by the skin of our teeth.

The fun started when we visited a nearby restaurant for our evening meal.  There was a distinct tension in the air and the Greek Mamma in the tavern had a face like thunder.  We knew there had been local elections throughout Greece that day but we hadn't realised how heated things were in this tiny metropolis.  When I tried to ask the Greek Mamma what was wrong she became almost apoplectic and started ranting about corruption and mafia, finally pulling out a Turkish flag and declaring that she just wanted to go and live in Turkey.  Very odd, or so we thought, before finding out from an English speaking local that this woman had almost been arrested at the polling station for trying to punch a young lad's lights out as she knew he was going to vote for the opposing team.  It turned out that the guy who won had won by only two votes and the whole island was basically divided down the middle.  Awkward!  Especially on an island of about 650 inhabitants.

All of this aside we spent the next day climbing to (another) chora at the top of (another) hill.  This was a particularly spectacular specimen however!  Dramatic cliffs fell away from an equally dramatic rustic chora and no day out on a Cycladic island is complete without a heart pumping climb to the highest church.  We were even able to climb onto the roof of this one and the views were fantastic.

I got really upset as this beautiful beast of burden was hobbled.  Apparently quite common in this part of the world....

The amazing cliffs of Folegandros

These houses were perched precariously on the edge of the cliffs!

Terraces from the Chora

The gorgeous streets of the Chora on Folegandros

Splashes of colour among the blue and white......

The view from the church down over the Chora and the cliffs of Folegandros

But wait, there's more.......

Evening at Karavostasis

Dragging ourselves reluctantly from Folegandros we headed to Serifos.  We had a fantastic sail in 15 to 25 knot winds.  Arriving at our destination of Livadhi we tied up stern to on the northern side of the town quay.  We were expecting strong winds for the next few days and wanted to be in a 'blow off' situation (no, you non yachties.....  this does not mean we have been eating too many baked beans!).  We also didn't think we had very good holding with the anchor and it was a very tight little harbour which shallowed out very rapidly near the end.  One boat went aground that first evening and there were a few flared tempers.

The boat off Shirley Valentine's starboard bow is aground.  The first of many on Serifos.

One very comfortable cat!

Views of Livadhi on Serifos from the road up to the Chora

The view from the summit



Those beautiful Cycladic colours around every corner......

 The following day was eventful with boats coming into the harbour thick and fast to escape the winds.  We met a lovely couple called David and Jackie on a charter yacht who were lovely company for a few days.  This was also the evening when we were reacquainted with Mike the Magnificent.  Now Mike is a fairly newly appointed charter yacht skipper who takes his role very seriously.  I want to write a children's book about this guy with him as the hero!  He was messy haired and chubby and liked to come to everyone's rescue.  We had met him and his clients briefly on Folegandros and he immediately irritated me (an unfortunate fault of mine - judging people on sight!).  He had that air of 'women don't belong on boats and should stay below in the galley cooking' about him.  Just the thing to ruffle my feathers.

Shirley Valentine 'blowing off' the quay at Livadhi, Serifos

The extremely handsome town hall. Chora, Serifos.

Possibly wasn't a real sensible place to leave one's car.......

Sheep huddling under a fishing boat to keep out of the wind.....

Lol....  I told Craig there were topless birds on the beach!

Dinner with David and Jackie unaware of the excitement to come.

Shirley Valentine on the town quay at Livadhi with the Chora of Serifos in the background.

On this particular evening we were returning from dinner with our new best friends, David and Jackie.  A flurry of activity turned out to be a unsuspecting charter boat which had come into the harbour in the high winds and had run aground.  Within minutes Mike the Magnificent had taken charge and was calmly and efficiently giving orders.  We were soon attempting (under Mike's instruction) to manually haul a 9 tonne yacht off the shallows with a very stretchy rope.  Even my tiny mind realised fairly quickly that this wasn't going to work, but my suggestion of using the boat's anchor fell on deaf ears.  Every shout of encouragement to the stricken yacht was also met with a command to 'calm down' from Mike.  I stopped trying to haul on ropes with my hackles rising rapidly.  I whispered into Craig's ear and suddenly we were using the yacht's anchor to haul him off after Craig had uttered my precious words to Mike.  We rapidly succeeded on getting the yacht off the shallows and soon had them snugged up alongside.  I made the poor starving crew a round of sandwiches and I don't think my food offerings have ever been so gratefully received!


The next day David and Jackie sadly had to leave to get their charter boat back to Athens.  Craig and David had been planning how to spring them off the quay in the still strong winds for about 24 hours.  As they started to prepare for the manoeuvre........ yes, you guessed it.......  Mike the Magnificent appeared!  Without actually asking if his help was needed he assumed control.  My tongue had enormous holes in it from biting violently down onto it but my calm, competent skipper and his new friend dealt with him admirably with Mike not even realising that they were being ever so slightly patronising.  The main thing was that David and Jackie were safely sent on their way (and my tongue recovered rapidly!).


We waited the next day for the wind to die down sufficiently for us to safely leave Serifos.  Leaving behind the blue and white hues of the Cycladic islands we headed off around 2 pm towards the Saronic Gulf.  We motor / sailed through the night arriving in Russian Bay on the island of Poros around 2 am.  After a nights sleep we moved onto the town quay on Poros.  Poros gets it's name from the 400 metre passage which separates it from the mainland at Galatas.  We paid 1 euro each way for a ferry trip to the mainland lasting all of about 3 minutes during our stay.  We had inadvertently moored up in front of a night club called Malibu's so we had a couple of dubious nights sleep.  Ear plugs come in useful sometimes.  One of the highlights of this stay was a meal at restaurant called Rota's (thanks to Craig's friend Peter for the recommendation) which is possibly some of the best food I have had in Greece.

 

The view from Russian Bay, near Poros

The reason it is called Russian Bay.....  an old Russian monastery, complete with beach chairs and umbrellas

Traditional fishing boat, Poros

Beautiful Poros town, the quayside lined with ferries waiting to whisk hardened travellers the three minute trip to the mainland

Haircut day on board

If you look really carefully at this shot taken in the fish market, you will see tassels hanging from the fan which then spins around keeping the flies off the fish!  Very clever people these Greeks.....

Fantastic marketing in my opinion.......

Our ferry which whisked us over to Galatas on the mainland looking back towards Poros

Our next island in this chain was Aegina.  Shirley Valentine got an opportunity to catch up with her mate Broke Aweigh and we got to catch up with her skipper, Keith.  We also met up with the skipper and crew of Crosswind, Steve and Joanna (Australian and Scottish respectively).  Keith and I shared the cooking for the next couple of nights and we had a lovely evening on Crosswind.  We did the sight seeing bit with a trip to the temple of Aphaia which apparently triangulates with the Parthenon at Athens and the temple of
Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

Keith and Craig taking on an ancient statue. So brave!

The temple of Aphaia, Aegina which triangulates with the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion

Just to prove we were there.......

Yet another cute kitten, begging for scraps while we were eating lunch, Aegina

Aegina town.  The red boat on the left is a fruit and vegetable market......

Shirley Valentine and her bestie, Broke Aweigh, reunited in Aegina

Dinner on Crosswind at Aegina with Steve, Joanna, Keith, Alie, Tony and Craig

Aegina was a terrible anchorage.  We were sitting having lunch one day when Joanna came running to tell us that Shirley Valentine was slamming into the quay.  We think that our anchor may have hooked on to a rock while we were berthing, giving us an illusion of security but had eventually given way or been ploughed up by a passing yacht.  After re-anchoring and checking for damage we watched yachts having problems with their anchors for the remainder of our stay.  I think the diver on Aegina is the richest man in Greece!  Broke Aweigh sustained some damage to her rigging and stern in heavy winds a few days after we left.


Aegina was our last port of call before leaving for Athens to drop off Tony and Alie.  Steve and Joanna came with us for the ride as they had some business to do in Piraeus.  We had a fun day dodging ferries and cargo ships on the way in and tied up happily in Zea marina in the early afternoon.

Shirley Valentine tied up snug in Zea Marina in Piraeus, Athens (or so we thought......)

The next day saw us farewell Tony and Alie and begin the clean up for our next crew change.  We found a fantastic supermarket (Carrefour's) near the marina which had baked beans and everything.  We even found a new kettle which actually whistles.  It's amazing what makes you happy in this neck of the woods............