8 August - 9 October 2006

Greece

On a fresh afternoon breeze I sailed from Bodrum, and anchored off Kos island.

I was fortunate to catch a free Greek dance performance one night in the castle on Kos. The men wore pom-poms on their shoes and traditional skirts along with the women dancers who were dressed like colourful peasants with towels and baskets.

After check in formalities were completed I sailed for the small neighbouring island of Astipalea, where goats tinkled their bells all night in a very quiet anchorage, shared only by fish farmers and another yacht.

The next day was a long one, but the seas were flat amongst the islands, and I arrived on dusk at the beautiful island of Amorgos, in the sheltered bay of Ayios Annas. Locals in a Ouzeria played Greek music on bezoukis and the Greek patrons all joined in singing popular Greek songs. I sat with a beer and enjoyed the atmosphere overlooking the spectacular rugged landscape and blue sea.

I spent a few days on anchor here, swimming around the boat and catching local busses to the chora and another whitewashed village called Katapoula. The island was made famous from the movie the Big Blue about deep free-divers (no air tanks), but had an interesting history of smugglers and pirates. Villages were built on top of the rugged mountains and streets engineered in tight winding lanes to help protect against invading pirates.

The chora (main town) still exudes a sense of charm, with whitewashed walls, blue windows and bright purple bouganvillea flowers.
I escaped the tourists by exploring the back lanes and climbed the hills behind to look at some windmills a few still occupied, and see some fantastic views over deep blue coloured sea.

From Amorgos I sailed to the southern tip of Ios, to Manganari Bay, supposedly a nudist beach, but everyone must have turned modest, because I was the only one there choosing to skinny dip (close to my boat and in the late afternoon).

A local bus took me to the main town of Ios on tarred roads. I'd rode this section years ago on a small moped scooter on rough rocks and loose gravel. It was more comfortable to see it from up high in the bus instead of concentrating on the roads (I fell off in the first 5 minutes last time here).

The next day was one of the highlights of Greece for me, sailing to the spectacular volcanic island of Santorini (Thira).

I sailed in through the caldera and was overwhelmed by the majestic soaring cliffs of the black/red volcanic mountains rising perpendicularly from the sea. I passed the small island of Oia with a chapel on it, where I'd swum and dived from a platform 15 years ago with my Greek-Aussie mate, Bill. The little church was still there and I took a photo of a fisherman and his son as they passed.

There is a marina on the outside of the island, and I gently motored in through the rocky shallows and berthed for a few days so that I could explore the island by bike.

It was great to have a drink overlooking the volcano core, Kemeni island, even though it looked quite ugly up close when I'd sailed passed it earlier in the day. I sat in a cliff bar, and later a restaurant for grilled octapus overlooking the sea from high up on the whitewashed town of Fira.

I took the motorbike around to both ends of the isand, to swim at the small islet of Ioa where the chapel is perched and daredevils leap off a cliff into the clear water below. Black rocks warm you up quickly, and I had a seafood lunch in a small taverna on the water.

Early on 19th August I sailed south for Crete and had favourable winds carrying me all the way, docking in the rocky port of Iraklion at 8pm on sunset.

I visited the partially reconstructed ancient Greek Palace of Knossos, legendary for the Minatour. Even though I arrived just after opening, the site become very hot and many tourists started swarming in, so I spent a couple of hours there and went to visit the fort by the sea.

I hopped along the northern coast, to Rethymnos and Xania (Khania) harbours, both busy tourist places, but having interesting port fortifications.

I passed the rocky headlands on the western end of Crete late on one afternoon. Anchoring near a rusted shipwreck, in the lee of Gramvoussa island, I climbed up the mountain to explore a large fort on top. There were ruins of an old church and sweeping views of the bay and mountains beyond.

After a swim at a lagoon on the mainland behind the island, I made way for AndiKythera, where I anchored in a little cove of Potamos. In the middle of the night I was startled to be woken by a huge ferry inching it's way in and lighting Weatherly up with powerful floodlights. It blasted it's horn and made a 3 point turn, but looked to have enough space to execute the manouvre, though the wash buffetted Weatherly about. It docked at the ferry ramp and churned the water again when it headed out to sea an hour later.

Sailing to the Peloponese, on mainland Greece, I copped a lot of wind. It reached 45 knots closer in, and the sea was stewn with whitecaps. I reefed down to the last reef and furled the yankee completely, just using the inner staysail at the bow. Each gust off the high mountains belted Weatherly and heeled us over, but it felt secure and well battened down. I was relieved to get some rest in the next sheltered anchorage at Kayio. I wandered up to the town in the morning but found all the shops closed, except a small cafe.

The winds were still viscious in the afternoon, and it took about an hour to motor up into a port in the evening. I was kept wake all night by the anchor alarm sporadiaclly going off. the anchorage ws dep and crowded, and as last in, it was my responsibility not to drag into nearby yachts, so I had to re-anchor 4 times and slept in in the morning to recouperate.

After a long day sail to the next finger of the Peloponnese, I arrived at Koroni. The wind had eased and the anchorage was perfectly sheltered. i enjoyed walking around the town and castle on the headland, and met an olive picker in the bar. He makes enough during the picking season to have the rest of the year off. I tried some black kalimata olives at the bar, and I recommend them, especially with a cold beer.

Sailing on around the peninsula, the port of Methoni had an interesting fortress and dettached gun tower in a hexagon shape, a very distinct landmark in the late afternoon sun. From the bastions I could look out at across the Ionian sea. 300 miles directly west lay Sicily. But first, I would sail north, to rendezvous with my dad who was joining me for 2 weeks along the northwest Greece to Corfu.

Next stop was Pilos, a deep and protected natural harbour, where the bold sea battle of Navarinon took place 1827, and was decisive in ending the Greek War of Independence. The English admiral, Codrington, sailed into the harbour with bands playing on deck, into an apparent trap, surrounded on all sides by the Turko-Egyptian fleet of 89 warships at anchor. His small fleet of 26 warships was vastly outnumbered and had only 1270 guns (cannons) against 2470 guns. Against these odds, he anchored his ships, and shots were fired. 'The bloody and destructive battle was continued with anabated fury for four hours; and the scene of wreck and devastation... at its termination... has seldom been seen before' according to the victorious Codrington. The bay is only about a mile wide, and I can only imagine the terrible scene of destruction.

Anchoring outside the marina in Katakolon, I met dad at Pyrgos train station and we continued on to Olympia, site of the original Olympic games. There were still columns from the gymnasium, and running tracks as well as statues in the museum.

After stocking up with food we sailed off to Keri beach in Zakynthos against the wind. I was hoping the sea would be less choppy, but we had smooth seas for the rest of the sailing trip with dad.

We sailed and docked stern-to at Poros in Cephalonia where large ferries pulled in and created a huge wash and current in the port. Then on to Vathi in Ithika where we met my friends, Kit and sal on Skerryvore from the Red Sea. We had a fun dinner onboard their boat, and dad understood the friendships developed from this cruising lifestyle.

In Levkas, we anchored in a place called Tranquil bay, though there were plenty of other yachts anchored all around us. In the morning we took a walk through a pine forest and along the foreshore and looked out at all the yachts and cruisers going past.

We motored through the narrow Levkas canal which had a floating bridge that was manouvered out the way to let boats pass. I attempted to sail on fickle winds, but then gave up and motored to Prevesa. We docked alongside the sea wall, but a strong wind bounced us up and down at night and damaged some of the gunwale rubbing strip, even after I put out an anchor to the sea side to hold us off a bit.

Next was a quiet little bay of Ammoudia, a perfect sheltered cove with sandy beach an Australian eucalyptus trees ashore. We motored up a small river at one side of the bay, since there were tourist boats going upstream, to some ruins inland.

Anchored at a popular cove at the northern end of Paxoi, and rowed ashore. Then took a long walk up on the hills overlooking the picturesque anchorage. Each evening we had a Mythos beer and Greek appetisers of dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), greek olives and fetta cheese, followed by a large dinner. I was happy I sharing these times sailing with dad, I enjoyed his company, the weather was great, and the sailing was easy.

Approaching Corfu island, it started raining really heavily and we had to take an outside marina berth. We caught busses to town in the heavy rain, but it cleared and were able to walk around the fort there with massive bastions.

We took a side trip to Albania. It was a fun day, with a patriotic local guide who rattled off all sorts of statistics and facts about her country. While pouring down with rain, the guide proudly told us 'Albania enjoys 320 days a year of sunshine' (or some similar number), and some smart Pommie bloke at the front of the bus said, 'yeah, and today isn't one of them, is it?' and we all laughed.

Across to the mainland of Greece we anchored in a peaceful enclosed bay, at Pagania, near fish farms and natural surroundings.

We visited Bill's parents, Angelo and Angela in Igoumenitsa, and they were very hospitable. I hired a car for us and we toured up to the mountains to see Petrovitsa and some relatives, including Vangelli (who Angelo grew up with) and their wonderful rustic house on top of the mountains with goats tinkling bells all around.

Dad caught a ferry back to Venice, and I was on my own again, though I met many of Bills cousins and even got free dental filling from Kosta, a dentist cousin. I took him and Michaeli for a sailing weekend down the coast to Sivota and they caught some fish.

After a week or so, and the weather started clearing, I sailed off for Italy, on a steel grey day with 20 knot winds from the North.