17th July

Lucinda and I stayed on board while the rest went off exploring Athens. It was shame we had to come in a day early but it was the right thing to do with strong northerlies blowing all day.

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16th July

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for strong northerlies, not what we need. So we're heading back to the marina a day early. We anchored off Metopi for lunch before making our way back to Zea.

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15th July

There was a huge thump in the night that was Trewin falling out of bed. Apart from that all was quiet apart from a visit from the coastguard, we think attending to an injury on an adjacent boat. It was decided to stay here for the day. Far fewer boats anchored here today. We read, we swam, we had lunch in the fish restaurant around the headland.

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14th July

10 miles east were the anchorages at Nisi Dhoroussa. They were already quite full when we arrived but we found a spot to stop for lunch. After we had eaten we made a rapid exit as we seemed to be dragging. We hung around a couple of hours until space opened up in the best location. There were a lot of boats and not much space. While anchoring the bridle fell overboard. It was retrieved eventually with a grapple. Finally we seemed secure. I thought a lot of boats would head off for the night. Eventually they started to leave although by nightfall there were still several boats sharing the anchorage.

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13th July

We motored north to New Epihadros. A yacht race was expected so there was no room in the harbour. As fairly strong winds were forecast we moved a few miles south to Old Epihadros and moored back onto the town quay. In the evening stalls were opened behind us and a play was performed on the quay.

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12th July

It was less that 8 8 miles west round the Methana Peninsula to Vathi. We arrived shortly after noon and there was space in this tiny harbour. We had time to go swimming and later take a taxi to a path to the caldera of a dormant volcano. Supper was taken in the shade of a restaurant by Imagine's stern.

11th July

The day was overcast and throughout the morning winds strengthened from the north. We double up lines but we're very secure. Later Lucinda and I had a walk. The wind eased off by early evening but the waves were lumpy and it looked uncomfortable out at sea. We even wore long trousers in the evening.

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10th July

After a morning swim we motored across to Ay Yeoryios once again. This is a fabulous place to swim and relax. Shortly before we went to supper the wind increased peaking at at least 35 knts. The sea was a mass of white horses and the rain was fire hose heavy. It lasted no more than 10 minutes. The wind swung through 180 degrees and then abruptly faded to almost nothing. And then out of the window we spotted a school of dolphins passing by doing acrobatics just off shore.

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9th July

We set off at a reasonable time and motored 20 miles to Perdika on the south west corner of Aigina. The kids felt a little queasy but not for long. On the way the GPS packed up for a couple of hours and then spontaneously recovered. We found a suitable place on a pontoon . One yacht picked up someone's anchor chain and then got a tangle of mooring rope round his propeller. I tried to help but eventually the ropes were freed by someone who could hold his breath longer than me. A large motor yacht then laid his chain over mine and also picked up some huge mooring chains. And then he objected to me photographing it. It was a lovely spot to spend the night and eat overlooking the anchorage.

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Fwd: 7th July

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Begin forwarded message:

From: david goldhill <davidrgoldhill@gmail.com>
Date: 8 July 2019 at 21:27:42 EEST
To: Imagine Blogger <david.goldhill.lepicaron@blogger.com>
Subject: 7th July

We went to look at the town of Aigina on the island of the same name. The harbour had a few spaces and we picked a spot. As we neared the quayside a dangling rope for the adjacent yacht wrapped round my starboard prop. A swift dive cleared the problem. We were not impressed with our location; noisy, busy and dirty. There was space on the other side of the harbour so we grabbed it. The harbour is ferry central, busy, noisy and crowded.

Later we wandered into town to eat by the fish market 

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7th July

We went to look at the town of Aigina on the island of the same name. The harbour had a few spaces and we picked a spot. As we neared the quayside a dangling rope for the adjacent yacht wrapped round my starboard prop. A swift dive cleared the problem. We were not impressed with our location; noisy, busy and dirty. There was space on the other side of the harbour so we grabbed it. The harbour is ferry central, busy, noisy and crowded.

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8th July

We set off for Piraeus through a choppy sea passing through anchored cargo ships heading towards the pollution haze over the mainland. On entering Zea Marina we passed a few hundred million pounds worth of ships before finding our little spot in an inner corner. We managed to do a massive shop, cleaned the boat and waited for Sophie and her lot to arrive.

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7th July

We headed north to the town of Aigina on the island of the same name. On coming into a berth a line became wrapped round the starboard prop. I quick dive freed it. But then we decided we would be better off on the other side of the harbour. In the evening we ate by the fish market.

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6th July

We weighed anchor and slowly motored along the quayside at Poros. Lucinda was eager to go shopping but I pressed on circling the island heading to Methana. Here the marina doesn't want catamarans and the ferry port was not inviting. We were glad we carried on as we ended up at Ay Yeoryios, a shallow harbour we managed to squeeze into. It was disconcerting dropping the anchor a few metres from where people were standing. While there we walked into the hills and ate at a snack bar by the harbour.

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5th July

In the morning we went to Angistri, a small island to the east. We anchored outside the harbour for lunch. We then carefully picked our way through the narrow passage between the island and another one called Metopi before passing along the east side of the Methana Peninsula to anchor south of the island of Poros just before Poros town. A storm was brewing over the mainland and a large Maltese training ship headed out in the early evening.

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4th July

An early start saw us mid morning approaching the entrance of the Corinth Canal. We were asked to speed up and hooked onto the end of a mini convoy passing through the canal. At either end are bridges that sink beneath the surface. The narrow canal cuts through high cliffs. On the way we passed under several bridges. At the far end we paid and refuelled. We then set sail into the Aegean. We ended up in Nea Epidhavros. From there we took a taxi to see the magnificent Greek theatre of Epidhavros. We were delighted to shower and eat overlooking the beach and harbour.

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3rd July

This is more like the weather we expected. Light winds and flat seas. We motored 10 miles south our into the Gulf of Corinth to anchor between two isolated islands. We went for a walk on one of them but failed to reach the little church or abandoned monastery. This is a stunning place and we were the only boat there.

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2nd July

For the first time in a week we woke up to light winds. We grabbed our opportunity and headed east. We had to motor most of the way along the desolate, sparsely populated coast. We poked our nose into one remote anchorage, gave it a miss and carried on to Ay Saranda. Here we anchored but we're later ordered to move by the police as we were too close to the beach. It took a while but we eventually found a satisfactory spot for the night.

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1st July

The wind was even stronger from the east so we were not leaving. Instead we hired a car and visited Delphi. The ruins were impressive and the museum interesting. We back before lunch and spent the rest of the day hoping that the winds would abate.

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