Nope, we're not back in Greece. Still in Halifax, with nary a Doric column in site, but I finally managed to type up the notes from a posting about Corinth that I started writing way back in September. I'm trying to fill in some of the gaps in our journal, so I hope you don't mind some old news...

After weeks of cruising in idyllic settings and pristine waters, Corinth harbour brought us back to reality with a thud. The seabed was foul, with debris clearly visible in water that somehow retained its clarity in spite of the obvious pollution. It suddenly dawned on me that "crystal clear" does not necessarily mean "clean". Aisling was tied at the end of the dock behind the mole, beside a massive pile of fishing nets covered by a dirty tarp. I eyed it suspiciously-could rats be lurking underneath? We closed up all the hatches, offered a few words of encouragement to a battle-scarred cat hunting along the dock, and headed into the town to look for a tourist office.

At the tourist office, the agent quickly threw cold water on our hopes of renting a car to tour the Peloponnese. Apparently, we had been highly optimistic to arrive at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon without an advance booking. But all was not lost. "It only takes twenty minutes to get to ancient Corinth on the bus" the agent told us. "You still have time to go there this afternoon, and tomorrow you can take another bus to Mycenae and Nafplion." Since she used the Greek pronunciation for Mycenae ("Mick-en-ess") we didn't immediately realize that she was referring to the archeological site said to be the ancient home of Agamemnon.

All these wonders at our doorstep, and we ended up spending most of the afternoon in a supermarket. A real, almost-Sobeys-sized supermarket--how could we resist? After a wild impulse buying spree (Romaine lettuce! Prosciutto! Italian coffee!) we trudged back to the boat and stashed our purchases. Obviously, dinner would have to be cooked aboard, but later that night, as we sat in the cockpit listening to the sounds of revelry and shouts of "Opa!" drifting across the water from the nearby cafés, we kind of wished we'd chosen to eat out.

The next morning, Rick came below and announced that his flip-flops had been stolen from the deck. "Don't be ridiculous" I said, "Why would anyone steal your flip-flops?" But after searching in every conceivable location, I had to concede that the flip flops were nowhere to be found, which in turn led to the disconcerting realization that someone had been aboard the boat while we slept. Then, of course, we began to wonder what else might be missing, but everything seemed to be accounted for. Apparently, this particular thief was interested only in footwear-and not very high-end footwear! Throughout most of Greece, the risk of theft is very low, but we have since read that petty theft is more common in Athens and nearby ports.

Since Rick's enthusiasm for touring ancient ruins was waning, his preference was to leave immediately and go through the canal into the Saronic Gulf. He radioed the canal and asked whether a surcharge would be levied for transiting on Sunday. When the reply came back as "Yes, Captain", I knew we wouldn't be leaving. Adding 25% to the already steep transit fee of 175 euros wasn't something the skipper was likely to be keen on. Later, we learned that this had been a misunderstanding, since the surcharge is applied only to those who require the services of a tugboat. From my point of view, the misunderstanding was fortuitous, since it gave us enough time to see ancient Corinth.

It was well past noon before I managed to lure my reluctant travelling companion to the bus stop. The 45 minutes we spent waiting for the bus in the blistering heat got the expedition off to a bad start, but the caramel ice cream sandwiches we bought when we arrived at the site increased the happiness factor We made our way to the museum to learn a bit about ancient Corinth before we toured the ruins.

Ancient Corinth was a formidable power during the 8th-6th centuries BC. (During this period, the Corinthians also founded the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.) The ancient town planner who chose the site of Corinth must have been well acquainted with the concept of "Location, location, location"- Corinth's wealth was largely due to its strategic position on a narrow isthmus between the Ionian Sea and the Aegean sea. Ancient traders often portaged their boats across the isthmus at Corinth to avoid the long and dangerous voyage around the Peloponnese. The Acrocorinth, a virtually impregnable citadel towering over the ancient site, helped to ensure Corinth's military might.

There were other attractions that drew the ancient mariners to Corinth. When the sailors rolled into town, they probably headed straight for the Temple of Aphrodite and into the arms of one of the hundreds of sacred prostitutes whose "services" allowed believers to pay homage to the goddess of love in the most appropriate way. Although Corinth later declined and was essentially razed by the Romans during the 2nd century BC, it quickly regained its reputation as a hotbed of iniquity after being reestablished by Julius Caesar during the 1st century BC. By the time St. Paul arrived in the 1st century AD, Corinth was a city seriously in need of salvation-but not surprisingly, his new religion was not an easy sell.

The Corinth museum holds many beautiful and interesting artifacts. I loved the exhibit of items from the Asklepieion- the "healing temple". Another interesting room had a display of items that had been stolen in a museum robbery and later recovered. In April of 1990, four robbers assaulted and tied up the single unarmed guard who was on duty, and carried away 285 priceless artifacts, plus a large sum of cash that had been set aside for the employees' payroll. Some of the artifacts eventually popped up in a Christie's auction and the Greek police, working with the FBI, recovered most of the collection from a storage house in Miami in 1999. Apparently, several Greek nationals were charged with the robbery. One was sentenced to life in prison. Who knows what leads a person into a life of crime? Perhaps it all started with something as harmless as stealing a pair of flip-flops. But one would have to say that the museum's management had made it a bit easy for the robbers by storing millions of dollars worth of artifacts in an out-of-the-way site without an alarm system. And does anyone else find it strange that, in 1990, a nationally-operated museum was paying its employees in cash?

By the time we left the museum to tour the site, there were only a handful of people on the grounds. There is something wonderful about standing in silence in front of a Doric temple, and as we wandered through the streets of the Roman agora we could almost imagine what life had been like when St. Paul spoke to the Corinthians from a platform that still exists. It might have been nice to linger until evening, but we didn't dare risk missing our bus.




On Monday morning, I made one last run to the grocery store. With all the clothing and gift shops open for the day, the streets around the harbour suddenly seemed more attractive. As often happens, the place was growing on me, and I found myself wishing that we could stay for just one more day.



We were both excited about going through the Corinth canal- it was something we had been looking forward to since the winter, and when we reached the other side we would be in the Aegean sea! The modern Corinth canal cuts through the isthmus in the same place that the ancients dragged ships across. The canal has been described as the "longest public works project in history". The ancient Greeks dreamed of it, Nero put 6000 Jewish prisoners to work on it in 67 AD, but that effort was abandoned and the project didn't come to fruition until 1893.

Travelling through the canal with the steep walls towering over us was the experience of a lifetime.



Rick's stress level was almost as high as the engine RPMs, with the Canal Control Officer shouting on the VHF, "Aisling I, faster....faster Captain, faster...full throttle, full throttle!!" They have a schedule to keep and we weren't keeping pace, even though we were doing seven knots over the bottom!



With our transit completed and the bill paid before 10.30 a.m., we had most of the day still ahead of us, so we pressed on toward Piraeus where, we hoped, we would find a berth in a marina. No such luck. With everything full, we decided to try anchoring off the beach near Kea marina. Several boats were already anchored, and it looked like it might be tough to find room. The American boat "Time Warp" was already anchored, but the skipper called out "I could move over a bit if you need me to." What a nice thing to do! We managed to get anchored without taking him up on the offer, but we were happy to accept his invitation to dinner. Over a delicious pasta and red wine, we learned that Peter, two crew members and Peter's 12 year old son Will had sailed Time Warp across the Atlantic and Peter and Will had been double-handing since they left Gibraltar. They were counting the days until Will's mother Ruth landed in Athens to join them for their world cruising adventure.

The next morning, we all had hasty departures when the Port Police chased us out of the anchorage. We were fortunate to get a temporary spot at the end of the dock at Kea marina while we had our refrigerator repaired, but we didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Peter and Will. Luckily, we've been able to follow their every move on sailblogs. They are still sailing- check out their very entertaining blog at the link posted to the right of this page in the "friends" section.

I enjoyed that little journey back to Corinth...maybe I'll wander on to Delos next!

Greece Ionian & Gulf of Corinth

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It seems that no matter how much time we have, the job of getting the boat ready for the winter expands to fill it. We had originally thought we might finish early and spend a few days touring, but we didn't tick the last item off the to-do list until 7.30 on Friday evening. That left us five hours to kill before our taxi arrived. We lingered over dinner in the marina restaurant until 9.30, then went back to the boat and said "What should we do now?" In the cabins below, almost every surface was covered with the items that are normally kept on deck, and the cabin and cockpit cushions were stacked under plastic on our bed. Rick grabbed a cushion and went back up to the cockpit to take a nap, while I cleared a small corner and hunkered down with a book, keeping one eye on the clock. Shortly after midnight, we lowered three very heavy hockey bags over the side of the boat with a rope, then piled them into the taxi that would take us to Dalaman. In the moonlight, we caught glimpses of beautiful woodland and mountainous scenery--hopefully we will do the return trip by daylight in the spring.

At the Dalaman airport, there was considerable commotion about our bags at the security screening checkpoint. Apparently, a wind generator motor looks a lot like a bomb. It was good to know that the security guys were on their toes, but it took Rick about twenty minutes to repack his bag.

Considering how long it took us to fly home from Turkey, I hate to think how long it will take us to sail home! Thirty hours from the time the taxi picked us up at the marina, we finally arrived at the door of our house in Halifax. We had congratulated ourselves on managing to get the direct flight from Istanbul to Toronto, but we hadn't factored in the taxi ride, the two-hour wait in Dalaman airport and a five-hour wait in Istanbul that turned into a seven-hour wait...which resulted in us missing our connection in Toronto. In fact, of the 30 hours we spent in transit, only 15 were spent actually travelling. At least, with someone else on watch, we could both sleep at the same time (that is, whenever the two toddlers in the seats in front of us weren't crying).

A few hours into the flight from Istanbul to Toronto, Rick discovered that Turkish Air's in-flight entertainment system had a selection of promotional videos on the various regions of Turkey. After watching them, we wanted to turn around and fly right back to Istanbul. We're beginning to understand why so many cruisers seem to have difficulty leaving Turkey, and I suspect we'll have some interesting fireside chats during the next few months on the pros and cons of the various options for next year's itinerary.

It poured rain on our first day back, but we were somewhat consoled by the knowledge that a rainy day had also been forecast for Marmaris. Although it was a bit of a shock to put away the shorts and sandals and dig out jeans, sweaters and raincoats, Halifax is looking pretty good to us. Today is a bright, sunny day and the leaves are beginning to show their autumn colours. Christopher and Katherine had everything in great shape for our return (I'm not about to be fooled that they kept the house that tidy while we were away!) and Katherine had been to the farmers' market to buy garlic sausages with corn on the cob for our first family dinner. On Monday night we had a surprise visit from my aunt Connie and it felt great to curl up in a corner of the couch and catch up on all the news from Cape Breton. It will take days to finish unpacking, sorting the mail and doing the laundry, but eventually things will feel all too normal.

It was difficult to leave Turkey, knowing that we could have spent at least another month exploring the beautiful anchorages on the southeast coast. A few weeks ago, we had an email from our friend Jean Francois telling us that, for Mediterranean sailing, "the east-er, the better." Now we finally understand why we seem to like each destination better than the last.

But if we kept travelling further and further east (and then just a little bit north) we'd eventually arrive... back in Nova Scotia. The best place on earth. If you don't believe me, come and see for yourself. Just don't come in February.

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The carpet sellers of Turkey are surely the world's best salesmen. Before you decide to walk through the door of a carpet shop, you should be aware that you are entering a zone where the phrase "just looking" is meaningless. Here's how they sold me a carpet I had never intended to buy:

"Where are you from? Oh, Canada! I have many Canadian friends; they are helping me with my English. I have a book with many notes from my Canadian friends, please come inside and I will show it to you. It will only take a minute of your time. I love Canadians and Australians, you are friendlier than the English and the Germans. Look, here is my book, do you know any of these Canadians who have written in it?

"Is this your first time in Turkey? How do you like our country? Here is some tea, you must try it. No, you cannot refuse, you are our guest. This is what we do here in Turkey. It is apple tea, very good. You are living on a boat? You must meet my boss, he has done a lot of business with people on boats. No, please, you must, it will only take a minute.

"Hello, welcome! May I kiss your cheek? Have some more tea. Yes, you must; it is already poured for you. You are staying at Yacht Marine? Did you see the big boat that burned there? Well, who knows, maybe it was an accident, maybe it was for insurance. Some of these big boats belong to bosses in the mafia. No, no, not the Sicilian mafia, the Turkish mafia. Yes, of course there is a Turkish mafia. They are very dangerous people. In the world, the three big mafias are: number 1 Sicilian, number 2 Ruskie, number 3 Turkish. That boat was worth 5 million lira.

"My lunch has just arrived, it is upstairs. Will you share it with me? Please, you must not refuse, this is Turkish hospitality.

If you cannot buy a carpet today; that is not a problem. Let me just show you some carpets so you can learn a bit about them. Don't worry about missing your dolmuž; I will drive you to the stop on my scooter. This carpet is a dowry carpet- here is the symbol for the bride; here is the symbol for the groom, this jagged line represents the ups and downs in life. These carpets are all hand made and dyed with natural vegetable dyes. Look, if I drop this lit cigarette on the carpet, it does not burn. This is how you can be sure it is wool. If your husband was here, he would probably be willing to pay 150 lira for this carpet. You could take it back to the boat now and if he doesn't like it, no problem, come back and you can pick out a different one.

"You're sure you don't want to take it with you now and try it on your boat? No? Then please sign my book and give me your email address. I know you will come back here when you decide to buy your carpet. We are friends now and I will give you the very best price, not the tourist price. It is the end of the season, it is the best time to buy."
---------
(Two days later)
"Hello, you came back! I have had a busy day, I have sold 400 carpets. No of course I am not serious, in a whole year I would not sell 400 carpets. Have some tea- and here is a special treat, some Turkish baklava.

"What size carpet do you want? Let's lay them all out here, then you tell me which ones you don't like and I will take them away. Never mind the price; we will talk about the price after you choose your carpet. These are all very good quality. Ah, this is a very nice carpet. You have picked one of the expensive ones. You think the price is too much? How much do you want to pay, then? No, really. What is your best offer?

"I want you to put your hand on your heart. Now, reach deep inside yourself and tell me the best price you will pay.

"You didn't have your hand on your heart.

"Try again, put your hand on your heart and tell me what is the absolute most you are willing to pay.

"You're killing me.

"All right. I like you. You came back here to buy your carpet from me, instead of buying it from someone else. I am going to let you have the carpet at that price on two conditions: First condition: you tell all your friends at Yacht Marine that this is a good place to buy carpets. Second condition: you promise me you will not tell your friends how much you paid me for this carpet!"

Did I get a good price for my carpet? I'm absolutely sure I did. The carpet is lovely, but the experience of shopping for it was priceless. So, if you are thinking of buying a carpet in Marmaris, drop in to Bazaar 48, on the waterfront near the castle. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Turkey 2009

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