20110828-0909 Hello Greece! From Italy to Corinth

Departing Italy is sad, but we are eager to experience Greece again. We have worked our way from Italy past Albania to Corfu first on the far west of Greece, visiting many small islands and villages, then through 2 canals to cut across the giant Peloponessis landmass to take a shortcut to Athens, where we are meeting a friend who will join us for a few weeks, while we explore Athens and then the Cyclades islands.

Summarizing the daily log below, we find the Greeks less friendly than the Italians; there are still many very nice Greeks, but some who are less so. Fortunately, the great majority of Greeks we meet speak some English, unlike the Italians, which makes it easier to find our way, order food, etc, which is fortunate because the Greek language and alphabet are almost incomprehensible to us.

The coastline and islands are very naturally beautiful and rugged, more often with sparse or browning vegetation than the lush forests behind us, especially as we go further south and east. The water is crystal Med clear blue, except near polluted Athens. The great majority of the coast is sparsely populated (except near Athens), unlike the Italian coast that seemed be an almost continuous string of towns, resorts, apartment buildings and development.

The weather continues to be even hotter, no rain for 3 months now, temperatures near 100F each day, and winds generally too light to sail on- but that Will change when we get to the Cyclades soon.

The Greeks appear to be more relaxed than the excitable Italians who speak vigorously with their hands as well as mouths, and more disorganized and haphazard. Bus and ferry schedules are poorly or not documented, the bus stops have no information about buses, routes or schedules, and the actual schedule is often not what may be written when it is- so we have to ask several people several times until we get consistent information.

The Greek economic problems that are rattling even Wall Street are evident here; there was a train strike last week; a taxi strike this week, and other coming next week. Everyone is upset at the inefficiency and corruption in Greek government, and unwilling to accept austerity measures that will impact their social services "entitlements"- a Mexican StandOff. It won't end pretty.

But we are coming to be accustomed to the Greek ways, meeting many kind people, and find ourselves feeling safe and comfortable even when we walk back streets and alleys even in Piraeus or Athens even at night.

Daily log:

20110828 Half way across the Ionian Sea from Italy to Greece, several pods of dolphins greet us, one swims with us for while. A continuous stream of sail and power boats, mostly Italian flagged, is heading westward apparently returning home from their Greek adventures on this last weekend of the peak August holiday season. We are the only boat we see heading eastward. First Greek landfall is Nisos (island) Othoni. The small harbor crowded with 5 Italian flagged boats on anchor inside has many rocks and hazards around the edges, seemingly too crowded already, so we anchor outside the harbor. Then we watch 2 more sailboats squeeze in- I like a bit more swinging room.

The town is small and simple, very clean, with many crisp white buildings in a line along the harbor. The water in the harbor is crystal clear, and unpolluted. A small tavern has seating right on the beach under a few trees and thatched umbrella, so we relax with our refreshments. The owner of the tavern is a weathered and kindly man with a long rough ponytail.

Disrobing to our swim suits at our seats, the swim in the 73F waters is soooo refreshing. The beach is mostly pebbles with a bit of sand, but very clean.
The small market nearby provides some provisioning, and we return for dinner aboard.

20110829 Othoni, Kassiopi. Up at 10, no hurries or worries today. All 7 sailboats in the harbor are gone with an early start for their voyage back to Italy. Today we head for the island of Corfu, sailing along the north coast.

Many other islands are visible around us, but Greece has far too many islands to hope to visit all of them. Ahead and to port we can see the tall mountains of Albania mainland; to starboard the rugged cliffs and mountains of Corfu.

Approaching Kassiopi harbor on the isle of Corfu, the town is very pretty. We motor into the harbor for a peek, and there is obviously no room for us in here with the local boats and a few transit yachts. So we try to anchor just outside the breakwall- the anchor does not hold a pulls up a pile of weeds, so we move around the point the next bay and anchor in the lee of the point- it is undeveloped except for a few private upscale residences with a view to die for. After a swim in the bay, we dinghy into Kassiopi, and settle into a café on the waterfront for lunch and wine. Walking the town, we are surprised to see how large the town is, behind the harborfront- and how touristy. There is a byzantine castle on the hill that is interesting to see. Back to the boat for some relaxation- Rita is doing her cross-stitch project, Mark reading a book. Dinner, movie, bed.

20110830 Kassiopi, Gouvina, Corfu Town. The pilot book says that a yacht needs to check in with Greek customs, immigration, and Port Authority to get a "Transit Log", and we must surrender this when we leave Greece, and each office gets their fees. After stopping in Govina Marina, the marina office tells us that they can only process EU boats, we are BVI, so we must go to Corfu commercial harbor to see the authorities. Corfu is a Big town, with 2 giant forts, and many tourists, but very alive. There is no anchoring possible near the harbors and city, so we must go around to the south of the peninsula to anchor, far away. Fortunately the "old castle" on the point has a moat behind it, and we can use the dinghy to go through the moat to get a bit closer to the town. Then the Long walk to the Customs office at the very far end of the commercial harbor- several miles. Then the immigration office. Then the Port Authority, all far from each other. After many hours and miles of walking and several sets of officials to deal with, we have our Transit Log for aVida, and we walk far back to the old town for a much needed rest, lunch, and vino, and some internet access. Still exhausted and hot, we head back to aVida for an afternoon swim, more reading and cross-stitch. Rita makes awesome sepia pasta, very wide noodles made with cuttlefish ink. Early to bed.

20110831 Corfu Town. AM swim and shower. Laundry day. Rita bags everything up, and now the task of finding a Lavanderia. Into the dinghy it all goes, and we dinghy to the marina to ask where we can find one. Walk the very pretty town, lots of history here, 2 giant ancient fortifications, many miles, very hot. Provisioning, then back to aVida for dinner and a movie.

20110901 Corfu. Haircut day. We have been letting ourselves go, long shabby hair, Mark has a beard, moustache, and "flavor saver"; Rita has a big mop behind her head. We wear the same clothes for many days in a row, and shower infrequently- we think the body adjusts to this more natural approach, and doesn't get as smelly as you might think- or maybe not- a friend suggested that it is our noses that don't work anymore. Anyways, it Clean Up day from here on out. Nice short haircuts, pickup the laundry, back to aVida, back to shore to check-out with the Port Authorities (again), dinner and a movie again.

20110902 Depart Corfu, anchor off Parga.
20110903 Anchor off Preveza
20110904 Mooring ball in Porto Spiglia, a tiny village in a pretty cove.
20110905 Anchor in Mesalongion bay.

20110906 Anchor off Patra, very close to shore to stay out of the harbor entrance. We explore the town, and find it to be large, dirty, rough, with little in the way of historical sites or inviting tabernas or restaurants. As we dinghy back through the main harbor, the Coast Guard harasses us, follows us to aVida, checks our papers, and warns us of the many Pakistanis who live in the area where we are, and suggests we are not safe here. It is dusk, but we move anchorage N of Patra for the night just to be safe, not far from the 'longest cable suspension bridge in the world", which we will pass under tomorrow.

20110907 Glad to leave Patra. It is blowing 20+ knots, with white capped waves on the nose. The inland sea between Pelloponisis and the Greek mainland to the north is fairly narrow, especially near the bridge, and it seems to act as a wind tunnel that channels the wind from east to west between the high mountains on either side. We contact bridge control tower on VHF and get clearance to pass under the center of the main span, due to our mast height. As the voyage continues, the winds calm somewhat, and then die as we turn north into the bay of Galaxidhi, and anchor directly off the town just outside the harbor entrance. This is a very quaint town, and we meet the friendliest people here. There are many tabernas along the waterfront, surprisingly many for such a small town. We first ask around to find the times and place to catch the bus tomorrow to Delphi, ancient Greek ruins not far away. After walking to the town center, and around the scenic peninsula, we select a taberna on the small street that defines the waterfront that looks particularly inviting. We are accustomed to cats, dogs and birds that beg for food at the tables, but this is the first time we are accosted by gaggles of geese and ducks, aggressively demanding food at tableside. After dinner Rita steps into the street to feed the geese some bread, the largest goose gets impatient and begins snapping at Rita's legs to get all of the bread- everyone in the taberna got a good laugh.

20110908 Bus trip to Delphi, built very high up on the face of a mountain. Awesome ancient ruins. Mind boggling that 2700 years ago the seeds of western philosophy, music, arts, poetry, politics and culture were first born here. The artifacts, statues, and ruins are impressive.
Back to Galaxidhi, where we learn that the authorities don't want us anchor outside the harbor (along with a 100 foot powerboat- I think they ruined it for us) and we must move to a bay on the other side of the peninsula.

20110909 Easy 36 NM motorsail to Corinth, where we pass through the Corinth canal into the Saronic Gulf, on which Athens sits, and which leads to the Agean Sea, and the Cyclades Islands, and Turkey.
In ancient times, armies would drag their heavy ships across the 5 mile wide isthmus at Corinth- Octavian pursued Anthony here. In Roman times, Nero used 6000 Jewish slaves to begin digging a canal, but he didn't get far due to insurrection and war. The present canal was dug by France and Greece in 1893, and has been expanded since, bombed by the Nazis in WW2, etc.. The history of Europe, and its successions of a dozen empires and conquering armies over 4000 years, and the fortifications and churches they built, is incredible and rich.