Eastern Peleponese & Saronic Gulf
Our friends Annie & Mick from the Gold Coast arrived on the ferry as scheduled. Unfortunately, the weather was raining on and off all day, so we just settled down with coffee and ouzo.

Next day we visited the nearby island of Spetses. Spetses, together with Hydra being wealthy and with many ships, was the start of the Greek independence. Of great interest was the home of Bouboulina, who was the heroine of Spetses and the Greek revolution. She was a wealthy woman, who had many ships which she led in battle against the Turks. You can imagine how exraordinary this was for that period. Her ancestoral home is still owned by her descendants, who have opened it as a private museum. The guide was an ancestor and very passionate and knowledgeable about it - one of the best tours I have ever been on. The island is charming because of its Venetian background.

Leaving Spetses, we went to Nafplion at the top of the gulf. We had not planned this, however, UK cruising friends had recommended it. Nafplion was a centre for the Venetian rule of Greece, and when Greece gained it's independence, the city was the capital of Greece for a short period. Nafplion still boasts some impressive fortifications, designed and largely built by the Venetians; the harbour could be closed with a large chain across the entrance. The streets in the old town are free of traffic and have many beautiful Venetian style buildings.

Having spent a couple of days in Nafplion, we had to re-trace our steps back to Spetses and anchored in a beautiful bay at the north of the island. This gave Annie and Mick their first real opportunity to go swimming in the crystal clear waters. We departed our lovely swimming spot when we became surrounded by "gin palaces" and put in a good travelling day to get to Russian Bay on Poros Island in the Saronic gulf.

We needed to keep moving if we were to pass through the Corinth before Annie & Mick left us, so we only spent half a day on Poros before moving. We reached the Corinth canal Monday morning 26th. Because we didn't have the luxury of time to wait for good sailing winds, much of our travelling had to be via motor.

After paying our transit fee for the canal, and filling with fuel, we hung around the harbour waiting our turn to transit. Since traffic can only go one way we had to wait about 30 - 40 mins until they called us on the radio to go. There were about 5 - 6 yachts in our batch going through. It is an impressive passage. (see pix) The canal was actually started by Nero who had thousands of jewish slaves dig it but didn't make much progress. It was seriously started by a French company in 1881, and when they went bankrupt, the Greeks finished it. (Read full details in Wikipedia if interested.) Annie noticed that there were spectator seats along the side to watch the passing marine traffic. (I was too busy concentrating on my driving!) We pulled into the town of Corinth to allow Annie and Mick easy access to get back to Athens on Tuesday.

We went out to celebrate the Corinth passage and to have a farewell dinner with Annie & Mick Monday evening. We had a great night when we joined up with a 4 Germans, 2 Swiss, and 3 French guys. Some of us had too much to drink & fell down the steps on the boat cutting his forehead - no names!

We waved farewell to great friends Mick and Annie at the bus station. I would like to thank Mick for teaching us a new card game - Mexican rummy, and congratulate Geraldine for her effort to accommodate us all. We'll rest here for a couple of days now before continuing up the Gulf of Corinth.