Yasas! We haven't mastered the Greek language, but at least we can say hi to people! We've made some tracks in the past couple of weeks (relatively speaking) and are now in the Ionian Sea on the west side of Greece It is more lush over here and we've been enjoying some really pretty anchorages, old world feeling towns and some hip, touristy ones. It seems like you can have it all here and while things are picking up for the summer season, there's always plenty of space for us. We've taken numerous long walks & bike rides and you can quickly get away from the bustle in town. But the pink & cream architecture set against big mountains and a pretty blue sea keep me reaching for the camera but I can't capture it. We've been aiming for places with something special about them like a fort or castle at the entrance or some interesting feature that the cruising guide or Lonely Planet calls out as a do not miss. I can't get over what a unique yacht culture this is to have nearly every town have a quay set up for sailboats to come tie to. Because there is no tide, it's easy to do and it completely changes the feel of a town having all the yachts lined up and the nicely decorated tavernas full of patrons. In a word: cute! You can tell the towns depend on it and it makes it so convenient for the boats too.


It was a little hard to turn back from the Cyclades but we didn't feel like getting too far east with the prevailing NW summer winds and we were really missing seeing much of any green vegetation or trees. We are called EverGREEN for a reason. The thing about the Cyclade islands that we visited was you could see all the flowers and plants that had been blooming and thriving and then it was like someone turned off the water and put them in the oven so they dried without losing their shape- everything was still up like it was but golden. I'd wanted to go to Mykonos since there was this restaurant in Tiverton, RI that we used to go to when we were fitting out the boat back 16 years ago and it was named Mykonos. It had the greatest Greek food and we never forgot it or about the big Greek owner who worked in the kitchen. It seemed fitting to get the boat there, at least in my mind. But it was still another full day away and we lost heart. The long days underway, usually without enough wind to sail are just that- long and boring. We have seen dolphin, porpoise, a turtle and an ocean sunfish and several swirls from creatures that dove without showing a fin. That part isn't boring but we don't see the huge pods like we have in oceans.
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands

So we did a long day back instead to one of the islands in the Saronic called Angistri and found a lovely anchorage that was full of pines on shore and had crystal clear water. We stayed a couple days there to enjoy it. In Greece, it seems like most of the time, if you look up to the highest point around, there will inevitably be a little chapel perched on top and it is up to you to find the path to get up to it but there will be one. We learned that these are usually built by individuals to honor a loved one or a saint. And more often than not, there will be an olive oil candle burning inside. It must be kept lit by a spirit because we hardly see another living soul when we're out on these trails. Great views from these high places.
From Greek Islands

Angistri was quiet, calm and had pretty fire roads to walk on. We often see staffed firetrucks parked atop hills with chairs set up and a sun awning, poking away on their smart phones waiting for signs of fire. It doesn't look like a bad job to have at all.
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The Corinth Canal is 3km long and saves a few hundred miles going around the bottom of the Peloponnese. We decided to go through the canal like most people do to save the time. It cost $220 and is the most expensive canal in the world, per mile. But it was easy enough to schedule and only took a few minutes to get through!

Once out of the canal, we were in the Gulf of Corinth and we headed to a the town of Galaxidhi. It felt like a quintessential Greek town with mountains towering around, a lively waterfront and old buildings. We were anchored front & center. One thing about Greece and probably the Med in general is that there are places to swim everywhere you look and people swimming. Little staircases, rocky steps, stone pathways, all leading into the water. Beach chairs and bodies everywhere. We read that a peculiar thing that Greeks do is ask each other how many swims they have gotten in for the season. But then maybe the whole Med is this way. One thing is for sure, coming from Indonesia & Malaysia where women were rubbing mud on their faces to avoid getting sun and religion required covering up the body, it is the complete opposite here. There are thousands of sun worshipers here and the person with the deepest tan on the most body parts wins the prize. We're doing our best to get our swim numbers up but we won't be in line to buy the caseloads of Hawaiian Tropic that they go through here.
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands

We moved to the minute medieval town of Navpaktos with its small, walled in harbor with a Venetian castle turned park looking over it. The harbor has a tower & statue on one side of the inlet and a turret on the other. We found a cat in a culvert by the water and fed it some of our Italian cuisine. We've gotten addicted to gelato and every town has several shops to choose from.
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands

We went under the Rion bridge to make our way toward the Ionian Islands. Built in 2004, it has the world record for the longest cable stayed bridge at 2,252 meters and 3 navigable channels. It is free to pass under it but when we were doing the land travel, it cost a mint to go over it, so true to things we don't understand about some of the countries we visit, there is a car ferry service that is half the price that runs right underneath the bridge so most people take that! Looks like the trucks are paying for the bridge.

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The Ionian Islands are beautiful and green. We've been to 3 so far, each one quite different. The sun is so hot but once in the shade, it is dry & cool. Our batteries are always topped up because the sun is up before we are and shines all day. We've walked on old donkey trails, through very old olive tree groves, along rocky beaches and through the sleepiest of island villages where you can't figure out where the people have gone. We had an anchorage all to ourselves the other night and we've also been in the thick of things like we are now, med moored and tied off to a tree off a pretty town named Gaios on the island of Paxi. It is a full-on charter boat & tourist scene but it makes the place what it is. Pretty.
From Greek Islands

We've had our bikes out several times. Each ride is similar in that we are either going straight up or straight down. The towns are usually either on hilltops or at sea level- probably to stay the most cool. So today we biked all day, visiting 3 different towns on an island circumnavigation so we went up, down, up, down, up down and each town we stopped in we got a Greek food item and a big bottle of water to replace the gallons of sweat we lost. It is like the Mt Washington road race where around every bend there is yet more uphill. But it was a great day! We snorkeled afterward to cool down in beautiful, clear water and saw basically nothing!
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands

That's pretty much what we've been up to. It's fortunate that tomatoes & peaches are good for you because we've been OD'ing on them. We're planning to untie from the tree tomorrow and head to Corfu. There looks to be tons to do there for fun and we also have some boat projects to attend to. It appears our fuel tanks have some sludge in them and we're clogging filters. When we replaced them 15 years ago, they were made without inspection ports so we have no real way of wiping them out. So will have to get that sorted and get more filters too.
From Greek Islands
From Greek Islands