No Cuff Too Tough.....

Muddling my way around middle age on the sea...

07 November 2024 | Lagos
17 August 2024 | Cascais, Portugal.
21 July 2024 | Muros, Galicia, Spain.
10 June 2024 | Dun Loaghaire Marina
30 December 2023 | Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
11 June 2023 | Kerrera Marina
25 September 2022
27 July 2022
30 May 2022 | Horta, Island of Faial, Azores
23 April 2022 | Mediterranean Sea
13 March 2022 | Aguadulce, Andalucía, Spain
31 March 2021 | Perth, Western Australia
30 August 2020 | Ferragudo
02 July 2020 | Valencia, Spain
15 October 2019 | Valencia Marr Marina
22 September 2019 | Calasetta
08 September 2019 | Siracusa Grand Harbour, Sicily
20 August 2019 | Mykonos, Greece

Thunder! Thunder!............Lightning!

08 September 2019 | Siracusa Grand Harbour, Sicily
Bobby Murdoch | Warm and Breezy
Riding at anchor in the Grand Harbour of Syracuse, or Siracusa in Italian, on the South East coast of Sicily after being chased about the Ionian Sea by Thunder and Lightning Storms on the crossing from Greece, safe to say, I was shitting myself just a wee bit, not because of the storms but about how much it would cost me to replace all the electrics if I took a direct hit with the lightning! The boats earthed so I would be safe but all the fancy electric gadgetry would probably have been goosed, just happened to a friend of mine in Thailand so that's why it was on my mind. They say you should stick all your laptops and stuff in the oven? Bugger that, I was just trying to see if I could fit in there!!


Ortigia, Syracuse.

All in all though, it was actually, and please excuse my Italian here, pretty fucking cool! Jeez, the thunder was so loud, and you could watch the lighting hitting the sea around you and forking across the sky, upside was the super heavy rain that accompanied it, first rain the boats seen since leaving Thailand in January so it was very much welcomed and me and the boat got a good old wash.


The old Zeus unimpressed at me leaving Greece.....

So since I last waffled on here, I think I was in Mikonos, this is where I have been since.......

From Mikonos I sailed to Kithnos, just to overnight in a wee bay on the East coast, it was blowing a hoolie!


Stole this photo, it was way windier when I was there!

Then it was onto Poros and out of the Cyclades wind tunnel, Poros is a wee Island that super popular with both Greeks and foreigners alike and the busiest yacht place I've been so far.


Poros


Poros Sunset

Another overnight stop in Korfos was next, the only foreign visitors they get here are from boats, mostly Greek tourists, and so if Athens were Glasgow, Korfos would have been Salcoats!! Just a wee nit nicer but not quite Girvan.


Korfos, like Salcoats......but no really!

So instead of sailing all the way round the bottom of Greece, I cheated and sailed, or rather motored through the Corinth Canal which pretty much cuts Greece in half, It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, the canal was dug through the Isthmus at sea level and has no locks. It is 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) in length and only 21.4 metres (70 ft) wide at its base and it was tremendous........


In the Canal.......


and again........

When I had paid and was waiting for a heap of super yachts coming though from the other side (its only wide enough for boats to go one way), the boy from the control tower was shouting "go now Captain, Full Speed, Full Speed!! So off I went, I don't think they realised full speed for me was 6 knots on a really good day, it was magic though, went through on my own and all the floating gin palaces on the other side had to wait for me to finish my transit.


More Canal Photos.....

Another overnighter that night at Ormos Anemokambi parked up beside a fish farm.


Fish Factory in the corner behind the ferry, you could smell it let me tell you!

Next day I was away to Nisis Trizonia which is a wee Island with an old free Marina and a heap of Tavernas, they deep-fry everything here, magic! I was getting quite homesick!


Nisis Trizonia, home of deep fried goodness.....

Then I was away to Messolonghi, which you get to by sailing up another canal, stayed in the Marina here for a few days to give the boat and me a wee rest for a few days and do some maintenance.....on the boat and me! Nice place, and unlike most of Greece not so much English was spoken here so there was a lot of hand signals going on but it all worked out well, I came across a random statue of Lord Byron here, in fact I came across two, turns out when he came to Greece to help them fight against the Turks, he got caught in a storm whilst riding his horse, got a wee bit wet and died of Pneumonia there in Messolonghi in 1824, his lungs are buried under the Statue.......bizarrely enough! Should have stuck to the poetry, or at least brought a decent raincoat!


Messolonghi Canals


Lord Byron, good at poetry, shite at getting wet!

Ithaca was next, which was a bit off of my course but I wanted to sail in there as it was the home of Odysseus and it famously took him 20 years to sail back there after the fall of Troy, a journey that should have taken him 20 days, hence the odyssey he and his men went on, Jeez, I had my own wee odyssey getting there with the wind on the nose all the way and just managed to sneak in before it got dark.


Ithaca, nae wonder your man Odysseus wanted to get home!

Sailed down to Argostoli on the Island of Cephalonia the next day which is a port I could use to check out of Greece, there's an unfinished but free usable Marina there, turns out it was one of the best places I went in Greece, heaps of turtles along the town quay, pleasant customs people, cant ask for more than that!


Argostoli Harbour

And so to Syracuse, Sicily and the thundery crossing I talked about at the start of my ramble, It still feels like Greece here but the city was founded by the them way back when, and was the birthplace and home of Archimedes, the bloke famous for shouting "Eureka!"


Italian Submarine, Syracuse Harbour!

Lots of old stuff and churches here, they do like a church the old Italians.......


Nice old churches.....


Not as nice newer churches


Bloody Ugly modern churches, this one is "Our Lady of the Concrete Slab"!


Old Greek Cinema....

I'm away up the coast tomorrow to sail round the top and make my way towards Sardinia, if I can check out that is, the rules on immigration seem to be different depending on who you speak to, I went to see them when I got here but they didn't even want to see a passport, told me to go and see them before I went away, went today but they were closed! Fair play to them........

See you in Sardinia..............


Sunrise over Siracusa


Comments
Vessel Name: Confidence
Vessel Make/Model: Tayana37
Hailing Port: Brisbane
Crew: Bobby
About: Freelance Good Egg🥚
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