The prevailing NW or W winds which were supposed to take us east towards the Corinth canal had been replaced by easterly winds as a weather system dubbed "Ines," was forecast to travel southeast from the coast of Tunisia. This storm was expected to bring severe weather to Greece with thunderstorms, torrential rain, sahara dust and strong winds over a few days. We therefore decided to take shelter on the small island of Triziona, located 14 nautical miles east of Nafpaktos.

An early departure from Nafpaktos should have given us calm seas and very little wind however, the light airs funnelled through the narrow parts of the gulf of Corinth to create short steep waves right on the nose so the whole passage was done under engine. The approach to the island was straight forward with just a small uninhabited islet to pass before the harbour entrance came to view on the island's eastern side. Two protective breakwaters offered shelter around a circular bay which was large enough to hold a small unfinished marina with local boats moored stern-to around the water's edge. There was an anchorage but we decided to go alongside, against the inside of the protective concrete wall behind a couple of other yachts that were already there as we didn't fancy being held hostage at anchor whilst the storm passed.

Trizonia was tiny but a delightful island to visit (barely 2.5km2), with only a handful of residents and virtually no cars apart from a couple of agricultural vehicles. The centre of the village was focused around an additional circular bay lined with a few tavernas, bars and a couple of small hotels.







It wasn't a remote island as a ferryboat operated several times a day transporting passengers to and from the mainland, approx a mile away which suggested that the population does increase in the summer months to create a holiday atmosphere.

The islands picturesque flora and fauna and its magnificent wooded landscape dotted with olive trees, grape-vines and bracken encouraged us to explore along the few coastal paths that eventually led into the islands interior where the occasional cicartas could be heard. There were also hundreds of crickets, (apparently Trizonia is greek for crickets) and several species of colourful butterflies, a tortoise and many swallows flying about.


discovered in the Komoot app

These three circular walks were barely an hour in duration. The only negative was the amount of spider webs that we had to walk through as some of the spiders were definitely ugly and huge!


a red beach, otherwise known as Pounta

a coastal view


a surprised Greek tortoise

A spot of fishing was on the agenda, instilled presumably by the greek god of fishing, Glaucus when a shoal of sardines suddenly landed onto the concrete jetty for us to collect for a freebie lunch - thank you very much. We also watched a local lady from one of the tavernas catch several sea bream/dorada with just a breaded lure. This worked for us too, as we landed two sea breams. Happy days, we are on a roll! However, after a really disturbed night's sleep with vivid dreams of believing that we could fly we subsequently discovered that the one bream was a species of 'sarpa sarpa', aptly known as the 'dream fish' or 'nightmare fish', known to sometimes cause hallucination effects from the toxins they digest within their diet. This fish is recognisable by the golden stripes that run down the length of its body. Despite the unexpected dream, it hasn't put us off from eating them as they are frequently sold in fish markets around the Mediterranean.

We were pleased that we chose to stop at Trizonia as it was beautiful and the harbour offered reasonable protection even though in a strong easterly wind it became choppy at times. Our fenders took a hammering against the rough concrete wall which highlighted that we could have done with a fender board to act as a sacrificial spacer between the concrete and the fenders - now an item on that endless list.

Total distance this season: 414.26 nautical miles