Photo: Corinth Canal
The boat was re-launched mid afternoon, 1 April and we motored around to our berth in Yacht Marine. We planned to stay for about a week, this gave us chance to put the sails back on, clean the boat thoroughly and for Brian to install the holding tank on the second toilet. The yard and marina got busier each day with more people returning to ready their boats for the coming season, and allowed us to catch up with friends. Unfortunately on Saturday 18th April, as we were ready to leave the following day, we returned to the boat having had dinner with Lynn and Dick “Wind Pony” at 21:15, to be hit by another boat coming into the berth beside us. Following a couple of fractious minutes when words were exchanged, everyone got over the shock, inspected the damage and agreed a way forward. As luck would have it, the guy who had been steering the boat, runs a boat maintenance business and agreed to have his guys come and start repairing the damage the following day.
We finally left Yacht Marine and motored down to anchor off Marmaris town on Wednesday 21 April, and spent a couple of days commissioning the water maker and provisioning. By Friday we were ready to say goodbye to Marmaris and motor sailed to Bozuk Buku, anchoring for the night before again motor sailing around to Bozburun. The summer weather pattern has not yet settled in, so we need to be patient and pick our weather windows as to when and where we go. Bozburun offered shelter in the predicted southerly which was not good for Datca where we planned to clear out of Turkey. We tied to the town wall and went to explore the town, with its narrow streets, tractors as delivery vans and the many cafes, restaurants and hotels, it must be a lively place in the high season. There were close to a hundred gullets tied stern too to the town wall and breakwater, all with workers getting them ready for the start of the season. We stayed for the weekend and then headed off to Datca on Monday 27th April, time to say goodbye to Turkey, we have really enjoyed exploring both Turkey’s coastline and inland treasures.
Datca was quiet, the customs agent met us as we docked the dinghy, we had a cup of Turkish tea with him and in no time he was off with our papers to clear us out. We left his office and went for a walk, only to be hailed by his assistance with “Police station, follow me”. With thoughts of a night in a Turkish prison, we followed him to the police station, the police officer only wanted to ID us against our passports.
We cleared and headed to Kos, where we cleared in and had dinner ashore. Brian spotted a Half price duty free store which sold Mount Gay rum, something you cannot normally get in Greece. The shop owner told us she had started to stock it due to a large number of enquires. Needless to say we now have a very happy skipper on board. The following day we went into Kos marina for one night with predicted high southerly winds. Early afternoon as we contemplated a walk the winds picked up even more, and required us to double the marina lines, med style mooring is not so good in high winds as the boats move around a lot and you hope you and your neighbours have good fendering. The wind died during the night and the following day we motored and even had our first sail of the season to one of our favourite anchorages from last season, Pandelli, Leros.
After a quiet night, we were the only boat in the anchorage, we had a sedate sail across to Levitha, picking up a mooring for the night. The only boat, or rather ship we saw, was a 274m tanker on its way to Singapore. Levitha is a small barren island, occupied by two families who run a taverna, farm and the moorings, 7 euro a night. It was a quite relaxing place. We left early Friday, heading for Naxos, crossing from the Dodecanese Island group to the Cyclades Islands. It is the widest expanse of exposed water which we remember as being the breeziest last season, characterised by a concentration of fishing trawlers and we were not disappointed this time. We only had 15 knots of breeze from an angle we could not sail, so motored, with moderate wave action. Once past Amogros, the wind backed to allow us to have a great sail to Kalando, Naxos and our anchorage for the night. Unfortunately less than an hour after the anchor went down, the wind angle changed taking us into shallower depths, we decided to up anchor and motored another 23nm to Naousis, north Paros, an anchorage we know well. Brian checked the fuel tanks and one we thought we had filled before going home was three quarters empty, so Saturday we arranged for fuel from a mini tanker at the Naousis marina, taking the opportunity to purchase some provisions, have lunch ashore and a walk. Then back onto the anchor for the night.
We stayed for the weekend on anchor and Monday morning motored 45 nm with no wind and clear blue skies to Ag Dimitrios Bay, Kithnos. An overnight, calm weather anchorage. We were up and away before 7am the following day, steering our way for 6hrs through tankers, cargo ships, tugs, barges, ferries, fishing boats and navy vessels for several hours before dropping anchor in south west Poros, just off the township.
Poros is a quaint, tourist town, given its close proximity to Athens for the fast and slow ferries. It has good supermarkets for provisioning, plenty of cafes and restaurants, the town wall is extensive and in the high season must be quite lively with room for a large number of boats. We stayed 3 nights, each morning and night the Navy base piped or rather bugled their flag down, enjoying the town and walks before motoring to Korfus, anchoring in a quiet town bay.
Saturday 9th May we left Korfus at 07:00 and motored to the entrance of the Corinth Canal. Having called up the control tower on VHF we tied alongside the wharf and Brian went in to pay the 262 euros charge for our transit through canal leaving the Aegean islands of Greece. The canal is 3.2 miles long, 25m wide with a maximum draft of 6.5m, cut from limestone which rises to 79m above sea level. It cuts across mainland Greece, through the Peloponnese. We waited for about an hour before the hydraulic road was lowered and we were told we could enter the canal. At 11:15 am we exited the canal, having maintained the mandatory 6knots, at Corinth, heading for Itea, our next anchorage.