We sailed from Zakynthos over to the Peloponnese mainland, approx 20 nautical miles to the lighthouse on the tip. Once we rounded the headland, we saw an enormous cruise liner, which was docked in the harbour at nearby Katakalon. It was a monster - about twelve decks high, looking like huge blocks of flats welded together. It reminded me briefly of the council flats in Paulsgrove....(reference there for friends in Pompey). It turned out to be the MSC Fantasia, and a little Internet research told me she carried over 3600 passengers and 1250 crew.

I'm still sitting on the fence regarding a cruise ship holiday - I like the idea of sitting on the sun deck for a week reading a trashy magazine, and eating at the 24 hour restaurant to my heart's content, and it would be nice to glam up in the evening for a posh dinner followed by a theatre show, watching the rejects from Britain's Got Talent singing show tunes, but I always think with that many people on board there must be queues for everything! Imagine the queue for the buffet! Or fighting for a sunlounger, or queuing at the duty free shop. Or imagine the queues at the bar. And you know what happened when all those people tried to get in the lifeboats at once on the Titanic, fights broke out! I'm not a queuing person........

Anyway, this block of flats left from Vari in Italy and her next port of call after Katakalon on her whirlwind tour of the Med was Santorini.

Katakalon has a pretty waterfront with coloured taverna buildings right on the sea. There is also a vast expanse of concrete adjoining the 'marina' which is used as a huge coach park, as well as a boy racer skid pan for youths to show off in their souped-up Nissan Micras or 50cc mopeds. We decided to anchor off in the bay, partly due to the unattractive outlook if we were in harbour, the heat coming from the concrete, and the stress caused to us by the feline crew member should she decide to go ashore and explore the underside of a coach.....

Just a word about the 'marina', it is not a very attractive place, and not really a marina. Apparently there used to be three large floating pontoons for visiting yachts, but these were damaged some time ago and never replaced. There are a large number of tiny motorboats moored along the harbour wall, and on the quay, leaving a smaller section for visiting yachts. There is another large hardstanding area where boats have been taken out of the water. This location is outside of regular flotilla and charter boat territory, so you are unlikely to find any UK cruisers to swap books with, or discuss the weather. A fellow cruiser tells me that there is a semi official harbour master here, who will provide a key to a shower and loo onshore, as well as water and electric for your boat, but this still wasn't attractive enough to prevent us anchoring in the bay.

And I still haven't got round to telling you about our trip to Olympia....