Every trip has a beginning. You book the flights, plan the itinerary, and then you go. Maybe its just us, but we plan, and do the research and upon arrival the main attraction is closed for renovation or the wind is blowing the wrong way, or that town isn’t safe. Homecoming was in a shipyard adjacent to the Corinth cut. The Corinth cut has been in existence for over 100 years, a deep, relatively narrow cut (82ft wide) that goes through the isthmus and saves ships from going around the Peloponnesus peninsula. Shaving roughly 150 miles off a trip. I sketched out a rough idea of our voyage and didn’t flesh it all out, as I knew it might not all work out. In the end the cut had a landslide and is closed! In December the news had said it would be open in weeks, now the Greek president is saying that it is a testament to how well it was built that it had lasted that long, no mention of when it would open. We went by to see it and the depth and narrowness of it are crazy. We even saw the pile of dirt blocking the middle. In the end it means an extra 150 miles to our trip, as we have to go around. 150miles divided by our cruising speed of 6miles an hour = 25 additional hours of cruising = 3 days additional cruising time.
So we found ourselves going south from Athens instead of North through the cut. We woke in Athens to a dark scary sky that was not on any forecast. As we cast off from the large concrete wall we had been tied to we noted black dust on the deck, we assumed it was bits of the mooring bumper coverings that had kept us off the wall that night. After the second cup of coffee and clearing out of the harbor, we realized that the black stuff was all over not just near the fenders. We also started to smell smoke. A quick google and we found that poor Corinth, the canal fell in and now they had a big fire. The ash continued to fall on Homecoming as we headed south, replacing the yard dust we had just managed to clear off. We sailed along at a good pace, anchored in a beautiful little harbor, had a snorkel and cleaned off the ash.
Med mooring = backing into a parking space. The learning curve on this one is steep, but we jumped in and tried it. Heading into the little harbor of Spetsai we checked the Greek cruising book and a couple of programs that we always use for cruising. The books and software are always full of warnings with dire descriptions like this gem “BEWARE THE LARGEST TYPE OF OIL REFUELING BARREL FELL INTO THE SEA EXACTLY IN FRONT OF THE POINT AT WHICH YOU GO STERN TO”, mind you it was in bold type. Spetsai had no dire warnings except it could be crowded in the summer. So we eased into the harbor and found the hard concrete wall that we were meant to back our fiberglass shell into. We readied the lines and bumpers on both sides. The idea is that you simultaneously back up at a 90 degree angle to a concrete wall from as far out as you can, but at least three boat lengths, whilst laying out your anchor at the same 90 degrees. Then you stop laying out the anchor and the boat magically stops a meter from the wall and Colleen hands the helpful Greek guy the line, who ties it off, and life is good. The reality is that there is a derelict tanker at about three boat lengths out, the wind is pushing us into the boat adjacent and Colleen is petrified. In the end, we tied up without needing any fiberglass work, went for a walk then dinner. We were the first first ones to go to the restaurant since it covid reopened, so the owner treated us to a yummy gingerbread soaked in honey. We had mousaka, so good. As we walked back, we did a double take, we couldn’t see the boat. A large stink pot (motor yacht) had med moored in front of our boat. Pinning us between two boats leaving a large white fiberglass wall next to us. Between moving us over to make stinkpot room and the large derelict boat out front, our anchor line was not 90 degrees out from the wall, so the stink pot had laid their anchor partially over ours. This made for a Colleen petrified X2 the next morning as all the guys on the dock and adjacent boats discussed with Colleen in excruciating detail the different scenarios of anchor entanglements and disentanglements. In the end Colleen wore down the stinkpot captain, who leant us a deckhand to untangle the anchor, if it did not clear. After extricating ourselves from the flanking boats and the wall behind us and simultaneously bringing up the anchor, the anchor cleared from under the stinkpot anchor and we went on our way. I had to promise to never med moor again, which I did, but competitive Colleen has come out and is ready to try again, preferably on an empty concrete wall.
Monemavasi was magical. After a long 8 hour run we rounded the cliff and the castle-city slowly revealed itself, Game of Thrones like arrayed across the steep hillside. After anchoring (see time warp video thing of this) we walked up. We entered the fort through a dark tunnel in the wall expecting a ticket taker or period dressed docent at the end. It was more like entering Harry Potters Diagon alley, inside there was a narrow road full of shops, bars and restaurants. I think Greece is so full of old ruins they have to put them to use. We worked our way up to the top, to the upper town, which was way up, and was just ruins and flowers and bees. The fortified castle-city was founded in 583, needless to say the parts got jumbled up and layered upon, in the end no one can claim they built this, as it was built by so many, for so long.
Porto Kagio. Picture a sleepy western town, worlds end, nothing around. The intention was to stay in, nothing here move along. Kagio has one road that doubles as the top of the beach. From Homecoming we spied one taverna on the beach that was weirdly full in the afternoon. Tavernas don’t fill till 8pm or later. This wore on us, what if we had made it to Porto Kagio and had missed out. In the end the dinghy went down and we went in. We arrived at the dock and the restaurant owner an older lady rushed out to tie us up. As we headed across the beach/road I realized with horror that there were two tavernas adjacent to each other, we had picked the other one. The full one was now empty, and the one we hadn’t seen, which we were going to, was busy. The owner showed us the fresh catch, I have no idea what it was we ate. It had little piranha razor teeth and was delicious. It ended up she was a beekeeper and I tried to tell her about the bees I had kept. This unleashed a torrent of Greek and hand gestures. Our takeaway, the honey from earlier in the season is from oregano, the honey now is made from tea flowers. We brought a jar back and look forward to trying it.

Doing the long way around we spent the extra time traveling, cleaning, polishing, fixing, and learning. The weather ended up very calm and smooth. We have visited gems of places we never would have seen & should be seen. They are wonderful off the beaten track places that even by car most people don’t seem to go to as they are hard to get to and several hours away from Athens. in the end, the long and short of it, it worked out just fine.