Monday 10th October
On route to the Corinth Canal we decided to stop off in Korfos Bay , back on the Peloponnese. Korfos Bay is almost land locked and the pilot books warned that it can have fierce gusts off the land, if the wind is coming from the West.Not liking the look of the word fierce, we re checked the weather, but no westerlies predicted, so we anchored and went for a swim in the clear, soft water. A lovely end to what was yet another perfect day.

Ho hum - spoke too soon - It rained all the following day! I guess it has to sometimes for the plants. We managed - we stayed on board and chatted, played cards and ate pancakes!

Wednesday 12th October
Ricky and Betty set sail, while I had a lie in, with a nice cup of tea (one could get used to having crew!!)

The Corinth Canal is like the Panama Canal in that it saves sailors time by slicing between the land.Here is where the similarity ends . The Corinth Canal is much smaller and does not have anywhere near the marine traffic of its bigger brother. That said, it is pretty impressive to sail through (well we thought so) - 21.3 metres wide, 6.4 Kilometers long and it's sheer earth and rock sides are 63 meters at the highest point, making it a must for andenalin junkie bungy jumpers.
The canal seperates the Peloponnese from the mainland. Its construction was a long time coming. The first to have the idea, dating back to 602BC was Periander (who settled for a stone road to haul the ships across instead,) then later, the King of Macedon in 600 Bc,(who was advised that the Agean sea would flood because they thought the Adriatic was higher than the Aegean - doh!) These were followed by the Roman Emporers Ceasar, Hadrian, Caligula and Nero (who still failed despite the use of 6,000 slaves!)
Next to try were the Greeks in 1830, then the Austrians in 1882 (who both ran out of money), leaving it to be finally completed by a Greek company's and opened on October28th 1893.

Once we had paid our fee to the very nice man in the office (177 euros - yikes!), we waited on the quay to be called through. To our delight we were the only ones, so we were able to take our time and enjoy the experience and take lots of photos. It took us about 40 minutes to go through - that's 4 euros- 42 cents a minute! We were so so pleased the weather was glorious!

Once through the other side we headed to Corinth Yacht Harbour, where we moored alongside. We were warned that there may not be room but luck was on our side, which meant just a short (ish) bus ride back to Athens for Betty, to get her flight home.

Until next time,when we head back to our winter mooring,
Much love Donna and Ricky xx