We have a sailing boat and if possible, we try to sail from one place to another. Sometimes we will delay travel to try and get the best weather window to make this possible. We left Ermioni to travel to the island of Poros, about 30 nautical miles away (55Km). The forecast was for northerly winds, 15 to 20 knots, we were heading mostly East so should be perfect!

Started off in very light winds but it soon picked up from the North so up with the sails, engine off and away we go. But not for long.... After about 15 minutes the wind dropped away again and became very variable, in fact the wind direction did a full 360 degrees around us so down with the sails and motoring again. Half an hour or so later the wind came up again from the NE but looked like it might soon get stronger and gusty. We put out just a small amount of the genoa to help drive into the wind. Within a short time, we had strong gusts of over 30 knots (55 KPH) and just a small amount of sail out. As we neared the island of Poros, although the wind was directly in front of us it was dropping and by the time we anchored there it was just a light breeze. We didn't get the good sailing conditions we hoped for!

Poros island lies just off the coast of the Peloponnese and is separated from mainland Greece by a narrow channel about 200m wide. As we navigated through the channel to Poros town, a massive big ferry was headed in our direction. There are very strict speed limits enforced in the channel, so we did not get the normal amount of ferry wash as the ferry slid past us. Sadly we did not get this on video as the GoPro batteries were flat. Poros town is very busy with lots of boats coming and going. We had anchored in a nearby bay the night before and arrived at about 11 am. There was plenty of space in the harbour but by 4pm the harbour was full, with boats milling around looking for somewhere to moor.

As Poros is a big town we had lots of options for provisioning SCII. Using Google maps we located two supermarkets close to where SCII was tied up. We entered the first supermarket to discover that it had no food but only contained cleaning products and toiletries. While we thought this was a bit strange, we moved onto the next supermarket. It was well stocked with fruit, vegetables, all other food stuffs and alcohol but it did not have any toiletries or cleaning products. It turned out the supermarket was split over two different locations.

Shopping in Greek supermarkets is very different from shopping at home. The isles are barely wide enough for a trolley, in fact often you must hunt to find a trolley, as most Greeks do not use them. They tend to do small shops much more often compared to our larger weekly shops. The concept of reducing plastic and reusing shopping bags is just starting to take hold here in Greece. This year is the first year where many supermarkets are selling reusable shopping bags. Although I think it will take some time to wean the Greek shops off plastic bags. Even when I go to the bakery with my own bag, many shop assistants still want to put it in a plastic bag, even though the bread is wrapped in paper.

We had a lovely meal in Poros at a taverna called Poseidon, which did a modern twist on classical Greek foods. We ordered grilled vegetables which came with basil and balsamic vinegar, seafood dolma wrapped in a cooked lettuce leaf with lemon sauce and a raw tuna salad. It was delicious and washed down with cold rosé.



From Poros we have anchored out around the island of Angistri and along the Methana peninsula. We have enjoyed days of swimming, relaxing and eating aboard. The water is crystal clear, you can see the bottom clearly in 10m of water, as well as all the very little fish. One of the joys of anchoring out is sitting on the back of SCII with a glass of wine watching the stunning sunsets. Photographs do not really do justice to the sensational colours.







We are currently tied up in the tiny harbour of Vathi on the Methana Peninsula. It is a quaint little fishing village, with only room for 6 or 7 yachts. The harbour is very quiet and does not have the hustle and bustle of Poros but it is delightful. The harbour is surrounded by fish restaurants, so I think it might be fresh local fish for tea tonight.


We only have 2 weeks left on SCII for this year before she is lifted out for the winter. The time has gone so quickly.