When the winds eased we said goodbye to the little community of four boats that had sat out the strong winds. Italian 'Roberto' on (unusually named by a previous owner) 'Grand Finnish' was heading the other way to Kalamata, the French Amel ketch 'Turia' was heading out to the island of Milos and Swiss boat 'Freya' with Rene and Rita aboard were planning to follow our route around the Cape.

We dropped our lines from Gythion with a bit of difficulty as the big black fenders obstructed our normal 'twist on the bow' manoeuvre but with help from Roberto we got off. The trip down to Frangos Bay on Elafonisos to wait for the favored weather window in the morning was mostly under engine with some help from the genoa.

We were expecting westerly winds so tucked in well and all was fine until just before dark fell, two large motor yachts entered the bay and one decided to anchor back to the shore right next to us! He seemed to think it was fine but if the wind changed in the night he wouldn't swing and we would....right into him. There is an etiquette for anchoring and he just completely ignored it, no wonder sailors think that motor boats are arrogant ****'s.

With the concern about this and the wind staying north rather than going west we didn't have a great night but were up at 05.45 in the dark to raise anchor and carefully squeeze ourselves out of the busy anchorage. We managed to 20 miles to Cape Maleas whilst the sun rose above the horizon and rounded the Cape in slight seas at 07.55. The trip north to Gerakas took almost 4 hours and we tied to the quay just before noon. We were relieved to be back on the right side of Maleas, you just dont know how long you will need to wait to get around it. We'd have liked to come back 10 days earlier!


Sunrise near Cape Maleas

Gerakas is a lovely little place, we just relaxed for the day. Rene and Rita joined us on the quay later and we had an enjoyable evening with aperitifs on Freya and dinner together in our preferred taverna

Main photo: Admiral on watch around Cape Maleas