Andreas Cove to Patras (July 26)

It is silence before the storm, as we are heading for the Aegean there is little to no wind for the next few days. Our first stop is Patras, the third largest city in Greece. The harbor is busy and smelly but in the evening it was calm.

The next day we rented a car and toured the country side. A herd of goats made us stop and prompted us to take our first hike that day. The terrain was rugged and spectacular. In the early afternoon we visited a magnificent cave near Kastria with multiple basins and lots of small natural dams, stalactites and stalagmites. We had lunch at Kalavryta and finished the day with a second hike along a stream and small diesel trains track both leading to an impressive gorge.

This is a great vacation and there is no time to think of anything but vacation. In between planning the navigation, operating the vessel, buying diesel, water, victuals, cleaning the boat, feeding the crew etc etc there is little time left. Every night I hit the bed and fall asleep within minutes. All the more reason to be happy when there is a continuous night, which is not always the case with anchor alarms, depth alarms, beeping watches, port noise and random things on the ship banging from waves. No such problems in Patras, we slept like babies.

Patras through the Corinth Canal (July 28) We got on the way at 8:15 am, after passing under the bridge of Rion,

the world's longest cable bridge, we continued onto the Corinthian canal. We had taken the opportunity to stock up in the large town of Patras and we now had enough food on board to last us a week. The next few nights we will probably anchor in various coves on our way to the Aegean. In the middle of the Corinthian gulf, at approximately the same place as last time, we saw several schools of dolphins, some of them played in our bow wave and several times they jumped out of the water. At a quarter to seven in the evening we anchored just outside the Corinth canal

Corinth Canal to the bay of Kanakia at Salamina

The bay of Kanakia at Salamina is a well kept secret. For the first time we were the only sailboat when we arrived at this lovely spot. We anchored of a small beach where the pine trees grew down to the shoreline and Vincent attached a long mooring line to shore

I guess I have to reconsider my thoughts on the amount of fish in the Mediterranean. In this bay the flying fish literally jumped into our dinghy. We fried the unlucky trio and they made for a nice appetizer.

After the usual swim and hike, Martin organized a bonfire on the beach under the stars.

Salamina to Ak Sounion (July 30)

We raised the blister and sailed on a run past Aigina, then we crossed the main shipping lane on the motor. There was a lot of traffic and we had to take active evasive course corrections to stay out of the way of the many freighter, tankers and cruise ships that were coming to and from Athena. We anchored in the bay beneath the temple of Poseidon. It seemed fitting to visit the temple before we entered the Aegean although the state of the building did not inspire much confidence in the power of this particular god. It was an inspiring site nonetheless.

Temple of Poseidon to Kithnos

We got up early and were on the way before eight. Sailing started carefully with both the main and jib reefed as we entered the notorious Aegean sea. Currents in the straight of Kea can be as much as seven knots. We picked a patch of calm weather and with winds of fifteen knots we were soon flying all our sail. Just after mid day we arrived at Loutra on Kithnos.

We first approached the quay with our fenders too high, luckily a Norwegian captain alerted us to this and we backed away and retied our fenders before we tied off. Loutra is a lovely small town, there is a hot spring and at the south end of the beach you can sit in its warm waters. The architecture is very different from anything else that we have seen so far. We went along side the quay and filled up with water. This port had better water and electricity hook-ups than any other we had visited so far. At EUR 12.33 it was a good deal.

Kithnos to Sifnos (August 1)

We sailed wing on wing to Sifnos, on the way we ran into an enthusiastic group of dolphins. Some of them jumped high out of the water as they crossed our path clearly showing of their superior speed.

From the harbor we took the bus to Apolonia. Its small winding streets were a lovely place to spend an afternoon, the boys had a hair cut and we had a pleasant dinner before we took the bus back In ancient times the people from Sifnos were known for their cheating ways. After they offered a gilt egg to the gods at Delphi, instead of the customary solid gold egg, Apollo destroyed their gold mines. Some of this might still be in the genes of these otherwise pleasant people. After we executed a Mediterranean moor into the last available spot, a local came up to us and said there would be a fishing boat later that day.

Vincent had carefully scouted out the spot and it had been a complicated maneuver to get us in there. We did not want to interfere with someone livelihood, so we left and anchored off the beach instead. It was a fun exercise and we slept well at anchor. When we left in the next day, that last spot on the quay was still empty......

Sifnos to Folegandros (August 2)

This island was a prison colony as recent as last century. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans used it as a place to banish their political prisoners. It is easy to see why it would get this use. It is a harsh rocky place enough to grind down the fiercest spirit. The island is covered with stone walls no doubt build by convicts. These days it is pleasant enough with a few whitewashed houses and some small and well stocked shops.

We took the bus to the chora and hiked up to the white church of the Virgin Mary at the top of the island. The long steep walkway elicited the observation from Vincent that the Greeks build stuff in places that take a bucket of sweat to reach. The views were breath taking. Down in the village there was a cascading set of squares. In this rocky setting the plants and the flowers were all the more impressive.

Folegandros to Santorini (August 3-5)

At dawn (6:15 am) we quietly motored out of the harbor.

Martin had asked to see a sun rise at sea; it was a magical sight in the early morning calm. The night before we had planned our approach into Santorini, a harbor that is known to be treacherous due to its many rocks, reefs and an ancient submerged mole running right across the most logical approach. At a quarter past nine we entered the submerged center of this giant volcano, this was the site of the largest eruption in recent geological times. At around 1600 BC the residents of this island fled in advance of a huge explosion that wiped out most of the civilization in Greece at the time. It marked the end of the Minoan era and it is probably the root of the Atlantis legend.

After motoring around this spectacular site we set course for the harbor at the south side of the island. Vincent was on the bow as our lookout. We approached the chimney (N36 20.298 and E25 25.986) on the east side on a 45 degrees course as planned and we entered the harbor without incident. There was very little water under our keel once we were inside the mole. The Siora Maria has 2.04 meters of keel and our depth gauge was showing 1.9 meters of water as we inched our way into the inner basin!!

Ruth, Martin and Vincent executed a perfect Mediterranean moor between two other vessels, we did have to fend off and left all boats and quay untouched. Luckily the inner harbor was a bit deeper than the channel at the entrance. The boat that was moored next to us reported that he did touch the bottom twice in the harbor entrance with his 2.3 meter keel. It was soft silt and did not cause a problem.

Santorini lived up to its magnificent reputation; we rented a car and visited the local towns and wineries. The sunsets were spectacular and the whole island had an air of sophistication that we had not yet seen in Greece. At Ia we enjoyed fine dining while watching the sun set over the still active crater where we sailed a day before.

On the fifth of August our friend from California arrived to sail with us for a week. After some sightseeing and a meal in Fira we returned to the boat. On the dock we had a friendly rope throwing competition which Ron won and then we settled for an early night.