Greece: Kefalonia to Paros

As we are travelling again, there is more to report. As soon as one blog entry is online, I have to get to work on the next one. But publishing doesn’t always work out so quickly. I often don’t have time to compile, upload and translate the images and texts. Bad for continuous reporting, good for us, as it means we spend more time sailing than at anchor. 🙂

We had a few days to relax in Kefalonia. We didn’t visit the Lidl supermarket because we would have had to cycle 5 kilometres along a 4-lane road, which we found too unpleasant. We had to make do with a small local supermarket and there was a very good fruit and vegetable shop, we were particularly fond of the cherries. We also got a Greek SIM card and asked for a good butcher’s shop. The one recommended had very good meat. So we stocked up the freezer. We also met the crew of the Panacea (Trans-Ocean boat) in Kefalonia and spent two nice evenings visiting each other.

But we were drawn onwards. We sailed in two small steps to Katakolo. This is the harbour that belongs to Olympia. It is a small harbour where cruise ships that are far too big moor. On shore there is a street crammed with shops selling all sorts of things for tourists, probably more expensive than anywhere else, but I was able to buy my obligatory tea towels there. On the edge of the harbour is a small museum that exhibits historical technology from the ancient Greeks. We visited this and really enjoyed it. The brochure points out very confidently that “the inventions of the ancient Greeks …… could have led already to the industrial revolution if the economic, social and political conditions had allowed it, with unforeseeable consequences for mankind.”

Shopping opportunities for groceries in Katakolo were limited. But a minimarket on the way into town offered a small selection and was very reasonably priced.

We stayed at anchor in Katakolo for another day, then continued with plenty of wind (too strong in the evening) to Pylos, a somewhat larger town in a sheltered bay. You can moor your dinghy in the town centre, but the quay wall is a bit high. Climbing out of the dinghy is usually no problem, getting back in is more difficult. Sometimes I have to jump a bit, which is not really a good idea. There was a piece of broken glass on the quay and we both managed to injure ourselves on it before we discovered it. (Me getting out and Mathias getting in and bracing himself.) It wasn’t our day at all. I also tripped over a line on board when I we were weighing anchor and got my little toe caught on a nipple that is used to attach the sun protection for the windows. This thing rammed itself into the soft flesh under my little toe and shredded everything there. Small cause – big effect. It bled so much that I first had to treat it, before continuing the work. I renamed the bay “Blood Bay”. 🙁

We had sailed on the same day to take advantage of the good wind until it got too strong again. The plan only worked to a limited extent. Before we reached an anchorage, there were gusts of up to 31.5 knots from the wrong direction in the evening. We anchored near Koroni.

The next day brought moderate wind, first little, then good, then little, but we were able to sail with full sails the whole time. We sailed into the bay at Gerolimena. This is a narrow, elongated bay. The bottom is a bit rocky, so we had to drop the anchor a second time before it held. The place looks picturesque: Grey stone buildings, some with towers. At night, lights can be seen in the western rock face. We had another quiet day at anchor and went ashore for dinner in the evening. The restaurant had good reviews on Google. It was in a nice location and the service was friendly, but it was expensive and the food wasn’t really convincing. The grilled vegetables were even burnt.

Our original plan was to wait out the strong winds in the bay before heading into the Aegean Sea. But we would have had to spend a week there. We had met a Swiss boat that wanted to leave the next day and sail overnight, which would allow to reach the Aegean islands before the worse weather would strike. As the wind was favourable that day, we first made our way to the next tip of the Peloponnese..  

We almost caught up with the Swiss on the way there. They later turned off in a completely different direction. But we decided to make the night trip and head straight for the Aegean Islands. The wind wasn’t bad, but the waves were high, which meant a lot of motor sailing.

We arrived on Milos shortly after sunrise the next day. It was a large bay with lots of boats and cruise ships. We spent the day resting and catching up on sleep. In the evening we went ashore and this time to a restaurant that was as simple as possible: gyros in a paper bag, which tasted a lot better than the food in the expensive retaurant. We stayed there for a few days and filled up with diesel, the petrol station is right next to the jetty. There was always a lot of wind at lunchtime, so it was better to stay on the boat as it was too hot to do anything anyway. The Meltemi always blows stronger than forecasted. This seems to be normal for local wind phenomena, the Papagayo winds in Costa Rica were also always stronger than the forecast.

Our stay on Milos was followed by a few days of island hopping, i.e. only short distances and always anchoring in the evening: Milos-Kimolos-Sifnos. Then there was another phase with a lot of wind, during which we simply stayed at anchor in Sifnos. Anchoring in the bay wasn’t so easy, but our anchor was in place and we had 100 metres of chain out, so even the gusts of 40 knots and more couldn’t harm us. A yacht slipped past next to us once and one day there was a mayday call from a motor yacht that had problems with its engine on the way into the bay and had made an emergency anchorage but drifted towards the rocks. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go to the rescue as our engine isn’t powerful enough for towing a heavy boat, nor would we have been able to get close enough. But two other boats pulled the motor yacht into our bay later on.

Now we were only 20 miles away from Paros, where we wanted to meet up with James (from the Carry On, now Apocalypse). We sailed them comfortably one afternoon with a triple reefed main, so the gusts couldn’t bother us. When we arrived in Paros, we realised that James was there, but wanted to fly to the UK the next day. Well, it’s one of those things, when the wind doesn’t play ball.

Paros (the town) has two bays. The town itself is quite pretty, but full of tourists. High-speed ferries come and go all the time. Once there were four of them dancing around each other at the same time. These ferries not only travel fast, they also dock and leave quickly. The anchor is dropped and the ferry reverses to the quay, where often only one line is attached. Once, when there was little wind, we even saw a ferry that did without the anchor and only had one line at the stern. You have to hand it to the Greeks, the ferry system seems to be well organised. I’m curious to see how it will be when I take the ferry to Heraklion. We’ve decided not to sail all the way south because the Meltemi is supposed to blow until October and it’s just not nice to sail north again. We’d rather use the ferries.

Here at anchor, the climate forces us back into the mode of doing things in the mornings and evenings, hanging out or sleeping at lunchtime. 32°C in the boat is normal, we feel like we’re in Mexico.

Nevertheless, we have tackled a few things:

In the meantime, I’m already back on board from Germany. High-speed ferry journeys felt more like flying than travelling by ship. This is certainly also due to the chairs, which resemble aeroplane seats. I flew from Heraklion, where I stayed overnight once on the way there and once on the way back. This is a large city on Crete, but the distances between the city centre, the ferry port and the airport are very short. The bus connections are very good. You could almost walk if the pavements weren’t so broken or occupied by cars or restaurant tables. On the way back, I had a hotel so close to the harbour that I could walk to the ferry in the morning, even with a suitcase full of spare parts. While I was in Germany, Mathias was busy programming. He is working on an error detection programme for input files for 3D printers.

After I got back, we thought about where else we want to go.