Well, it's been a couple of weeks noow and we've made a lot of progress. We just went through the Corinth Canal and will spend the night (and possibly Sunday) in Kiato.
We stayed 4 nights in Spinalonga waiting for a good weather window to cross the Aegean to Idra and Poros. Desi and Chris on Skylark II are sailing along with us and we also met up with Andy and Steph on Norna Biron. Had a very restful stay - hopping across the bay a couple of times for shopping and to avoid the slight chop that builds up in strong winds (of which there were plenty). As always, we were safe as houses in this superb anchrage.
We set off before dawn on Friday after pouring our custmoary libation to Poseidon. We played very safe with cape Ioanis and didn't put our sails up until well out to sea. We needn't have worried though - it was dead calm with just a light residual swell to keep us on our toes. In the case of poor Lucifer - he had a strong seasick pill poked down his throat and spent the next 18 hours mostly asleep but staggering around cross-eyed when he wasn't. We had to motor for about 6 hours until the expected tail wind kicked in and pushed us along at over 5 knots for most of the rest of the journey. Close to Milos it got a bit stronger than we wanted but other than that, it couldn't have been better.
I dithered a bit about where to make landfall as it was difficult to juggle time of arrival (we wanted to arrive before nightfall) distance, and swell direction - which was likely to make our original planned anchorage under Nisos Spathi untenable. In the end, we decided to go straight for Idra, checking out Mandraki on the way. Mandraki turned out to be useless as, although the swimming buoys had been removed, two huge power boats were tied up line ashore and hogging all the available space for swinging. They looked as if they had been left there to over-winter with crews on board. Idra harbour was as empty as I've ever seen it. It was also the noisiest.
There was a big athletics meeting going on with huge amounts of whistling and hooting. Everyone seemed to be involved from tiny kids to grandmothers. A lot of athletes had arrived by ferry and stayed over the Saturday night to compete on both days. They were running up various steep hills and back. It was lovely to see the Idriots enjoying themselves - and for themselves. Not just putting on a show for tourists.
And then to Poros - our favourite place in the Saronic. Skylark and another boat we had talked to in Idra were nervous about the narrow Poros channel so we did a mother duck and the ducklings act. We anchored in Navy bay to be serenaded every morning and evening by the Navy. The pontoon was side-to mooring at this time of year -a fact well worth remembering. Water also appeared to be free - at least it was turned on and there didin't seem to be anybody to pay.
After a final night of Mexican Trains, we planned to set off at dawn and head for Aegina. Oh the best laid plans... I switched on the plotter and got a "seatalk failure" error. No GPS, almost no plotter and no auto pilot. After an hour dismantling things and finding no problems, it suddenly burst into life. I hate that! Made a blind guess that it was related to the rather low state of our batteries and off we went. We sailed most of the way to Aegina. The swell was too strong to anchor comfortably outside the harbour (our original plan) so we med-moored in the almost empty harbor for L to do a quick shop and then headed for Angistri.
Nasty surprise - the pontoon which is usually reserved for visitors was occupied by small fishing boats which were far too small to tie up alongside. And squalls were expected. We headed for Korfos with two reefs (in case of squalls) in rapidly strengthening winds and seas. The anchor went down just as the first one hit.
I got up and made tea at first light then we got the boat ready to go. But when I turned the instruments on - "Seatalk Failure" again! After an hour fruitlessly opening things and waggling wires, there was no progress so we decided to use our hand held GPS. It always used to work fine with the Navionics charts we use in teh plotter but this time it refused! L suggested we pour a libation (we hadn't done the previous day - so we did after apologising humbly for neglecting him the previous day. I was just about to get the paper charts out when it all sprang back to life again! There is life in the old Gods yet!
Had a lovely sail up to the canal with Lucifer sleeping contentedly under the spray hood. Other than a serious (€145) pain in the pocket, the canal went smoothly. We even had time to fill up with Diesel very cheaply. We're just about to pull into Kiato so more later.
We stayed 4 nights in Spinalonga waiting for a good weather window to cross the Aegean to Idra and Poros. Desi and Chris on Skylark II are sailing along with us and we also met up with Andy and Steph on Norna Biron. Had a very restful stay - hopping across the bay a couple of times for shopping and to avoid the slight chop that builds up in strong winds (of which there were plenty). As always, we were safe as houses in this superb anchrage.
We set off before dawn on Friday after pouring our custmoary libation to Poseidon. We played very safe with cape Ioanis and didn't put our sails up until well out to sea. We needn't have worried though - it was dead calm with just a light residual swell to keep us on our toes. In the case of poor Lucifer - he had a strong seasick pill poked down his throat and spent the next 18 hours mostly asleep but staggering around cross-eyed when he wasn't. We had to motor for about 6 hours until the expected tail wind kicked in and pushed us along at over 5 knots for most of the rest of the journey. Close to Milos it got a bit stronger than we wanted but other than that, it couldn't have been better.
I dithered a bit about where to make landfall as it was difficult to juggle time of arrival (we wanted to arrive before nightfall) distance, and swell direction - which was likely to make our original planned anchorage under Nisos Spathi untenable. In the end, we decided to go straight for Idra, checking out Mandraki on the way. Mandraki turned out to be useless as, although the swimming buoys had been removed, two huge power boats were tied up line ashore and hogging all the available space for swinging. They looked as if they had been left there to over-winter with crews on board. Idra harbour was as empty as I've ever seen it. It was also the noisiest.
And then to Poros - our favourite place in the Saronic. Skylark and another boat we had talked to in Idra were nervous about the narrow Poros channel so we did a mother duck and the ducklings act. We anchored in Navy bay to be serenaded every morning and evening by the Navy. The pontoon was side-to mooring at this time of year -a fact well worth remembering. Water also appeared to be free - at least it was turned on and there didin't seem to be anybody to pay.
After a final night of Mexican Trains, we planned to set off at dawn and head for Aegina. Oh the best laid plans... I switched on the plotter and got a "seatalk failure" error. No GPS, almost no plotter and no auto pilot. After an hour dismantling things and finding no problems, it suddenly burst into life. I hate that! Made a blind guess that it was related to the rather low state of our batteries and off we went. We sailed most of the way to Aegina. The swell was too strong to anchor comfortably outside the harbour (our original plan) so we med-moored in the almost empty harbor for L to do a quick shop and then headed for Angistri.
Nasty surprise - the pontoon which is usually reserved for visitors was occupied by small fishing boats which were far too small to tie up alongside. And squalls were expected. We headed for Korfos with two reefs (in case of squalls) in rapidly strengthening winds and seas. The anchor went down just as the first one hit.
I got up and made tea at first light then we got the boat ready to go. But when I turned the instruments on - "Seatalk Failure" again! After an hour fruitlessly opening things and waggling wires, there was no progress so we decided to use our hand held GPS. It always used to work fine with the Navionics charts we use in teh plotter but this time it refused! L suggested we pour a libation (we hadn't done the previous day - so we did after apologising humbly for neglecting him the previous day. I was just about to get the paper charts out when it all sprang back to life again! There is life in the old Gods yet!
Had a lovely sail up to the canal with Lucifer sleeping contentedly under the spray hood. Other than a serious (€145) pain in the pocket, the canal went smoothly. We even had time to fill up with Diesel very cheaply. We're just about to pull into Kiato so more later.
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