GREEK ISLANDS.

[Irish Rambler]

You all know the quote 'That the best laid plans make mice of men'. When you're young and full of p**s and vinegar we all make long term plans and work towards achieving our goal. As we pass through life some guys get diverted, others give up, some just plough on regardless despite many setbacks, I'm one of the latter. Plan 'A'. The idea was to get to retirement early with sufficient means and put all those 80/90 working hour weeks behind me for good. Buy a motor cruiser and cruise at a slow pace from Ireland's lakes and rivers, pass through Europe's canal system and tour around the Mediterranean basin at a leisurely pace before settling down and doing as our good friend Ted is doing, by accepting fate and hanging up the keys. I even had a boat built to do the job !
I then discovered after building my own business pioneering bulk liquid and powder transport company in Ireland that my (now Ex) wife, as the financial director had been 'skimming' the company for over 20 years and when I sold the company taken the proceeds as well leaving me on the streets..
So back to square one and begin again, I had a plan 'B' was festering in my brain as incentive.
As I slowly got back on my feet again I needed, as they say in Ireland 'To go and get my head showered' in other words go away somewhere quiet and have a darn good rethink.
From one of my previous visits to a boat show some years earlier I remembered visiting a tiny stand where the little fledgling company was offering 'Sailing Holidays' around the Ionan islands in Greece.
I scraped together enough to go and sail a Jaguar 27' around Corfu, Paxos and anti Paxos. Am I on the wrong site here should I be on Cruisers Forum ? ? ?
I wanted a totally different experience and 'to get my head showered'. I wasn't much impressed with those big white flappy things and cramped accomodation but it did 2 things for me. I had pressed the modern equivalent of a mental reset, and it put a little worm in the back of my brain that kept nagging away .
As Arnie so famously said 'I'll be back' !
Fast forward many years. New company built, and sold. Plan 'B', retired, bought a 33' Birchwood and cruised to the South of France. It was to be Spain but got captured by a lovely French lady. Plan 'C' Bought larger boat in Ireland and posted on here of our trip from Ireland, around Belgium, Holland, Germany and France and wrote the books 'Encore' & 'Windmills and Wine' which are sold on Amazon.
But still that little worm was nagging away in the back of my brain and when Ted started to speak on here about retiring I thought 'Holy Mackerel' I'm in that age bracket and still haven't sorted out that little nagging worm. With age creeping on, an op on my foot to repair 2 broken bones only half done I came across a chance to do a delivery trip from Corfu in the Ionian sea through the Levkas and Corinthian canals to Orei in the Sporades. I paid my deposit to secure my place and the next few posts will tell the tale of what happened.

 

[Datenight]

Hello Irish,
We have sailed Corfu, Paxos and Anti Paxos as well. Paxos was one of our favorites on a trip from St Raphael, France to Preveza, Greece. We hope to get back there soon. Looking forward to hearing of your adventure.

Rob

 

[Irish Rambler]

I know that well, I was never very fond of Italy as everyone seems to be on the make. I once hired a little sailing boat and sailed solo up to Crotone on the heel of Italy. Even the kids in the harbour were hustling for money so I thought if I left the boat they'd strip it so I went out and anchored off to sleep. When I sailed back I strayed a touch too close the Albanian territory (it was communist terrotory in those days) and their gunboats 'politely' told me to go away. Being very anti communist I was happy to oblige and went straight back over to the port of Lakka for some R&R. Happy days.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Hello Irish,
We have sailed Corfu, Paxos and Anti Paxos as well. Paxos was one of our favorites on a trip from St Raphael, France to Preveza, Greece. We hope to get back there soon. Looking forward to hearing of your adventure.

Rob

Its certainly a different way of life Rob. maybe if I was a bit younger and if my French wife hadn't got commitments I'd take our boat down there for a year or two.

 

[Irish Rambler]

The company (Sailing Holidays), has a fleet of sailing boats (184) and have several different summer bases which offer 1 or 2 week sailing holidays for their customers, all their boats are brought back to their engineering base in Corfu for annual maintainence. Obviously at the beginning of the season all the boats have to be returned to their summer bases and they offer several types of delivery trips in preparation for their season.
We chose the 3 week trip from their base Corfu marina to Orei in the Sporades.

As I'm a bit of a canal engineering nut I always wanted to go through the Levkas and Corinthian canals and this trip ticked the boxes..
First though, how to get there and back from our base in Narbonne in the South of France ?
I know the American way, 'just book the goddam flights willya', but I'm from County Antrim where we have deep pockets and short arms. Sheesh ! We can even make the Scots look generous
A direct flight with Air France from Toulouse to Corfu and return 3 weeks later from Athens including car parking and luggage allowance came to 1300 each euro's each, over €2600. Sailing holidays offered us out and return by Easyjet from gatwick (UK) for 111 £ each inc luggage. The return ferry from Dieppe (Fr) to Newhaven (UK) was 108£ for the car, myself and the admiral, 1 nights hotel and 3 weeks parking came to around £550 plus, if we took the coolbox we could stock up on some decent British/Irish beef and some lovely thich cut back bacon.
Start the car ! !

 

[Irish Rambler]

We left our motor cruiser moored in Narbonne in the South of France and headed North up through the mountains and onto the central massif for the thousand kilometre run to the ferry at Dieppe.. I enjoy driving and we always enjoy the travelling as it's all part of the journey. Stopping off halfway at Vierzon then carrying on to Dieppe. Dieppe is a famous fishing port and in particular for a disastrous raid by Canadian forces during the last war, we always stop and pop in pay our respects to those hero's when we're in Dieppe.
The ferries that operate there are owned by a group of local municipal authorities, to keep the link to the UK open and boost tourism, the company is called Trans Manche Ferries and they sub contract to a Danish company called DFDS. If you are over 60 and telephone them direct you get a 20% discount, but only by telephone.
Arriving in Newhaven after the 4 hour crossing we set off for the '45 minute drive' to the hotel where we'd booked a room and car parking for the 3 weeks we'd be away cruising. Err first problem ! ! A major accident on the motorway got us caught in a 10 mile tailback and when we broke free of that, Google took us in the most roundabout way through back roads and damn near through farmyards until we finally arrived at our hotel very tired and 5 hours late. We were able to grab about an hours snooze and a cleanup before our taxi arrived at 3 am to take us to Gatwick airport for our flight at 5.30 am. We live a fairly sedate lifestyle on our motor cruiser and haven't travelled much by air recently and it was a bit of a culture shock to enter the early morning melee at Gatwick airport as bleary eyed folk and nervous kids sought to check in and find their destination gates. The only thing that brightened us was the 'Wetherspoons' bar which was serving a full English breakfast at 4.0 am, we filled our stomachs because it would be our last chance before the aeroplane.
Getting to our departure gate was a 1 kilometre walk, althrough there were a couple of walkways to help a little. With a broken bone in my foot it wasn't a pleseant experience. By now I was also very much regretting taking Sailing Boat Holiday's advice literally by not bringing any wheeled luggage, we had two holdalls and a backpack, a mistake I regretted every day of our holidays. If you ever decide to follow in our foosteps buy a holdall will small wheels, NOT a hard, wheeled suitcase.
Boarding the Easyjet plane and settling down into our seats we were looking forward to the 3 hr flight to Corfu and our spirits lifted as we began to feel we were really on holiday. Everyone was very nice but I have only one complaint, budget carriers have to save money wherever they can, aircraft manufacturers lighten their planes for fuel economy but the seat squabs boys a dear they were hard ? After 2 hours and a couple of trips to the loo to ease my ass, in the last hour I was wriggling around like a we'an to get comfy, A ruddy good job I don't have piles, please Boeing a little bit more seat cushion for us passengers..
Apart from that nothing could suppress our joy at seeing the island of Corfu appear as we made our landing approach for a perfect touchdown.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Please forgive me while I backtrack for just for a moment.
I mentioned earlier the disastrous raid on Dieppe by the Canadians troops in the last war, It was thought that the Germans had secret installations in the (chateau) castle in Dieppe which the allies could steal in their attempt to turnaround their fortunes after the retreat from Dunkirk. Bad information and bad planning by the officers cost the lives of many brave soldiers. I attach a photo of the castle in Dieppe where the soldiers were attempting to steal these secrets from. RIP brothers.

OK back to the story. We landed in Corfu and swearing that if we ever got a chance we'd make the Boeing execs sit on their own aeroplane seats for 3 hours !
When you leave a hive of activity and folk rushing all over the place like there's no tomorrow arriving in Greece can be a bit of culture shock and you quickly learn there's British time, and there's Greek time, which can be whatever the Greeks decide it to be. As you can see by the airport photo everythings kinda laid back but in the end it works.
After passing through customs we were met by Sailing Holidays staff and boarded a coach for Corfu marina, passing through Corfu town you would swear you were back in the 70's and things just began to go a bit slower. arriving in Corfu marina we were shown to the boat which was to be our home for the next 3 weeks, a Beneteau 32 sailing boat. (Photo of the admiral on board).
Because we were on a delivery trip we had to get organised but after 48 hrs travel with no sleep it was time for a short siesta, change out of travelling clothes and go in search of supplies. The most economical supermarket with the best range of products is called AB. Unfortunately with my gimpy foot we went to the nearest one in the marina and got very badly ripped off. Not a good start ! And certainly not how I remembered the Greek people to be.
Remember I spoke using of a holdall with tiny wheels ? Carrying water and groceries in two back packs and hand bags half a kilometre back to the boat implanted in my mind never to do this again without wheels, 'boys a dear' I'm turning into a grumpy old git.
A visit to a local taverna and a warm Greek welcome by the friendly waiter of an Ouzo with iced water 'on the house' is guaranteed to put any 'grumpy old git' in a good mood again, a delicious meal of Greek Mousaka and several more Ouzo's and life became all rosy once more.
Next morning we had a group briefing and introduced ourselves to the lead crew and the other 11 crews who would form our 12 boat flotilla. As were were on timed delivery and the lead crew were Brits, things took on a little bit more urgency. We had time for a brief familiarisation with the boat before casting off on the start of our 3 week delivery trip.

 

[Mambo42]

I guess by now the boat has been delivered, hope it was a good trip. Did you stop in the good places or was it just racing through all the anchorages and ports in order to get to where you needed to get ?
Sivota (Lefkas), Vathy (Ithaca), Kastos, Mesolonghi, Nafpaktos, Galaxidid, Poros, Sifnos, Serifos, Kythnos, Kea are a few that are definitely worth visiting.
And once you did that trip I guess you will have that feeling again of wanting more. So when are you going to buy the boat to keep sailing in the Med ?

 

[Irish Rambler]

Yes the boat was delivered at the beginning of the season ready for the first crew of holidaymakers. The idea was to post everyday but several things put a stop to that. Dodgy battery on my Acer Nitro 5 laptop which I wasn't aware of as it normally stayed plugged in, lack of time and energy at the end of the day and virtually no shorepower in the marina's and being a sailing boat no inverter so all in all a bit difficult. We did have to push on and standing at the wheel all day was very tiring, especially a small boat in the strong meltemi katabatic winds for an old octogenarian like me, we were glad to get ashore at night to relax with a meal before early sack time.
We're used to great comfort on our own motor cruiser and these 32 sailing boats are very basic and not at all luxurious. We visited most of the ports you mentioned, 22 ports in all along with a couple of tiny anchorages on our route.
Will I go back again ? Yes. We tried sleeping in the 'V' berths on the 32' and I nearly lost the family jewels getting out for a P So if the good lord spares us we'll probably go back next year for the 2 week Ionian cruise on a 38' with a proper fridge, beds etc.
Will I buy a boat there ? No, I love greece but to achieve the same level of comfort I enjoy here I would be limited on marina choice. We can, and often do, go autonomous in the summer for a couple of weeks if we cruise down to Spain but we have to be realistic at our age and stay within relatively easy access to the medical facilities here in Narbonne where we have a permanent berth.

 

[Mambo42]

Will I buy a boat there ? No, I love greece but to achieve the same level of comfort I enjoy here I would be limited on marina choice. We can, and often do, go autonomous in the summer for a couple of weeks if we cruise down to Spain but we have to be realistic at our age and stay within relatively easy access to the medical facilities here in Narbonne where we have a permanent berth.

We cruise around the same area with our Defever 49, only spend time in the ports during the off season. During the season we are on anchor almost 99 % of the time.
Medical services is also our greatest worry, but Greece does have a very good health care system. You can always find a private clinic somewhere which is not too expensive and quality is good. For dental care we go to Croatia, absolute top of the line (better than in most countries in Europe).
France, Spain, west coast of Italy etc for us are off limits. These countries have nothing to offer for boats. No sheltered bays, just long stretches of beach, wide open to the weather and very busy. Same goes for the Belearic islands, way too busy and too expensive.

But if you are happy in France and you can actually get into the canals of France then you have a beautiful sailing area as well. Doing the canals is one of our bucket list items.

 

[Irish Rambler]

We cruise around the same area with our Defever 49, only spend time in the ports during the off season. During the season we are on anchor almost 99 % of the time.
Medical services is also our greatest worry, but Greece does have a very good health care system. You can always find a private clinic somewhere which is not too expensive and quality is good. For dental care we go to Croatia, absolute top of the line (better than in most countries in Europe).
France, Spain, west coast of Italy etc for us are off limits. These countries have nothing to offer for boats. No sheltered bays, just long stretches of beach, wide open to the weather and very busy. Same goes for the Belearic islands, way too busy and too expensive.

But if you are happy in France and you can actually get into the canals of France then you have a beautiful sailing area as well. Doing the canals is one of our bucket list items.

Normally we don't anchor out at sea as the motion makes the admiral seasick, ironic when she can skipper in a force 4 no bother. Besides us Irish are a friendly bunch and we like ambience and company in the evenings. The requirements and lifestlye we lead on our motor cruiser are directly opposite to that of sailing boats. We get up early and cruise until lunchtime when the seas are calm and there's generally no wind, we then moor and have a leisurely lunch and a siesta followed by some sightseeing/shopping before our evening meal with a couple of vino collapso's as sundowners. Sailing boats usually hang around until the wind gets up after lunch when they can put those big white flappy things up and they all turn into macho men.
Dental treatment is very expensive in France, if we need implants we go to an excellent dental practice in Barcelona. All other medical bits we get done here in Narbonne which has excellent facilities which don't cost us anything.
If you've seen our previous posts you will know we've cruised the European canals and where we are on the canal Robine in Narbonne we can either go South to the sea and go coastal as far as the Italian border or the other way down to Gibraltar, there plenty of things to do and see, or we go North and up into the heart of Europe by canal. We chose our cruiser to suit our style of cruising.
If you're interested in cruising the canals in Europe I have a book on amazon called 'Windmillls and Wine' which will give you an idea of what its like.
.

 

[Mambo42]

If you're interested in cruising the canals in Europe I have a book on amazon called 'Windmillls and Wine' which will give you an idea of what its like.
.

Great tip, will try to find it. We have seen a lot of videos about people cruising the canals of France, unfortunately our boat does not fit in the canals, so we are now looking at Le Boat in order to rent one in spring time when everything is blossoming and it is not that busy.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Great tip, will try to find it. We have seen a lot of videos about people cruising the canals of France, unfortunately our boat does not fit in the canals, so we are now looking at Le Boat in order to rent one in spring time when everything is blossoming and it is not that busy.

To be able to cruise the canals of Europe your boat needs to have draft of 1 metre and an air draft of 2.7 metres.
I'm afraid I cannot recommend Le boat, their maintainence record is very poor and they charge you extra for everything. Instead if you wish to try a steel boat I would look at Hapimag, speak to your host Karen Whitehouse at their marina in argens Minervois, use my name for the best service. The other company with a large range of various glassfibre boats is called Nicols. September and August are the most expensive months. Once you've chosen your route then search online for all the various festivals being held along your chosen route to make your visit enjoyable. Rent a couple of bikes so you can visit various attractions close to the canal.
If you need more help just ask.

 

[Irish Rambler]

You may see in some newspapers about anti tourist demonstrations in Greece. These are obviously in built up areas around beaches and museum like the Parthenon in Athens and deep harbours where the cruise ships anchor disgorging their visitors.
Cast your mind back to the early 70's and the hippy traveller era, as money became a little more available to the young some decided to travel and get a part time job to pay for their food and beer before they eventually settled down into the usual married life, mortgage and 2 kids.
A couple of these guys in the 70's made their way from Australia and New Zealand to the Greek islands looking for work, one of them, Barry, got a job as a mechanic on one of the small (7 boats) English run flotilla's. These flotilla's were catering for the middle class folk in England and this guy Barry, could see how badly run they were and to cut a long story short he could see the enormous potential and worked his way up until he was managing the Greek end of things, and when he saw his chance he took the company over.
At that time sailing was a middle class activitivity in Great Britain for the Hooray Henri's and the first thing he did was change the name to Sailing Holidays Ltd to appeal to a much wider audience.
I first came across them on a tiny stand at the London boat show and I liked the Aussie straight talking no nonsence approach instead of the British yacht companies looking down their nose at my regional Northern Ireland.
'I say old boy, do you have a boat' 'Yes, I said I have a small diesel engined cruiser' Oh ! a bloody stinkpot' he said in a plummy accent. I kept my mouth shut but my thoughts are not printable !
I memorised sailing holidays and later took holidays with them as I've described in an earlier post.
OK, thats the background, in Greece for many centuries people on the islands survived on fish, olives, sheep, goats and anything they could grow to feed themselves.
Along comes this fledgling company of flotilla sailing boats visting the ancient fishing harbours and of course they wanted food and drink in the evenings, the younger generation began to see a future by opening restaurants and bars to cater for these visitors arriving by sailing boat.
Fast forward another generation, as money became more plentiful more visitors were arriving bringing prosperity to the little harbours and now the younger generations are being sent to the universities on the mainland of Greece and moving into the wider world of commerce. As these islanders lived on the sea and depended on it for their living its no wonder the Greeks are one of the largest shipowners in the world as the sea is in their blood.
When Greece entered the EU and money was falling off the trees many of the little fishing village mayors built large offices which looked like houses, in keeping with tradional architecture with accomodation for the mayors family of course,, to oversee the development of the harbours. Some harbours were built well but some not, depending on who got the brown envelopes or a new car.
Obviously when the work was done the 'offices' were moved back to the town hall and the mayor had a new house !

 

[Irish Rambler]

One of our regrets before we left the South of France to go on this trip is that the company we sailed with posted out to us a list of harbour guides to cover the journey, unfortunately the French customs seized them. Ironically when we returned after our trip the French customs released them to us anyway.
Leaving Corfu we started on our trip in glorious sunshine, azure blue seas, light winds, boat in gear and mind in reverse, we thought life couldn't get much better, then it did !
A pod of dolphins came to play in our bow wave giving us a superb aquatic gymnastic display as only dolphins can. We tried to take photos but by the time you focused they were gone, however we tried (photo), we then switched to video and I'll attempt to upload it on here for you.
All the Greek islands are connected by ferry services, some of these are hydrofoils and for safety you have to keep a very sharp lookout. After a super dolphin entertained cruise we were approaching Gaios harbour we spotted a hydrofoil approaching at speed on our port stern so although in maritime law power gives way to sail, common sense says might is right. Therefore we turned 3/4 circle away from his approach and then stopped so we were about 400 feet from his approach track facing him at 45 degrees ready for to comfortably ride out his wash. We recieved a friendly wave from the pilot but the other boats who didn't give him a wide enough berth recieved a rude awakening as they recieved his wash.
The company we were with provided a lead boat which left harbour last ,and arrived in our next harbour first, on board was the flotilla leader, a mechanic and a lady 'Hostie'. This very attractive ladies job was to organise all the admin, give a heads up as to what to expect in each port, organise flotilla group meals, recommend places to visit (and which to avoid) based on their past experience.
The harbour we were in today Gaios, is the largest harbour on the island of Paxos and with regular ferry services it had lots of taverna's and bars to cater for visitors. Because of competition between the restaurants in the larger ports we chose our own evenings entertainment but many of the smaller ports maybe only had one restaurant so 25/30 arriving in the port looking for a meal could be surprise and they needed some pre warning to have sufficient stocks so they weren't caught out. As sailing holidays has been operating here since the 70's and are on very friendly terms with all the taverna owners in the various ports our 'Hostie' would telephone them in advance giving them a few days warning of our arrival, this arrangement suited everyone and made sure that by being on friendly terms and treating everyone with respect, everyone benefitted.

 

[Mambo42]

Great stories and I spoke with the current owner of Sailing Holidays in marina Gouvia last year. Don't remember if his name was Barry, but he was a very friendly guy. They have a great operation going on, not sailing the newest boats, but catering to a wide public, also boats for 2 or 3 persons. And indeed, it is still affordable for their clients, unlike other charter companies.
The idea of not sailing out of one port and not needing to drop it off in the same port has given them huge market share, think they have over 170 boats by now and for a private charter company in Greece............that is a lot.

Gaios is always a nice stop, but you have to be there pre- or after season. Don't ever go there in the high season, you will end up with damage to your boat. Too many people who don't know how to do a stern to mooring and crossing anchors is a daily occurrence that happens multiple times per day. The diver charges 300 euro per anchor and he normally fixes it in 5 minutes. He is absolutely happy with the chaos in Gaios.

Unfortunately Greece is changing now. They have decided to rent out the communal ports, during the season, to commercial companies and as a result you don't pay 17 euro per night, but 50 to 60 euro per night without water and electricity. As a result Sailing Holidays has abandoned some of the flotilla ports, leaving the restaurants unhappy, since they now miss out on a lot of customers.
Anchoring is still for free, but wonder how long that is going to stay like that. In Croatia you already have to pay for being on your own anchor. There are places where you have to pay 40 - 50 euro per night for being on your own anchor. Needless to say those places get avoided by the live aboard boats, but the charter boats happily pay, after all they are only on the water for 1 week.

Curious to read where your next stops were. You are a good story teller !

 

[Irish Rambler]

If you met Barry you would realise why the company is successful because he keeps his feet firmly on the ground with no airs and graces and speaks politely but direct, my kinda man. Get to the point and no bull.
Gaios is fine very early or late season, but for the summer Lakka is the port to use, its also about spreading the benefits and when some ports/taverna's get too greedy their flotillas gently point it out, either drop your prices, or we go somewhere else.
Many hireboat companies make the same mistake, driven by accountants who only look at the bottom line. Charge top dollar, minimum maintainence, write off new purchases against tax, thats why Le Boat are not very successful. .
Barry copied the English broads boat operation, some of their boats are over 30 yrs old and still working all season. Sailing holidays have 185 boats in their fleet.
Actually sailing holidays pay a reasonable mooring fee but if it becomes too expensive then they go where they're wanted and appreciated with some taverna's welcoming them by having 'lazy lines' installed, free water and showers for their customers.
One guy wanted to charge me 17 euros to charge my laptop and phone, I very politely told him he was far too expensive ad refused. He didn't collect any money at all from the flotilla and we charged our phones in the taverna for free.
Yes we had crossed anchor lines twice but although the water was initially cold I just hung on the chain until my body stabilized, then popped down to release them. why would anyone pay when its a simple enough job !.
If they think the Greek waters cold they should have been with me as a young man in SF where you went in the atlantic middle of january, that was a real passion killer
Wherever we go we try to learn basic polite good manners so that we don't cause any offence, as a result we've often been given free gifts by the locals for our custom, the Greek people are lovely and polite and 99% are honest but wherever you are you always get the greedy b******s.
Thank you for your compliment, we try to give as wide an experience to readers so that they have an overall description rather than write it all as a sea log. folk can then judge for themselves if they wish to follow in our footsteps.
Should you enjoy reading my stories I have 5 books on Amazon. 'How to Cruise Into Retirement', 'Between Two Seas' 'The Wolfs Lair' 'Encore' and 'Windmills and Wine' if you decide to buy them a 5* rating would be very welcome.
I did run into IT problems writing the first two books as I'd never done it before but once I realised my mistake I went back and corrected them.

 

[Mambo42]

Great story telling and did not know you already have 5 books out. Quite an accomplishment.

Like I said, it could have been Barry, but am not sure, he was introduced to me as the owner. Great guy, had a great talk while his boats were taking out of the water in Gouvia. He gave me the contact details of Keith and Andy, the diesel experts in Gouvia marina. It is how you get to know the right people for the jobs you have at hand.
He does indeed have an unorthodox approach, but it works and offers a lot of people the chance to do what otherwise they would not be able to afford. Hats off to him.

As for jumping in cold water ? I did that in May 2022 when I wrapped the towing line of the dinghy around the stbd prop. It was cold as hell, never will do that again. From now on I will only wrap lines around the props when the water temp hits 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is colder............I am taking the approach that no line has wrapped around the prop !

Lakka is nice bay, but we prefer Mongonissi on the South side of Paxos. Great restaurant there (Pan & Theo) and if you happen to be there in spring time the Jasmin and Rosemary are blossoming, lovely smell while you are enjoying dinner on the water front overlooking your boat.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Mambo, I think the first thing I would do if I were you would be to replace your dinghy towing line with a floating nylon one, its easier than getting in the water to clear your prop
Yes, we've been to Mongonissi several times before for a very enjoyable stay.
One of the striking things about the Greek islands is the taste of the fruit and veggies, the milk is proper full cream and, as I was brought up on a farm I can tell the difference. The other thing that struck me was the true taste of the tomato's, unlike the mass produced industrialized aquaculture produce we get in Northern Europe.
By the way if you are a gardener there are two ancient varieties called Batala & Meteora and if you wish to buy some seeds and grow your own then contact a wee company in Ireland at www.milkwood.farm@hotmail.com who sell packets of these seeds.
When you ask for a glass of fresh orange juice with your breakfast in a taverna, its not unusual to see a farmer pull up with 2 or 3 crates of freshly picked oranges wedged between his feet on his scooter delivering to the taverna ready to be freshly squeezed for you.
Just one of the many reasons we came on this delivery trip was to pass through the Levkas canal, its more of a channel than a canal as there are no locks to negotiate.
Levkas was originally joined to the mainland to form an isthmus, but in ancient times all transport around the coast was of course by sailing boat and dependant on various seasonal wind patterns around and things could take a while depending on the vagaries of the wind.
In the 7th century the ancient Corinthians decided to cut through this narrow neck of land and save the 117 mile journey around the coast.
This then made Levkas the island we know today. (photo) which was served for many centuries by a ferry service.
When Greece joined the EU there was much studying of the terms and regulations and after much sucking of teeth and scratching of heads it was discovered in the regulations that any island was able to claim financial concessions.
When there was talk of building a fixed bridge, there was further examination of those papers and the crafty Greeks decided instead of having a fixed bridge, they would have a floating bridge ! (photo) thereby keeping this islands financial concessions.
In the photo you can see the floating bridge (driven by a diesel enging driving propellers just like a ferry swung open to allow the passage of boats, obviously this operates at fixed times so you have to be ready to pass through in a relatively tight group before it gets closed again.
We entered from the North, if you look at the map you willl see the area marked as salt pans and these were operated commercially until quite recently, there is still some activity although on a smaller scale.
Ever since we left Gouvia we have had nice sunny weather which makes the journey a very enjoyable experience.

 

[Mambo42]

At the moment we don't tow the dinghy anymore, so no more wrapped lines around the prop. We installed a Davits on our solar panel frame, changed the engine to a light weight electrical engine and now we simply lift the dinghy out of the water when we need to move. Can lower the dinghy in less than one minute by just releasing two lines. Once in ice cold water was more than enough. LOL

You are right about the vegetables, they taste so much better than in Northern Europe. Full flavors and indeed the tomatoes have such a rich flavor. At the moment we are in Northern Croatia, Istra and we are in an anchorage right next to a mussel farm. Every day they come to collect the fresh mussels and in the evening we go and eat them. They taste delicious and with a fresh salad, some good wine it is simply a feast.
The quality of the food and the way they prepare the food (not a lot of spices) is what makes Mediterranean food so good, it is what everybody likes and for good reason.

The Lefkas channel we passed through about 1.5 months ago, also spent about 5 days in Lefkas to get some work done on the boat. In the winter time we will most likely be right next door in Preveza, Ionian Marina, put the boat on the dry for the winter.
The one part that we love of the Lefkas channel is that, once you get to the other end, you arrive in a different world. First you are in the open sea, coming from Paxos, with long swells and at the end of the channel peace and quiet awaits you. It becomes a beautiful tour around the islands.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Like most families we had dinghy's for the kids which progressed to speedboats depending on exam results, not the required result, no speedboat/bigger engine etc. They had to learn the 'work and reward' early to install the protestant work ethic to serve them well for later life. Over the course of time we had 3 inflatables and the happiest day was when I saw the back of them, maybe we were unfortunate but I found them a nuisance. We had one slung on our stern davits when we came down the atlantic coast on our way to France and found the extra weight exagerated the rolling motion. The only dinghies that I thought were quite good was in Australia when we sailed around the Whitsunday islands, there the Aussies had fitted a yellow cover over the top half of the inflatable chambers and that seemed to be very efffective.
I know Croatia's ports fairly well as my company used to transport frozen mackerel from the North of Ireland down to there. I found the Croatian very pleasant and helpful to work with, when the mackerel was in season if our boys were on a regular run they would take little 'goodies' like cosmetic stuff for the ladies and the ocassional car parts for the guys which they couldn't get at that time.
This delivery trip is not the way we normally cruise in our own boat because obviously we're on a time schedule so we have to respect that and just get on with the job.
Both of us came from the 'wrong side of the street' and had to work very hard and long hours with many personal sacrifices others take for granted to give our kids a good education and step up in society, so now we're retired we have the opportunity to take life at a much easier pace.
When we go travelling/cruising we normally do the research during the winter along our intended route and draw a broad plan, if we found somewhere where the admiral was content to stay a day or three then thats the way it is. Happy wife=Easy life.

 

[Irish Rover]

A very interesting and entertaining thread so far. We're based in Türkiye on the Aegean coast and we spend a fair amount of time cruising the Aegean islands. We upsized from our 34' powercat to a 43' powercat earlier this year. We bought it in Split in Croatia and had a very pleasant and interesting delivery trip taking in Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Albania and entering Greece at Corfu. We sat out a storm for a few days in Preveza and passed through the canal which I had traversed some years before. We spent one night at anchor not far from Messolonghi, and a night in Galaxidi before passing through the Corinth Canal. It had just reopened a few days before after being closed for the winter to permit maintenance on the walls - there have been quite a few closures in recent years due to rock falls. We were amazed at the improvements since we last past through in 2018 and it looks like a lot more work is planned this coming winter. It's a great experience passing through. Look out for the submerging traffic Bridge at the western entrance. By the way you can now reserve your passage and pay for it online which saves stopping at the Eastern end. We anchored for a couple of nights at various bays in the Saronic Gulf before refueling in Lavrio and heading out into the Aegean. We spend a few weeks island hopping our way back to Türkiye. We prefer the quieter island so we make a point of avoiding the island with international airports such as Mykonos, Kos, Santorini. We make an exception for Samos which is the closest island to our base in Türkiye.
By the way for any fellow "stinkpot" boaters thinking of chartering in Greece, Sunsail [the Moorings to most on this forum) have a big range of bare boat powercats up to 51' (I think).
Navily is a great app for upto date information on anchorages, ports and marinas in Europe.
Happy sailing Rambler and Mambo.
Edit. I forgot to mention the Rion-Antirion suspension bridge which you pass under in the Gulf of Corinth. Just amazing.

 

[ScottC]

Navily is a great app for upto date information on anchorages, ports and marinas in Europe.

Agree. I can't recommend Navily highly enough! Tons of information and reviews -- even on non-Navily bookable marinas. Professional membership of ~$25 per year is absolutely worth it, in my opinion. Among other things, you can see real-time and forecasted wind and waves at any anchorage or port you're contemplating. Further to this, if you are struggling with a marina booking, there is a team of REAL PEOPLE working at Navily that will call the marina on your behalf to try to move things along. Awesome service!

 

[Mambo42]

Navily is indeed great, we use it all the time, as well as the Pilot books by Rod Heikel of Greece, Croatia, Adriatic etc. Lots of info, including phone numbers of ports, restaurants etc.

Getting into Galaxidi was interesting. It was pitch black dark, nothing to see and we came in on autopilot and Sionyx nightwave. The Sionyx was the savior of the day, since there was one blow boater who had decided to anchor in the entrance of the port with no lights on. It was that I saw him on the nightwave, otherwise we would have slammed straight into him. I guess he did not expect boats entering the port at night, perhaps because it clearly states: 'if you are not familiar............do not try to enter at night'.
Ah well, I figured that with a well planned route, on autopilot and night vision cameras I could come into the port in a safe way. If that blow boater would have had his lights on it would not have been a surprise.

Galaxidi has become one of our favorite stops. Arrived there more or less by accident when we found out that the sea was to rough to pass into the bay of Patras. It was late, we were hungry and so we quickly tied up the boat, walked the dogs and went in search of a restaurant.
Ended up in a restaurant which did not look very special, but the food.............absolutely amazing. Had the best pasta with lobster I have tasted for over 25 years. The best one before was Starigrad on the island of Hvar about 28 years ago. We were in heaven !
Next day woke up, went for a coffee, with croissants, enjoy the sun (was mid May roughly), not a lot of tourists, we decided we will be back in Galaxidi. What a pleasant surprise.

All the boats that arrived the next morning we basically asked, how are the seas out there, since Greek meteo does not really exist. In Greece it is more a matter of: 'your guess is as good as mine'. However, the people that came in told us it was OK, so we went for it. Until we got to the corner where we had to turn left to the famous bridge of Patras (Rion bridge) and that is where the sh*t hit the fan again. In less than 5 min we had 7 Bft and upon asking the bridge what the conditions were at the bridge we were told they had 8 Bft, so we decided to let if go that evening. Off we went to Nafpaktos, an old fort with an entrance of perhaps 30 - 40', but once inside you are protected. It was raining cats and dogs, lot of wind and about 6 boats out on anchor in the storm. But again Sionyx saved the day, so after docking we quickly shut down and went inside, no need to stay any longer on the fly bridge.
Next morning we left, found ourselves in 7 Bft, but this time not against us, but with us, so East to West and that is what is remained in the bay of Patras. Once outside it calmed down for a little bit, but soon after we came into the open Ionian sea the wind picked up again and we changed our destination from Kastos to Ithaca. Arrived there well after sunset, but with the Sionyx operational getting in there was a breeze.
By now Ithaca has become a well known port for us. Instead of anchoring we dock where the yard area is. Not a lot of boats can anchor there since you have to anchor in 26 mtrs depth and then go stern to, which means you need about 80 - 100 mtrs of chain to be able to make it. Docking is for free, restaurant right there serving fresh fish, so we were set for the night. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day after we left and went for one of our favorite places in the Ionian, Sivota, the bay with all the restaurants and we always visit Stavros. They call us 'the aircraft carrier', since we are the only motor yacht in a sea of blow boats, but atmosphere is great, food is great, we know the owners by now, we always have a great time there.
Decided to stay a day extra, enjoy the hospitality and just relax from all the travelling we had done. Once we left from Sivota we went through the Lefkas channel and made a short stop to visit the Green line rep in Lefkas. As it turned out they could repair something that needed to be repaired for a very long time (and nobody could), so we stayed for 5 days in Lefkas. The repair however resulted in both engines being out of service for a couple of days, so we had to be careful. Next to us however was a sailing vessel from Australia and they also had no engine, so we shook hands and were like hawks when someone wanted to dock near our boats. Docking fine, but stay away from our anchors. It all worked out fine, nobody pulled our anchor out.

 

[Irish Rover]

@Mambo42 As a general rule we avoid motoring at night around Greece and Türkiye. You just never know what your going to encounter. The very small local fishing boats go out at night to lay their nets and many of them have no lights on their open boats or small half deckers. They use anything that floats to suspend the nets including transparent 5 litre water bottles. We're never in a hurry and our usual pattern is to leave early, motor 4/5 hours and find a spot on a town wall or nice anchorage, to enjoy the afternoon and night. I'm not as brave as you when it comes to technology. I'd never use the autopilot to enter a port and I wouldn't trust cameras, no matter how sophisticated. If we do motor at night one of us sits at the foredeck away from all onboard lights and distractions to keep a lookout for net markers, etc.
The Gulf of Corinth can indeed be hairy when the wind is funnelled between the mountains on either side and the sea is pushed from the wider parts through the narrows. The katabatic wind affect from the mountains adds to the confusion.
In relation to weather forecasts I have to say I disagree with you on that. I mainly use Windfinder Pro and Poseidon and I find they're excellent for localised forecasts.

 

[Mambo42]

@Mambo42 As a general rule we avoid motoring at night around Greece and Türkiye. You just never know what your going to encounter. The very small local fishing boats go out at night to lay their nets and many of them have no lights on their open boats or small half deckers. They use anything that floats to suspend the nets including transparent 5 litre water bottles. We're never in a hurry and our usual pattern is to leave early, motor 4/5 hours and find a spot on a town wall or nice anchorage, to enjoy the afternoon and night. I'm not as brave as you when it comes to technology. I'd never use the autopilot to enter a port and I wouldn't trust cameras, no matter how sophisticated. If we do motor at night one of us sits at the foredeck away from all onboard lights and distractions to keep a lookout for net markers, etc.
The Gulf of Corinth can indeed be hairy when the wind is funnelled between the mountains on either side and the sea is pushed from the wider parts through the narrows. The katabatic wind affect from the mountains adds to the confusion.
In relation to weather forecasts I have to say I disagree with you on that. I mainly use Windfinder Pro and Poseidon and I find they're excellent for localised forecasts.

In order to avoid the heavy winds during day time we decided to make quite a few long passages in order to cross the Aegean in one go. Last year we got stuck several times due to unexpected storms. However, travelling at night has some issues like fishing pods, floating debris etc and for that purpose I bought the Sionyx Nightwave camera. FLIR would have been an option, but 9000 euro for the cheapest (unstabilized) Flir or 1600 euro for a Sionyx nightwave.........was an easy choice. On top of that a Flir works on temp differences and the plastic bottles acting as a fishing pod usually have the same temp as the sea water, so they won't show up.
A night vision camera functions by amplifying the available light and therefore can see these fishing pods the local fishermen drop all over the place.

At night I put it on a tripod on the fly bridge, connect it to my tablet and you have almost full daylight again. On our instagram page I posted some reels of the difference between pitch black on the open sea and then the view via Sionyx.

MV Endless Summer on Instagram: "Another night approach into a non lighted Anchorage. Sionyx nightwave to the rescue. Total game changer."

1 likes, 0 comments - mv.endless.summer on July 23, 2024: "Another night approach into a non lighted Anchorage. Sionyx nightwave to the rescue. Total game changer.".

www.instagram.com

MV Endless Summer on Instagram: "Going through the night on our Aegean sea crossing. Our view from the fly bridge is absolutely nothing. It is a moonless night, cloud cover and so a perfect way to test our night vision cameras. First view is our Raym

1 likes, 0 comments - mv.endless.summer on May 18, 2024: "Going through the night on our Aegean sea crossing. Our view from the fly bridge is absolutely nothing. It is a moonless night, cloud cover and so a perfect way to test our night vision cameras. First view is our Raymarine Cam 300 with...

www.instagram.com

I do have experience with nightvision equipment (during my time in the military), so that helps a bit, but also for absolute beginners it is extremely easy to use.
I knew what to expect. And coming into an anchorage, bay, port has become a lot easier and safer when using the Sionyx. Fishing pods are no problem anymore, I can pick them up well in advance.

Reason why I plan an exact entry route on the track plotter and then go to autopilot, is that I can spend more attention to looking outside, cross checking with the Sionyx and I won't get confused by outside lights, which might cause me to go into the wrong direction.
I have the route both on my Raymarine Axiom and my Simrad trackplotter, they work independently.
I put the boat on a speed of 3 to 4 kts, let the boat do the steering and I will now use all the instruments and my own eye sight to check if we are following the route and if there is anything out there I should worry about. My hands will be on the throttles, so can select reverse instantly and bring the boat to a stop quite fast if necessary. If there is an object to avoid I can take over with manual steering at all times.
Once we enter the bay or anchorage I take over visually or use the Sionyx to find a spot where to anchor, cross checking depths and position with the trackplotter. Then before dropping the anchor I will set the anchor on anchor pro, so I can see the swing radius on the overview. It will show me if there are conflicts or not. If all is fine I will drop and set the anchor and that is it.
Since we started using Sionyx we have been able to get into many unknown anchorages at night without a problem. It is not that we are planning to come in at night, but sometimes that happens. 10 days ago we came back from Venice, had planned to arrive at 7 PM back in Croatia, but they had closed the storm barriers in Venice, adding 6 hours to our trip, so that became a night approach.
Another time we joined a SAR case, searching for a person in the water in the Gulf of Trieste (guy was found luckily by one of the many boats searching) and by the time we entered the anchorage it was dark again.
But if you prefer to do daytime only that is also fine, it isn't work after all, we all do this for pleasure purposes only

The Greek meteo however is a nightmare, also all the weather apps, since they all use the same data. We have seen it that one app said wind coming from the west at 5 Bft, while another said wind from the east at 6 Bft. So what is it going to be ?
Our observation (of many weather apps) is that accuracy in the Aegean is perhaps 20 %, rest of the time it is way off. For the Aegean we now add 2 Bft to whatever was forecasted with a minimum of 4 Bft. So 1 and 2 Bft becomes 4 Bft, 3 Bft becomes 5 Bft etc etc.
As for wave heights we add 1 meter to whatever the forecast is. And this has worked out better for us. We have used windfinder, BBC.gov.uk, meteo.gr, Windy, poseidon etc, none of them can be used in Meltemi time, they are too far off. Last year Schinoussa to Kalymnos, we had a 2 Bft forecast and we ended up in 12 Bft near Amorgos, there was nothing in the actual and nothing in the forecast. That was a scare, can tell you that.
However, there are some sites that we are checking now (tips from other boaters) and these are:
Harta Moti (is an Albanian site, but is operated and set up by the Norwegian government). We had a spot on forecast during our transit from Corfu to Dubrovnik, was almost up to the minute correct.

And this one I got advised by Tristan Mortlock, also known as SuperYachtCaptain on Youtube.

Ventusky - Weather Forecast Maps

Live wind, rain, radar or temperature maps, more than 50 weather layers, detailed forecast for your place, data from the best weather forecast models with high resolution

www.ventusky.com

We have started following this site to see how accurate it it.

Now that we are in Croatia we use the official government site and this one is also spot on. The Velebit area is known for very heavy storms on a regular basis (70 kts and over). In June most weather apps were forecasting 20 kts of wind in that area, while the Croatian government was actually sending out red warnings not to go to the Velebit area at the time. Winds were well over 70 kts and quite a few people got into trouble because they had followed forecasts of the popular weather apps.
This is the site of the Croatian Government:

DHMZ - Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service

This is the area where we are at the moment.

While checking these sites we also keep an eye out on the weather radar for sudden developments of thunder storms.

 

[Irish Rover]

Thanks for sharing. I don't want to hog the thread so I'll be brief. The Meltemi in the Aegean can be unpredictable and I've experienced sudden unforecasted storms, usually short lived. I've been boating in the Aegean for 20+ years and I find the forecasts in general are pretty accurate. As you know most of the islands are mountainous, and, close to shore, can be subject to strong and variable katabic winds. The general recommendation when on passage would be to stay around a mile offshore. These katabic winds also affect many of the popular anchorages especially in the couple of hours around sunset. I've been in anchorages and ports where the wind is blowing 20 - 30 knots while it's almost flat calm outside.

 

[Irish Rambler]

To continue on our Greek delivery trip and tick one of my 'must do one day' items off my list the next item of interest was our passage through the Corinthian canal.
If you look at a map of Greece you will see that region of Corinth was an isthmus, and as far back as 44BC Ceaser spoke of cutting a canal through the narrow neck of the isthmus to save the 700 kilometres of travelling around Corinth in what could be very heavy seas with unpredictable winds, bearing in mind they were all sailing boats in those days which could mean lengthy delays.
Corinth was a Greek Hellenistic and Roman city surrounded by lush fertile plains and of course you can read of the Corinthians in the bible.
To avoid going aroung the peninsula the early Corinthians built the 'Diolkos' road over the neck of the peninsula. This was a road built of slabbed stone overlaid with heavily fat/greased wood. Ships arriving in the port of Lecheon unloaded their cargoes onto mules, slaves then hauled the boats up the slip and onto the Diolkos road for the 6.4 kilometres journey to reach the port of Kenchreai, there the boats would be launched and reloaded from the mules before continuing their journey. Of course the tolls for this were quite heavy and some chose to go with the larger ships around the peninsula depending on the urgency of their cargo.
In the 1800's spurred by the opening of the Suez canal several French,and later Franco Greek companies attempted to cut through the neck of the peninsula but eventually they all went bankrupt.
A serious attempt was made in April 1882 and continued until 1893 when the canal was officially opened and this cut the journey time from the Greek port of Pireaus to Rome by half..
The Corinthian canal has the distinction of being the narrowest ship canal in the world at 70' wide, miles long with a draft of 24 feet. ship with a width of 58 feet can pass safely through the canal.
Because it joins 2 seas the Ionian and the Saronic, the tidal flow changes direction every 6 hours and can reach 2.5 knots.
Because of its contruction and local weather patterns the wind can funnel through quite strong and make an uncomfortable passage.
To lighten things up a bit for the gongoozlers (onlookers), all the flotilla whipped the sheets off the bunks and we all dressed up in Roman toga's, judging by the wolf whistles and cheering it went down well with the crowds watching us through.
There are 2 steel road bridges,1 at Poseidonia and the other is at Isthmia which hydraulically lower their spans to the bed of the canal to allow ships to pass.
When the bridges are raised again the bridge operator can be seen striding across with his plastic bucket picking up any fish that got caught as the bridge was raised
A super experience never to be forgotten.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A very interesting and entertaining thread so far. We're based in Türkiye on the Aegean coast and we spend a fair amount of time cruising the Aegean islands. We upsized from our 34' powercat to a 43' powercat earlier this year. We bought it in Split in Croatia and had a very pleasant and interesting delivery trip taking in Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Albania and entering Greece at Corfu. We sat out a storm for a few days in Preveza and passed through the canal which I had traversed some years before. We spent one night at anchor not far from Messolonghi, and a night in Galaxidi before passing through the Corinth Canal. It had just reopened a few days before after being closed for the winter to permit maintenance on the walls - there have been quite a few closures in recent years due to rock falls. We were amazed at the improvements since we last past through in 2018 and it looks like a lot more work is planned this coming winter. It's a great experience passing through. Look out for the submerging traffic Bridge at the western entrance. By the way you can now reserve your passage and pay for it online which saves stopping at the Eastern end. We anchored for a couple of nights at various bays in the Saronic Gulf before refueling in Lavrio and heading out into the Aegean. We spend a few weeks island hopping our way back to Türkiye. We prefer the quieter island so we make a point of avoiding the island with international airports such as Mykonos, Kos, Santorini. We make an exception for Samos which is the closest island to our base in Türkiye.
By the way for any fellow "stinkpot" boaters thinking of chartering in Greece, Sunsail [the Moorings to most on this forum) have a big range of bare boat powercats up to 51' (I think).
Navily is a great app for upto date information on anchorages, ports and marinas in Europe.
Happy sailing Rambler and Mambo.
Edit. I forgot to mention the Rion-Antirion suspension bridge which you pass under in the Gulf of Corinth.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Just by co-incidence my next artice here is the Rion- Antirion bridge.
With the increase in population, travel, logistical road movements plus generous funds available from the EU, and the forthcoming future 2004 Olympics in Greece it was decided to build a bridge across the gulf of Corinth which was previously served by 13 ferries.
This has the distinction of being the longest bridge in Greece, but its unique in that the forward thinking engineers made it to withstand earthquakes up to 7.2 on the Richter scale. Earthquakes are relatively normal here as you will know from my article on the Corinthian canal.
Some facts and figures to put things in context.
The bridge is 2,880 metres long wth 3 large spans of 560 metres, there are 4 support towers which are mounted 65 metres below sea level on a bed of gravel to let them withstand earthquakes.
It was officially opened in 2004 by the Greek prime minister Charillas Trikoup just before the Greek Olympics.
the cost of crossing for a motorcycle is €2 a car €14.20 and truck up to €43 depending on size..
Ironically when it opened some of the ferries were rescheduled to other ports but it was quickly discovered that people preferred the ferries because it onlys costs €4.50 to cross, so in addition to the bridge there are now 21 ferries which operate a 15 minute service.
Because of the ferry traffic its necessary to obtain clearance by VHF before passing below the bridge especially as we were a fleet of 12 boats.
As we approached we closed up for an inline approach, once we got the all clear from ferry traffic it was time to get the throttles open and pass through without disrupting the ferry services.