Cruising progress 2019 (Click to enlarge)
30th June 2019
On our way back to Porto Heli from Nafplio, we revisited Astros where we stayed for a couple of days. It's a pretty little town but in late May it's exceedingly quiet with not too many restaurants open. Once back in Porto Heli the sewing machine came back out and work started once again on repairs to the sprayhood. I think it has now finally been completely resewn. The sunbrella material is still in good condition, but the thread had rotted away in the sun.
We had originally intended returning to the Ionian via the Corinth Canal but the forecast for the next week or so was for strong head winds in the Gulf of Patras, which would mean motoring into them for a hundred miles or so. It's now been decided that we'll sail back around the Peloponnese as we did last year.
Unlike our last trip around the Peloponnese which took two weeks due to bad weather, this time we managed it in four days. We spent two nights at Katakolon, which has a couple of cruise liners in each day during the high season. There were two in when we arrived, but unfortunately we decided to go ashore the following day. Big mistake - early June apparently is not high season and it was a bit like a one horse town where the horse has died! There were very few people around and no shops open. A few cafes were open, but none we would have wanted to eat in.
The following morning we motored along the bottom of Kefalonia to Argostoli. We spent a fair amount of time watching other boats attempts at anchoring in reasonably windy conditions. The holding in the bay is not great and some parts have a lot of weed. One boat came in, dropped the anchor and then the crew immediately rowed ashore in the dinghy. They were away for quite a while, the wind increased to about 28 kts and the boat started to drag towards a long bridge and the shallows. Thankfully they realised what was happening and successfully managed to catch it after some frantic rowing. They re-anchored and then dragged again. By this time they'd had enough and tied up alongside the town quay.
We then watched a dinghy, which had parted company from its boat drifting towards the bridge, but we were unable to do anything as our dinghy was lifted on to the stern and outboard stowed. Luckily it was collected by another boat. Finally we watched a boat attempt to anchor five times in the same place and each time it would drag down the bay. Each time they lifted the anchor they appeared to be collecting more and more weed but did nothing to remove it. After the fourth attempt the anchor was completely encased in weed and Mike finally decided he needed to go and give some help and advice. I think the crew member was new to sailing, as he appeared to be unaware that he should remove all the weed before trying to re-anchor. They were very appreciative of the help and finally managed to get the anchor to hold.
Over the winter we had been emailing a young Canadian couple Liz and Iker, who were introduced to us by my brother Hamish. They intended taking a year out, buying a boat in Greece and sailing back to the Caribbean and wanted advice from Mike. They came over in mid-March, found a suitable boat which they bought and launched at beginning of May. When we finally met them a couple of weeks ago they had already covered over 1,000 nautical miles. They are now heading up to Croatia and then on to Italy and all places west and will sail across the Atlantic in November/December. Liz is a very keen dinghy sailor and is returning to Canada in August to compete in the North American and World Fireball Championships. Iker will remain in Europe to look after the boat.
We then returned to Preveza (our starting point last year) as we had to buy a new set of batteries. The previous ones had lasted eight seasons, which was not as good as Mike had hoped. The new set was delivered direct to the boat and the driver also removed the old ones for us, which saved us having to dispose of them. Small fish often leapt ashore as we walked along the quay each evening. Thousands would land 2-3 metres from the water and anglers would run around collecting them. Other people went around kicking them back into the water. The fish seemed to pick a different 200-300m stretch each night just to keep the anglers guessing.
Very short clip showing fish leaping on quay at Preveza
We stayed on the quay for a week sorting out a few more problems and then went sailing into the inland sea, where we had a few excellent sails in flat water. We met up with our Swedish friends, Peter and Elizabeth on Ananda in Vonitsa. Once back in Preveza we enjoyed a final meal out with them before they flew to Sweden for the summer, returning in September for another two months sailing.
