The olive groves in this bay are quite remarkable. We are not near anything; there are no majorvillages or towns especially close, yet these are the neatest most manicured groves I can recall. Very pretty, but why?
We will need to recharge our personal batteries soon. Early season sailing is certainly providing us with many learning opportunities.
We set out on Monday with a positive attitude. As we put our nose out into the Gulf of Corinth everything looked better - for about 20 minutes. As soon as we were in the gulf proper, we were back to the usual 25-30 knots on the nose. No option but to plod on.
The good things about being on this side of the gulf are a) there are harbors and bays that can be used, and b) by using them we can make as much or as little progress as we feel comfortable with. The plan is to go to Galaxidhi and apart from getting wet again and thoroughly caked with even more, salt we make it there fairly uneventfully. The bad news is that I lost my preferred sailing cap to the wind and sea. These things happen.
Galaxidhi is small and full with boats. Again it must be the rough weather that is slowing the usual turnover of boats that opens up spaces for new arrivals like us. However there is an option to anchor just outside the little harbor in a pretty sheltered spot.
We are tired and dirty but the boat must be washed after two days of being in a salt bucket. We wash her. We are now tired, dirty and grumpy. Quick showers followed by dinner on board - too tired to go ashore!
Galaxidhi is the best setting off point to visit Delphi. An important ancient Greek site, but Lori “did” Delphi two years ago (and was not so impressed). So we’re not doing it this time.
Tuesday we are heading to Trizonia - one of my favorite places in this part of the world. Again the wind has died overnight and today looks like being better. We are in a big bay that reaches down to the gulf proper. The wind in the bay is fine. A we turn it picks up. The wind is still on our nose but only 15 knots or so (how one’s perceptions change - only 15 knots).
We started early so we have time to sail. We plan to take two big tacks across the gulf and back just to get the sailing muscles working again. By the time we are halfway across under full sail, the wind picks up to 20+ knots or so. A great feature of our boat is that she seems to enjoy a wide range of weather conditions. We should have probably reefed but we sailed on just fine; heeled over a bit, but otherwise highly enjoyable. Lori says that this is the kind of sailing that I really seem to relish. it’s probably true. It reminds me of sailing in Scotland. Normally, I would say it’s much colder there, but these past few days the wind has been cold even though the sun is warm..
We motor the last part to Trizonia and find the marina (unfinished) surprisingly empty and manage to moor alongside in 15 knots or so with the help of kind people on the quay. Lori is not yet comfortable with leaping off under these conditions - quite understandable.
We are secretly pleased when two guys on the same type of boat as ours come up and ask what the conditions are like out there. They had holed up in Trizonia for a day waiting for the weather to improve. Filled with the confidence that we could do it, they set off.
We will stay here for two nights. This time when we say we need to recharge our personal batteries, we really mean it!
We pottered about on the boat for most of the next day and went of the short ferry ride to the mainland for lunch. A sleepy little town with one taverna open where the owner spoke almost no English but we all seemed to agree that the state of the world today was pretty dreadful and it could not be down to Greece to fix all or part of it.
Drinks and dinner with Steve and Pam from Knoxville Tennessee (which has almost as good a sea=faring tradition as Phoenix). They had been lawyers and litigators for the Department of Justice and were now spending six months of each year sailing around the Med.
We got up early as promised the next day and were smoothlyoff the dock by just after 6:00 am. We had a long trip planned to Mesolonghi and we made it by just about lunchtime. It was a gloomy cold day and even the usual thrill of passing under the Rion-Andirion bridge was not really enough to raise our spirits. With the next storm system out in the Adriatic/Ionian expected to pass through on Friday and Saturday, we may stay put here for a couple of days. There are confident predictions that, by Monday of next week, everything will be sunny again. Let me think,,,,, Where have I heard that before?