July 30, 2016

Greece 2016: Across the Aegean

From Kusadasi Turkey to Mesolongion Greece, via the Corinth Canal

Kusadasi, Turkey – 10-24 April

I arrived in Izmir Turkey to meet Heinz and join the boat after a lovely month in Verona Italy. We traveled to Kusadasi and the marina by bus. Heinz met me at the airport, and after several weeks of emails and Skype, it was time to meet in person. It’s beyond strange and seemingly in reverse order to decide with someone you’ve yet to actually meet, that you are going to share daily life and living quarters in a small box floating on the water… and THEN meet and start to get to know one another. But such is the life of those who want to be crew and the skippers seeking them.

We spent the first week “nesting” and beginning to learn about one another and the little things that make us each unique, lovely, annoying, and simply ourselves. The shocking quantity and magnitude of differences between us will undeniably be one of the biggest challenges for us. It would be easier to list the things that are similar than those that set us apart. It isn’t just that we are different… it’s that we are in many ways absolute polar opposites. The overriding connection and if anything, the thing that will allow us to harmonize and coexist, if not happily then at least contentedly with one another, is a shared dream of sailing/exploring the world and living on the sea.

We also discovered during that first week that we would be four on board, as Carlos (the licensed accompanying skipper) had just met someone through a dating site and she was to join us. Cherrie (wow, two of us on board?) turned out to be quite nice and we were glad to have her along. Since Heinz hadn’t yet completed his required 1000 miles of practical experience, and due to insurance and registration requirements for Swiss-flagged yachts, we need to have a licensed skipper on board with us. Also, important for Heinz was to have someone with catamaran experience and with the Lagoon 380 specifically, to teach us how to handle her.

How fortunate for me to be joining at the very beginning of the adventure and journey with everything ahead of us to look forward to. New experiences and many things to adjust to though – sailing on a catamaran (which I have wanted to experience) and living with three other people (which I didn’t particularly want to experience). But at least with a cat we’ll have more surface area and living space!

We had a few days all together on board to acclimate and then headed out for our “shakedown” cruise. Heinz bought the boat almost a year ago, and she hadn’t been out of her slip since. We needed to check out all systems and prepare to embark on the adventure! So off we went and spent a few hours getting to know the boat and each other underway.

A few days to finalize everything and provision up, then let the journey begin!

Samos, Greece 24 – 29 April

Kusadasi à Vathi (43 miles) – 24 April – We got a late start out of Kusadasi, which was unfortunate. I’m used to having everything ready and leaving at first light, but there were things to take care of (did we really need to buy a GoPro on the morning we were taking off?) and it was more than a few hours before we could actually get ourselves going, fuel up, then head out. We had a rough trip over from Kusadasi. Carlos didn’t seem to feel the weather was a problem. It was. We were late, the winds were contrary, the seas were sloppy and building, and we weren’t making headway along our desired course. After a few hours of that (or what seemed like a few hours) Heinz and I decided we needed to change course and we motor-sailed over to the north coast of Samos rather than the south as originally planned. That was the only way we were going to reach a safe harbor before nightfall. It was essential to do that as this is an area where a lot of refugees cross over from Turkey into Greece, and because we were inexperienced as crew together and new to the boat.

We checked in to Greece at Vathi, Samos and tied alongside the concrete wall. We should have been prepared to go “stern to” (what is referred to as “Med Mooring”) with anchor out or mooring lines then backed up perpendicular to the quay or dock. However, we collectively didn’t know how to do that and with building winds from the side, felt safer coming alongside. There were hardly any boats, so we had plenty of space.

Vathi is a nice little Greek town and because we were there early in the season, it wasn’t yet packed. The first evening we ate at a little Greek taverna, which brought back fond memories for me of the prior year. The best find for me over the few days there however, was a local little coffee shop that had flavored coffees (difficult to find). I bought three bags to take along. J We need to figure out how to provision for four people, all of whom have markedly different preferences… it’s quite some effort to coordinate and then judge and buy the right quantities. Luckily, in Greece, there’s good provisioning just about all over.

Vathi à Karlovasi (27 miles) – 27 April – It was a motorboat ride, but a calm and sunny one, as the wind wasn’t strong enough to sail. Thankfully, it was a comfortable trip and Karlovasi turned out to be a lovely little harbor. We were the only ones around – just about. It was still early in the season, and this harbor isn’t a hot-spot on the yachting circuit anyway. All the better!

Ikaria 29 April – 2 May

Karlovasi à Marina Kirikou, Ikaria (24 miles) – 29 April – We motored from Samos to the next island west, Ikaria, and decided to tuck into the harbor at Kirikou on the southeast coast. We debated whether to continue further west, but the only other harbor wasn’t protected. The little town of Kirikou was lovely. The only real downside was the Easter celebration in which a straw man on the pier was set aflame. It was loud and smoky. The winds brought small burning bits over to the boat and the cockpit cushions suffered a few burn marks. The crowd didn’t notice or care.

Mykonos 2 May – 6 May

Ikaria à Mykonos (55 miles) –2 May – A long trip motoring, but with the open waters in this part of the Aegean, I was happy not to have the high seas one often encounters. We pulled into the new harbor, which isn’t fully constructed, and were delighted to find a side-tie spot along the outer wall… we would later regret this as the winds came up strongly and pushed us hard against the concrete. The motion of the cat (different from a mono-hull) made it very dangerous for the safety of the boat and we spent hours, mostly Heinz did and got soaked – securing/adjusting fenders and tires.

Mykonos itself was not particularly a highlight for me. Perhaps other areas on the island would have been, but it was also not unexpected. Mykonos Town is a full-on tourist spot with the harbor-front area boasting designer shops you’d find in any major metropolitan city center. It is also well known for being a gay resort area. “Gay” is fine with me… it’s the “full-on resort” part that detracted. There were four cruise ships in port and the town was packed with elderly, ill-dressed, pink (from too much unaccustomed sun) tourists donning name badges from their various ships and following tour guides holding umbrellas or other items to herd their gaggles.

Syros 6 May – 14 July

Mykonos à Finikas, Syros (30 miles) – 6 May – We sailed! The winds were fair and we set out for my favorite (so far) Greek Island. We traveled over Delos and the neighboring island then SW by the south side of Syros. As we neared the west end, it was clear the wind would build and we decided to practice reefing. I’ve only used furling mains (both mast and boom) so this manual “lazy bag” style was new to me. Since Carlos has sailed with this type of boat, I expected him to instruct us on how to perform the maneuver, but somehow the whole exercise went terribly wrong and we wound up damaging several of the traveling cars holding the sail to the mast. We also didn’t quite get the process of furling the jib right – Carlos insisted we use the electric winch and ran the slim line across the fiberglass, which burned a streak into it.

Syros Part I – We managed to successfully tie “stern to” with anchor out front and backing up to tie stern lines on the outer quay (this is often called “Med mooring as it is prevalent here more than elsewhere). Yippee!!! The lovely little harbor of Finikas – I’m happy to be here and spend some time again this season.

We spent a few weeks here and then Heinz and I headed off to Athens by ferry where we would fly off to our respective destinations.

Syros Part II – June 23^rd Heinz and I reconvened in Athens once again and returned by ferry to Syros to continue our sailing adventures. We needed to find a new accompanying skipper and move on. Though Syros is my favorite Greek Island (so far) it was time to set sail and we really needed to make progress westbound. We discussed whether or not we would try to cross the Atlantic this year, but I was hoping to stay in the Med another season, for work and for play, before continuing on.

Heinz found our next skipper on the German site “Hand Gegen Koye” – Adam. He arrived on the 12^th and we planned to head out on the 13^th or 14^th. On the morning of the 14^th, fully provisioned, we pulled out of our slip prepared to head to Kythnos. Unfortunately, Heinz realized that we had no throttle on the port side engine. We didn’t even have sufficient steerage (the downside of a cat) to get back to our slip at the dock. So, we pulled out and with the help of Nikos (the wonderful harbormaster in Finikas) on a skiff, we tied up to a mooring buoy in the bay. We waited there a day and a half until we could get the throttle cable replaced. Being on a secure mooring was new to Heinz (we haven’t yet anchored either), and he decided he liked it very much. We enjoyed the time and went swimming off the back of the boat. We also got to spend some more time with Dinos and Ellie, cruising friends from last year… it was so nice to see them again!

Kythnos 15 – 16 July

Finikas, Syros à Apokriosis, Kythnos (30 miles) – 13 July – We finally made it out of Syros and motored over to Kythnos where we dropped the anchor overnight just off a little beach with one taverna. Our first night anchoring! It was quiet and not too crowded in the little bay. We decided to stay on board and enjoy the peaceful evening after all the beach goers left for home.

Fokaia 16 – 17 July

Apokriosis, Kythnos à Polaia, Fokaia (48.5 miles – the long way) – 16 July – Our plan was to sail over to Aegina Island, but the winds were on the nose and we tried to sail and tack… we weren’t making much progress (see track below), so changed direction and motored for Fokaia on the mainland south of Athens.

It’s Adam’s birthday and we decided that once we got situated and safely anchored in the harbor we would dinghy over and enjoy a meal out. The plan sounded good but the location didn’t cooperate… just a lonely bar and grill, nothing else. In the end, it turned out that they had a good Greek salad (you can get a great Greek salad everywhere here, which is a joy!) and some kebabs. On the way back to the boat, we saw a tiny fishing boat with a wedding couple on the bow. They were headed over to shore and the entire wedding party was waiting for them by the small church on the hill. How romantic is that?

Nisos Salamina (Piraeus – outside Athens) 17 – 18 July

Polaia, Fokaia à Nisos Salamina (30 miles) – 17 July – Again the winds weren’t cooperating and we had a motor-boat ride up the coast, past Athens and up to Nisos Salamina, which is the island just in front of Piraeus by Athens.

There’s a traffic separation zone up that corridor, with lots of boats to’ing and fro’ing. Nothing to compare with the bumper-to-bumper traffic of the Singapore Straits, but still sufficient to give pause. In fact, that turned out to be a major discussion and point of contention as Heinz watched the AIS signal of boats coming up the zone and was looking for a good place to cross over. He asked both Adam and me whether we would chance crossing at a particular place and we both said we would. Heinz didn’t want to cause any big boat to have to change course because of us, and felt it wasn’t safe based on having spent 30 minutes watching. After which more than an hour of discussion ensued as to how one should proceed. We eventually made it across without incident and up to the island. We tried a few bays that were very small and crowded, and then found a place to anchor in a large bay off a beach. The winds were strong, but we anchored in sand and had good holding. The following day we planned to transit the Corinth Canal, and would leave the Aegean Sea, at least for this season.

Transiting the Corinth Canal to Ormos Sarandi 18 – 19 July

Nisos Salamina à Ormos Sarandi (43 miles) – 18 July – We crossed through the Corinth Canal and have left the Aegean. What an experience it was going through such a narrow passage. Although it is only a few miles long, it is quite impressive with steep rock walls on both sides. Several bridges span across from the Greek mainland to the Peloponnese. Only 25 meters wide, it felt as though we were touching side to side, which of course wasn’t the case, but with a catamaran we needed to take extra precaution not to drift too far from the mid-line.

On the west side of the canal, we still had another 20 miles or so to reach our destination for the evening. Once there, we surveyed the area marked in the chart as the anchoring place and realized that it was really not the best of choices. It was very shallow and very tight. We would almost be blocking the entrance to the small enclosure where the local fishing boats tied up. We motored along the beach to see whether we could find a better place. Nothing seemed right… either too close in to the beach, or the depths dropped off sharply, which would pose a problem should the wind direction change (which it was forecast to do). Back and forth, back and forth (see track below)… no good place and the next anchorages were too far away to reach in daylight. We finally decided to drop the anchor where the charts indicated and kept a close watch on the boat’s movement. Luckily the winds were light and the anchor held us pretty much in place. Whew… Onward and onward.

Trizonia 19 – 21 July

Ormos Sarandi à Trizonia (42 miles) – 19 July – We had heard from our Greek cruising friends that Trizonia was a lovely little island to visit, and once we arrived and got our anchor set (which took several tries), we thoroughly agreed. It’s a small little tourist spot and by the looks of the marina, a long-stay “alternative” wintering/living place for extremely cost-conscious cruisers. We decided to spend two nights here, rest up a bit, and enjoy a few of the local tavernas. The first evening Adam and I shared a fish, which we picked out from an array of freshly caught local varieties – having no idea what is was or what any of the others were either. It was very good, but I still think I prefer grilled squid or octopus, which the Greeks prepare on the grill to perfection. As we were finishing up dinner, I looked up and saw familiar faces. It was Duncan and Ria from the other sailboat on our convoy up through the Red Sea the previous year! We had a nice chat and I introduced them to Heinz and Adam. I was totally embarrassed though, when I was trying to remember Duncan’s name at first, I somehow had a brain cramp and forgot Adam’s name… yikes! Duncan and Ria are trying to sell their boat and were on their way to Levkas. We said we were heading that way too and planned to get together again when we were both in that area. Small world, and so nice to see them there!

The next day we ventured on the local “ferry” (read “teeny tiny boat”) to the mainland to do some shopping. Very unimpressive in general, except the excellent Parmesan cheese and local honey at the supermarket. The wind started to come up in the afternoon, and we quickly decided to haul up the anchor and move to the pier, since there was still space to park alongside. Adam had a definitive idea of how we should approach the maneuver and Heinz had a completely different idea. We struggled a bit, but with the help of some other cruisers, were able to get tied up – just in time before the winds really kicked in. That night we enjoyed a pizza at one of the local places, which turned out to be much better than anticipated. Adam and I shared one, and Heinz had his own so he could take half back for the following day. No, he wasn’t planning to share any of it with us, lol!

Mesolongion 21 – 22 July

Trizonia à Mesolongion (37 miles) – 21 July – We actually got to sail some today, once we passed under the bridge and could turn a bit to the north. We arrived at the entrance to the long canal up to Mesolongian and began the 2-mile journey up to get into a very protected bay. This little canal was almost as tight as the Corinth! We made it up without grounding on either side, and set the anchor for the night. We had a beautiful sunset and enjoyed a quiet evening.