Our plan after Sami was to head directly east and enter the Gulf of Patras and then on through to the Gulf of Corinth where we would get very close to the Corinth Canal, which was cut through land many years ago as a shortcut to Athens and beyond. Construction of the canal actually started in 67 AD, although it still needs some finishing touches as the walls regularly collapse, causing closures.
Before leaving Sami I should give you some more insights from my perspective. It was a really lovely place to visit with lots of touristy things in close reach and even a lovely swimming beach a short walk from the harbour. The harbour was listed as having showers, which we soon realised referred to the shower on the beach, not a fancy shower block! It turned out to be a great shower though, and if you went after dark you could have a proper wash, just like a real shower! very refreshing.
The hire car experience was great. I let Kerry drive everywhere as I get a little stressed driving in strange countries, on the wrong side of the road. Especially when there were many mountainous routes with steep drop-offs and hairpin bends. Kerry did really well though and I only yelped in fear a few times. There were a couple of issues, firstly when she started the car and could not get it into first gear. She tried many times, convinced there was a fault, then suddenly realised, “oh, clutch!”. She is getting too spoilt with driving automatics. There was an also a little issue when we stopped on a mountain lay-by to look at the view and then she took off driving on the left. I soon put her right though!
Getting on and off Barberry often presents challenges. When in harbour we have a system with a long plank that can be balanced along, although it does take some concentration, but no one has got wet … yet!
We set off for the Gulf of Patras on Wednesday morning with a forecast of light winds. Once we got into open water the sky started to look a little threatening and before long the heavens opened and we both took cover below, just occasionally popping our heads out to check we were still going in the same direction and no giant ferries were about the mow us down! Another free shower each though. It’s important to take these opportunities while sailing in this heat!
The area we were heading was unusually flat with lots of moving sand banks, near the mouth of a river. Ideal for Barberry’s shallow draft and what she was designed for on the east coast on England. Still we were cautious and Kerry eased off the revs as we reached the shallows. We dropped anchor at a beach called Ormos Oxia. We could not see the seabed and, for the first time with Barberry, the anchor did not hold and just dragged along the bottom as Kerry reversed to try to dig it in. Perhaps we should have tried again, but with an onshore breeze we decided it was safer to tie to one of the mooring buoys nearby, that had be laid recently by the beach cafe. That worked well, although someone did come out on a wee boat later on and charged us €20.
The next morning we untied from the mooring, with our next planned stop being Messolonghi. This is a place steeped in history, with evidence of civilisation going back thousands of years. It is part of a giant alluvial plan that was once sea, so shallow, really shallow. We had to approach via a dredged canal. At one point we passed a small seabird, quite close, then realised it was standing on the seabed, not swimming!
Messolonghi is very different to the places we had visited before in Greece. It is away from the charter boats and flotillas so a different crowd of sailors. More like us! Perhaps more like ‘real Greece’ as well. Definitely less English is spoken, as we could out when we ordered our evening meal. It did not appear quite as we expected and there was far too much wine —nice though!
Messolonghi is very flat, therefore BIKE TIME! We dug them out from the deep orifices within Barberry and prepared for some exploration. But disaster: Kerry’s electric bike was not working. The battery would not connect — will she actually have to pedal for once? Certainly not. She was onto Brompton in a flash, but they were a little reluctant to sort out our Greek disaster, making help comments like ‘bring it to your local dealer’ (there are none in Greece). I also phoned McConvey Cycles in Belfast, where we bought the bike. They were much more helpful, and after a few phone calls, and much fiddling about with battery connections, it eventually went. Kerry was happy!
By the time we had got going it was well into the afternoon on Friday and all we managed was a cycle to Lidl to do some much needed stocking up on food. Somehow the day just drifted by and before we knew it we were in the Marina Taverna, ordering food and wine. We were amongst lots of other Kerry and Fraser lookalikes from all over Europe — multicultural, multilingual clones!
We studied the weather on Saturday morning and decided to book into the marina until Monday, which looked to have nice wind for getting to our next stop, under the Rion-Antirion Bridge (a very big bridge) and into the Gulf of Corinth. The wind funnels and accelerates in the gap where the bridge is, so weather conditions are important.
So we had another day to explore. We went to the Archaeological Museum of Messolonghi, which had some amazing displays. You know the sort of thing? Lots of glued together pottery and heads of statues.
Everyone seems very friendly here. We visited a couple of local marine chandleries and both times we could barely escape, as the shopkeepers wanted to spend time telling us about the local places of interest. One of them actually came running after us when he forgot to mention one of the museums. We could easily spend a few more days here. There is plenty to see and do, but there are also exciting places ahead, so we will stay one more day then move on.
