Monday 19 June 2017 – Korfos (Peloponnese)

Well we have finally left Athens.  But it has been an interesting day, not necessarily in the good sense, but rather in the Chinese curse sense.

We woke up nice and early and the sun was shining and all seemed well.  We were going to try to get away early, but having to go and pay first put us a bit behind.  But it worked well and we were only 20 minutes later than we planned.

We didn’t put any sails up to start with.  We wanted to get past the main harbour in Piraeus.  So as we were dodging loads of commercial shipping the wind, forecast at 6-8 knots suddenly started to blow 17 knots.  We still decided to wait until we were out of the traffic to put up the sails when the autopilot started beeping.  We couldn’t work out what it was, but on going below it became clear that the GPS had lost its fix.  Richard tired to re-boot it by turning it off and on again, but no luck.  It looked like the GPS had just given up the ghost despite working perfectly only minutes before.  In the mean time the wind had got up to 22 knots!  Luckily the wind was on the beam, so it was not so much of a problem.

The real question was what to do.  Should we turn back and get repairs done in Athens or press ahead and hope to find another place for repairs in a day or two.  Richard was all for pressing on.  He said that the navigation we were doing was line of sight in any event.  Also we have charts on both the plotter and the iPad.  I also pointed out that we do have a hand held GPS.  Richard looked up facilities in the pilot book and found that we should be able to get repairs done in Corinth.  So we pressed on, We did however find that our hand held GPS was useless.  We left batteries in it and they leaked.  So we need to buy a new one of those too.

So for about 40 minutes we were facing old fashioned navigation when suddenly the GPS started to work again!  We have no idea what the problem was and whether we should be looking to replace the unit anyway.  I may try to email our electronics man in Chichester to see what he recommends.

By the time we are back to normal the wind has dropped a lot and is down to a force 3.  We motor sail with the Genoa up for most of the way, but it isn’t really sailing.

So we head to Korfos.  Richard has read up about it.  It is a small town on a bay where lots of charter boats go.  There are free pontoons from a couple of Tavernas which are supposed to have pick up lines.   Alternatively it is an anchorage.

We arrive just after 1pm and get very confused about where to go.  We get directed to a pontoon that looks a bit ropey, but also looks like it has lazy lines as the pilot book suggests.  But no, no more lines and we have to put the anchor out.  In the end we are probably on the worst pontoon.  I have almost 50 meters of chain out, and heaven knows where it has all gone.  The restaurant next door chides us for not using their pontoon, which looks a lot better maintained.  Hey Ho that’s how it goes.

The place is very pretty.  A walk around takes us to a new beach hotel and café that has very smart new loungers and umbrellas.  If we can’t find anything else to do tomorrow we could just spend the day on this beach.  We really want to go to Epidavros, which is supposed to be just down the coast and have a fabulous ancient theatre.  However, we can find no car hire here in this little town and there is certainly no public transport.  The owner of the pontoon and taverna says he will make enquiries about a taxi, but I expect that will be a non-starter.

Dinner at the taverna is a mixed bag.  The service is terrible.  It takes half an hour to take our order and then my main course comes 20 minutes after Richard’s.  But the food itself isn’t badly prepared, if a bit boring. 

We are now back on the boat.  For some reason it is bouncing around like crazy.  We seem to bounce more than any other boat.  I have taken a pill!