Now we had been getting some water in the bilges which I took to be the normal drip from our stern packing gland. (For you non sailors a small amount of water comes into the boat to lubricate the propeller shaft, it is normal). However given the proposed 2 nights and 300 odd miles at sea I thought I’d better take a closer look. It turned out that it was not the packing gland but the rubber coupling which basically “Keeps the sea oot!” had perished and had a hole in it. Not good news.

There then unfolded a series of fun events over the following days which I have précised down:

1. I called an engineer from Pylos, who to be fair came within the hour, and then never returned.

2. We tried to see if we could get lifted out the water, the only really safe way to replace this part, but the local crane driver had hurt his foot.

3. Another French guy on the next yacht (I think thanks to Nicolas’s intervention)  said he would do it. “In the water “, if I bought certain tools I didn’t have on board, a heavy hammer, a blow torch and prepared access to the shaft coupling ..…. I did ……. He left.    lol.

(To be fair he was on his own and had a weather window – it was after all getting on in the season) & I now  have a 10lb hammer and a gas blow torch , always wanted one.

After much thought and anguish we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to do the crossing so we advised Syracuse we wouldn’t be coming.

We had a farewell aperitif with Nicolas who would go on to Syracuse, I think Mau came out in Sympathy “coz he dun a runner” just as Nicolas on Syeni cast off, lol.

  

This still left us with the problem and no apparent way to fix it. The best option seemed to be to bodge a temporary repair with insulating tape and make our way to Kalamata, 40 miles & 9 hours away . The decision was made but neither of us slept the night before. Ideally we would have wanted a good wind so that we wouldn’t need to motor. The gods being what they are saw fit to give us only 3 or 4 knots in the wrong direction.

I can honestly say that trip to Kalamata was the most anxious day’s sailing to date, especially the last mile when we could actually see our goal. We had had our emergency grab bag packed and a contingency plan for me to jump over the side and pack the shaft with bits of T shirt. In actuality I think this would’ve been difficult if not impossible with the hull bouncing up and down.

At 16:20 I see from the log we arrived and tied up at Kalamata Marina.

Saturday saw us leaving Methoni at 10:00 for the short 7 mile hop to Pylos, which was to be our kicking off point across the Ionian to Sicily.

We would stay here until a suitable weather window approched.

During our stay we took Nicolas to what we think is the best Gyros restaurant in Greece, He was impressed.

Apperitifs on Camira and a visit from Mau.

 

Louise had a hair cut !!!

 

We hired a car and went to Kalamata & Finnikounda for the day

 

Mau raiding our bucket

We decided to stay here a day to rest, swim and explore.

  

The day started in the town square with Nicolas for coffee

 

then a wander through town

 

I am sure Louise was really pleased there was a Castle; her usual appreciation is “More piles of stones”.

This one was really good though, even she liked it (I think, lol).

  

She  was rewarded by lunch

  

And then a taxi back to the boat

The next passage was again about 10 hours and unfortunately other than the last couple of hours good sailing the rest was motor sailing. This time we were crossing Messinakos Kolpos to Methoni on the 1^st finger of the Peloponnese.

The trip itself was hot and uneventful, other than my sea fishing rod which is very strong bent further than I have ever seen and eventually the line snapped….. Jaws eh? …..da dum …da dum.

Nicolas had been more fortunate so it was Dorado on his boat for tea that night , Mau the cat, was very pleased !

The next passage was South round Cape Malea and across Lakonikos Kolpos to the middle finger of the Peloponnese.

It is from Cape Malea that Jason & the Argonauts got blown south to Crete in a storm. Greek sailors believed that when they rounded this cape outwards that they might never see Greece again.

The Mani peninsula is quite wild and there are remote little villages situated high up in the mountains.

Porto Kayio is on the southern end of the Mani peninsula, the only spot of shelter in the area. The holding is not great, however the weather was calm and after a longish 10 hour day we anchored up in the bay.

 

We spent the next few days in Yerifa / Momenvasia.

Momenvasia                                                    Joining of hoses for the only water tap

The weather changed for the better and it was back to sunshine.

We had lunch up in the old town of Momenvasia.

We didn’t climb all the way to the top to St. Sophia’s Church this time though!

 

The lump of Momenvasia from Yerifa

Mau enjoying a drink

As we are getting on a bit in the season the weather can be a bit more unsettled, as was the case when we left “Kreta Bay” to head back down to Lerakas , a small hamlet with a shallow lagoon nestling behind a dogleg inlet.

It was a 6 hour passage with an uncomfortable swell on the quarter. We were glad when we arrived and tied up alongside the remaining space on the harbour wall next to Syeni, just before a big catamaran who had been gunning his engines and had been catching us up appeared round the inlet.

I went for an alfresco shower at the bathing platform (the old ferry berth) and got ticked off for using shampoo, it’s not as though I use a lot!

It then started to rain cats & dogs. We had all gone to a local Cafe until we spotted loads of cockroaches roaming the walls and made a hasty retreat.

Dinner was in the rain that evening in the one remaining taverna that had remained open late in the season.

During the night the weather worsened and we were bouncing up and down against the quay. Louise woke Nicholas on his boat (He was totally unaware of the worsening of the weather) . At 02:00 we left the harbour wall to anchor off the village, firstly on Syeni, and then back in the dinghy to do the same on Camira. It was tricky laying the anchor as not a lot of space and a black night.

On Saturday we reckoned the weather had settled enough to allow us to leave, but it was a step “climb” out of Lerakas, all the same!

It was a short passage to Momenvasia where we managed to get alongside once again; being late in the season does have some advantages. That was until the harbour master advised us there were 12 other boats arriving because of the bad weather and we had to move stern to.

The weather having seemingly changed for the better we headed back out to a lovely wee quiet bay with surrounding oilve groves and ciccadas, all very Greek.

 

It was not to last as another front moved in with even more electrical storms. We stayed put this time .

It was just after nine o’ clock, dark and stormy and a number of boats had came in to shelter.  – now our stern ladder is articulated and if we forget to lift it it will rattle and bang so when it did just that Louise went to pull it up. I was down below when she let out a scream “ There’s an animal, there’s an animal I can see its eyes”

I ran up thinking turtle or something , I am not quite sure . When I looked over there was a dog trying to get up our ladder. I grabbed her collar and pulled her on board. We are anchored in the middle of a bay so we could not figure out where she had come from? Our initial thoughts she had got a fright from the thunder and fell or jumped of a passing boat. If she had come from the shore she had swam past other boats ! We put out a call to any passing boats but got no replies.

Anyhow we wrapped her up in towels  and sat with her on our knees until she calmed down, she just kept sighing but eventually went to sleep, presumably out of exhaustion, she was lovely.

 

We eventually went to bed but later on Louise heard her pattering up and down the decks and was worried she would jump overboard  so she didn’t get much sleep the rest of the night sitting up to comfort her.

I went ashore the next morning at 06:00 looking for a clue but the local surroundings seemed to be deserted.

 

We then spotted a guy walking a dog on the shore so I rowed over and explained the situation and showed him a picture. His name was Issa , a lovely guy from Mali and he thought her name was “Kreta” from the house next to the one he worked in, so the pair of us trecked back there and sure enough two workmen recognised her. They gave me a lift back in a golf cart and we transported Kreta back ashore in Nicolas’s dinghy (his has a solid floor!)

 

I walked back that afternoon to thank Issa for his help , he was a real gent. I had invited down to the boat the next day but a change in the weather meant we had to move into porto Kheli bay yet again and I texted him to explain, if we are back that way we will look him up.

Its still a mystery what happened the night before but it all eneded well, otherwise who knows we might’ve had a boat dog!

   

We left Poros town wall on Friday morning heading down and around Nisos Spathi towards Ermioni.

We had a great sail but Nicolas broke his spinnaker , we were just too far away to get good pictures before it came down. Though he managed to get one of us on his phone so quality not brill but hey !

  

We anchored amongst a bunch of school kids out in Mirror dinghies just off Ermioni and went ashore for provisions, planning & aperitifs.

The next day we set out for Ormos Zoyioria on Spetses. On route Louise caught a fish 10 minutes after starting , initially we thought it was a Mackeral but it turned out to be a wee Tuna, and very nice it was too. Clock the marrigolds !

 

We moved from O. Zoyioria a very peaceful bay on Spetses across to Porto Kheli at sunset on the Monday night to get more shelter from what looked like an approaching thunderstorm. This was to be a theme over the next couple of days.

 

The next day was ashore in Nicolas’s dinghy to Porto Kheli for provisions and having a look about. There were a number of boats stern too the harbour wall starting to set up for winter.

 

The landing pontoons were “interesting”

Later that day we moved out of the big bay to a smaller one just off the entrance to Porto Kheli, it was to become known as “Kreta Bay”  …………………..

We left Ormos Skinou , and Nicolas, having his morning Cafe – he won’t do anything until he has had it – very French.

It was a relatively short 24 mile sail back to Nisos Siros where we anchored in Posidhonia Bay around 4 o’ clock.

 

Saturday & Sunday were spent swimming, provisioning and filling up with fuel. All three of us had trecked to the garage only to find it closed , however we understood from the harbour master that a tanker would arrive on the quay some time the following morning and Nicolas was on the ball dingying across to fill his cannisters and alerting us. He must’ve had his Cafe this time !

Monday was blisteringly hot and unfortunately only enough wind to motor sail, thankfully though again a shortish 32 mile hop to Nisos Kithnos. We liked it here on the way out.  Our intention this time was to anchor in Ormos Fikiada (Fikiada Bay) but when we arrived there were just too many boats. Nicolas had arrived earlier and had a space ,we tried anchoring 3 times but it was just too close to other boats to be comfortable, having said that loads of space by Turkish standards ! lol. We motored around to Ormos Apokriosis, which sounds like a skin disorder, but is very beautiful and only us and two others at anchor.

   

On Tuesday morning we moved back round to Ormos Fikiada as some boats left. There was a big luxury yacht still there from the previous night and  today the crew had erected a marquee type tent on the ithsmsus between the two bays . We discovered from a Greek guy that it was “just in case” the passengers, all 2 of them ! wished to come ashore, which they did in the evening for about 10 minutes , the poor crew had stood there at attention in the sun all day.

   

We went ashore for lunch at the taverna and had a  tranquil day & night before heading off for Poros the next morning.

     

We left Ormos Kithnos at 6’o clock in the morning  with reefs in the main & genoa, there was a moderate swell on the beam – it was going to be a long day! As it turned out it wasn’t too bad we were underway for just over 9 hours and half of it sailing. A pod of small grey dolphins came to visit us for 10 minutes or so before they got bored. I must remember to send in sighting details more regularly to the ECO Navigation, a project developed by the Arhipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation which aims to record valuable data on marine life. Through engaging with sailors they hope to build an online community & database of the status of the Greek & Mediteranean sea.

On arrival at Poros we had three attempts at getting the anchor to bed in , great fun as there is quite a fast cross current to negotiate. However it was rewarded with dinner at the fish taverna recomended by Nicolas, our tour guide .