Position: 38:18.97N 21:24.84E

 

Hello Everyone,   We are now in Messolonghi which is where Lord Byron lived and died.   Having left the marina at Cleopatra we went through the Levkas canal and into Vlikho Bay.  We stayed there on the Sunday night and Monday night as the weather forecast was for very strong winds, but Vlikho is very sheltered so we were hardly aware of it.

 

On the Tuesday we went over to Vathi on Meganisi where we met up with Naivasha.  Hazel and Ron are heading south like us so we are going in company.   We both set off and had some good sailing down the Meganisi channel towards Ithaca.  

 

We headed for Kioni which is a small harbour that we looked into last year but found it too crowded.  This time we were able to get stern to on the wall and Naivasha  was able to go alongside a Neilson charter boat on the mole.   We found Kioni very pretty and the picture shows our boat (the one with the dinghy on the foredeck) parked on the wall.   There was a lot of flotilla activity and there were several accidents - all I can say is never go with 'sailing holidays'.   Their boats are not that new and they seem to have a knack of crashing and going aground!

 

Next day we left about mid day and had an uneventful sail/motor over to the mainland - Astakos which is where Graham and I spent a few days last. We both anchored as we didn't fancy the uninviting wall.   There are a lot of fishing boats around here and also a lot of fish farms.

Graham did BBQ chicken and Ron & Hazel joined us for a lovely meal in the cockpit.   I was also able to make bread and butter pudding with some left over greek bread (which is lovely when fresh but only seems to last one day).

 

We had a quick visit ashore the next morning and bought some provisions and went to the ATM as we never know where we'll find the next one!   We then set off at 10.30 for the longest leg of our southbound journey towards Athens.  We headed to Messolonghi and found it a strange very greek place.   We approached it over sand banks which is unusual and then into a bouyed canal.  The picture shows Graham driving past houses on stilts.   They used to be fisherman's huts but are now often used as holiday homes and vary from looking rather run down to rather pretty with pots of flowers outside and little boats on wooden jetties.

 

We came to the baisin which has a marina and on the other side a commercial quay with quite large cargo ships.   We were beckoned into the marina by a chap in a lime green baseball hat.   There seemed to be plenty of room.  We asked what the charges were (we could anchor off if it was too much) but he just said it was cheap!  Anyway we went in and parked stern to with lazy lines.   The marina is very new and it has now got electric and water and the showers and laundry.   The shower and toilet block is very posh, beautifully tiled and you use a card for everything.   Graham got very fed up of the electic meter which he kept loading with the card but it kept going off because he only managed to get about 30 cents on at a time!   We actually used the showers on the boat because it flushes the pipes through and uses up the water which we refilled from the meter.

 

We are staying here for two nights (the charges were not too bad!) and it means I can do the washing etc.  Naivasha is still with us as we progress towards the Corinth Canal.  

 

The final picture shows Lord Byron in his "Greek"! costume!

Cheers for Now

GillyB