Graptolite - Canals and Sea Battles
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 22 Sep 2010 15:28
Piraeus was a grubby place as advertised but I quite liked it for some
reason and it has a bit of history behind it.
Some archaeologists were diving near the boat in the marina mapping out some
ancient Greek trireme berths. They were using my power and water supply
during the day but their need was greater than mine given the poisonous mud
they had to work in.
On Saturday morning we set off westwards to the entrance to the Corinth
Canal. It's an impressively deep rock cut for a few miles. We popped out
into the Gulf of Corinth and stopped the night at a small harbour called
Kiato on the Peloponnese coast. On Sunday we pressed on in very strong
headwinds to our next nights stop at Navpaktos. Navpaktos, formerly called
Lepanto, was where the Turks provisioned prior to the disastrous (for them)
sea battle of the same name in 1571. The town is an interesting-looking
place with a small medieval walled harbour and other fortifications running
up the hillside. The harbour was way too small and medieval for us so we
anchored outside.
Early the next morning was a run under the huge cable-stayed Rion Bridge and
into the Gulf of Patras. It's a bleak area here with high rocky mountains
and salt marshes. Turning right at the Ionian Sea we sailed past a lot of
islands and anchored for the night at the entrance to a canal cut through a
salt marsh on the east side of the island of Levkas. The canal was a
shortcut but we had a little delay while a floating road bridge was moved
out of our way. Pressing on in very pleasant weather we arrived at Corfu
Island in the early evening and anchored in the shadow of the impressive
fortifications of Corfu town. I had planned on going to a big marina further
up the coast but I'm getting a bit tired of paying 50-odd euros a night for
a few metres of wall to tie up to.
M