28/04/24

After sheltering from some very strong winds, first in Marmari then in Thorkou and finally Sounion, we finally made the 31nm passage to Poros, sailing at first, then motoring the final hour due to lack of wind, typical. We plan to stay in Poros until we have managed to get our correct length shaft, that, according to Hydrovane staff, will be delivered to Poros on Monday the 6th May. We wait with bated breath because this is greek Orthodox Easter Monday!

So instead of going stern to the very busy town quay, we opted to anchor at the head of the bay near the village of Vidhi and the small town of Troizen. This is a well sheltered and quiet end of Poros, this is until the water skiing starts at 0900 in the morning and goes on until 1930 in the evening. Still, that is much more acceptable than the ribs with screaming kids being towed behind clinging onto plastic doughnuts and bananas that you get in some anchorages. 

We have been here three times so far during our last 3 years in Greece and have not been able to go ashore because we have been sheltering from strong winds. So this time we were determined to get ashore to visit the archaeological sites of Troizen.

This year, for want of a purpose to our route planning, we are following in the footsteps of Sam Jefferson’s book “In the Wake of the Gods” A cruising companion to Greek myths. It sets out the legends of Greek myths in a humorous account but it is also written for sailors to follow in their yachts. Troizen is one such stop off in the book. It has not one but two myths attached to it, amazing for such a small place.

So we set off Sunday morning to visit the sites of Troizen and immerse ourselves in the Greek myths of the gods attached to this quiet corner of Greece. The myths tell the tales of 1. King of Troizen, named Saron, from where the name Saronic Gulf comes from and 2. Theseus son of Aigus, king of Athens. They are two separate myths.  Armed with the book and Google Earth on the phone, we set off. It took us 45mins to walk to Troizen town from Muskie and then it was a 30min walk uphill to visit the archaeological site. A Tourist map in the centre of the small town directs you to the numerous archaeological attractions such as the Sanctuaries to Hippolytus and Asklepios, a number of wells and the tomb of Phaidra, a ruined church basilica and the Temple of Aphrodite. 

when we got there we were disappointed to see the site was fenced off and the gate was closed and looked padlocked. That was until a local man, who turned up to put rubbish in the nearby bin, showed us how to open the gate, by sliding it sideways!!, After visiting the site we walked further on and at the crossing of the roads leading to the foot of the hill of the acropolis, there was the church of Agios Ionannis, and next to this lies the so called stone of Theseus. A little further uphill are three square towers of the Diatheichisma, a defensive wall running from the Chrysorroas river to the Agios Athanasios river east of the city of Troezen. This has been very well preserved and used to be called rather romantically the Palace of Theseus. 

We then decided to walk further up hill to visit the Devils Bridge over the rather impressive gorge. 

So, we can cross off our first mythical site in the book.

While on our walks we are always on the look out for opportunities to stock up the cupboards with freshly picked produce growing at the side of road. So far this year we have only found peas in their pods, rather dried up pods but the peas inside were tender and juicy. On this walk though, we were spoilt for choice with lemons, limes and oranges just growing on the side of the road and falling off the tress to rot on the ground. They just had to become part of our rations on board.

Archaeological site at Thorkou near Lavrion.

Troizen archaeological site

Limes just waiting to be picked

The stone of Theseus - really, well, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good myth.