37:41.75N 24:03.52E

Time to leave Athens and Zeas Marina.  Nice stay, a bit noisy at night but not bad.  The ability to buy most things really helped.  Even junk food abounds if that’s what you want.  Just can’t easily find tonic water.  Of all the places that the British have influenced this one is a hold out from getting gin and tonic makings.

The trip to Olympic marina is about 35 NM.  We started out as usual motoring and about a third the way the winds became useful.  With a full main and single reef on the headsail we ran between 6 and 8.5 knots on a close reach.  Waves were small since the winds came from the nearby land.  Of course they completed dies after an hour and back on with the motor.  As we rounded the last cape we got good winds again but right on our bow, so we continued motoring into the marina.

The marina is located on the furthest east part of the mainland making it the place we will start our trip into the Aegean.  I picked it because it was recently upgraded for the Olympics in 2004 making it into a functional marina.  Originally the plan was for an overnight stay and then head out.  Things change.  The weather is always something to watch in the Aegean Sea.  Very strong winds can appear for days making life miserable unless you have found a secure anchorage or marina.  Since there are effectively no marinas in the islands just small quay that are too shallow for our boat we must keep a watchful eye on the forecasts.

This morning the weather forecast for Weds night through Saturday shows Force 7 winds coming through the Aegean.  This occurs when a high pressure northeast of Istanbul flows down into the sea.  These are always from the north making it possible to seek shelter in selected coves.

Now when I thought about it heading out for two days into the islands and then sitting in a cove for another three days waiting out the weather was not my idea of fun.  Most of the protected coves have little development so going ashore does not provide much of a distraction.  So we asked and got permission from the marina to stay till Sunday morning.  Hopefully after that there will be a break in the winds and we can step our way across the Aegean.  I doubt we will be able to get all the way across without another period of high winds but it is worth a try.

We move berths in the marina today.  The electrical connections were not correct for us and adapters did not exist or they wanted to use the berth for a larger boat.  No problem we move to the outer seawall where the connections are correct and actually now have a nice view of the sound between the mainland and first island.  It also is away from the crews prepping the boats for winter storage.  They are nice guys, almost all Philippinoes who are courteous but they have a job to perform.  Hopefully the waves against the seawall will remain on the sea side and not come over onto the boat!

We will explore the local towns over the course of the next few days.  This area was historically silver mining so may be some interesting things to see.  Now with the new airport on this side of Athens and a new highway run out here there is the start of holiday houses, of course butt ugly white concrete scars on the hillsides.

Persevere in its berth in the early morning.  Actually as the days get shorter this is 8:00 AM.  Good protection from the waves in here.

Picture taken on Tuesday morning when the weather was not so bad.  This boat just left the marina about 11:00 AM heading north to set their main sail.

Three seconds later hitting the next wave.

Then cresting the next.  This is why we chose to sit it out for a few days.  No fun riding these waves.  This is just outside the marina which was totally calm but windy.