We anchor in Methoni
Although there were NO facilities Pilos was cheap and the town was quite neat. We chose to move on after 48 hours. A short 25 mile distance further south – to an anchorage in Methoni.

This was a quiet anchorage in a fairly vacant bay and was perfect to wait out any wind whilst we considered going through the strait between Peloponnisos and the Island of Kithera. This strait gets very busy with all the traffic between the eastern and western Mediterranean and there are some quite severe currents and swell here too. It is quite common for boats to hang out a few days and wait for the right time.

All the pilot guide book says is that it is a crap shoot.
“Well great! .. and thanks for the help guys.”

Can you trust weather forecasts in the area???
It has seemed to us for several weeks that the forecasted weather and the ACTUAL weather we experienced didn’t match. I suppose there are so many mountains, straits and valleys in this area that local knowledge far outweighs science here. The differences haven’t been subtle either. This all meant that we had to be a little conservative in deciding where and when we were to moor or anchor or sail.

Now we have a dilemma.
Huge winds of 35knots are forecasted after two days coming from the west. But can we believe it?
We have to get ourselves past Cape Matapan. We had originally intended to do this in day light but with the coming winds.. what to do?
We decided that as we were heading for the Greek Islands in the Aegan Sea anyway that we should just sail overnight and get through this southern part of Greece in one go whilst the actual wind right now seemed to be following the natural current of the water.  It was a shame, as we would have preferred to stay one more night in this great little anchorage.

The SCUBA equipment works!

For the first time since we purchased the boat I tried the scuba equipment. It was one of those jobs that needed to be done so that when I really needed it I knew it was all o/k. It was a good job that I did try it out here because there was a fair amount of fiddling with the straps and weights and reorganizing the kit.

..and then we were off to attack those straits!