Fai Tira has a gentler time heading for Messolongi. 38:21.63N 21:25.29E

05^th  July 2011

We woke up at the crack of dawn and set off.

The sea was flat calm.  Hopefully the strong head winds had disappeared.  We were heading for Messolongi, a place that Rob and Jo had recommended, which was on the other side of the Rion Bridge and actually in the Ionian Sea.  We looked behind us and yet again there we six boats, this time in a gaggle, all heading for the northern span of the bridge.  You had to call Rion Traffic at 5 miles out and again at 1 mile out to get permission to transit the bridge.

The bridge was the largest wire supported bridge in Europe until a couple of years ago.

Very impressive!!!

We watched and listened to 2 gin palaces (GP) going through the centre span.  The British GP had an Australian skipper on board and had to remind the Italian GP that there was a 10 knot speed limit.  He said “slow down, there is a 10 knot speed limit through here”.  When there was no reply or slowing down of the Italian GP he told the skipper he was a W**ker which made Judy and me laugh out loud.

The wind decreased and we saw 4 out of the 6 boats head into Messolongi.  We said our goodbyes to Island Kea, over the VHF, and watched them head off into the distance.  You enter along a canal through the salt flats that are populated by lots of little fisherman’s houses built on stilts .  There is an endangered species of pelican that lives here called the Dalmatian, and we were lucky enough to encounter a pair.

Some of the “pelades” have now, inevitably, been sold and converted into holiday homes. 

The charts are pretty accurate around here.