Saturday 3^rd July – Yíthion, Peloponnese – Porto Káyio, Peloponnese

36:25.787N 22:29.175E

It will come as no surprise to hear we decided to leave Yίthion this morning.  We motored down to Porto Káyio, a small anchorage just before Ák Tainaron, and approached the anchorage mid afternoon.  This whole stretch of coast down to the cape is notorious for the severe gusts that can blow down off the mountains in W-SW winds but fortunately the winds were still light so we had no problems.

There were only two yachts in the west corner of the bay as we entered (however, still the largest number of yachts we have seen for some time) so we anchored ourselves in the south west corner just off the tiny hamlet.  As we entered the bay the wind was starting to gust out at around 16-18 knots, but tucked down where we were the gusts were significantly less frequent and strong.  Nevertheless, with the wind forecast to get up during the afternoon and evening we were expecting an uncomfortable night. 

Our quiet idyll did not last.  Over the afternoon we became surrounded by more yachts rather too up close and personal for the conditions.  There were two on our bow, one only a boat length away - a lone yachtsman, who threw his anchor in and then rowed ashore (Richard went snorkelling to check his chain was clear of ours and told him that his anchor was on its side just before he rowed away, unconcerned).  The boat on our port side is practically rafted to us, ironically it is a British boat we first met in Rocella Ionica last year, and the one on starboard bow is a charter yacht.  Needless to say, all our fenders were deployed.

Both yachts on the bow dinghied ashore and something must have been said regarding their position or the forecast conditions because they both came back half an hour or so later and moved further away to a safe distance.  We were left with the one rafted on the port side (they were an elderly couple who had spent ages trying to set their anchor and we felt mean to ask them to try again – we finally asked them to put another 5m chain out to drop back a little as a compromise).

This evening the wind has increased along with the gusts.  Although the noise of the wind sounds bad the actual wind strength is not too bad where we are, though the gusts are causing the yachts to swing around on their anchor chains.

Looking forward to the weather forecast being wrong tonight and the winds much less…

Porto Káyio

© Pyxis 2010