TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

Friday, September 4 – Arrival

George T, Greek cousin Alex and I went down to check out one of the boats, meeting Alex’s friend, Apostolos, and the boat owner, Thanassis. The marina is at Alimos/Kalamaki. We went over some of the basic systems in preparation for our full check in with the Bareboat Cruising students. Ryan came down from Athens on the Tram, and we left him off at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on our way back to Holargos. A couple of short hours later, we met with most of the group for an evening meal at Kuzina (“Kitchen”), a popular restaurant on Adrianou Street near Monastiraki. Everyone seems pretty excited bout our trip.

Saturday, September 5 – Preparation

We met at the big boat, an Oceanus 46.1 named Herodotus, a little after 9 am to perform the systems check. Thanassis took us through all of the systems, including engine, bilge and through-hull systems, water systems, heads, galley, VHF, GPA, and other electronics, safety equipment, steering and emergency tiller, and rigging. We took out the sails, which include a furling main and good sized furling Genoa. We have 900 liters of water in three tanks, 400 forward and 250 on each side. 200 liters of diesel, which at about 5 liters per hour will provide about 40 hours of motoring capability. We did our shopping and had lunch at a tavern next door to the supermarket, then headed back to the boats.  The tavern fare was classic Greek, with a variety of salads, roast beef, biftecki (a kind of hamburger), and rice pilaf. After lunch, we checked out the other boat, a Moorings Sun Odyssey 21i Excl “Amorgos”. Michael did the physical checkout, while Sofia did the administrative paperwork.

Saturday night, our friend Apostolos wrangled us a spot at his yacht club at Kalamaki. It was an awesome collection of mezedes (appetizers), including Greek salad, tsastiki (cucumber/garlic spread), fava bean spread, grilled octopus, calamari, small fish (marides), and for the main course, half kilo of barbounia, a red mullet fish which is a very popular entre in Greece.

 Sunday, September 06, 2009 – Athens to Poros

Today was our first day of sailing; we went from Kalamaki (Athens) to Agia Marina on the east coast of Aigina, where we anchored for lunch and a swim. Then on to Poros, a small town on an island a short distance from the northeast shore of the Peloponesos, arriving just before dark. We took the first two stern to spots and went ashore to eat dinner. Herodotus’s watch captain for the day was George N., and Amorgos’s was Ryan. Poros is a delightful little town, with many small shops, restaurants and bars.

George N. met a group of sailors from the UK and they invited him on board, shared a beer and some war stories. He went for a long all the way along the north shore, where he found many interesting shops. He found a statue of a dog and a cat. Susi and Neil walked up the hill to the clock tower.

Later in the evening the wind picked up and our anchor had somehow fouled, so we rafted alongside a neighboring boat for the rest of the night. Remarkably, Apostolos showed up a few minutes into the evolution to lend his advice and assistance.

Monday, September 07, 2009 – Poros to Idra

Ed is concerned about his engine battery and charging system on Amorgos, so we contact Moorings and ask them to take a look at it.  We spend the morning ashore, so Ed is not sure if they came by or not, but the engine seems to be working now, and our rafting neighbor has found another berthing spot, so we push off from the dock about noon. The anchor had somehow wrapped itself around another anchor as well as its chain, so we have an excellent example of how to clear a fouled anchor.

The wind has freshened, so we had more challenging wind conditions (20-27 knots) on the way to Idra. Ryan was the watch captain on Herodotus; Becky was in charge on Amorgos. Our British rafting partner had warned us to get to Idra early, but when we arrived at 1500 every spot was already taken, and a half dozen boats had double rafted, Med mooring style, with the anchor out in front and stern to or between other boats. We did the same, tucking ourselves in between a nice group of Norwegians and a group of Germans. After helping Amorgos do the same, coming in on our starboard bow and next to the Norwegians, we went below for lunch. When we came back out a half hour later, more boats had come in in front of the others, so that we ended up with boats rafted 5-6 deep and about 15 across that way, an amazing site to behold.

Ryan, George T. and I went for a walk up to the harbor entrance, which has a dozen cannons decoratively poised to protect the harbor entrance. Back in the cabin, we planned the next few days’ excursions so that we will return to Athens by Friday night.

Ed, Becky and George N. took a long walk up into the hills, where they found a Greek memorial and got a perspective of the conflagration of yachts in our raft up. They say that Idra is like a Disney – Universal Studio conception of a quaint town. It was one of the first parts of Greece to declare independence in 1821. No vehicular traffic is allowed in the town, but there are numerous donkeys waiting to take visitors for a ride.

Tuesday, 8 September – Idra to Methana

We awake at 7 am to the sound of church bells, customarily sounded at three times during the morning services. Today is Susi and Neil’s 2^nd wedding anniversary! Neil is the watch captain on Herodotus, George T. on Amorgos. Departing Idra in the morning is a spectacle. Our friendly neighbors who received us so graciously indicates that they need to leave at 1000, which is fine with us as we plan a long transit. We tell the boats in front of us 0930, etc. The glitch is that the plethora of anchors in the harbor results in most of the anchors being fouled. After trying all of the regular techniques, some unlucky sailor dives down to free the anchor as dozens of eager sailors watch. When he comes to the surface and the anchor swings free, dozens of spectators applaud as they look nervously at their watches and wonder how much longer it will take for their turn. The boat before Amorgos had to dive, but, amazingly, Amorgos had not problems. The boat after Amorgos, before Herodotus, was the worst. Nice German guys, they let their boat drift down on to the stern of a large ferry boat while freeing the anchor. The skipper dove down to free the anchor, climbed aboard, then had to go back in to deal with some business on the ferry boat side (which we could not see). A small rescue boat came over and pulled them off the ferry so that they could make their escape. We were next. Our anchor comes up with a grapnel anchor attached to it. After a couple of tries with the “pass a line under the offending anchor/chain” approach, we are home free and motor out of the harbor. Amorgos is an hour ahead of us, so we lose little time setting our sails and heading back toward Poros.

Due to our late departure, we eat lunch underway. We start with some fruit, but are still hungrey. Susi picked up some “bugatsa” – a cream filled fillo pastry – at the bakery this morning, so we start with that. with Ryan preparing ham and cheese sandwiches on traditional Greek bread to round out the meal. We transit a hairy opening, short tacking between two islands. Another trip down Poros channel, during which Neil get an opportunity to practice his back and fill and three point turns. Then on to Methana, a quaint little town on the eastern coast of a island-like peninsula of the same name. We had our doubts about this place because the Greek Pilot called it “smelly sands” due to the sulphur baths. But it was a great place to spend the night, with Amorgos finding us a perfect berth (we spent some time outside working on our crew overboard recoveries), complete with mooring line (so we don’t need to set an anchor}, power, water and showers.

We had dinner at Bobby’s Taverna, another Greek feast of salad, souklavi, steak, chicken, fish and mussels. After dinner, Bobby treated us to a sweet Greek liquer. We bought some additional provisions for the next day, as the Bareboat Cruising candidates began to plan their cooked meals.