TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

After a short flight from London (Gatwick) to Athens we joined our coach for the transfer to Palio Epidavros where we were to pick up our boat.

On the way the coach stopped at the Corinth Canal so that we could see from above what we would see from sea level tomorrow.

From the bridge we could see the entire length of the canal and that a cruise liner was actually in transit to the north of us.

My photos allowed me to make some subsequent research and identify her as the “Coral”, Tonnage:  13995, Length overall:  489ft (149m), Beam:  72ft (22m), Flag:  Malta.

So she was a lot bigger than our Beneteau 361 was going to be…

The three photos also show the advantage of a good zoom, all three were taken off of the same bridge over the canal, and what is a distant dot on wide-angle becomes a recognizable ship when zoomed in.

When we arrived last night I discovered that my home for the next two weeks was to be “Kanoni”, and that I would be sharing her with John, George and Vicki.

Yes I am out on another “Pot Luck” trip with Sailing Holidays so I didn’t know who my crew mates would be until I got off the coach…

The boats in this fleet have had passerelles fitted, which is a bit easier than the old technique of rigging a plank across.

The boats do still have a plank aboard as the passerelles can’t be deployed where they might hit objects on the quayside, e.g. bollards, lampposts, electricity boxes etc..

Kanoni’s passerelle isn’t a lot of use to us here though as we find her moored side-to and rafted off three Sunsail boats. 

We had a briefing from our lead skipper, Tristan, last night and he made it quite clear that this is a delivery trip and we will be doing some long hops (by Sailing Holidays standards anyway),

We have 12 days to get the boats up to Corfu, which will mean 250 – 290 miles or so, and he wants to get some miles under our keels in case we get any bad weather.

(Unlike our Sunsail neighbours we won’t be doing any night passages. They are intending to take their boats up to their base near Paleros without stopping, but then they are using company staff to do it, whereas we are actually paying for this trip….)

Anyway Tristan said that wanted everybody out early and to aim to be at the Corinth Canal at 15:00. As we were blocking in the Sunsail boats, and they wanted to get away as early as possible, Kanoni is one of the first to depart.

The weather is clouding over, where is all that lovely Greek sunshine?

As we head up the coast we are buzzed by a fire-fighting seaplane that seems to be doing practice scoop runs and then immediately dropping the scooped up water over the sea before going around again. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t drop a load on top of us..

As we motor sailed up the coast it was looking less and less likely that the whole flotilla would reach the canal by Tristan’s 15:00, and in fact there seemed little hope of him getting there on time either.

Those of us who arrived on time were milling around off the canal entrance in a blustery breeze until the lead boat and stragglers caught us up.

Tristan then called up the canal control to request clearence for us all to proceed north, but then, even though all the fees had already been paid in advance, he had to go into the quay, tie up and clear everything through the office. 

Whilst we were waiting we saw that a coastal tanker was also approaching the southern entrance. Would we get through ahead of her or have to battle her wash all the way through the canal…

Ok all clear, the southern sinking bridge is down and the radio crackles with “Sailing Holidays’ flotilla proceed northbound” and we are off.

“Keep the speed up” says Kristen as our 13 yachts start the transit of what is reputed to be the most expensive bit of water in the world…

Looking astern we can see the tanker is following quite close behind us and she will probably need to have a fair speed to hold herself centered in what to large ships is a very narrow gorge.

Just over 3 miles at five or six knots so about half an hour should see us through..

A flash of turquoise… yes watch out there are kingfishers living in the Corinth Canal

Out of the canal and left hand down a bit for the yacht harbour at Corinth.

Another early start today for the long trip up to Galaxidi, but first back to the supermarket to get in some bread and a chance to take some photos of  Corinth at day-break.

We motored out just after first light, under clear skies, but with litttle or no wind.

We passed fairly close to the headland of Ak Melankavi, NW of Corinth.

This was quite dramatic with its lighthouse and a lttle chapel.

As we chugged along the visibility was good and we could even see the first snows of winter on the mountains surrounding the Gulf of Corinth

After a day of motor sailing we slipped into the picturesque inlet that is Galaxidi harbour.