May 2024 Continued …
While we were berthed up against the wharf we thought it would be a good opportunity to rent a car for the day and take a drive up to Chalkida to visit our friends who had bought an apartment to use as their land base during the winter months. We were keen to see the renovations first hand which they had done to the apartment as photos don’t really do it justice.
As were descending down the hills to Epidavros the skies were hazy from the Saharan dust that has plagued the region over the last few days. It was difficult to distinguish the sea from the horizon. We had anchored in the bay two seasons ago together with Sailing Dreams Paloma and we had gone snorkeling over the sunken city.
We met our friends at their apartment then drove down to Lefkandi, their local beach where all the restaurants were located. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Medousa while over looking the bay.
It was hard to believe that we had motored past this region last May on our way up to Chalkida to cruise around the Sporades in June.
After travelling past Corinth we encountered four sets of toll gates. We paid a total of 9.50 euros Travelling on the toll roads which kept us out of Athens and the traffic flowed very quickly and with no congestion. On our trip back it was slighty more – 11.55 euros.
We stopped off at the Corinth Canal for a coffee stop and checked out the canal. The Corinth Canal is a man made canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. The canal is 8m deep, 64klm long and the maximum boat beam is 22.5m.
The Corinth Canal construction started in 1882 led by King George 1 of Greece. After a series of economic and technical difficulties, the French company went bankrupt and the construction was interrupted. In 1890 a Greek Company took on the started project and finished on 25th July 1893.
While tied up at the wharf, our new favourite place in town for pizzas is Happy Flo. The pizza was delicious, the flavours of the mushrooms, ham, tomato and cheese with garlic were devine.
Paul woke early one morning and heard alot of commotion outside, going outside he saw that two fishing boats had come in late last night unbeknown to us and were in the process of leaving the wharf. They had managed to squeeze in between a catamaran and ourselves and rafted up together.
We saw a couple with the truck earlier in the day going around collecting metal and were surprised to see them sleeping rough on the morning we were getting ready to leave the wharf. Paul reckoned they also had a baby in the small tent.
With the transmission issue still not resolved, we were getting fed up that no one could tell us what the actual problem with ours was. We had emailed Amel to ask for their assistance and if they had access to a new gearbox and heat exchanger system. We just want a straight swap out so we can get on our way rather than sending ours back to ZF in Athens for further investigation and having to wait around like when we were in Naxos last season and still not get it resolved.
Kevin got back to us, and said he would make enquiries and would get back to us the following week. Patience is certainly a virtue. We heard back from Kevin and he had good news. Amel has sourced a new gearbox and transmission and will arrange delivery to the shipyard. It would take around 8-10 days for delivery to the shipyard which will take us to late May/early June.
We decided that we would leave the dock while the sea and wind conditions were calm and go back out into the anchorage to wait as some strong winds were due the following day and we didn’t fancy being pushed up against the sharp stoney edges of the wharf.
It is a waiting game all over again. Last time was in Naxos Marina September 2023. Our days in Schengen are ticking away and we are mindful that we only have 90 days in Greece. We can’t afford another fine for overstaying or being refused entry into the Schengen next year.
We filled in three days out in the anchorage. Paul designed a cutting plan for some pads for the new tender. With the hot knife Paul cut out the pattern from the sunbrella fabric which we had previously bought in Portugal.
The sailrite machine came out from the depths of the bilge to see the light of the day. The stitching wasn’t quite right on the underside of the material so after some googling Paul found he hadn’t threaded the needle correctly. Once this was done the machine ran much more smoothly and the tension even.
When we had visited the OCT factory we requested some extra pieces of padding. With the foam cut to size and placed into the pockets, it was then the tedious job of hand stitching the top firmly closed. It was slow going as the sun umbrella fabric was hard for the needle to penetrate at times. We ended up breaking several needles in the process.
Paul is really pleased with the pads and the tender fits snuggly without any movement. With the addition of some rope diagonally crossed inside, the tender has no way to slide once we are able to venture from the anchorage.
One evening once the temperature was abit cooler, we dingied ashore and walked up to the Franchthi cave to view it in a different light.
After checking out the cave we then walked around the coastal track and almost got around to the small adjacent bay. The track ran out and to reach the beach meant clambering over large rocks which I didn’t fancy at this late stage of the evening.
We turned around and headed back towards the jetty as the sun was sinking lower on the horizon.
Another afternoon we went back to our favourite pizza place and we decided to try the local beer from Naplion. It was very nice and thirst quenching.
One afternoon after having the anchorage pretty much to ourselves apart from a few other yachts, the anchorage was inundated by a dozen or so charter yachts from Sailing Holidays. Luckily we weren’t effected by any of them as we were a fair way out near the cave. They all wanted to get in close to be able to dingy to the restaurants.
Our data had run out so we hired a rental car for 40.00 euros and drove up to the town of Krandi and recharged the data sim. We also had to pay for another month of Tepai to hopefully last us until we can get to Turkey.
After Krandi we drove down to Porto Helli which was close by and we had a wander around the township. We banged into another couple who we had met while we were tied up alongside in Naxos last year. It is a small world.
We spotted a Kallisti and a Kallista tied up beside each other, two completely different types of boats. Nice names.
For a week day the anchorage was practically empty and the town very quite. It was almost noon but the restaurants weren’t really open for business so we moved on and headed around the coast.
It was interesting driving around the narrow streets and at one point the road was gravel and uneven. Most of the houses seemed locked up and gated. This house had razor edged fencing around the top of the wire. The houses are probably just used as holiday houses.
We came across a canteen in a gorgeous beach setting so we stopped for a cool beer and some lunch.
We had a lovely day out driving around the countryside checking out some very expensive houses around the coast. While we had the rental car we stopped off on the way back to the boat to stock up on some groceries.