We seem to have been travelling upwind for days and days, and so it continues. We left Koroni early in the morning and had a stunning beat to Methoni, getting some fabulous, very helpful, big lifts around several headlands. This was probably the best upwind sail we have had on Kerensa, very enjoyable in 17-20knts.
Methoni is a stunning anchorage with a long sandy beach with Methoni castle on the Port side. At the headland there is an old Venitian castle to add to the ambiance. We had an interesting walk around the castle which was inhabited since 8BC, at one stage the Turks invaded, killed all 25,000 inhabitants and resettled it with others from the Peloponese area. The castle and surrounds was eventually destroyed by the French in 1820's to prevent disease.
Methoni castle, Venitian built castle is far left on the headland
We then motor sailed on to Katakolon, around 50 miles North, which is a convenient stop off to visit Olympia. Being a port where cruise ships visit, transit was well organised with a train station 50m from the back of our boat! Catching the train allowed us to get a flavour of the Greek interior, it was interesting to see the farmland and hamlets along the journey. Olympia and the museums were stunning. Nigel took the opportunity to run all 198.2m of the original Olympic running track, although done in the heat of the day he looked like an old man doing a slow jog! No medals there then.
Run Forrest, run! Picture of the slowest Olympic run ever performed.
Statues originally above the entrance to the Temple of Zeus, Olympia.
It was time to head across the bay to Zante (Zakinthos), the chart shows a firing zone almost from the Katakolon harbour wall, 8 miles wide and extending 5nm S of the harbour. Having neither seen, nor finding, any signs of activity ongoing or planned, we decided we would save ourselves 10nm extra sailing going around and sail straight across the zone. If only we had left 30mins later, no sooner had we entered the zone than two fighter jets screamed across above us. For the next half hour we watched then doing runs whilst sailing as fast as we could to the other side! We were not alone in this transit, seeing 3 other boats in the area, one of which had black sails. We reassured ourselves that if we were the pilots the black sailed boat would be the one we went for! We sailed on with no incident and arrived in Turtle bay late afternoon.
Our anchorage was close to Methonisi island, not the main Loggerhead turtle breeding ground but there are nests there nevertheless. We took the dinghy across, met up with a couple of researchers and, after understanding that they excavate nests after the babies have left to count eggs etc, hung around to watch them excavate one. Occasionally they do find some stragglers alive and we were lucky to see 4 babies, all very weak, one of which headed for the ocean. Sadly it was too weak to make it all the way and it was very hard not to pick it up and give it a helping hand. Great experience though. The island also has caves large enough to get the dinghy into which was fun.
Baby Loggerhead heading to the sea
Dinghy ride into the caves
Having sailed everyday for some time we decided to have some chilling time and said goodbye to our friends Malcolm and Kate on Grace of Sydney. Thanks for the fun guys, we hope to see you again.
We abandoned our plans to sail the West coast of the island due to wind and headed to the leeward side city of Zakinthos where we are currently moored. Originally intending to stay just one night we are now staying for 4. This is due to intense thunderstorms being forecast north of here and our reluctance to head into those, having heard of boats getting struck recently. It's not a great place to hang around, the public harbour feels mafia run and at 8eu for a small beer the town is a tad expensive! For comparison we are used to paying 3-4eu, it seems to be getting more expensive the closer we get to the centre of the Ionian islands.
After the lightning risk reduces on Monday we are heading to Kefalonia. Upwind again.
