HEADING TO ATHENS
After leaving Meganisi we decided in order to make it to Athens to meet up with our first visitors we needed to start heading towards the Gulf of Patras. Leaving Meganisi along the western side of the island we travelled between Meganisi and Lefkas which was a very scenic route before we turned east along the southern coast to find tall cliffs with small caves and inlets. We had our sights on a small island called Kastos where we found a protected anchorage for the night.
The next morning, we spent most of the day motoring towards the entrance of the Gulf of Patras where we decided to stop at Missalonghi, set on surrounding lowlands, we entered a channel that passed by communities of fishermen who built their homes on stilts that sat just above the water. A lot of these traditional homes have since been replaced by more modern homes that are used for holiday rentals.
We anchored in a large bay for the night and Tony’s impressions of what we could see of the town from the boat were not that complementary to Missalonghi or the comparison town of Kwinana. During the night we heard tires squealing and loud music and dogs barking. The next morning, we walked into town and the impressions weren’t improving that quickly but when we came to the centre of the town it was surprising. Missalonghi is also the final resting place for the Poet Lord Byron who was fighting in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire in the early 1800’s. But enough history, there was also lots of turtles in the water where we were anchored but only Tony managed to spot one, but you could hear them splash but they disappeared before you could see them.
We began heading up towards the Rio-Antirrio bridge which is the world’s longest multi-span cable – stayed bridge and is impressive! Just after the bridge we pulled into Navpaktos and anchored with other boats in the bay. The town is set on the hill amongst the ruins of a Venitian castle and looked very interesting. We got the dinghy down and headed towards our neighbour’s cat as we had seen what we thought was an Aussie flag. We met Andrew & Megan who were in fact Kiwis (who live in Australia) travelling with their four kids. They had only been on their boat for 31/2 weeks, so we had a chat about our similar situations and wished them well as they were heading off that night towards the Corinth Canal.
The walk around Navpaktos didn’t disappoint and although we didn’t climb up to the castle ruins the town still had its charms. It looked like a place we could have spent more time in. This sometimes becomes a problem when you have made plans while you are sailing. We didn’t have the time to stay longer in Navpaktos because we were heading to our booking to transit the Corinth Canal, so we were leaving the next morning with some regrets.
The regret didn’t last long after we arrived at the next anchorage further up the Gulf of Corinth in a very small community called Agios Isidoros. Navily, an app we use to find safe anchorages, had mentioned there was a harbour wall that we could tie off to for 10 Euros which is super cheap. It was a great small spot and using the free water on the harbour wall we gave the boat a good scrub from top to tail. There was absolutely no wind that night, so the bay looked like a millpond and we slept like babies, which was a good thing because the next night………………..!