8/8 We arrived in Corfu after a trip of wind behind us the whole way. Unfortunately, it was directly behind
us. I know I'm never happy with the wind but our autopilot really hates the wind right behind us. We actually
had to do some tacking. The spinnaker was swinging from side to side in a huge arch due to the problems with the autopilot.
We settled for going 15 to 20 degrees off our preferred course. We also had to stay 12 miles out from Albania which
restricted our course. Fortunately, we had a full moon which is so nice to sail by. We didn't even need to use
our radar. It was quite cool also. If I didn't have to go to bed at 1:00 a.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m. I could
almost say it was pleasant. We finally got to Corfu after 50 hours and went to the marina that our cruising guide told
us to use as a clear in spot. We told the marina that we were coming in to clear customs. They sent a dinghy out
for us and he guided us to an inside med-moor spot. It was really tight but we did it. Glenn went to the marina
office and surprise, they don't clear you in for customs there. Back out of our tight spot and 5 miles away to the main
port. We saw a customs building, tied up to the town dock and Glenn walked over to the building. After a half
hour I hear this whistle blowing right beside me. It's the port police, I have to leave a large ship is coming in 20
minutes. I jumped off the boat and went to find Glenn. The customs building was all locked up and I was asking
someone where I should go when Glenn came walking up fuming. We were in front of the old customs building, he had walked
to the new customs and waited for the proper person to come in. Finally, they told him to come back in two hours.
It is no simple thing to get off the dock, go anchor out of the harbor and then come back. The guy I had been talking
to said that's Greece for you. I explained to him about our experiences in Italy and Croatia and he said that Greece
was like Italy. As we walked towards the policeman to find out where we could move to the customs guy drove up and told
us to anchor over across the port in front of the new customs building. Off the dock, move over, tie up and back to
customs Glenn goes. (all of this docking is not as easy as it sounds - especially with no sleep). An hour passes and
I hear that familiar whistle. "A large ship is coming in 20 minutes, I must move." I once again explained
that I couldn't move the boat without my husband and he just looks at the ground and shakes his head yes. Off he goes
on his motorcycle. Ten minutes later I hear somone calling. They have sent someone to help move the boat.
We only have to pull it up to the next set of bollards. I told the young man I wanted to start the engines first and
he said no I didn't need the engines. I told him I wasn't untying a line without the engines on and explained that it
was a very heavy boat. So, I turned the engines on. Well, Glenn always does the tying and he has his own method
of running the lines. After untying lines and running back and forth to loosen that one, tighten that one we finally
moved the boat up. I stood up and looked behind me there was a huge ship 10 feet behind me waiting for the young man
helping me to put its line over the bollard we had just left. He did it with no problems. I guess he's accustomed
to heavy boats. Did I feel dumb. Finally, after an hour and a half Glenn came back. It tooks us 5 hours
to clear in.
We moved over to a pretty little harbor off Corfu town. There were some huge ships anchored around
us. One had powerful underwater lights shining up on the boat. Another had a system of sprayed streams of water
with lights in them shining up on the sides of the boat. What do you do with all that money? We were anchored
off a fort and they had a musical show that evening. We could sit on the boat and hear everything. What a pleasure
after the past few days. We are in Greece!
8/9 We walked around Corfu. Of course, we had to visit
Vodaphone. We got our Greek phone but will not be able to get internet. They don't have prepaid internet here
and in order to get a contract you have to have a Greek address. We found a nice, large supermarket quite a walk from
the boat. We also stopped at a beading shop and I made myself a necklace to go with my dress that I bought in Amalfi.
That was fun. We have to clear in and out of every port that has port police while in Greece. So, we had to walk
back to where we cleared in yesterday and clear out today. We have a transit log that they have to stamp.
8/10-13
We are traveling from small island to small island headed for the Corinth Canal. From there we will anchor at the island
of Aegina. We will be able to take a ferry and then a metro to visit Athens from there. One port, Nidri, was so
pretty with hills and moutains all around. Our camera can't really capture the beauty. We passed right by Scorpios
Island (Onassis home). Ah, to own your own Greek island. We finally made it to the canal and got stuck behind
a ship that traveled 2.5 to 3 KTS. What should have taken 45 minutes took 1 1/2 hours. This is the most expensive
canal in the world. $300 to go 3 miles. But it saves a lot of traveling.
We just went around the corner
and anchored as it was 8:00 at night by the time we finally got through. There was a Greek Orthodox service in progress
and we could hear the singing of the mass from the boat.
8/14 The next morning a fisherman came over and sold
Glenn a bowl of huge shrimp. That's fresh for you. From here we sailed to Aegina Island.
8/15 - 21
We stayed anchored off this island and went in to Athens 3 days in a row. The first day we took a hydrofoil. I
was a little nervous as the waves were up but we had always wondered what it was like. Well you are in seats like an
airplane and the whole boat jerks back and forth the entire time. It wasn't the smooth trip we had visualized from watching
them go by. After this we took the ferry. There wasn't much of a time difference, it was cheaper, and so comfortable.
There were couches and tables, a snack bar, you could walk around. Forget the hydrofoil. We visited the Benaki
Museum, which was beautiful, watched the changing of the guard at the Parliament and visited the National Gardens the first
day. The next day we visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. We walked the promenade around the
entire ancient area and visited Ancient Agora. Ancient Agora is the city that was built when the Acropolis became too
crowded. Plato and Socrates walked along the roads we were on. It's all so mind boggling. We decided to
leave the Parthenon for the next morning as it was so hot. August has really been hot. There isn't a breeze inland
and very little shade. Greece, in general, is quite barren. So next morning bright and early up to the Acropolis.
Finally, here we are at the Parthenon. It is hard to believe how old everything is. Living in Florida doesn't
accustom one to "old" buildings. Of course, the Parthenon is impressive and there is a wonderful view
of the city from here. After we climbed down we went to a jewelry museum which contained the work of a famous Greek
designer. The amount of 18-22 carat gold jewelry was breathtaking. They had a gift shop but I decided to pass.
We then walked to the Archaeological Museum, one of the ten best museums in the world. We spent 3 hours in there and
still didn't see everything. It had pottery, sculptures, jewelry, weapons, chariots and household items from earlier
than 3,000 B.C. Our feet finally couldn't take any more and we had to leave.
We visited the port town of Aegina
the next day and then walked to a medieval settlement that was either 3 miles or 4 1/2 miles away according to who you spoke
to. All I know is that it took us 1 1/2 hours to walk there. Fortunately, we found a monastery where we could
fill our water bottle as there were no markets or restaurants along the way. We were walking inland and up a hill.
Glenn was wondering if the fisherman walked to their boats everyday. They were in good shape if they did. This
settlement, Paleohora, was lived in from the 9th to the 19th century. The people moved inland to get away from
attacks during the constant invasions during this time period.
We had to sit the weather out a day and finally head
for the island of Kea on the 22nd. There is a meltemi hovering in our area that has been there for 5 days. The
forecast was for 20 Kts so we decided to go. It was miserable. The waves were 12 ft with an occasional 15 footer
and the winds went up to 31 Kts. I had taken seasick pills but when it built up in the afternoon they didn't work that
well. Books fell of our shelves, boxes fell over in the cabins and I actually fell down just getting from the table
to the door. Holding on to the counter wasn't enough. Glenn ended up taking the last 4 hours. He would have
been standing over my shoulder even if I had taken my two hour watch. The autopilot did well with only a few times where
Glenn had to hand steer to get the boat turned into a huge wave. It took 9 1/2 hours to go 40 miles. Happy anchorage!
Did I mention it's Glenn's birthday? Happy birthday. We didn't even feel like going to shore by the time we anchored.
It was quite a day.
8/23-24 That meltemi is still hanging in the same area and we are just sitting here
waiting for it to dissipate. We took a nice walk to another port and got some chocolate ice cream for Glenn's birthday
treat. Then we walked up a hill and took a goat path down. At the end we found that we had to climb over two fences
to get back to the dirt road to town but it was fun. We bought gyros to take back for dinner as a finish to Glenn's
birthday dinner. There were huge smoke clouds in the sky on the way here and we woke up in the morning to ashes all
over the boat. Athens has a huge brush fire burning. It is just so hot and dry here it's not surprising.
They also had large fires in 2007. We haven't had a drop of rain since mid-June. We were going to leave here at
noon today but the winds just haven't settled the way our grib file says they will. We hope to leave tomorrow.
Did I mention that we can't figure out the signs here at all? They are written in the Greek alphabet. Fortunately,
once again, a lot of people speak English. One girl in Athens told us that where we say "It's Greek to me",
they say "It's Chinese to me".
8/25-27 We have finally made it to Mykonos Island, the hotspot of Greece.
The winds are still high, the trip over was rough though not quite as bad as on Glenn's birthday. We just relaxed after
arriving and the next day walked to the town of Mykonos. It is a total tourist spot but neat with its winding, narrow,
cobblestone streets lined with shops. It had several old windmills and a nice beach. The wind is still really
blowing which is nice when it's behind you. We seemed to have taken the long road to Mykonos as it took us 2 1/2 hours
to get there and when we finally got a map and tried the coastal road back we were there in 40 minutes. Our usual trips
to the fruit and vegetable stand, the bakery and the grocery store. We really love all of the different kinds of bread
that we have had on this entire trip. The following day the winds are still high so we just took a walk around the town that
we are anchored by. We managed to run into a lot of dead end streets so we had quite a walk. I can't believe the
winds, they have been 25-30 since Aegina Island on the 15th. The same system has just been sitting still blowing.
8/28
Our grib says the wind is coming down at noon. We have faith, we are leaving. We started out in 30-31 KT winds
with another sailboat with a German couple who were anchored next to us. After a half hour they turned inland and gave
up. We have faith in our grib, we will continue. Sure enough, around noon the winds finally came down to 25 and
then 10 by the time we anchored. We're in a small harbor with a couple of other boats.
8/29 The winds
have settled to 15 KTS which is a good thing as, surprise, they're on the nose. We stopped in a little cove with no
other boats in sight. On land, two churches! No houses, just churches. I wish I knew the philosophy behind
building all of these churches. Sometimes there are two practically beside each other. And we can see that they
are still building more. I think it may have to do with being saved from something bad and a church is built in gratitude.
If anyone knows please e-mail us.
8/30 A day of slight winds, again on the nose and we arrive on Lesvos Island.
This is our clearing out point for heading to Turkey. We are both a little nervous about visiting Turkey but the State
Dept doesn't have a travel warning or alert for it so we are going. There are several boats here from Turkey.
We spoke to the people on one of them and they told us we would love Turkey.
We are tied up to the wall here in
Mitilini and the minute we stepped off the boat we walked into a group of police in riot gear with a swat team bus parked
right beside our boat. We crossed the street to the port authority and there were more police. After we cleared
in we walked along the waterfront, again seeing groups of police, some in riot gear. We finally came to a group camped
out in a park with signs and tables of literature claiming "No borders, one nation". We later asked a policeman
and he said they are pushing for no borders, anywhere. Good luck. Later as we sat on our boat there was a military
parade that went by with a small band and a group of marching soldiers with M-16's. They marched along the waterfront
and then left. I guess all of this was a show of strength, there was a very large group gathered by the demonstrators
at this point. Fortunately, nothing came of it.
8/31 Today we are off to Turkey.
