who lost their lives at Navarinon 20th Oct 1827
Indigo proposed a dinghy trip to the nearby village of Gialova, but had some work to do beforehand. Jim Baerslman had recommended the Oasis restaurant, and had also encouraged us to find the museum. When we got there, the museum was locked up, so we went to lunch which proved both reasonable and enjoyable. After lunch we returned to the museum where a telephone number was displayed. Carol rang the number, and very soon Kostas Balaphoutis appeared, opened up, and spent a lot of time showing us around his exhibits. These include farming tools, a weaving loom, pictures, clothes, furniture, fossils and other items. We returned to his shop where he sells local products, and returned his favour by buying some. On the return trip, we visited the island in the middle of the bay on which there is a memorial to the British ships that took part in the battle of Navarino, with the Russians and French, in 1827, in which the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were destroyed.
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| Inspecting the memorial to the British officers and men who lost their lives at Navarinon 20th Oct 1827 | Carol and I walked up to the castle in the evening |
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| We became lost inside the castle! | O. Voidhokoilia and the lagoon behind |
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| Most of the masonry is perilously unstable |
Carol and I walked up to the Paliokastro later, dodging under the many enormous spiders that had built their webs across the path. We managed to lose our way within the castle perimeter, which is overgrown and somewhat perilous, with open cisterns. Some Greek chaps (working as a bellboy and doorman at a resort hotel) showed us the way out, and we had an interesting talk with them on our return back down the hill.
I got up early, and picked up Carol so that we could go for a morning walk. We went over to Sfaktiria, quite a long dinghy ride from where we were anchored off the beach. Having shown Carol the churches, we set off up the ridge path past more spiders, and made it to the trig point on the summit at the northern end. From here we overlooked the shallow pass, lagoon, and had a good view of the Paliokastro to the north.
Later the wind freshened up, so in the end Indigo concluded that it would be better to stay put off the beach, rather than go over to Pilos as had been mooted. Mo organised some supper, and we had drinks on Indigo followed by supper on Fuga, where we managed to do a quick summary of the highlights of our visit to Croatia in 2007. We were all sorry to have to say our goodbyes, as it is unlikely we will meet up again with the boats.
Made a late start. Indigo had left the anchorage early as planned, and we eventually got under way to anchor off Pilos. We bought diesel in cans, and left this in the dinghy while we obtained the other essentials. The dinghy ran out of fuel on the way back, so running on the 'reserve' I had to go back again for petrol. We recovered the outboard and the dinghy, had lunch, put the diesel in the tank, and eventually got under way. We sailed close under Maltese Falcon's stern, anchored off the town, wondering how the amazing rig is supposed to work. We sailed quietly down to Methoni, where we found the anchorage quite crowded with boats of all nationalities. Trying hard to rest our livers, we had supper and turned in relatively early.
We were late up having had a disturbed sleep courtesy of the music ashore and the mosquitoes. The generator once again decided that it had had enough, and sounded the alarm and shut down. We raised anchor, and set off under jib alone for the anchorage on the south eastern end of Nisos Sapientza. After a downwind sail, we managed to tack some way into the bay with the freshening wind, but finally furled the jib and motored in. There was already one other yacht there, and we headed into the corner beyond her, where there was light blue water. We put Willy up to get the benefit of the breeze, given the generator situation, and settled down to relax under the cockpit awning. Late in the afternoon my consccience got the better of me, and I decided to investigate the state of the cooling water inlet. This seemed to have quite a bit of growth on it, which might have impeded the water flow, and I did my best to clear it, although I quickly tired in the rather cool water with 3 kg on my weight belt. The lady on the yacht next door swam over and asked us to drinks, precluding further action on the generator front. She also swam over our anchor, and reported that it was simply lodged behind a lump of rock: we had imagined it was on sand and dug in! When I looked, the whole bottom was lumpy and rocky: no good holding anywhere. Although British registered, John and Angela were both Australian, and had bought their yacht Amzer Zo from a French couple in Sicily! Their nephew works for a property development company in Palmerston North, as does Mike Walker. Small world!
We got up and got going on the generator before breakfast. The bilges contained a fair amount of water, which we pumped and sponged. Mo was sure that it was mostly fresh, so presumably came from our full tanks as we tacked out from Finakounda. This had to be cleared first. Then the forward saloon seat needed to come out for access to work on the generator. The impeller had only two arms out of five remaining, but the others were all accounted for within the housing, so that was a bonus. Fortunately Sandy had brought out two spare impellers, amongst other things. We decided to motor back to Methoni, as it was up wind, and left Willy aloft to do his stuff. There was no reply from the text to Jim so I phoned him, and arranged to meet at the bar in the evening. At the anchorage we were surprised to see Julie and Ian on Morven nearby. We went ashore to get some supplies from the Dia, but unfortunately it was a little too far on uneven surfaces, and Mo found her toe quite painful. She elected to stay on board while I went ashore to find Jim. We had a good chat about the CA, and his efforts to improve the presentation of the cruising information on the web site in particular. Caroline returned from the shops, and we adjourned to the next door restaurant for a meal.
I went ashore for bread, and was on the hunt for some hard shoes for Mo to wear. When I returned to the boat, Mo confirmed that my wallet was not on board (as I feared), but I no longer had it. Had it dropped in the water? Or had I been jostled? In panic I returned to retrace my route, peering into the water where I had moored the dinghy. At the bakers, the lady returned the wallet with a smile, explaining that she had not been able to get through on the mobile number within! This drama meant that we were late leaving Methoni, so we decided that we would have a leisurely sail up to Pilos instead. Unfortunately it was at one point too leisurely, and having put on the engine, with my head down in my book, I came up to look around to find that we had been set much too close into the shore - much too close for comfort! Mo, who was asleep down below, wondered afterwards why I had my 'stress indigestion'!
Once at Pilos and anchored off the marina again, we went ashore. Having no luck in the chemists with Dr Scholls', Mo sat down to people watch while I pursued our secondary target, a gaff for that large tuna that we aim to catch one day. Once more, and hospitable as ever, Fotios Kaldis poured an orange juice and sat me down before we got down to the business. I also found a shoe shop, so Mo was on her second glass of wine when I returned. After settling up at the bar she reluctantly climbed the steps to the shoe shop, where she found some good sandals that might help not to keep flexing the toe so much.
We set waited for some wind to come in, but it did not really materialise. We motored out of the bay, and sailed for a while until we reached the narrows inside Protti island. I had hoped that as we approached the corner the wind might free off, but it was not to be. At Kiparissia, the north eastern quay was full, and a rod fisherman vociferously pointed to the notice requiring the end to be kept clear for unloading fishing boats: no doubt he valued his space undisturbed. We moored instead on the northwestern breakwater, the quay here being higher though not inaccessible. Overnight we found that locals kept us awake, first simply relaxing and chatting loudly nearby, then later courting couples giggling. There were no facilities here, so when one of the yachts left we took its place. There is now an electricity supply, as well as water, on the quay.
We also found that we had free internet from a number of hotspots around the harbour, although none of it was too reliable. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to deal with e-mails, and looking for information on batteries, so that in the end I did not even get off the boat to forage while Mo was resting her toe.
The next morning, I did get off the boat, as planned, but we had already given up on the thought of moving on. The combination of water, electricity and wifi was just too tempting. On the last visit to Kiparissia we had not found the town centre. It is not directly behind the port, as you might expect (Kiparissia did not really have any shelter until recently), but two blocks further west and up the hill. It has a good range of shops: supermarkets, greengrocers, fresh fish, butchers, phone shops, and a square to rest, drink and people watch. When I returned laden with fruit and vegetables as instructed, and some salmon steaks, I found Mo holding court from the cockpit. An English couple, Phil and Jan, in a campervan had stopped by, and Phil was interested in sailing and possibly buying a boat. They then attracted another Australian couple, also touring in a van, who had recently sold their boat, Kimberley Rose, a Gibsea. They all came on board for a coffee, and had a look around the boat. Behind us, Chris and Hazel Howe on Rapport Lady had gone off to Kalamata by train. Mo was feeling a little unsociable, so we had not invited them as we had hoped. However Phil and Jan returned while our supper was cooking, and we asked them on board. We had an interesting evening, Phil had travelled extensively by road and brought up children on the move, but was now wondering whether to take up boating, having already done a yachtmaster course.
We packed up our awnings and topped up our water, then set off under engine. The breeze picked up gradually, so we had lunch and then set the jib and bore away onto a windward course. We were able to almost fetch our course, so that we only had to tack into the bay at Katakolon during the last hour of the trip. We anchored north of the cruise liner berths and marina, in four metres, along with a number of other yachts. Our enthusiasm for a swim was soon dampened, when Mo noticed that there were a number of purple jelly fish.