Sunday, September 22, 2013

from Corinth on toward the Ionian sea

"Mitika" our last stop before getting to Preveza our overwintering destination.
 These two ladies (right beside where we were docked) where having a great time talking about the days excitement.


 The Ionian Islands in sight!!











 Main land Greece is divided from the Peloponnese (southern part of Greece) by the gulf of Corinth on the east and the gulf of Patamos on the west. Where these two bodies of water come together it is quite narrow and a suspension bridge joins the Peloponnese to main land Greece. 






Our next and last stop before entering the Ionian sea "Mesolongion"
Entering the long narrow straits into Mesolongion you see fisherman's houses build on stilts. Looks a little what you might see in Asia!
 Kallitheas, our first anchorage after Corinth.
Kallitheas is on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Our first plan was to stay on the south shore, however the wind was quite strong and this anchorage offered good shelter. However we could not get the anchor to set (tried all three we have on board) so we ended up in a "not so sheltered" spot but could get a good hold with our anchor.
 There was a "Taverna" on shore and we decided to check it out.


 Octopus anyone????












 Through our porthole we could see Corinthian fisher man mending their nets
 The statue of " Pegasus" at the harbor front in Corinth. 

 Waking the streets of Corinth.












Internet access is slow and limits us to uplosd pictures which I hope top do in the next day or so when we have better access.
Besides the Corinth canal there is a stretch of water proximately 100 mile long consisting of the gulf of Corinth, and the gulf of Patras. This was the most boring part of our trip. As well we ran into some unpleasant weather from Corinth to our first stop, an anchorage in Kallithea on the north shore of the gulf of Corinth. Not only was the passage unpleasant but once we got to our anchorage we could not get the anchor to hold. We tried all three anchors we carry on the boat but non would dig in. Someone on shore motioned to go to the  ferry dock however the waves were rolling in pretty good and we did not want to take a chance of getting smashed against the rough cement wall.
So we tried one time more in a different spot and even though it was not completely in quiet waters the anchor held real good and we stayed there for the night. 
The next day we continued on our way. The storm had passed and we had a very pleasant cruise to Mesolongion. This part of the trip brought us through the narrowest part of the water dividing Peloponnisos from the rest of Greece. Here there is a long bridge connecting Peloponnesos the the rest of Greece. When we got to Mesolongion we found a very large, new  marina (3 years old) This area is unlike anything else we have encountered in Greece and is a bit of a marshy area with houses along the long and narrow channel build on stilts.  
The next morning (Sept 15th) we continued on our way again and cruised all the way to Mitika, only 14 mile away from the northern end of lefkas and Preveza.

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