Cephalonia to the Gulf of Corinth

We left Siracusa bright and early and set off towards Greece, initially planning to go round the Peloponnise, but the wind was pushing us towards the Gulf of Corinth so we headed that way.  A fantastic two days and 270 miles later we were tied up in the old port of Argostoli.

Clearly a very popular destination, as massive cruise ships were lining up to enter as we departed, it was a pleasant little tourist trap.  The highlight for us were the turtles swimming round the harbour, picking up snacks from the local fishing boats.

One of the unusually tame turtles in the harbour of Argostoli

Argostoli Art:  Obviously wondering how many more Cruise Ships the town can cope with.

We spent a couple of days in Argostoli, then headed 30 miles East to Poros - no chance of a Cruise Ship here!

We're tied to the Town Quay in Poros.  The village is a 5 minute walk away from the harbour.

The Three Wheelers - we thought that Sicily had cornered the market, but Poros is the only place we saw one being used as a bread oven!

After the delights of Poros, we continued our journey East to Mesolongi.  We had been warned that it wasn't much of a place, but we were intrigued by the miles of salt marsh that surround the harbour.

The entrance to Mesolongi - 2.5 miles of salt marsh and very low lying land, and opportunity to trap eels with these nets.

One of the many fishing huts on stilts built on the marsh land.

We spent one night tied up on the Town Quay and then followed a convoy leaving the harbour - I feel honour bound to admit that I did run us aground at this point, too busy looking for eels to watch the depth.  Luckily it was very soft mud - no damage done to the boat, or driver although it was a close run thing!

We continued East, initially motoring because the wind was too light, heading for the very impressive Rio Antirrio Bridge across the Gulf of Corinth, at  2,880 metres, it's the longest cable-stayed suspended bridge - considered an engineering masterpiece due to the size and the seismic activity in the area.

First sight of the bridge in the distance.

Uncomfortably close

Even if you can fit a supertanker under the bridge, you still feel nervous going under anything in a yacht.

Safely past the bridge, the wind picked up - this shows us sailing with just the headsail in over 44 knots of breeze, (top left instrument) doing 8.5 kts.  That is very fast for us!

We made such good progress that we covered just under 60 miles, stopping in Galadxidhi.  A traditional little fishing port, now catering for a few yachts.  We're on the Town Quay, furthest yacht on the left.  

This speaks for itself - at the end of the harbour.

Some of the houses are not as well maintained as they might be.  This one looks as if it was built with mud instead of mortar.

And one final shot of the town.

We're considering spending another day here and visiting the ancient city of Delfi before continuing our trip to the Corinth Canal.