Woke Up This Morning; Got Myself a Gun

2012 09 09
Frikes, Ithaca, Greece
(Island home of Odysseus)


I whiled away the morning drinking coffee in the cockpit with a pair of Irish doctors.  We were fully occupied watching this sportfisher take up its lines and get underway.  Fully occupied.

I love the Mediterranean.

Consulting the Oracle

2012 09 06
Stizonia Island, Corinth Sea, Greece

View from the Portal of the Temple of Apollo

Our main reason, at least before we arrived, for visiting Galaxidi was to arrange a bus excursion to Delphi, site of the Oracle.  If you are not into this stuff you can stop now.

Being unable to find a bus schedule we just went one morning to the main square where we knew the bus would come.  There was a bus due at 1000 or 1030 depending on which helpful townsperson was offering advice.  Having been in Galaxidi for two days everyone in town knew not that we were Canadian but that we were "on the Canadian boat".  Being cautious we attended at 0945 for what turned into the 1030 bus.  

The Cafe Like Bus Station in Galaxidi

Tickets were no problem once we found the bus station, a nice unmarked cafe.  Not the whole cafe of course, just the back table on the south side in the corner.  There sat the bus agent who, for seven Euros, handed me a handwritten receipt in Greek.  He assured me it would get us to Delphi.  It did.  The route was amazing, most of it driven in second gear as the bus driver fought to keep our large comfortable bus on the road.  In Greece, a nation of mountains, bus driving is a profession. 

Here are two of the turns the bus driver, with a fully loaded highway bus, had to negotiate.  There were many many turns.  Our five kilometer trip took almost 40 minutes.

All that was forgotten on our arrival in Delphi, a small village about a kilometer walk from the temple of Apollo where lived and practiced the Oracle and the sisterhood in charge of glorification of Apollo.

What you get is this:

Once on the site you realize that you are standing on earth that once carried Nero and Alexander and the mighty and ambitious leaders of the entire known world, come to seek the certainty of future knowledge of the success of their plans of conquest. 

Here I am looking over the mountain pass at Itea where parties royal would have disembarked with their retinues to begin the arduous climb up the mountain to seek the knowledge possessed by the Oracle.  I am lost in the imagination of my boyhood and was shocked when Connie disturbed my reverie.  Here is the view, Itea just visible in the distance:

This is no Acropolis which was rather tedious.  Delphi holds place in our travels with Visibulis, the medina at Fes, the Coliseum at El Jem, the sands of Carthage, the oasis at Tazeur.  It has few equals among the sites we have visited in the Mediterranean.

Either you are into this stuff or you are not.  If you are you have to be here.  Here are a few more photos:  

  

The Village of Delphi from the Bus Stop

How To Vacation in Greece: Erin and Christian Visit

2012 08 26
Palau Fokaia, Greece

Getting the Hang of It
Erin and Christian on a Caique near Naoussa

Erin, our daughter an officer in the navy, and Christian, the navy bum (and officer) who dates our daughter, visited the boat recently.

On arrival the strain of their duties was evident. It looked like we had our work cut out for us.  Fortunately we had Greece along to help out with the relaxation therapy.

The two flew to Athens and ferried from Athens to Mykonos where we were anchored off Ormos Ornos waiting their arrival.

No sooner was the anchor weighed than Christian's naval instincts took hold.  We found him to be very useful on the foredeck  where he hauled anchor by hand and looked as if he enjoyed it.  

Once underway the helm was his and, being a former national sailing champion, he knew what he was doing.  I sat back and learned.

Meantime Erin and Connie caught up on months worth of reconnecting.

First day we sailed to Naoussa, a nice  vacation town on the island of Paros.

With the hook down we too got down to some serious relaxing.  

Swim Ladder Neatly Tied Up on Deck
Christian Nicely in the Water - Five Feet Down.

One rule on the boat was that "You do not Go Swimming Unless You have Made Sure the Swim Ladder is Lowered".  This rule is just common sense but of course, being navy, Christian had to test the boundaries by changing the tactical order.  First he went swimming

Good looking guy in great shape.
But such a Hambone.

and then he lowered the swim ladder.  Everything got done it's just, well...

One Day Erin took us all to lunch.  First we had to choose our "fresh" fish.  I chose the one that was not still moving.

The meal was the best we have had since arriving in Greece.

You Can't Say Greece Without Smiling - our hostess

Dessert at the Creperie just down the little alley,
turn left at the third  pathway

Of course we had to finish off with dessert.  

Our job was done and next day they grabbed the ferry from Paros to Thira, also known as Santorini where they begain their adventures with Costas the Crooked Innkeeper.  We figured Greece won them over.

With every visit there is the moment of farewell.

Corrections: No Backing Up for Brits Either, or Belgium, or...

A correction to the last post.  

The electrons had not yet settled into stable orbits after I hit the "send" button on blogger last night than I was being corrected.   Last post I wrongly ascribed backing up boats to a general European predilection.  I should have clarified that it is a Mediterranean Mooring system hence the name "Med Moor".  

For the record the British do not use Med Mooring and do not favour going backwards in their boats.  Nor I hasten (after being duly chastened) do the Belgians.  Nor my lastest email informs me the Dutch.  

Guys I give.  Mia Culpa.  

And as for Wade who thinks I should be schlepping the anchor and rode and the Budget Committee manning the wheel I can only say this:

1. speak to the BC.  I have tried.  If you can get the BC to willingly take the wheel good on you. 
2.they call it "manning the wheel" for a reason (see how much fun this stuff is),
3. the BC LOWERED THE fortress anchor.  I lugged it back to the stern (how else would I know it was heavy).  I will pull it up on our exit.  

But it sure was fun writing this stuff.

Med Mooring and Other Barbaric Practices

2012 09 04
Galaxidi, Corinth, Greece

Meredith Med Moored Bow to the Dock at Galaxidi
yup that's free water and electric right up front

Until today we had dreaded no aspect of sailing in the Mediterranean more than the "Med Moor".  Today we were forced by the Coast Guard to move from our nice side to tie up and moor in the Greek style.  It is race week in Galaxidi and the Coast Guard needed our dockside tie up to ferry people into town to see the sailing races.  

There was nothing for it but to give it a try.  

As we pulled away from our nice side to tie up and into the small cove that it served a small amount of tension built up on board.  We left the boat drift in the 12 knot wind while we readied the anchor and rode. 

How Am I to Climb Off this Stern

We would use our storm anchor and nylon rode for this manoeuver.  Most often a Med Moor is done with a boat backing up into the assigned spot but our boat does not back up well enough.  Also our stern is so full of stuff - bbq, outboard, Outboard hoist, safety ring, life sling, flag, gps antenna, backstay, windvane, that it would be impossible for us to get off our boat from the stern.  


So the first order of business was to move the anchor and rode, which are heavy,  from the bow locker to the stern.  Then we had to run the lines so they could run freely.  As simple as it sounds keeping the lines on a boat from tangling or not running a line on the wrong side of the lifelines is very difficult.  We triple checked our work.

Thinking we were ready but still operating under a bit of nervous energy we just stopped for a minute to catch our breath, a tactic that, like the cleansing breath of a Lamaze class, we find calming.  People on shore wondered what we were doing but they did not know we had never done this before.  Besides it looks so easy.

This is all that holds us away from the Concrete Pier and destruction
Luckily it has 25,000 pounds breaking strength

As I motored ahead slow Connie lowered the anchor about two and a half boatlengths off the pier.  We snugged up the anchor rode to help the anchor set then continued ahead paying out line all the way to the dock where the dockmaster was waiting to catch our forward lines.  

A one paragraph event after a five paragraph build up.  And that is exactly how it happened.  All that concern for such a small achievement.

It was pretty slick.  This time.  

A Word on the European Preoccupation with Backing  Up into a Slip or to Shore

I know three other Canadian monohull sailboats in the Med basin and not one of us has ever willingly backed into a slip.  We all go in bow to.  

All the boats have left of course but one French flag remains
Seen here beside us - stern to

The Europeans are fanatics about backing up and tieing up their sterns.  Every new boat review has a prominent section on how well the boat backs up.  Everywhere we go the euro boats are backed onto concrete piers with their anchors out or backed onto shore with their sterns tied to rocks or trees.  This is true even if the anchorage is empty so it is not just a tactic to let more boats use a small space.  We were once the only boat at anchor on Mylopotos Bay but as each euro came in it would bundle its butt to shore only metres away from the other boats similarly tied.

This is hard for a North American sailor to understand.  I do not like being close to other boats in any conditions.  In weather I would far rather be at anchor swinging with the changing conditions and free to get away if need be.

Backing up is an oddity of European sailing.  In North America reverse is for slowing down and to generate prop walk to control the boat.  Backwards is not a direction in North America.  

How Else Would KTEL Run a Bus System

2012 09 04
Galaxidi, Corinth, Greece

The title to this post will have more relevance to those of a sufficient age to remember the old Ktel TV ads.  Ktel was a Canadian marketer of cheesy compilations of out of date pop chart songs and other plastic junk.  They were famous for their late night TV ads, precursor by a few decades to the modern infomercial.  

KTEL went broke.

Apparently the Greek subsidiary however is still alive and well.  Here KTEL run the entire country's bus system.  If you want to take a bus from any town in Greece to any other town it will be on a KTEL bus.

We wanted to take a KTEL bus from Galaxidi to Delphi.  This should have been easy.  Go online, find the schedule, follow the schedule.  Not in Greece my friends.

KTEL does not make its schedules available to the public.  You cannot get a schedule, not online, not on paper.  Say what?  A bus system that won't tell you when its buses are running or where they are going?  That just does not sound right.

Well, here is how it goes in Greece.  Until a few years ago KTEL had all their schedules online.  The schedules are complicated and often bus changes and even changes of bus stations are required.  

It is not uncommon here for a traveller approaching a bus exchange point to be dropped off at, say the downtown bus station, and then have to somehow get to the bus station on the outskirts of town to catch the next bus on his planned journey.  

An enterprising Greek took all the schedule information that was online on the KTEL site and offered a "fee for service" internet site where he would put together your bus trip for you, arranging all the transfers and giving detailed instructions.  For this the site charged a modest fee, I hear about €0.50.

KTEL were outraged that this was happening.  You would have though KTEL would have said "Hey, that is a good idea.  Why don't we do it for free.  If it is easier to ride the bus more people will use our service".

You only think this because you do not understand the Mediterranean mind.  Such a course of action, automatic to a North American, would involve customer service.  "Customer service" is a phrase that does not translate into Portuguese, Spanish or Greek. 

Instead, to prevent what KTEL viewed as unwarranted profiteering they removed all their schedules from the internet and destroyed all the paper schedules.  KTEL now offers their own "fee for service" phone number which you call and for €0.68 they tell you what their schedule is for the trip you wish to take.  This is not considered unwarranted profiteering.

So to take the bus in Greece you first have to pay the bus company to find out if and when the bus runs and how to organize the trip.

Stuck for transport I did exactly this.  I called KTEL.  Or I would have except my cell phone won't make outgoing calls even though I have €10 credit. 

Welcome to the Med.

Transiting the Corinth Canal - Piraeus to Galaxidi

2012 09 03
Galaxidi, Corinth, Greece

Looking Back from the Cockpit on Meredith
Midway through the Canal

Our furling replaced in Piraeus we then wanted to visit Lefkas and Corfu, islands in the Ionian sea before we made our way back to Sicily for the winter.  From Piraeus to Corfu there are only two routes: south around the east coast of the Peloponnese and then beating up the west coast to Corfu or transit the Corinth Canal and sail the Corinthian Sea.  

The Corinth Canal, joining the Aegean with the Ionian Sea, was an interesting if expensive (€5 per minute) transit.  Steve Jobs did it with his family so in doing so we were in the ranks of the infamous conscience free upper classes.

We decided to anchor outside the east entrance to the canal overnight and do an early morning transit.  There is a large anchorage at Kalamaki Bay right at the terminus of the canal which offers good holding and good protection from prevailing summer winds.  Depths are less than 20 feet which is a pleasant surprise in Greece.

Connie Talking to the Quartermaster of Jungle
registered in the Marshall Islands

IN the morning it was an easy hop to the intake dock at the canal where a nice new concrete pier has been built complete with permanent rubrails and built in staircases.  Staff helped with the tie up.

The Canal Office is in the base
of this tower

Jumping off the boat we headed for the Canal office with our Certificate of Ownership, Insurance, Transit Log and passports.  And of course money.  

Cost to use the canal is €80 plus €23 times the length of your boat minus 9 metres.  Our boat is 10.73 meters so we paid 80 plus 23 x 1.73.

It is all a piece of cake at this point, right?

The Government of Greece which provides the service also charges you VAT.  Our total cost was €148.  The canal is only 3.2 miles long.  I figured by the time we got out the west end we had paid €5 a minute for the privilege.

Midway the sides looked daunting

The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Passing this we are in the Sea of Corinth

The Corinth Sea is a fabulous sailing ground offering unparalleled scenery and great anchorages although with few islands.  It is well worth visiting.  

Galaxidi, where we are now, is alone worth the visit.  This is also the closest harbour to Delphi and tomorrow we catch an early bus to consult the Oracle.  

As always the trick is to arrive early before all those nasty tourists get there.

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