September 2018

After Ellen left sadly enough, I stayed at Poros. It is a nice place to wander around and on the opposite site there is another village, much less touristic and nice for shopping for technical gear.

Since a friend of mine, our friendship goes way back, would visit me, it is also easy to reach with the ferry from Athens. I asked her to write something for my blog;

Last evening already of my (Beitskes) stay with Roel. Tomorrow I will go to Athens and on Saturday I will fly back to Holland. One week that past away very fast.
On Friday the 15th of September I arrived in Poros in the afternoon. Roel picked me up at the ferry and with his small rubber boat we went to the Ellena. Beautiful boat and beautiful view at Poros.

The next day we discovered that the fridge was broken down. Lucky enough Roel could find a mechanic who could repair the fridge (we thought). After he left we sailed to Methano where we had a nice place at the harbor. Methano is a volcanic island with a very special volcanic landscape that we wanted to see. So on Sunday we went on bicycle and after a tough trip on bikes and by foot we reached the top of the volcano. Impressive landscape.

Because I was tired, we went back to the boat by taxi.

Very luxury;) After that we had to sail back to Poros, because on Monday the mechanic had to come for a  time second to repair the fridge another time. It appeared he had to come a third time to install a complete new fridge. But in the morning we had some time for sailing a little.

Tuesday we went to Spetses by ferry. A beautiful island with distinguished old houses, little harbours and lovely beaches. A walk to the lighthouse, where we had a nice view across the sea.

In the shadow of some trees, nice and cool. Luckily, because in fact it is crazy to do that kind of walks in the burning hot sun in the middle of the day. Later on we passed a statue of a Greek heroin called Bouboulina. She fought against the Turks in a freedom war.

On Wednesday we hired a car from a very ‘reliable’ car rental and drove to Naflpio and Mykines. In Nafplio we walked through the lovely old center and went to the ruins of one of the two old castles. By the way: much nicer from a distance than close by. But a great view from the top.

In Mykines we visited the (remains of the) Castle of Mykines, a place where once lived famous kings like Atreus, Agamemnon and Orestes and woman like Elektra and Klytaimnestra (according to my little tourist guide).

Although it were remains, I thought it was interesting, thanks to the information boards and the lovely small museum with goods from excavations from that period in time. These are funny little figures, period 1250-1180 BC.

Today the mechanic came for the third and final time to install a complete new fridge. I went for a stroll through the village of Poros. It is build against a mountain and has lovely small streets and houses.

So this was my last day. A pity my holiday is over again.

Now I will have to go to Lefkas again. The boat will be stored during wintertime and other guests are arriving in October. On the weather chart I saw a storm coming up, so to keep it well behind me, I left right away and had a beautiful sailing trip of 24h to Porto Kayio.

During the night a fast boat approached me. Big flashlight was pointed and I could not see a thing. They shouted they are the coastguard and wanted to know how many people where on board. Since I was alone, I was reluctant answering that question and I could not verify if they where indeed coastguard. So I said I wanted to see them. The flashlight was turned onto their boat and it looked like it. So I told them my nationality, etc, without informing them about me being alone. Luckily they where satisfied and went on. Pfffff.

When I arrived at Porto Kayio the next day, the same happened again. Coastguard approached me and wanted to see all the paperwork. When I asked about this sudden high activity, they said it was because of immigrants. Well, not a efficient job then, I mean, they did not check my boat at all.

Because of a storm approaching, I left the next morning for Pylos. This should be a good shelter.

Right at the South of the Peloponnesos it is good fishing. Caught another Marlin!

Because of a wind shift I could not make it to Pylos the same day, so I anchored at Metoni.

On Monday I arrived at Pylos and the storm was predicted for Wednesday. Because more boats will be looking for shelter I arrived early. Just one spot available! Wow, close call!

I met a Dutchman who was living on his boat in this small harbor for a year already. He told me a windsurfer will arrive shortly, who is campaigning for WWF by surfing around Europe.

And after the storm on Wednesday,

the big one came on Saturday. We spotted an eye on the weather charts.

The arrow points my location. Reasonable good stay for me I thought. Well, this was not realy the case. We got 50 kts of wind. Imagine standing on a rooftop of a car driving 100 km/h. That’s what this is like. So at sea it must have been a nightmare. But there is always damage

But luckily my boat survived with no scratch. This is what I learned a couple of years ago from an old Greek skipper. In a storm use everything you’ve got. Never think: “This will do it”. So I used all the lines I had and tied the boat even to the ground in case it would catch wind and fly away. The day after, you can feel the relieve in the harbor. No casualties, but then you also see the damage. A man came up to us and asked if we knew someone with a crane. His boat was smashed on the beach in Metoni. The place I just left.

So Pffffff again.

And our surfer went the next day further on his way to Russia, the country he started this ordeal.

His website

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