Tag Archives | Nordhavn

Envoy is anchored at Avelomona on the SE coast of Kithera Island.

Leaving the remote and inhospitable Nisidos Strofadhes Islands we cruise west to the mainland region of southern Greece known as the Peloponnisos. Now there’s a spelling challenge!
We cruised this area in 2012 but are happy to return to favorite spots and spend time at other places we missed.
The Peloponnisos is the southernmost mainland area of Greece. Strictly speaking it’s not an island, but separated from the rest of Greece by the Corinth Canal with its eastern side on the Aegean Sea and its western side on the Ionian. This area is quite sizable being roughly 350 miles from NE to NW and contains many historic sites including the famous areas of Sparta and Olympia.
On the southern side are three peninsulas, each about 24 miles long, forming two large gulfs. The tips of these peninsulas are known as the “Cape Horns of the Med”, due to strong winds and rough seas often encountered here but so far we’ve had only had moderate winds and slight seas. The strong winds are very often katabatic, descending from the mountains that rise to 2,400 metres.

We anchor in Ormos Navarinou, a sheltered natural harbour some 5km long and 3km wide with castles at both north and south ends and where in 1827 a famous battle took place between combined fleets of 26 British, French and Russian ships against 78 Turkish, Egyptian, Tunisian and Algerian ships. The Turkish-led fleet was decimated with all but eight ships sunk and a loss of about 3,000 lives while only 181 Allied lives were lost and no ships were sunk. This was the last battle fought entirely by sailing ships and the beginning of the end of the Turkish domination of Greece.

Castle at southern end of bay

The whole bay looking south

Memorial to battle atop spectacular cliffs with archway

We spend a great morning walking up to and exploring the spectacular ruins of the Palaiokastro Castle overlooking the anchorage. This is just one of a string of castles along this once strategic coastline.

Chris and Laurie ready for exploration with Envoy in background

In ancient times galleys were rowed in these areas and would usually be beached at night or anchored in very shallow water.

Castle at northern side of bay

Signs warn of falling masonry from the fragile ruins

We look down on an ideal shallow water galley stopover area and try to imagine how the scene might have looked.

The only problem here was a huge invasion of mosquitoes after dusk and although we were protected by our insect screens there were hundreds of dead mosquitoes littering our deck the next morning. We won’t overnight here again.

Our next stop Methoni, has another spectacular castle, this time right down at sea level once protecting the strategic harbour. Although we’ve been here previously we enjoy showing Chris around and finding some new sights.

Chris and Laurie at entrance to Methoni Castle

Solid impressive Methoni castle

Di and Chris on bridge over dried-up moat

This castle and the one at Monemvasia to the east (we’ll be there in about three weeks) were two of the most important Venetian towns and castles as they protected the trade route from the Ionean to the Aegean, and for that reason these towns were called “the eyes of the Republic”.

When the Turks conquered Methoni they added this Turkish-style tower to the fortifications

Envoy anchored among fishing boats in Methoni harbour

Cannons embedded in Methoni’s sea wall

Rusting old cannon beside village well

TECHNICAL
Last cruising season we had problems with our washing machine, resulting in Corfu-based Miel servicemen replacing the water discharge pump. We thought and hoped that would be the end of our washing machine problems but this was not to be when one day it didn’t complete its cycle. Fortunately I had been involved in removing the machine from its difficult-to-access position last time and we still had Chris aboard to help resolve the problem.
Chris was sure it was the discharge pump not working as the water hadn’t drained out – it’s normal on automatic washing machines that the water needs to drain before the spin cycle. So we siphoned the water into a bucket, pulled the machine forward in its cavity and removed the metal base plate. We had an “aha” moment when Chris immediately saw that a extremely thin AC power wire to the discharge pump had broken loose, probably due to the high vibration levels normal in washing machines. The area was too difficult to access for soldering so Chris crimped the connection and this solved the problem. Two days later the same thing happened as the crimp was really too large for the very fine wire. But now we were “experts” at pulling the machine forward and removing its base plate and Chris modified some crimps to make them more suitable for the fine wire and we took a belt and braces approach making sure that all the wiring was secured and unlikely to shake loose again.

Chris underneath the washing machine re-wiring the discharge pump