Greece Part 6 - Kiparissia to Kavos

Thursday 9^th

Departing Kiparissia at 09.20 hrs. and yet again with no wind we set out to motor north west towards the small port of Katakolon  at the far end of Kiparissia bay. The coastline was an unbroken sandy beach with no places of shelter in the event of bad weather, but as the forecast looked settled for the next few days this should not prove to be a concern.  The terrain inland of the beach was flat and featureless so there was not much to look at although we did meet a number of small dolphins that swam by us. The dolphins were not particularly interested in Tra Bhui. I am not sure whether they are more attracted to boats with diesel engines rather than outboards or not as we saw a number of dolphins during our travels, but not many came to play near us.

There was little to see today so I photographed this tanker as we passed it.

Approaching Katakolon

We arrived in Katakolon at 15.40 hrs. having motored all of the 31 miles from Kiparissia. The harbour at Katakolon is split between berths for the visiting cruise ships and a basin for local fishing boats and visiting yachts. It was quite surreal to see these monstrous floating hotels moored close by, with their gigantic outside TV screens being bigger than Tra Bhui!

Floating hotels - not for us!!!!!

We found a place to anchor stern too against the quay wall next to a Dutch yacht. The Dutch couple had bought the yacht in Athens and having sailed up through the Corinth Canal were now heading back to Athens with their 2 young children. It was interesting talking to them, as they were very familiar with Drascombes, a popular boat in Holland.

Behind the quay there was a large surfaced parking area that appeared to be a temporary home for a number of motorhomes and overland vehicles. It appeared that they were attracted to the electrical outlets, which had been installed for visiting boats.

Katakolon is the main port of call for cruise ships stopping to visit Olympia. The town itself is shallow and superficial with probably 90% of the shops, restaurants and bars just opening when the ships are in.  This was truly the worst place we had visited so far on our trip. To make matters worse a garbage workers strike had resulted in massive piles of rotting garbage being formed at regular intervals along the town’s streets.

In fact the town was that bad that we did not even take any photos of it and only visited it briefly for a beer and to get an Internet connection.

Miles Today 31

Miles Total 561

 Friday 10^th

Today marked another milestone in our trip, we would be leaving the mainland (assuming that the Peloponnese is actually the mainland!) and crossing to the first of the Ionian Islands - Zakynthos or as it is known to thousands of British holiday makers Zante

With the weather looking settled for our crossing we were not sorry to leave Katakolon and 09.00 hrs. saw us passing the harbour’s outer breakwater.

Zante is the third largest of the Ionian Islands, and according to Greek mythology the island was said to be named after Zakynthos, the son of a legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus.

Crossing to Zante

The island suffered a series of four severe earthquakes in August 1953, resulting in the total destruction of its infrastructure, including most of the state archives. The third and most destructive of these quakes, registering 7.3 on the Richter Scale It had its epicentre directly on the southern tip of the nearby island of Kefalonia, also causing widespread destruction there. The quake was felt throughout most of the country, and only three buildings on Zakynthos were left standing after the disaster: the St. Dionysios Cathedral, the National Bank building, and the church of St. Nicholas "tou Molou" (of the Quay). Other buildings in outlying areas also managed to avoid complete collapse.

The Ionian Islands are situated upon one of Europe's most notorious faults, capable of producing earthquakes potentially causing both widespread damage and considerable loss of life. Following the catastrophe of 1953, the authorities of Zakynthos have enforced a strict program of anti seismic standards (the same applies to the rest of Greece) to be applied in every building to be constructed. All buildings have been built on a floating slab and enforced with steel, determined by the government to ensure safety.

The crossing between the headland at Katakolon and the southern tip of Zante is just over 18.5 miles. Yet again we had no wind and under motor we soon caught and passed the Dutch yacht, which was attempting to sail and which although leaving the harbour nearly 2 hrs. ahead of us had only managed to cover a mile of open water.

The highlight of our crossing was the sighting of more dolphins. This time they did come and play and for a brief period we had dolphins on the bow, much to Kathleen’s delight.

Later a turtle swam by heading back towards Kaparssia Bay. It totally ignored us so we ignored it proving we could be as antisocial as it was!

We had thought of stopping at Zante town but on reading the pilot book we were put off by not only how busy it was reported to be, but also by the steep berthing charges. Instead we decided to keep heading north and look for somewhere quieter.  At 15.50 hrs. we arrived at the very small harbour of Kavos after a 32 mile passage. The harbour is too shallow for a yacht, but ideal for a Drascombe.

The harbour was very full of small local fishing boats but after circling a number of times we spotted a small space next to a local boat where we thought we could get in stern to.

With an imaginative use of stern ropes – definitely not to RYA standards we managed to get Tra Bhui neatly berthed alongside a larger excursion boat and went for a walk along the beach front.

Stopping for a drink and something to eat on a shaded terrace of one of the village’s bars we watched a second excursion boat arrive and tie up near where Tra Bhui was berthed.

Later when we returned to Tra Bhui we were asked to move as the second boat wanted to move to where Tar Bhui was moored. Not wanting to take a local’s berth we moved on to our anchor closer to the shore – to be honest this probably suited us better as we did not need to put up the tent, but it was a bit galling to see that the local boat did not in fact move and we could have easily stayed where we were.

Kavos is blessed with miles of perfect beaches and being anchored just offshore we were able to enjoy the clear warm waters when we swam from Tra Bhui.

Later we walked into the village of Kavos to see what lay behind the beach. It was a bit of a shock to suddenly find ourselves in amongst mainstream tourism. The small sleepy villages that we had enjoyed so far were gone! In their place were apartment blocks, English and Irish pubs and all day breakfasts!!!!!

While this may be some people’s idea of holiday heaven – sunshine, fast food and cheap booze it certainly is not ours. As we needed to re-provision and get fuel we went to find a supermarket and a garage. The supermarket was easy enough but there was no sign of a garage so we stopped at a tourist information office to ask. Despite being given directions we never did find the garage, but Kathleen managed to find some books in the tourist information office, which would keep her in reading material for the next few weeks.

After carrying 12 x 1.5 litre bottles of water back to Tra Bhui (see what that does for your hands) we set out again to look for a restaurant for dinner. Giving up on Kavos we had decided to just go for a walk and then eat back on board, but a few miles out of town we came across  “The Lemon Tree” restaurant that was set in a small nameless village relatively free of  British holidaymakers.  Here we enjoyed a pretty good Greek meal while sitting amongst the many lemon trees that surrounded the restaurant.

Miles today 32

Miles Total 593