We arrived in Athens, well actually Alimos. This marina is a major base for numerous charter yacht operators. The facilities were basic however conveniently nearby are rows of marine chandlery shops. It was only a 2 km walk each way from the yacht to the marina office and main road……we hadn’t stayed in a marina this big since Marmaris. Docking without the bow thrusters was a little challenging. We had tried to explain to the marina they were broken, he directed us into a pen only for him to bark new instructions and force us to exit. He was more focused on his telephone call than passing Kim the lazy line for the bow, near tragedy. He then blames our Aussie accent for his lack of understanding of our technical handicap issue with manoeuvring. Lesson learnt.

We had concerns about being delayed waiting for parts, in particular replacement bow thruster propellers however they were on hand. Our neighbour took a liking to us (the new old mate) and he motivated the resident diver to see us. The result being that the propellers were fitted same day. Only if the head (toilet) was so easily fixed. After multiple trips to the chandlery for parts and a day’s work in the stifling heat, the head still wasn’t working. It’s really not a complex piece of engineering, a pump, hose, o-ring and a few non-return valves……The morning of day 2, a few blisters, a worn out pair of thongs and it still wasn’t working, sorry Sarah. Old mate sends one of his staff over to assist. He spends the entire day on the head, it ejects the waste to the tank but it leaks like a sieve. At one stage we had an interior water feature spraying across the bathroom! It’s now fixed or so we hope, fingers crossed. Laundry complete, check! Provisioning complete, check! New crew on-board, check! Next stop, Corinth Canal.

The Corinth Canal (Dhiorix Korinthou (insert in Greek especially for Nic) is an amazing feat of engineering, you can’t help but look up. The ancient Greeks and Romans may have contemplated building it, Nero started the job but those who finished it did carve out a serious amount of rock. It’s 3.2 miles long, only 25 meters wide but it is up to 79 meters above sea level at the highest point.

We had motored from Athens and naturally through the canal, so why stop now. Motor Yacht Aura was warmed up and we motored to a secluded bay wedged between 2 uninhabited islands. One previously housed a monastery the other was maybe a fisherman’s home and farm. It was just us and a few colonies of bird life. After a swim to cool off, it was time to relax, drink a bottle of champagne (thanks Sarah) and ponder the stone circles laid out on the hill. Obviously some ancient ruins not yet discovered by the sober enthusiast.

Next morning, fire up that engine we’re heading west. Plus no prizes for guessing the wind direction. Next stop Nisis Trizonia, the wind picked up to 35knts….on the nose. We arrived at the anchorage only to find that it was small and the current occupants had 40-50 meters of chain down in 5 meters of water. Hence making it very difficult for us to find a suitable so we made the call to Mediterranean moor onto the dock. Considering the wind, we did reasonably well accept that I might have an issue with angles and distance. We had a little challenging time with our passerelle (gang plank) but we made it ashore. The village was lovely and we had the best moussaka yet J.

A little trivia, Greece has the longest cable stay bridge in the world……plus it’s protected by ancient fortification. The pilot book stated that we needed to get approval from a control centre to pass under the bridge. Radio call “Rion Traffic, Rion Traffic, Rion Traffic this is sailing yacht AURA, AURA, AURA…over” we repeated this multiple times “Nothing heard, AURA standing by on 14” We took a chance and made the run under the bridge. We did squeeze under, it is only 25 to 45 meters high :-) Maybe the Greek austerity measures have cut the bridge department, maybe they couldn’t understand our Aussie accent? We passed under the bridge as we exited the Gulf of Corinth (Korinthiakos Kolpos).

We arrived (motored) at Mesolongion (Missalonghi). The anchorage is up a long narrow canal surrounded by salt flats with water the colour of green algae….. doesn’t sound so attractive. At the previous village we met a French gentlemen who has been holidaying in this part of the world for many years said it was a must do. Note: Frenchy once had a yacht, he now has a motor boat…..We navigated our way up the channel past the fishing houses, many are now holiday homes. The landscape reminded us of FNQ or rice fields in Vietnam. This place doesn’t look like Greece. Regardless there were many people enjoying their Sunday in the sea. Just bobbing around in the water relaxing and talking. Oh the algae green water has healing or some health properties, mmm….. the water at Heburn Springs (Victoria) looks a lot healthier. Well when in Rome (or should that be Greece) and we cooled off.

Zakynthos has a reputation for vivid blue waters, photos showing the water so crystal clear that the yachts appear to float. Its also a major turtle nesting ground for many of the turtles throughout the Med. The local tourist board also produce a brilliant coffee table magazine, a gift to take home and proudly display your recent holiday and reminisce. Nobody told us about the random oil and tar that floats to the surface, this isn’t in our sailing pilot book (12th ed), nor in the glossy magazine or the sailing web sites. Just as a heads up, the Greeks have known about it for 2,000 or so years, maybe everybody knows except a couple of Aussies who are passing by. Anyway that’s my rant, if you’ve seen the post on FB you’d know our tender was trashed by tar. It has cleaned up OK and with alot of scrubbing. I was also covered in tar as I removed it from the tender. Fortunately Kim was able to clean me up with only a couple of layers of skin removed. The cover that we had custom made in Gocek is in quarantine and needs a pair of scissors and some work. Moving on, it is special to watch the turtles cruise by, Sarah shared a up-close moment with a turtle while snorkelling. The night of the tar disaster, we celebrated our 11th year anniversary at a restaurant overlooking the village of Keri and Turtle Island. It was a special evening with great food, wines and views (thanks Sarah).

The most expensive charter yacht, the Luna was also part of the scenery and it also became a tourist attraction. A cool $2m per week, I'm not sure if that includes drinks....if you have to ask you just cant afford it.

As we noted in our previous blog update and the photos above, our dear friend Sarah joined us for this passage. She kindly provided a little input for the blog, a few of her thoughts as follows:

I've decided to sum up my sailing experience on board Aura with my two top insights into sailing life:

1. Keep your eyes open.... you just never know what you'll see.

It's not everyday you're alone with a wild dolphin in the middle of the Aegean sea
When returning to the yacht after a refreshing swim in the sea always check for nearby sealife. Thanks to a quick heads up from Capitain Simon I was able to dive back in the water and swim alone with a beautiful turtle for at least 5 minutes.
There's no end of opportunities for knocking into things on the boat or getting in the way of a moving halliard or sheet (this observation is really just an opportunity to demonstrate I'm learning the lingo!
Who knew it's not at all uncommon for people to sail naked?

2. It's really all about the people

Ensure any invitations for sundowners are accepted and embraced. It's great fun meeting others from the global sailing community and you can get some recommendations for future destinations, as well as compare oil and tar damage to your tender!
Reward proactivity in others. After a tense docking into the small fishing village of Trizonia we were greeted by a lady on her bike who'd cycled around the marina to let us know about the homemade fare on offer at her restaurant Osteria. Three moussakas and about the same number of wine carafes later we were certain we'd made the right choice.
Accept any help when offered. From fellow sailors helping to catch our lines on the dock to Claudio lending us his extra long hose pipe to fill our water tanks, the friendliness and generosity of the Greek people was second to none.

I fee l very lucky to have developed a friendship with Kim and Simon over the last 2 years, so much so that I was honoured to become the third Forth for their wedding anniversary dinner at the beautiful Mythos restaurant overlooking the bay of Keri, Zakynthos. A bit too much of the local wine had me chuckling that if only my husband Matt could have joined us he would have become the fourth Forth! On reflection, there's really not that many people you could spend 24/7 with but Kim and Simon's fun-loving and thoughtful nature goes such a long way to ensuring this is possible. Thank you :-)

To all those lucky enough to join Kim and Simon... yamas and enjoy! To everyone else, do all you can to make sure you're lucky enough to join Kim and Simon!

After arriving at Zakynthos Port, we farewelled Sarah...I sent her off in our tender that was to dirty to be allowed on board. Her mission was to row ashore, much to the concern of Kim who was worried that we might never see her again. Fortunately, she befriended a captain of a super yacht that assisted her in docking the tender close by at the town marina. That evening, we then enjoyed a final dinner of moussaka, the local Zakynthos wine and maybe a few to many glasses of Metaxa. It was sad to say goodbye.

We started passage planing, next stop Italy. We would have liked to spend more time exploring the Ionian, several months would be required to do it justice.

So who just randomly pops in (and out) of our lives, she’s on the island just next to us. We have a new visiting crew member joining us, number...