Made it to Katakolon

We put the Spinnaker up in the vain hope of getting a sail but it wasn't to be. We motored gently on a flat sea all the way to Killini and passed a turtle gently swimming on the surface. The only highlight after that was dodging a couple of ferry's that didn't come within a couple of Miles!
Killini is pretty full of fishing boats and large trawlers so we decided to anchor. You can anchor just outside the port with good holding and plenty of shelter but the bottom comes up very quickly and very unevenly - in particular there is a 1M patch just outside the harbor entrance. The water isn't clear so you can't see the bottom. We followed contours for half an hour until we were sure of the shape of the seabed then dropped the hook in a nice wide (but invisible) bay. Meanderer arrived as we were settling down.

Next day we left them there as they were picking up their friends in a couple of days and headed off down to Katakolon. The voyage was much lumpier than we expected and poor Lucifer had a dreadful time. We even spotted a couple of incipient twisters forming which scared me enough to drop the sails. Fortunately, they didn't touch down and just faded away!

Katakolon is a large harbor primarily for huge cruise liners - some days three at a time. The harbor master, Leon, is incredibly helpful but can be a bit touchy. He got very cross with some dutch people who didn't notice (or possibly just ignored) the instructions to call on VHF12.
He offers mooring (including port fees) electricity, showers, clean toilets, water (although rather brown and not attractive for putting in tanks) all for €10 per night. He also has a washing machine for only €2.50 a load. The port police are far too busy with cruise ships to bother with yachts so they seem to delegate everything to Leon.
Katakolon is a strange place. It has a couple of small supermarkets, a good bakery, etc but almost all the shops are shut until a cruise ship comes in. Then suddenly everything and everyone wakes up, all the tourist shops hustle for business for a few hours until the ship sails and everyone shuts up and goes back to sleep.
We made friends with a lovely Australian Pete and his friend Lyn. They have a lovely little boat which they have nearly finished doing up and then are off the slow way back to Aus. We took them out for a short sail to see how the autopilot works and they invited us up for a barby.

The reason the cruise ships (and we) were in Katakolon was to visit Olympia. This is possible by train (amazingly cheap and comfortable), by bus, by taxi or by hire car. We took a car because we also wanted to shop and pick up our guests in nearby Pirgos. We were charged €35 for an almost new Panda by Christos which is pretty reasonable. unfortunately, he has a stupidly small milage (€0.22 per km after the first 120km). That is only enough to go to Pirgos once and then straight to Olympia and back. We ran up €8.80 although he did reduce it to €5.00 when I complained. Avis does unlimited milage for €40 which would have been better as we would not have felt constrained and could have made a side trip or two.
Olympia was lovely - a very peaceful and atmospheric place (at least if you get there before the Cruise ship parties arrive). I did a bit of sketching while the others yomped all around the site.




By Monday all the Rally participants had arrived. See next weeks blog...