On our way again around the Mani Peninsular and the City of Kalamata.

On the 17th August at 11am, we set sail heading to the Southern tip of the Mani Peninsular, the first stop being Porto Kagio. We set our sails on a close haul in a south east force 4 with relatively calm seas.

Half distance however David spotted smoke on the hills, oh no please not another fire! But as sure as eggs are eggs, the smoke started billowing but it wasn’t long before we saw the sea planes coming in to land and fill their bellies with water!

Obviously they felt it wasn’t too serious or was under control, as after filling its belly, one of the planes even gave us a fly past!

Shortly after that distraction, came the second, wind! Well katabatics and once again we found ourselves into 25-30 knots. We moved out as the line where the katabatics ceased to take effect was quite clear and continued on with some relatively smooth sailing, until it came to the point when we had to turn into it to get into the safe haven of Porto Kagio. So we reefed our sails to their minimum, and turned to starboard. For 45 minutes, we tacked against them until the entrance and then had no choice but to put the sails away and try and motor against them for the last 1/2 mile. It was still blowing a hooley when we dropped the pick, suffice to say we didn’t need to put Seaclusion into reverse. But with 60 metres of chain out, we were pretty safe for the night.

Once upon a time Porto Kagio was an important port, then a hole for pirates, thankfully long gone, it is now a tiny sleepy fishing village with little there. In the morning the water was still enough for me to get on the paddle board, camera safely in its waterproof bag, for a closer look. Sadly no photos (of mine) to show you… new story to come, so here’s one I pilfered from the Internet, again!

By 9:15, we were on our way again, saying goodbye to this wind hole that had kept us safe!

And headed 12 miles in a dead calm so under engine, around the tip to another not so sleepy place called Gerolimenas, where we tried to drop our pick. It was pretty deep and our Navily app had warned us that it was hard to get it bitten as there was only a very narrow strip of sand, the rest was rock, sand coloured rock, which of course didn’t help even though the waters were crystal clear!. 3 attempts later, which included diving each time to see if we had made it, finally we were in, although we were not entirely comfortable to leave Seaclusion on her lonesome, so we had to make do with checking the village out from afar, with the benefit of a zoom lens!

Gerolimenas

With hindsight,we were probably a little over cautious as we watched 2 other boats come in, drop the pick on what had to be the rock (as we had the sandy patch), not worry too much and jump in the dinghy for a bite out ashore. Still with no one around us to disturb, we could play our music and enjoy the home cooked variety, and some of Lidl’s finest!

We also head the news about Corsica, and being yachties, it was with heavy hearts that we watched the videos and looked at the images. There but for the Grace of God, we will not complain about the heavy winds we have experienced this summer again!

19th August saw us on the move again. we were aiming to get closer to Kalamata, but wanted to take a detour to see the wonderful fishing village of Limeni, not an overnight stop on anchor, well not without tying our stern to the rocks and absorbing the swell that piles in there!

We did drop the pick, amidst the swimmers who seemed to care not a jot, for lunch and soak up the setting, before heading off again. Again the zoom lens paid dividends!

Limeni

We then motor sailed along the coast and finally found our stop for the night, Kitries, 5 miles from Kalamata, and had another peacefully calm night aboard, with a paddle board in the morning, after all I have some catching up to do with all this wind this summer!

Kitries

Finally, on the 20th August we set sail into Kalamata. We headed for the marina, for 2 reasons, first, to collect 2 packages we had had delivered there and second, we fancied a bit of luxury! HAHAHA – aside from a very helpful chap to take our lines, power and water, I don’t think you could call this a marina, we have been in smarter town quays! Our space was tiny, to the point that David asked if me if we would fit, and he has never done that before, crammed in between 2 also very unloved boats! With a bit of jostling (what else are fenders for!), we did, just!

We then headed to the marina office to pay our dues, check out the showers – Yuck, I don’t think we would have felt clean after a shower in there, and collect our new acquisitions, a new power cable, very boring, and a portable washing machine.. some might say doubly boring, but after last year and some of the rip off merchants this year, I was super excited! Sad I know, but hey life on the water can do this to a person!

We then thought we would go exploring, which was when we realised that the marina was in the arse end of town, ring any bells? A good 45 minute walk got us to the centre which we found to be a very nice stylish place, as cities go, and so much nicer than Sparti! The walk wasn’t all streets, we did walk through a very strange park full of …..

After a couple of hours wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere of normal life,

Kalamata

We then headed back to the main port in search of the Port Police. All was going swimmingly well with a nice lady, who was about to stamp our documents, until an officious officer came across and asked for a new insurance document we didn’t have. Apparently the law had changed a month ago, and even though we’d had our documents checked at about 12 other authorities during this time with no problems, he told us that we were not allowed to leave port until this new document was presented. This being a Saturday meant a second night in our lovely marina as clearly our insurance company wouldn’t be open until Monday!

With that, we returned to the boat, showered on board and headed back out to find somewhere to eat. David had found a Thai in town and after all the Greek food, we saw this as an opportunity not to be missed. So glad we did as it brought us to the waterfront we didn’t know existed, which was full of life, bars and restaurants. Food, vino and ice cream to follow went down a treat! Sadly no photos of this either…..Why you may ask?

Well Sunday, clearly a down day, I uploaded my more recent images to my laptop, and just started to process them when it decided to go into a Windows Update and then died, completely, and despite numerous recovery attempts, terminally. Lots of choice words followed. Whilst I knew it was on its last legs, I really needed it to survive this trip, without it how would we do these blogs!!!

Monday arrived, and thankfully so did the new insurance document, it wasn’t the first time our company had had this requested, quite why they didn’t send it to us before is anyones guess. So the next challenge was sourcing a replacement laptop. Whilst we were unlucky for it to die, we were lucky to be in the 2nd biggest city in this region. 2 hours later a new Mac on order for delivery in 2 days time, we set sail for another anchorage, not too far away, as we clearly were going to have to return!

But before leaving, these 2 images (not mine clearly) should give you a feel for the place.

22nd August 2022