Morning is grey and it is actually raining a bit. Might wash away some of the grime on the boat. This is our first rain since we’ve been here. Well, not totally true, I think it rained a little bit one night early on, but not during the waking hours.
Our plan today is simple, Walk up to the temple, take a few photos, back to the boat for breakfast, maybe a swim if it warms up, then head for home base. We have about 28 miles to go and there isn’t much to look at on the way. We already know where NOT to go based on our trip out and our scare with the reef that isn’t where it is charted.
OK, we had about 30 raindrops, that was our downpour. Took the dinghy ashore and went up to the temple nice and early, before the buses start …..perhaps too early…not open yet. Doesn’t open until 1000. Have a lukewarm cappuccino at the cafe, pay too much for it, can tell we’re back on the mainland. See the gate open and dart over. Woman at the booth is irritated with us, we think it’s just because we tried to use a 50 Euro note and she didn’t want to make change. We have the place to ourselves. Ah, now we know why she’s irritated, they weren’t really open yet, it’s still well before 1000. Oh well, they sold us tickets and let us in. We have the place to ourselves for 15 minutes and then the hordes of Guerilla Tourists arrive in their tour buses.
Warming up, fleece and rain jackets no longer needed ….shorts and sunglasses are …those are at the boat…of course! Clouds are dissolving, don’t know if it will totally clear, maybe just thin high clouds today, but this is more dangerous. Lulls you into a false sense of security where sun block is concerned. Temperature now approaching 30 degrees C.
We can hear an odd bird call in the rocks, one we haven’t heard before, surprised when we see the source. They are very pretty birds that look like a cross between a grouse and a quail. Big, dinner sized in fact.
We took the dinghy out around the point to see if we could see where the old boat ramp was. As we cross the bay we look into the water and can see columns and blocks below us, shocking that we are allowed to anchor here.. Around the corner are the remnants of what used to be a boat ramp for the temple, we can see pieces of marble and columns in the rubble. Amazing.
A twin mast pulls in flying a huge American flag…but they are all speaking French? Curious. They appear to be right over our anchor……of course. This could be entertaining if we decide to leave first.
We have decided the word most often spoken from our lips on this trip is ouch. We have bruises and scars to show for it.
1300 – After Kirk takes his final voluntary swim, we are off.
We are on close plastic watch the whole trip, and there is lots. Halfway back the wind picks up behind us and we sail for a bit……then as usual, it dies on us and we are back to motoring. The sky behind us is grey and threatening, back at home it would signal a squall, here it generally amounts to nothing.
We watch the growing increase in urban sprawl as we come closer to our final destination. We have taken a wider course to return after our early scares with depths not being what they should be where they should be, and buoys being either out of place or just plain missing. However, our course this time seems to involve a great many fishing boats. Mostly recreational and out trolling, but a few look suspiciously like net boats. Sure enough, we see a few distantly spaced yellow floats. Back home we would think they are crab or prawn trap floats….here….not so certain ……I go on the bow to do net watch. My heart stops for a moment when the bow cuts through the middle of two large sheets of yellowish plastic. I think our trip is going to end with us wrapped up in a fishing net. All is well.
We see the marina in the distance and see several masts moving out, 5 sailboats pop out of a hole in the wall and we head in. We look for a nice wide space near where we started and a fellow on the dock indicates we should squeeze into a space that would make a sardine happy. He seems to work here so what are we to do….we start our approach…and again…and again. 1745 – He coaxes us in and finally we are docked and safe.
And sad…..that it is all over.
We have one day left to visit the Agora and the museum in Athens, have a nice dinner and say good bye to Greece. Until next time.
Tonight we will take stock of what food we have left and see what we can manage to eat. We seem to have an overwhelming amount of bacon left, we just couldn’t pass up a good deal at the market one day.
Here is our entire trip in one chart. We didn’t get where we thought we would, but we had a wonderful time and met some great people. And it means that there are so many places still to go next time.
We walk up to the market, buy a bottle of wine and take it back down to the marina. We climb the break wall and watch the sun set on Greece and say our goodbyes to the sea. The wind is picking up and when we get back to the boat we see that it is up to 12 m/s at times. Blow your heart out we say, we are safely tucked between two monster boats, a huge catamaran to the starboard and another sailboat to the port. It can blow and buck all it wants to tonight….
We sorted and packed….why is everything so heavy! We didn’t buy much of anything for heavens sake!
