After we left the Ionian we anchored in Messalonghi harbour, a pleasant and secure anchorage with turtles occasionally popping up their heads in the water. This was where we met another cruising family, Philippe, Natalie, Lounis and Celian living on Parci Parla. Lounis & Celian are the same ages as Isla & Maggie and they enjoyed swimming together and exploring each other's toy collections, as well as a bizarre collection of decommissioned military equipment (planes, tanks, rocket launchers, missiles) on the shore.
Isla with Parci ParlaAfter Messalonghi our next stop was the island of Trizonia, passing the impressive Rion-Andirrion bridge on the way. This coincided with Isla's first official day of schooling, so it was a bit distracting! The winds were favourable for us to continue east to Galaxidhi so we only stopped one night in Trizonia, which was a very quiet island with a sheltered half-finished harbour with a big boat sunk in the middle of it.
We came to Galaxidhi with the expectation of stopping a couple of nights, visiting Delphi and then heading on to Corinth. It's a lovely little town which had an important ship building industry (pre-steam age) and the picturesque waterfront is of well-maintained 19th century townhouses, now restaurants and cafes.
We relaxed for a couple of days to enjoy the atmosphere, rented a car and headed up to Mount Parnassus and the ancient ruins of Delphi. Delphi was the centre of the world according to ancient Greeks and thousands of pilgrims flocked to consult the oracle at the sanctuary of Apollo. The setting is spectacular, sited amongst the mountains. We explored the museum first, where the staff are highly protective of the displays and when it comes to young children they verge on the paranoid so we didn't linger too much, just time to admire some of the statues. By then it was almost dusk, a far more comfortable time of day to explore the site itself, which leads up the hillside.The following day we left Galaxidhi harbour for Corinth, but just minutes out of the harbour a problem with the electrics/engines arose, where the engines were putting out too high a voltage, potentially dangerous and damaging to the batteries. We quickly cut both engines to drift a short time and then restarted them but it happened again so we headed to Itea, a town only 4 nautical miles across the bay from Galaxidhi which we'd visited it with the hire car and stocked up at the supermarket the day before! What next? Colin suspected there was a problem with the diode splitter (I know this is a bit technical), a box which directs the charge from the engines to the battery bank. I took the girls off to give him some space so he could spend time checking the connections and test running the engines. It seemed possible that the fault had corrected itself and next morning we set off again. But then shortly after leaving it happened again and so we put in to the nearest harbour, this time Galaxidhi which although lovely we were starting to tire of slightly!
Galaxidhi has a small chandler and the owner suggested an electrician who could come and look at the problem. We waited a day for him to come but when he did he obviously had no idea what he was doing. Fortunately, while we were sitting in the harbour wondering what to do next, La Vida, a really friendly Norwegian boat arrived. On board were Harald and Torrill, Svend Erik and Rita. Harald spent 5 years building their boat and he and Torrill had sailed down from Norway. He suggested a way to work round the problem so that we could run the egines safely to move on. They were also heading our way and offered to accompany us in case we had any difficulty. Finally a week after first arriving we had a chance to get out of Galaxidhi!The 30 nm journey to Corinth the following morning began smoothly, with the engines running and very light winds. So light that we ran out of wind and behind us the crew of La Vida stopped for a swim. Then in the space of 30 mins the wind increased from 0 knots to 30+ knots and the sea came up behind us, completely against forecast. Suddenly we were sailing downwind at 8 knots, with the end of the gulf rapidly approaching. Fingers and toes were all crossed that the engines would behave for the approach into Corinth harbour. After ploughing through a confused lumpy swell around the harbour mole we swung into the marina and tied alongside painlessly. Phew. Half an hour later La Vida arrived and we enjoyed great hospitality on their boat.
Next morning we headed out of Corinth harbour but just missed a transit slot, so we drifted with La Vida and several other boats outside the canal entrance. Luckily it was glassy smooth and totally relaxing, unlike the previous afternoon. Eventually boats started to come through from the Aegean side and then we got the green light for our transit. Go go go!
We followed behind La Vida and each documented the other's journey through with comprehensive photography. The canal is amazing, it's got bridges that sink as you approch and everything! Ancient mariners used to drag their ships across here on a paved road and it's easy to understand why as it's only 3.2 miles between the seas (and even though it is one of the most expensive canals in the world per mile it was much easier not to have to carry the boat).From the canal we had a good sail downwind to the town quay in Aegina Town. La Vida came into Aegina the next day and we spent a nice few hours with them in one of the waterfront cafes on Svend Erik & Rita's last night before going home to Norway. In the end we spent 4 days in Aegina, with a local mechanic again failing to properly diagnose the elecrical problem but we had a sociable time meeting the crews of the other boats around us, especially Karl and Laura from Edinburgh (who had just launched their boat Madison from a stay in a local yard and were in town before starting a 3-month cruise) and Helge, Vibeke and their friends from Denmark on Sheban Gold who gave us some contacts on Poros, a short hop south.
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