In the wake of Argo – Pílos

On Saturday 5 July we waited in Port Zákinthos until the yacht next door moved. That proved to be a wise move because his anchor chain was across ours and, as he hauled his anchor to the surface, he also hooked up the chain of the yacht on the other side of us. I went to put on the kettle but he was very slick and sorted out the tangle quickly leaving us free to go. We bade farewell to Pam and Bruce who undid our lines and waved us off as we made our way out of the harbour.

We had kept an eye on the forecasts and were rewarded with a good sail 66 nm south towards Pílos. We hoisted the spinnaker (MPS) and bowled along nicely. We had read that that the marina in Pílos is not finished yet and no water is available for yachts so we ran the water maker to fill the tanks and, since the wind was behind us and there was no heel, Nicky took advantage and dug out the manual washing machine to get a wash done. It took us 12 hours to get to the marina. The wind died off at the end of the passage so we motored the last 10 miles to allow us to arrive at dusk.

Pílos sits in the large natural harbour of Órmos Navarínou, the site of the famous sea battle of 1827 which helped to free Greece in their War of Independence. It is also the site of beautiful Sandy Pylos mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey. Ulysses’ son, Telemachus, visited King Nestor here to ask if there was any news of his father’s whereabouts. We were enchanted by the description in Tim Severin’s The Ulysses Voyage which was the reason we sailed here. We hoped to be able to visit the ruins of King Nestor’s Palace as well as anchor off Sandy Pylos.

Arriving at dusk the scene was beautiful. The natural harbour is protected from the sea by a 4km line of narrow rocky islands, one of which has a natural arch through it. Tradition has it that if a pregnant woman passes through the arch, she will give birth to a boy. The islands have monuments on them for the French and Russian sailors who died in the 1827 Battle of Navarino; the one for the British sailors lost sits on a small island in the centre of the bay. There are also the remains of a defensive wall dating from the Peloponnesian War; the Athenians apparently defeated the Spartans here in 425 BC.

Standing out very clearly in the evening light was the Palionavarino (the Old Castle) on the northern most protective island which was built by the Franks in 1280-1290.

Once we had entered the harbour, on the hillside just south of the town, we could also see Niokastro (the New Castle). It was built by the Turks in 1573, was taken by the Venetians when they controlled this area and then, in 1829, it was restored by the French General Maison along with much of the town. Within the castle the distinctive old Turkish mosque was converted into a church.

Our priority, however, was to see if we could find space in what is described in our pilot book as a semi functioning marina. Built with €30m of EU money, there are still no takers to run the marina (the loan from the EU will apparently be paid back when the marina is fully functional) and so the water and electricity still need to be connected. There are plenty of boats here though and we tied up alongside a Swedish yacht.

In the morning we moved into a space on the quay vacated by a departing yacht and marvelled at the clarity of the water. Washing was hung up to dry and we set off to explore town and hire scooters to visit King Nestor’s Place.

It is at this point that our cunning plan started to go wrong. Firstly, we couldn’t find a scooter hire shop; the scooter race to Nestor’s Palace was therefore cancelled and we’d have to settle for a boring hire car! Secondly, the lady in the hire car shop told us that she believed Nestor’s Palace was closed on Mondays, the day that we had planned to visit. Worse still, her boss thought it was closed completely. It’s such a significant archaeological site that we never considered or checked that it might be closed. Time for an emergency café session to access the internet!

Despite the theraputic effects of an ice-cold beers in frozen glasses, the news was not good and we were a little disheartened. Nestor’s Palace had been closed at the end of 2012 for ‘refurbishment’, had not yet been re-opened and it seems that the 2014 forecast for opening has been delayed until 2015. As a double blow, the musuem in Pílos where many of the artefacts are displayed has also been closed for the same period.

King Nestor was very wealthy and was the third most powerful king of the alliance that had laid siege to Troy. Nestor was also the only one to make it home from the Trojan war swiftly and without issue. Homer’s Odyssey describes how he hosted Telemachus in his fabulous palace, when the latter came to seek news of his father. The poem includes a good description of the palace, which was destroyed by fire in about 1200BC and its location lost. It was only rediscovered in 1939 by Carl Blegan and, fortunately, excavation started using modern techniques. Most significantly, palace ledgers (clay tablets which were baked hard in the fire) were found which showed the accounts for running the kingdom; this revolutionizing knowledge of court life in Ulysses’ era. Careful excavation also revealed a palace which matched Homer’s description. We were hugely disappointed not to be able to visit the site and the museum.

A consolation prize was definitely needed and so we had dinner in a lovely restaurant overlooking the harbour. The view out was fantastic and, in the cool of the evening, we both ate far too much whilst plotting to return to Pílos when Nestor’s Palace reopens.

The venue for the Monday morning therefore changed and we walked up to see Niokastro (the New Castle). The notice taped to the studded door of the castle sadly added Niokastro to the list of things to see on our return.

We did, however, get  a nice view across the harbour.

Wandering back through the town we spotted a great bakery. As well as fresh bread, for luch we also bought some great tasting spanakopita made with a crispy, flaky filo pastry and filled with feta cheese, spinnach and dill. The smell of the freshly baked breads also prompted an impulse buy of a prezel-like ring for elevenses and a large fruit-bread bun (a bit like a rock cake) to go with our afternoon tea.

We also stocked up on fresh vegetables and fruit so that BV’s larder was sufficient to sustain us for the next couple of days. With all of that stowed we untied and sailed all of 3½ nm across Órmos Navarínou to anchor by the sandy beach at the northern edge of the harbour.

The views across the fertile land were fantastic. Neat rows of olive trees, the odd wide green pasture and vines growing on the south-facing slopes. King Nestor certainly had a very nice kingdom. We think his palace is on the ridgeline in the middle distance just above the dinghy the photo above.

Lazing in the cockpit I noticed that the foghorn speaker was hanging askew. It had probably been knocked or a rope caught on it when we were getting the spinnaker down and the bracket had failed during our lively sail across the harbour. Beer was put down and Nicky hoisted me part of the way up the mast to effect a repair. Tie-wraps and duck tape did the job. It’s not pretty but it will hold it all together until we can come up with a proper repair.

To continue our housekeeping chores we also swam and gave BV’s bottom a scrub. The water in the Ionian is definitely colder than in the Tyrrhenian sea.

After a night at anchor off Sandy Pylos, Tuesday 8 July brought an early 6:30am start for a 50nm sail north. We planned to head towards Katakólon, the closest harbour for visiting Olympia, but first we went into Voidokoilia on the northwest seaward side of Órmos Navarínou. It took an hour to get from our anchorage, south around the islands and then back up to Voidokoilia where we crept in, carefully watching the depth gauge. The bay is a perfect semi-circle with a sandy beach and very clear water. It matches the description of the location Tim Severin where landed his Bronze Age galley Argo, and we could just imagine his crew swimming in the bay and careening the hull as described in the book.

Nicky neatly turned BV on the spot and we made our way out Voidokoilia, turning north to follow the coast to Katakólon.