Katakólon

We initially motored and then sailed the 53nm north from Navarino Bay to Katakólon, also on the Greek mainland. When we arrived mid-afternoon on Tuesday 8 July, the town and harbour were completely obscured by 3 large cruise ships. They, like us, were visiting Katakólon because it is the closest port to ancient Olympia.

Laying our kedge anchor and mooring bows-in to the quay we met Leon, the harbour master. He is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character and had gesticulated wildly at us in a very confusing fashion as we approached. Not his job to do, but he was trying to control how we steered BV into our berth. All well and good if he knew what he was doing but he seemed to have no concept of the effect of the strong crosswind and got very grumpy when we didn't point our bow directly at him. Thereafter, despite having laid our anchor and set ourselves up so we were perfectly positioned, we were subjected to snide comments and grumblings, particularly because we were bows-in, which he could not understand. We were also told off for not talking on the radio (we got no reply when we called and subsequently found out that the batteries on his radio were flat). Thirty minutes later he was all sweetness and light with the next yacht, although they had snagged their anchor on a large chain across the bottom of the harbour which then needed a diver to clear. Reading the CA notes we seem to have got off lightly without a tirade of shouting. All in all it was very unusual behaviour that spoilt the afternoon somewhat.

Katakólon is a small town crammed with tourist shops totally geared around the visits from the cruise ships which seemed to arrive about 5 days a week. When a cruise ship is in the trains and buses to ancient Olympia run, similarly the main street shops and seafront restaurants are alive and busy. On non-cruise ship days the shops are all shut and the town becomes a quite sleepy hollow.

There were no cruise ships visiting on Wednesday 9 July so we hired a little car to visit ancient Olympia. It would have been easier to use the train on a cruise ship day but then the sites at ancient Olympia would have been very crowded.

We picked up the car on the Tuesday evening and drove to a small restaurant on the west side of the Katakólon peninsula to enjoy a beer watching the sunset over Zakynthos. It was then back to BV for dinner and off out to a café bar to watch the Germany vs Brazil World Cup match. What an amazing 7-1 result for Germany; just not what you expect in the semi-final.

I’ll cover our 9 July trip to Ancient Olympia in a separate post because there are lots of pictures; it is a fantastic place to visit. Because we had the car, on the way back we found a supermarket and did a big shop for heavy things like OJ, tins, beer and wine. We found a Carrefour and so even found some red French table wine (Greek red wine can be a bit variable!) but sadly no French cheeses.

That evening saw us back in the café bar for the Holland vs Argentina match. The two yachts moored next to us were Dutch so we sat with Henk & Chris and Anton & Naoma (sp?) and supported the Dutch team. It was great fun in good company. In the morning we all left and went our separate ways. For us it was back to Zákinthos, so just a short passage.