Ermióni

There are a couple of archaeological sites we want to see on the eastern finger of the Peloponnisos and we judged that we have enough time to visit them before we need to be in Cyclades Islands to meet up with Charlotte. So, from Athens, on 7 July, we headed south. The previous few days had been quite windy but on the 7^th there was only just enough wind for us to get the spinnaker flying.

Skilla on the left and Spathi on the right   

That worked all the way past the island of Aegina and on as far as the gap between the small islands of Skilli and Spathi, close to the Skillaion headland. We weren't alone in choosing that route: as we approached a small ferry came through in the opposite direction, along with about 8 sailing yachts.

Approaching Ermióni   

Ancient ruins to our left as we entered the bay   

Once around the corner we unrolled the genoa and sailed on west for another 10 miles until the wind dropped in the shadow of the high ground to our north. We stowed all of the sails and motored the last couple of miles into Ermióni.

Ermióni has been continuously inhabited since at least the time of Homer and, as we entered the bay, to our left we could see some ancient ruined walls.

Ermióni ahead   

Other yachts in the anchorage   

The bay is wide and there was plenty of room to anchor, which is just as well because the quay was already full of yachts by the time we had arrived. We picked a spot clear of the ferry approaches and other anchored yachts and settled in for the evening.

Ahead of us was the town of Ermióni; to our right was the bay and the majority of the other anchored yachts;….

… to our left was the entrance to the bay and through it, in the distance, the island and town of Hydra;….

Strevs keeping track of us   

… and above us was Strevs in his helicopter. The new AIS aerial is working much better than the last one. We had picked up shipping 30 miles away which is at least 10 miles more than before and presumably, therefore, we were transmitting our position much more effectively too. Strevs had spotted where we were from our AIS signal and had routed over the top of us on one of his helicopter tasks.

Hydrofoil with its black exhaust fumes   

Ermióni was just a night stop for us on the way around to Porto Kheli so we didn’t even go ashore. However, it worked well for us and we had a nice dinner on board. There was good shelter from the wind but some swell worked its way into the bay so there was a little bit of roll at times. The only real downside was the arrival and departure of the hydrofoils. Even though they slowed right down, their wash set the yachts moored to the quay rolling madly; we were really very glad that we were at anchor. However, on their departure we were almost directly in line for their incredible black clouds of exhaust fumes. If there is ever a vessel in need of some environmental impact improvements, it’s these old Russian designed hydrofoils.

Ermioni, Greece