Sounion

Athens is just 40 miles from Kéa but it was Saturday which is when we think the charter yachts change over in Kalamaki Marina. To try to ensure that there was space in the marina, we decided upon another night-stop and so headed for the delightful bay just west of Cape Sounion.

Cape Sounion   

BV bowled along at 7-8 knots with the wind on her beam and we wondered if we should just keep going.

However, Poseidon’s temple came into view up on the top of the cape and we decided that the original plan was sound.

Poseidon’s temple as we approached from the east   

Last time we were here the anchorage was crammed full and so we were rather surprised to find, as we rounded the cape, that there was plenty of space. That said, whilst we were here, there was a steady changeover of yachts in the bay. Most seemed to stay for just a few hours, to visit the temple or just swim, and then move on.

Poseidon’s temple from the west   

We had visited the temple during our stop here last year and so for us swimming, reading and lazing were the priorities. You don’t often get an anchorage with as good a backdrop as this one and so it seemed appropriate to make the most of it. We hope Poseidon wasn’t too offended with our not visiting his temple.

With a meal out with friends planned for the following night, we went into ‘eat-up’ mode and had a lovely ‘pitta-pizza’ dinner overlooking the floodlit temple as the sun set and the wind died to a whisper. Champagne cruising!

That was until the wind got up during the night. At sunset the light wind had changed direction to come from the south causing all of the yachts to turn through 180 degrees. Therefore, the yachts which arrived late had assumed that was the way that all of the anchors were laid out and set themselves up anchored stern to the shore.

At 2 am I was woken by lots of shouting. The northerly wind had returned and with some strong gusts. All of the yachts were now facing towards the shore and some of the late arrivals were causing trouble. Two of them had dragged their anchors and so behind us there was a group of 3 yachts linked together with twisted up anchor chains, hence the shouting; amazingly it took them over 2 hours to unravel the mess before they could re-anchor. For us, the yacht ahead had swung and was sheering about just a few yards ahead of our bow. We didn’t want to let out more chain because that would have put us too close to the yacht behind us, and we couldn’t move because the yacht ahead of us was over our chain and the yacht ahead of that was sitting over our anchor. The only answer was to have one of us awake on anchor watch throughout the night making sure that the yacht ahead of us didn’t get any closer. We split the duty, which fortunately was uneventful, and during breakfast took the photograph above to show how close they were. The wind shifted slightly which allowed us to raise our anchor and it was only at that point that the crew of the yacht ahead showed their heads. I think that they were completely oblivious as to how close their yacht was to us during the night. So, with less than a good night’s sleep we headed off towards Athens.

Sounion, Greece