Nisís Korakonisia

Saturday morning in Spétsai was a little bit windy and, with Baltiza Creek open to the north west, the wind was funnelled into it. Sitting sideways onto the wind we really wanted to depart promptly but a Dutch yacht, one of the last to arrive the previous evening, had laid its anchor chain across ours and the German yacht next to us. As we ate breakfast we watched the somewhat agitated Dutch crew take in some anchor chain, rearrange fenders, and then let out a little too much anchor chain which meant that they shot back and almost bumped into the catamaran moored behind them. They were clearly not happy with their position which boded well for our potential departure. Watching their ‘bumper-boats’ exploits it was clear that trying to unravel the anchor chains with them in situ was likely to prove difficult and so we were delighted when they left just as we had finished clearing up after breakfast.

A happy Strevs at the wheel!   

Nicky swam ashore and untied the lines and then we slowly motored out of the creek to allow time to stow everything and prepare the sails. We set up BV with 2 reefs in the main, the staysail and a little genoa based upon the wind we had experienced in the creek. Once outside there was generally much less wind [Ed: with some pretty impressive gusts] but, for ease, we stuck with the sail plan which proved to be a good decision because a little further on the wind came back again fulltime making for a good, spirited sail.

Nisís Korakonisia   

We tacked our way up the Argolic Gulf to Nisís Korakonisia hoping to find some shelter from the wind behind the island. We’ve stopped here before and felt that the turquoise waters would be an idyllic lunch stop for Stevs and Malcolm. It was very pretty but there wasn’t as much shelter from the wind as we would have liked so we motored through the passage between the island and the mainland and took a look in the next bay around.

Anchored off the north side of Nisís Korakonisia was the rather splendid motor yacht Lady Lara. But we could also see a small bay ahead that looked to have some nice shelter behind a small spit and island.

Our afternoon anchorage   

And so it proved to be. We had a lazy lunch, watching the crew of Lady Lara unload a myriad of expensive jetbikes and motorboat toys, and we then all went snorkelling. Initially, there didn’t seem to be a lot to look at underwater but the finally tally was plenty of fish, a few sponges and, more interesting, 2 octopus’ lairs. The octopi chose not to come out and play whilst we peered at them but we could see their tentacles and the debris of shells from their feasting scattered all around the entrance to their hidey-holes. A little snooze in the sun finished off the afternoon perfectly. The next plan was a gentle sail downwind back towards Porto Kheli where we hoped to find space in one of the pretty anchorages close to the entrance to spend the night.

Nisís Korakonisia, Greece