Sailing to Kalamáta

The entrance to Porto Kheli well behind us    

We left Porto Kheli at 1540 on 13 April with a loose plan to head as far south and west as we could. Initially we headed west to get us past the northern tip of the island of Spétsai.

There are a few nasty rocks there, some visible and some hidden under the water. Once safely clear of them we turned south towards Monemvasia. Ahead of us lay the infamous 3 capes of the Pelopónnisos. The Corinth Canal was built to bypass these awkward capes and here we were planning to sail past them against the prevailing wind!

There was method in our madness. Firstly, and most importantly there are several nice anchorages and harbours that we’d like to visit in the Pelopónnisos and, secondly, we’d noticed some variations in the westerly winds over a 48 hrs period before a sustained period of stronger westerlies set in near the capes. With careful timing we hoped to make comfortable progress. If not, we intended to run for an anchorage and sit things out for a few days. For the plan to work, all we really needed was a good reliable engine to keep making progress during some of the forecast wind lulls.

Fortunately, it was clear that our work in Porto Kheli had fixed the fuel supply problem and the engine was now running perfectly. We were not the only ones who were delighted; as we bowled along at 7 knots, a school of dolphins intercepted us to play in our bow wave.

It’s always such a pleasure to see dolphins up close having fun in their natural element.

The passage took over 24 hrs and so, after eating dinner together, we settled into a 3 hour one on, one off watch routine. To make sure that we got 3 full hours in bed we took half an hour for watch changes. I took the first night watch and sailed past our first ‘run for shelter’ option at Monemvasia. However, by the time it was watch change the wind had died and so Nicky’s first watch was all motoring to get us past the first cape, Maléas. We had hoped to anchor off the nearby island of Elafónisos but the weather forecast didn’t make that a sensible option so Nicky pressed on west and then northwest towards Yíthion. During the next watch change we discussed our options and decided that because the stronger westerly wind hadn’t arrived yet, we should try to make it around the next cape, Taínaro. Typically, as I approached this cape, the wind did get up and I had 20-25 knots over the deck. I would have preferred to have started to sail rather than motor because it would have been much more comfortable. However, there were a lot of ships passing the headland at just over a mile from it. That severely restricted my sea room so the better option was to plug into wind under engine, close to the cape, until it was possible to turn northwest to get some more space to start beating north.

Snowcapped Óros Távyetos, 2404 metres high   

That worked and the timing worked out such that we could hoist sails during a watch change; a much easier job with 2 of us doing the work. I left Nicky sailing north towards Kalamáta and turned in. After my 3 hours of kip [Ed: and numerous sailplan and heading changes to make best use of the variable wind!], it was [Ed: well and truly!] fully daylight and we pressed on north enjoying the views of the snow-capped mountains.

By this stage, the wind had turned more westerly and BV was sailing along nicely. By passing 2 of the capes in one passage we’d bypassed 2 potentially pretty anchorages we’d like to have visited but we’d also stopped ourselves from being trapped by the strong westerly winds that were forecast to blow at the south end of the Pelopónnisos for about 3 days.

Approaching Kalamáta   

We had also got far enough to stop at Kalamáta over the Easter bank holiday weekend. With some swift work to hire a car before everything shut down for Easter, we hoped to use Kalamáta as a base from which to visit ancient Sparta and the medieval fortified town of Mistra. Finding a mooring was not an issue because the marina at Kalamáta had lots space. We tied up at 1635hrs after a 25-hour passage covering 156 miles which had taken us from the Aegean into the Ionian Sea.

Moored at Kalamáta   

Kalamáta, Greece