Corinth Canal Crossing

In the morning in Poros, we moved from the harbour to the beach in front of the town and dropped anchor. With little wind, we spent the day visiting this calm village that we all greatly enjoyed.  The following day, we set off in the late morning making our way to the Corinth Gulf. The wind slowly turned to South allowing us to easily make our course East.

The wind lulled and increased during our passage giving us time for a swim. We then set the spinnaker and covered 50nm over the day arriving on the North side of the Gulf, across from Patras just after nightfall.

In the morning, we lifted the anchor early and made our way under the Rio-Antirio Bridge to start the day.  This impressive structure is the longest fully-suspended multi-span cable-stayed bridge in the world.  After passing under we raised the sails and tacked down the gulf.  The wind increased and we changed to a smaller foresail in the afternoon.  As the day waned we were delighted to see some dolphins in the distance and to be greeted by a unique Risso's Dolphin with its interesting round head that came to inspect the boat.

Sailing more than 60nm before dark, we decided to motor for the last 10nm as the wind lulled to make it to a bay just 4nm from the entrance to the canal that night. Unfortunately, when we arrived it took several tries to get the anchor to hold so we had a short night of sleep, waking early to pass through the Corinth Canal.

With a waiting time of about half an hour, we entered and marveled at this nearly 150-year-old canal cut into the rock of the Corinth Isthmus.  At the end of the 4nm passage, we dropped off Ina and Nadia and continued with three crew to Athens.

Leaving the canal we immediately felt some of the famous gusty Meltemi wind, but being so far west, it quickly lulled and we continued slowly south of Salamina Island.  At the southern tip and as the afternoon thermals arrived the wind quickly increased and we headed into Pireaus on a close reach making around 7kts average.  With some help from a friendly local charter skipper, we moored in the entrance of Microlimano Harbour in the center of town.