We had another day at Itea waiting for the weather to improve and then set off up towards Corinth. After motoring for 30 miles we anchored out for the night at a very uncomfortable anchorage just south of the entrance to the canal.
The next day we were up early and contacted the canal authorities on the VHF for permission to transit. There was a large commercial vessel in the canal coming from the other side which we had to wait for but after that we got clearance. There was us and another 72ft yacht transiting at the same time with us in the lead.
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| The entrance to the Corinth Canal |
The entrance to the canal is protected by a curling breakwater each side. Once through them the start of the canal is marked by a hydraulic road bridge which actually sinks under the water to allow the passage of ships and is then raised again for vehicular traffic. The canal is then in front of you and looks like a very narrow passage cutting between two cliffs.
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| The first bridge - submerged |
The canal was opened just over 120 years ago and saves well over 100NM from a journey between the Ionian and Aegean seas. It runs from the town of Corinth at the western entrance southeast for about 3.2NM to its exit into the Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Sea at a small place called Isthmia. It is 25m wide and can take and dredged to around 6m. In the ancent times the ships would be beached at one side of the canal and then dragged overland on a road before being relaunched. As a result Corinth became quite a powerful city. Schemes for a canal had been around for centuries and the Romans actually started digging but never got far.
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| It is as impressive as it looks |
Transiting the canal is pretty impressive. The canal is only 25m wide and the walls rise up vertically from the water to a height of 79m at the highest point and seems to tower over you. Apart from the hydraulic lowering bridges at both ends there are other road and rail bridges but they are well above the 30m mast of Dulcinea. Dulcinea is only 5.4m wide but even for us it seems very narrow so on larger ships it must be quite a squeeze. The walls of the canal are rock and the labour involved in digging the canal must have been immense. The rock near the water however looks pretty soft and as such is crumbling away and must require constant maintenance. The trip through the canal is fun and brings back memories of the Cape Cod Canal.
At the other end we moored alongside a wharf to go to the canal authority building to pay our dues. Turns out it may have been cheaper to have had the boat dragged across the Isthmus after all! Still it has been worth it to have experienced the canal.
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| It feels narrower than it looks |
We exited into the Aegean and set sail for a small place called Epidauros about 15NM away down the Pelopenese coast. The promising wind did not hold and we ended up motoring most of the way before dropping anchor in a quiet bay off a small town. We picked this town as it was noted in the pilot that there was a well preserved Greek Theatre here which we thought we should make the effort to see.
The next morning we jumped into Spiros’s taxi and drove into the hills about 20kms out of town to the ruins of the Askliepieon. The Askliepieon was the centre for healing during and before Greek and Roman times. Having never heard of the place it was a complete suprise to find not just the theatre but other ruins including another stadium which was probably the best preserved yet. We learned that sometimes the local schools come and compete on the ancient track. The theatre is amazing too and certainly very well preserved. It seats 14,000 people and is still used for shows today. All the seating is stone and it was built in true Greek style using the indent in the hillside and contouring it to suit. The accoustics are unbelievable - something to do with the limestone used in the construction absorbing certain sound frequencies. Whatever the reason, you can stand on the stage and have a normal conversation which can be heard clearly at the top of the theatre. There are ruins of other building and temples struin around which they are still working on. The Askliepeion is a well worth a visit and seeing a concert or show here would be amazing. One more to add to the bucket list.
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| The Greek Theatre |
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| The Andersons production in the Greek Theatre |
We pushed on later that day stopping for a couple of nights in a bay at the southern end of the island of Aigina and then onto a bay off the mainland about 20NM south east of Athens called Ormos Sounion. This is the tip of the mainland and there is a famous temple to Poseidon built on the promentary. We were up early the next morning for a look around the temple which was pretty spectacular given that many of the building colums had been restored. Along the base of the temple, visitors of old i.e. 100 to 150 years ago, thought it was a good idea to graffiti the stones so there are all these inscriptions from passing boats. There is also supposed to be some scratchings from Byron - funny that for anyone else its vandalism but for Byron its historical!
Legend has it that this is the spot where the Aegean got its name. King Aegeus of Greece was waiting for his son Theseus to return from Crete after taking on the half bull / half man minotaur. If Theseus had been successful his boat was to sail home with a white sail; if he was dead the boat carrying his body was to have a black sail. Unfortunately poor old Theseus was a bit forgetful and came sailing over the horizon with a black sail so his father threw himself off the cliff before the ship docked and they named the sea after him. Kids, eh?
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| The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion |
We sailed on later in the morning towards the next island of Kithnos. The further we sail the more we seem to leave the touristy places behind and the places we visit become more authentically Greek. There are fewer and fewer yachts about as well which is nice. We are moving generally towards the island of Paros where we will pick up Sue and Mike (Nic’s brother and sister in about a week's time.
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