The Honey Mooners do Greece

Accounts of a Greecian adventure on The Moorings Sailing Vessel Aias by 4 members of SLYC.
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Check out the Snearly Photos and the Moon Photos from this marvelous trip!
Sat, 1 Oct 2005 07:22:46 -0700 (PDT)
We had a long trip over here and had a delay in one of the flights in Greece. We bought some wine and played cribbage until the flight came. They eat at 11:00 pm over here so it is up late to eat and drink. We have gone to 5 islands and are currently in Mesolongi sitting out a storm. We are headed to the Corinth canal on Wednesday as it is closed on Tuesday. I guess they closed it for my birthday, Oct. 4.

We have had good food, lots of walks/hikes/runs and lots of hills! Having a great time. We are turning in the boat on Friday.

I still can't speek Greek!

Bye

Dale and Dena/ Bruce and Fran
OK, we were less than prolific with our emails over the 2+ weeks we were gone. Now that we've returned, I will build an accounting of our trip here. I will follow a common technique used for building we observed while there. First, the site was prepared and marked. The concrete foundation and basic walls are going up now. Those will be left to cure for several months. The ground floor is then finished off. The other floors seem to be added as needed over the years.

Planning for the trip

Getting to Greece

Sailing the Ionian Sea

Transiting the Corinth Canal

As we approached the Corinth Canal from the West end, West bound ships were still exiting so we paused a while just off the shore of Posidonia. Our brief respite soon came to an end as they reversed the one way travel direction through the canal and our accumulated band of East bound traveling companions slowly made our way over the chain bridge and into the giant ditch.

Since the large freighters (and their tugs) take the lead through the canal, we fell in towards the rear of the line that crept through the canal. Our sailboats throttled back to stay well behind the lethargic freighter. The reduced pace allowed everyone to take in more details along the way. As we approached one of the three highway bridges that cross the top of the cut, we could see that it was lined with tourists taking in the view from above the ditch. As we passed under, they all re-boarded their bus for the next leg of their tour.

Finally, we crossed over the other chain bridge at the Eastern end in Isthmia, tied up to the quay and the skippers made their way to the control tower to sign papers and pay the €100 or so transit fee. The girls made their way to the nearby taverna, located strategically next to one end of the chain bridge. As it was raised, allowing car traffic to once again cross over, the taverna pretty much emptied out as the earlier crowd returned to their cars to resume their journeys.

There are several excellent online sources of information about the Corinth Canal:
Roughly speaking, they all boil down to this:
602BC The first known plan for a canal was made by Periander, tyrant of Corinth.
600BC The Diolkos (a paved road to haul boats) was built across the isthmus.
 67AD Nero, Emperor of Rome, began a project to dig the canal.
 67AD Nero got distracted in Gaul and abandoned the project.
1881 The International Company of the Canal of Corinth began building the canal.
1893 The Greek Corinth Canal Company completed the 2,495 year old project.

The canal is 6,343m long, up to 79m high and 21.3 to 24.6m wide.
(3.9 miles long, 300 feet high, 69 to 82 feet wide).

Sailing the Aegean Sea

Touring Athens

Getting Home

Summary of the tips we learned while on the trip:
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