Autumn has arrived and now that Nakee has passed through the Corinth Canal, sailed through the Gulf of Corinth and is back in the Ionian, we have rainy weather and gale warnings.
We have logged about 1,413 miles so far in 2026 in our Circumnavigation of the Peloponnese, especially as we took a “side trip” down to Crete to visit Agios Nikolaos and back up through some of the Aegean Sea with a stop on Santorini.
As I write this we are on a short passage from Kalamos Island in the Ionian to Sivota, a safe harbour on the South end of Lefkada Island. There are gale and thunderstorm warnings for the Ionian but we hope to make port before it gets bad. Tomorrow Mandy and John disembark for their flights home to the UK. Kelvin few back a few weeks ago.
We have had some great sailing, especially in the strong Meltemi winds in the Aegean Sea. Down on Crete we spent 5 days at anchor in gale force winds in Spinalonga Lagoon, waiting for the winds to die down. The sailing in the Aegean in those Meltemi winds is generally more challenging than in the Ionian, however now that we are back in in the Ionian, we appreciate all the green on the mountains that we missed down in Crete and in the Aegean.
Pitcha, John and I also completed our STCW Basic Sea Safety Course at the QMS Maritime Training Center in Piraeus, outside of Athens. It was a 5 day course covering fire fighting at sea, first aid and and similar topics with a day in a local swimming pool climbing in life rafts. Having this STCW training certificate is one of the prerequisites for working commercially on yachts.
Next up will be some more maritime training and yacht maintenance. Nakee is due to be lifted on November 2nd and if the parts arrive from Italy, hopefully I will be able to have her transmission rebuilt to solve a slipping cone when shifting into forward. There are also a bunch of smaller maintenance jobs and various parts to be replaced over the winter to look forward to while we are in the Lefkada marina. Fingers crossed it won’t rain again as much as it did last year in Lefkada!
What a great journey! I am afraid “the lucky rest of us” must be pleased to have spent a week in that area doing a bit of island hopping while others are only dreaming… Thank you for sharing the info, I enjoy these updates a lot. Let us also know what your new insights are: is there anything particular you have learned and now would do differently? In any case keep enjoying life and best wishes to the entire crew!
Hi Jörg, thanks very much! One of my main take aways is that the Meltemi can blow at gale force for a week, and when it does, the waves get very large and the sailing is much more challenging than in the Ionian. The other take away is that it is much less crowded, boat wise, with charter boats, than the Ionian. There are so many islands to explore that one could spend years trying to visit them all. I also liked the Peloponnese very much, especially the Eastern end, will be back there! Hope you can come sailing with me aboard Nakee next year!