David's Diary: Monday, May 26, 2003

Ay Eufimia to Trizonia, Greece

We had a farewell dinner out last night with the adults from Waltzing Matilda and Nowornot. It has been great to meet up with other cruising families, but we need to start heading east. Karalee and I are up at daybreak to cast off and head to the Gulf of Patras. The Gulf separates the Peloponnese from mainland Greece.

Bridge at Patras

Karalee takes the first watch and I get another hour of sleep. I take over midmorning and we are quickly passed by an enormous fast ferry. In the afternoon, we approach a bridge under construction. We can see the bridge pillars many miles away. There are no notes on my chart or in our pilot guide about the bridge. I watch other boat traffic to see where they pass and I head to the south to follow them. As we approach one of the pillars a Coast Guard boat with six men lining the bow roars up to us. We are told to call Patras Radio Control on VHF channel 14.

We call Patras Radio Control and we're told which way to go. We were already headed in the right direction, but we are then given a stern lecture about calling and navigational procedures in the Gulf of Patras. It turns out that we should have called Patras Radio Control when we were five miles away from the bridge construction.

Approaching Trizonia

The wind has been increasing all afternoon and after passing Patras we turn off the motor and start sailing in twenty knots of wind. Fortunately the wind is from directly behind us, so we sail with genoa only doing seven knots through the water. In no time we are approaching the island of Trizonia.

Moored in Trizonia

We round the corner of Trizonia, furl the genoa, and turn on the motor. We enter the bay at Trizonia and approach the stone quay. The wind is blowing at 15-20 knots directly off the quay. I get Dragonsinger close to the dock. Even with the help of some other boaters on shore, Dragonsinger is quickly blown off the dock. I jump ashore to help tie Dragonsinger. We almost lose control and afterwards Karalee and I realize that the only person onboard Dragonsinger was Allen. It reminds us that when docking we always have to make sure that an adult is onboard, just in case we lose control of the boat and have to circle around and try again. Fortunately, nothing serious happened this time.