29 Jul - 31 Jul 2004 Epidaurus

Mediterranean Sea

Saronic Gulf

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Epidaurus

SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the quay and with one bow anchor on a long chain.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 37° 38.25' E 023° 09.45'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Being thrilled by the exceptional acoustics of the amphitheatre of Epidaurus (which permit almost perfect intelligibility of unamplified spoken words from the proscenium or skene to all 15,000 spectators, regardless of their seating), another UNESCO World Heritage Site and designed by Polycleitus the Younger in the 4th century BCE, whilst watching a brilliantly staged night performance of Sophocles' "Philoctetes" in this best preserved (of all Greek) theatre which forms one of the finest pieces of classical architecture in existence.

Taking a local bus for a trip to the charming Venetian town of Navplion, the first capital of modern Greece, from 1829 to 1834 CE, and climbing up the 999 steps to the 216 m high 17th century CE Palamidi citadel, the most finely-preserved piece of Venetian military architecture (which was already captured by the Turks one year after it was completed and which remained under their control until 1822 CE).

26 Jul - 29 Jul 2004 Korfos

Mediterranean Sea

Saronic Gulf

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Korfos

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off Korfos town.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 37° 45.80' E 023° 07.84'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

24 Jul - 26 Jul 2004 Corinth

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Corinth

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Corinth

Yacht Harbour

SY "Kamu II" alongside.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 37° 56.49' E 022° 56.14'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Paying tribute to the fact that our SY “Kamu II” is a French, 1975 CE model of a Trireme 43, thus focusing on the history of the Greek, classical trireme (it derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar) and visiting ancient Corinth, the place where this fast and agile ship was invented in the 7th century BCE, from where the trireme was introduced to Greece in the late 8th century BCE and subsequently became the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from the 7th to the 4th century BCE, when she was largely superseded by the larger quadrireme and quinquireme.

Climbing up to Acrocorinth (“Upper Corinth”), a 575 m monolithic limestone outcrop that was the finest natural fortification in ancient Greece, where the Corinthians paid homage to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sex, and visiting the ruins of the temple which was dedicated to her and which employed about thousand sacred prostitutes, both male and female, and where they became so sinful and excessive that the good Greeks coined a new word, korinthiazomai (literally: to act like the Corinthians, figuratively: to fornicate).

Paying the total of € 160.- in canal dues for the only one-hour lasting fun of motoring through the 3.2 nm long and 25 m narrow Corinth Canal (completed in 1893 CE, with steep limestone sides that rise up to 90 m above sea level at the highest point) from the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea.

23 Jul - 24 Jul 2004 Ay Saranda

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Corinth

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Ormos Ay Saranda

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the beach.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 14.11' E 022° 53.64'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

21 Jul - 23 Jul 2004 Itea

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Corinth

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Itea

Town Marina

SY "Kamu II" alongside.

€ 8.- per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 38° 25.82' E 022° 25.30'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Taking a local bus and visiting spectacular Delphi, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, regarded by the ancients as the site of the omphalos stone, the centre of the earth and the universe, and home of the famous Delphic oracle whose answers were artfully vague and often obscene but who had the reputation of being more truthful than anyone elsewhere, exploring its famous ruins from the 6th century BCE (the Temple of Apollo, the numerous Treasuries, the Stadium, the Theatre with 5,000 seats, the Tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia) and admiring the life-size statue of the Charioteer of Delphi, one of the finest examples of ancient bronze statues, in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

Refuelling from a tanker truck with 70 litres of diesel fuel for € 0.73 per litre.

16 Jul - 21 Jul 2004 Trizonia

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Corinth

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Nisis Trizonia

SY "Kamu II" alongside.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 38° 22.12' E 022° 04.60'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Meeting brilliant chef and lovely entertainer Alison at Lizzie's Yacht Club (a creative and adventurous restaurant with hot showers, internet, laundry and great views), buying a copy of her mom's book about her paradise found and enjoying the great company of Anita and Siegfried from SY "White Lady", of Linda and Kev from SY "Orion" and many other real characters from all over the (water) world.

15 Jul - 16 Jul 2004 Navpaktos

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Corinth

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Navpaktos

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the beach, outside the tiny medieval harbour.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 23.50' E 021° 49.90'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Motoring through the Straits of Rion/Anti-Rion and under the new 2,880 m long, five-span (longest span: 560 m), cable-stayed suspension bridge with an air height of about 80 m, an engineering masterpiece owing to several solutions applied to span this difficult site (with a considerable water depth of 65 m, with unstable and doubtful ground for the foundations, with seismic activity, with the probability of tsunamis and with the expansion of the Gulf of Corinth at a rate of about 30 mm in one year due to the tectonic plate movement).

Visiting the minute medieval harbour of Navpaktos, once the best on the N coast of the Corinthian Gulf, now accessible only to the smallest craft, with our new hard tender and climbing up to the Venetian castle which towers impressingly over town and harbour and which successfully resisted a four month's siege by a 30,000 man strong Turkish army in 1477 CE.

Remembering the year 1571 CE, when 206 galleys and 6 galleasses, manned by 12,920 sailors and carrying almost 28,000 fighting troops, of the united European forces, consisting of a Genoese and Venetian squadron, the whole Mediterranean fleet of Spain (with Miguel de Cervantes aboard) and a squadron from the Papal States, decisively defeated the Ottoman main fleet of 222 war galleys and 56 galliots, manned by 13,000 sailors and 34,000 soldiers, under Ali Pasha, in the Battle of Lepanto, the five-hour sea battle that saved Christendom (for the time being).

10 Jul - 15 Jul 2004 Patras

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Patras

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Patras

Yacht Marina

SY "Kamu II" alongside.

€ 18.- per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our marina berth:

N 38° 15.62' E 021° 44.27'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Matt: Dismantling, rinsing and descaling the silted/blocked double-walled exhaust pipes of our Perkins 4.236M diesel engine and thus stabilising the engine temperature at a perfect 78° C; thank you for your help, Benito and Andreas.

Visiting the ancient site of Olympia in Elis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of temples (e.g. the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Zeus), priests' dwellings and public buildings (e.g. the hippodrome and later stadium, the Prytaneion and the Philippeion, the Bouleuterion and the Palaestra, the Gymnasion and the Leonidaion) where the Olympic Games took place every four years, beginning in 776 BCE, and where the Olympic flame of the modern-day Olympic Games is lit by reflection of sunlight in a parabolic mirror at the restored Olympia stadium and then transported by a torch to the place where the games are held.

Taking a train ride on the toy-like 750-mm gauge rack-and-pinion railway (known to Greeks as the odontotos - "the train with teeth"), built in 1885 CE and featuring several tunnels, up the spectacular Vouraikos Gorge from Diakofto (a seaside resort between Corinth and Patras) to Kalavryta, thus climbing over 720 m during a 22.5 km journey, and walking back downhill right inbetween the narrow rails.

09 Jul - 10 Jul 2004 Missalonghi

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Patras

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Missalonghi

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off Nisis Tourlis, on thick sea weed.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 19.13' E 021° 25.09'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Loosing the signal from the depth sounder because of a thick u/w carpet of sea weed and slowly lowering our 45-pound CQR anchor into the murky water of an “unknown depth" where it touched unexpectedly the bottom in only 3 m of depth with just 1 m of water left below our keel, thus anchoring just outside the dredged canal and right in front of the fishermen's stilt houses.

Matt: Changing the diesel engine's thermostat without solving the irritating overheating problem.

08 Jul - 09 Jul 2004 Ormos Skrofa

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Patras

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Ormos Skrofa

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off Nisis Skrofa.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 18.55' E 021° 08.30'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Noticing that the temperature gauge of the engine showed more then 100° C for the first time ever and thanking the unknown British engineer who had designed and marinised our (overheating and still perfectly ticking) Perkins 4.236M work horse.

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04 Jul - 08 Jul 2004 Pera Pigadhi

Mediterranean Sea

Ionian Sea

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Ithaka Island

Ormos Pera Pigadhi

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the beach.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 19.77' E 020° 44.65'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

Anchoring almost vertically below a high rock slope, called the Koraka, corresponding to the Korax in Homer’s Odyssey, the Ravens Crag, where allegedly the Fountain of Arethusa flowed and where Eumaeus the swineherd lived and kept his pigs.

02 Jul - 04 Jul 2004 Sarakiniko

Mediterranean Sea

Ionian Sea

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Ithaka Island

Ormos Sarakiniko

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, with one bow anchor and two long land lines from the stern.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 21.90' E 020° 44.24'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map

30 Jun - 02 Jul 2004 Ormos Filiatro

Mediterranean Sea

Ionian Sea

Hellenic Republic of Greece

Ithaka Island

Ak Koutaria

Ormos Filiatro

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, off the beach.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 38° 22.47' E 020° 44.61'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2004 Map