We left Mandraki Bay on Hydra on Thursday October 4th in almost flat calm conditions. It seems amazing that only a few days before, all hell was letting loose with the weather gods. Still we weren’t complaining. We motored for about an hour to the corner of the Peloponnese that would signify us finally making it into the Saronic Gulf, where we will overwinter. It feels good to know that we are only a day sail away from the boatyard on Salamis island, near Piraeus.

We stopped for lunch on the corner of the island of Spathi where it was turquoise water and blue skies.

Spathi – a lovely lunchtime spot

We had thought about staying there overnight but it was a little bit too exposed to the northerlies that were due so we continued around the corner to the island of Poros.

The monastery of Zoodochou Peges

We anchored in Monastery Bay and then walked up the hill to the monastery.

Monastery Bay with Nimmie in the picture!

It was a lovely spot although the bay itself had seen better days and was probably indicative of the financial crisis in Greece. There was no spare money to sort out the rubbish and the dilapidated buildings. It also turned out to be one of the most rolly anchorages we had ever been in. The wind died and so we sat beam on to any wash coming from the ferries, yachts and fishing boats that were making their way to Poros Town. By 8am the next morning we were ready to move on to Poros Town Quay. We knew it was very popular so we wanted to get in early as people were leaving.

Poros Town is a lovely place sitting on the south side of the tiny island in an incredibly protected channel. It’s only a short sea taxi ride between Poros and the mainland town of Galatas but they are worlds apart in terms of prosperity. Poros is clearly a tourist destination with cute shops in steep, little alleyways as you walk up away from the harbour front. We ended spending two nights there and having a couple of meals out.

Poros Town

On Saturday evening we had cocktails watching the sunset behind the mountain range known as the Sleeping Lady – we will leave it to you to work out why so named!

The Sleeping Lady

Refreshed, we left Sunday morning to go onto the peninsular of Methana and the little harbour of Vathy. It’s now very popular with flotillas so we were hoping that Sunday would be a quiet day. There was no wind so we motored all the way round (some 20nm). When we arrived, there were only 3 boats there so we tied up to the quay and met our neighbours, 3 Australians with another Westerly boat, a Westerly 490.

Nimmie with her big sister, Shindig

Vathy is a delightful place with nothing but a few fishing boats and a few tavernas.

Vathy Harbour, Methana