16. Corinth Canal, Athens and Aegean

4th November 2008

On the last day of October we waved goodbye to the Adriatic and Ionian Seas and entered the Corinth Canal. The Corinthians prospered by pulling ships across the land on rails but several people attempted to dig a channel. The current canal was started by Roman Emperor Nero who used 6,000 Jews to dig. But he was distracted by other problems and abandoned the project and it was the French in 1893 who finally blasted through the rock to join the two seas and it is a wonder of engineering. I felt a little sad that todays Greeks have not repaired the canal, rather kept it open by brute force – dredging and blasting ever wider canyons. Remnants of the amazing stone wall that originally lined the canal still exist but much of it has crumbed away, battered by the wakes of the traffic.

At each end there is a road across and this road is LOWERED into the canal to let you in and then out 3.2 miles later. We followed a tanker and a catamaran through. As we motored over the road we heard our French live-aboard friends – a young couple with a 9 month old beautiful daughter- radioing for permission to enter the canal. We slowed to allow them to catch up but to my shock they started to raise the road under us – we sped up! We later caught up with them in Athens, they had to wait just under an hour to be let in.

We are very blessed by perfect weather 99% of the time, and so it was in the Aegean. Apparently the weather has been awful for weeks here but since we arrived it has been as hot and sunny as mid-summer. So here we are in November back in our coolest clothes, sweltering in heat that is in the 40’s C in the sun. Also the wind has actually blown in the right direction and we have had all our sails out of their bags again for the first time since Croatia. The only down side is that since we have been in Greece there is a permanent haze which means that we have not been able to see the dramatic views that we know are there in the mist. To start with the misty mountains and coastline seemed romantic but after 4 weeks of it the novelty has worn off!
We had been warned that Athens was dirty and noisy and told that Aigina town on Aigina Island was a good base rather than one of the Athens Marinas. We loved Aigina which is an extremely busy place due to it being very pretty, close enough to Athens for the Athenians to come for the weekend or even a day and has a plentiful choice of good restaurants. It also has very good fish and vegetable markets, bread shops and pistachio nut stalls. The islands main industry apart from tourists is the pistachio orchards. Unfortunately these trees have lowered the water table to below sea level and now all water has to be imported. We were told that the water could not be drunk by one restaurant owner but I continued to drink it and Deep Blues water tanks are now full of it – so far no ill effects. I will not drink bottled under any circumstances!

I did a beach clean here while Andy windsurfed (Aigina is, however, one of the cleanest places we have visited in Greece) – the fishermen come for an evening of line fishing with a plastic bag or two for their catches. They push them under a rock and when they have no luck leave them for next time (which of course never happens). They also leave their beer and water bottles, cigarette butts, broken line, hooks and snack wrappers. I literally filled a dust-bin – just metres away from the spot I was cleaning. I felt better after I had finished the job! Andy said the Greeks should give me a special award though secretly thought I was mad!

We visited Athens by ferry, a 1 hour trip into the smog (air) and oil (water) that surrounds Athens. We did all the usual sightseeing – once we could work out where the old centre was! Given that we arrived by a ship used by tourists to a port full of cruisers, there was a distinct lack of tourist information. The Metro system is a legacy of the 2004 Olympics and is excellent. We got out at the stop suggested reluctantly by the ticket office and once again– not a tourist office in sight, no maps, nothing. However this time at least we could see the acropolis. After several dead ends we eventually found an entrance and joined the coach loads of Japanese and Americans looking at the site.

On the way to the parliament building we could see from the hilltop and navigated our way to via the streets full of tourist restaurants and huge volumes of traffic we stumbled upon the changing of the guards. The dress of these poor men is ridiculous for a hot country – it was 30C in the shade – all wool including thick tights, kilts, socks and shoes with large pom-poms. If you ever saw Monty Pythons ministry of silly walks sketch – the Greek march is their influence. We tried not to laugh because the poor men were obviously seriously hot. It seemed like a form of torture to us. High kicks with a pause, long steps and shuffles made up their repertoire. We were their only audience.

We also started on our long list of jobs saved up for Athens. This included buying guidebooks for the next stage of our trip and Body Shop creams. However, due to the cost of the ferry we decided that to complete our job list – which included another new battery, new carrs as our old ones had worn out, pullies for the top of the mast (oh no!), springs in preparation for heavy weather mooring, oil, spare parts for the engine and any number of other boaty bits – we would ignore the advice and sail to Athens itself. We are now in only our second marina since leaving Dubrovnik – luxury! – and it is clean, surprisingly quiet and very convenient for the most amazing range of chandleries and engineering shops we have ever seen in one place. Also more boats than we have ever seen in one place. A huge port and four marinas. We have managed to buy everything on our list.

6th November 2008
We left Athens behind. It was too dirty, noisy and not very appealing. Not a place you fall in love with. Many parts reminded us again of India in the 80’s. Despite the Olympic facelift and millions of European money the place still has an unloved feel to it. The Greeks seem to have fallen out of love with Greece. Poverty probably has a lot to do with it but I also think tourism has a lot to answer for. We come in our millions on package holidays. We demand hotels in the prettiest and most unspoiult places, en-suite and unlimited water. We demand beaches, night clubs, mousaka and fish. The Greeks provide, in fact go to town, building fast and cheap. And then we, at a whim of economy, abandon Greece leaving them with unfinished hotels, lower water tables and empty souvenir shops, clubs and restaurants by the dozen.

Nowhere brought this home more than Ayia Marine on Aigina where we have just left. We know it is end of season but there is hotel after self-catering lodge after shop abandoned. The south of the bay is scarred by a skeleton of an enormous hotel – started but never finished. The place was a ghost town. But its greatest asset was still intact and this was what we had come for. The most complete temple from 500BC in the whole of Greece. It sits at the top of a high hill above the bay and has the most glorious views. And what a feat of engineering. Huge columns carrying enormous lintels of marble. Water systems that channelled rain water collected on the roof to deep man made wells. Clever roof tiles that also acted as gutters. We were so impressed. We were lucky to have the place to ourselves for nearly 1 hour before two coach loads of three-Greek-Islands-in-a-day (yes, seriously) Japanese, American and Chinese tourists arrived for a ten minute look as the site was closing.

We have now sailed over 2,000 nautical miles and on board we are back to two swims a day, blue seas and anchors. We have left the main land behind and will now pick our way through the Aegean islands as long as the weather permits. We aim to be in Turkey sometime in December – before Christmas. Fay is about to leave port for the Caribbean and Piers continues to struggle with Chinese grammar and food. We are all so far apart but have managed to keep up regular contact via e-mails and mobile phone. The wonders of modern technology!