Happy Halloween

No trick or treating here in Greece, so we hid candy on the boat and the kids had to find it with flashlights.   Halloween meets the Easter bunny.... Found some Greek gourds that worked as pumpkins, except that they start to rot faster than normal pumpkins - I was neurotically sniffing every corner of the boat until I finally found the source.  They also dyed our hands a curious orange - see Hugo's hand in second photo below. For costumes, the kids dressed as comedians and put on a show, see jokes at bottom.

Skeeker in her pumpkin costume.

She always scowls like that.

No pumpkins, but Greek gourds will work

 

Hugo's pumpkin: family on one side, boat on the other

Maggie's pumpkin:  "BOO" (with a heart over it!)

Instead of a ghost in a graveyard,

we had a ghost on a halyard

 

Ghosts flying around the cabin

(especially as we sailed in a good breeze)

 

Selections from the Halloween comedy show on Tenho:

 

What do you call a bear with no teeth?  A gummy bear. 

 

What did the elder chimney say to the younger one?  You're too young to smoke. 

 

Why shouldn't you write with a broken pencil?  It's pointless. 

 

Why did the cowboy adopt a weiner dog? He wanted to get a long little doggie. 

 

The two fish are in a tank and one turns to the other and says "You man the guns and I'll drive." 

 

What's invisible and smells like carrots?  Rabbit farts. 

 

What do cats eat for breakfast?  Mice Krispies. 

 

What washes up on tiny beaches?  Microwaves. 

 

What to you do with a sick boat?  Take it to the doc. 

 

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?  Pumpkin Pi.

 

Happy Halloween from the crew of Tenho!

dinking around various Greek islands

After five months of pushing hard to cover ground and make it to Turkey for winter, we’re within spitting distance and with the pressure off, we’re all enjoying the slower pace and have been just dinking around Greece’s Aegean islands.  The last week we’ve been hopping from one idyllic little harbor to another in between the howling winds that seem to hit every few days, first from the north, then the south, then the west….  It’s been a nice mix of seeing towering ancient Greek ruins at the Temple of Aphaia and the Temple of Poseidon, hiking through the fall hillsides to see long-abandoned Byzantine villages and roads, enjoying melt-in-your-mouth freshly harvested pistachios, olives, cheese and wine…  But best of all has been simply watching the kids enjoy the little things, like feeding the local harbor geese, watching ants put away seeds for winter and exploring in the dinghy.



Temple of Aphaia, built in 480 BC, on Aegina

Church in abandoned Byzantine village on Aegina

Village was active 800 - 1,800 AD

 

Watching ants on the old Byzantine Road on Paros

 

Feeding ducks in Naoussa marina on Paros

Still some blooming wild plants on the islands,

mostly cyclamens (shown here) and crocuses

Island life is much slower

without all the tourists...

 

Most marinas are deserted, so here Hugo takes the

dinghy in first so he can catch our lines when we arrive

 

Corinth Canal and Athens

Feels like fall has arrived…another good system of rain passing through and a 10 degree drop in temperature.  Luckily, it held off until we’d passed through the Corinth Canal and had a day exploring the ruins of Athens.

Before going through the Corinth Canal, we spent a night in the bay of Saranda, surrounded by high mountains devoid of any lights, with just a tiny village at the end of a long dark inlet.  Gave us a real sense of what it was like thousands of years ago. Going through the Corinth Canal was awe-inspiring, as we tried to envision life before the canal, when various empires ROLLED their ships across the land on rollers to battle each other on either side. The canal wasn’t completed until 1893, although not for lack of trying.  For example, in 67 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero tried to start digging but then had to stop and go fight the Gauls instead.  Speaking of Gauls, the kids have discovered the European comic books and movies of Asterix and Obelix, Gauls who fight the Romans. Can’t understand why these haven’t made it big in America…they’re hysterical!  (And historical!) 

As we approached Athens, we had a wonderful sail in, dwarfed by the monstrous cargo ships all waiting to go into Piraeus, the biggest port in the Med.   What a thrill to sail to the port where in 480 BC, the Athenian general Themistocles had the Athenian fleet as he went into the Battle of Salamis against Xerces and the Persian fleet.  What an amazing battle story - it even included a Persian heroine Artemsia, Queen of Halicarnassus and captain of five ships.  It’s been a relief to find some good female role models for Maggie on this trip.   Even at five years old, she wanted to know why the tooth fairy only gave her coins with boys on them.  Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony don’t get you very far with all those baby teeth!  Speaking of teeth, Hugo’s already lost five teeth on this trip and at this rate will be living off hummus and lentil soup in Turkey.  He wins the family prize for "number of teeth lost on different continents," (North America, Europe and Africa).

Two days in Athens is almost tragically short given all the things to see, however, I did't want to burn out the kids (or my  husband) on museums and ruins, so we focused on a few highlights to reinforce some of the things they’ve been studying.  The kids love making things out of the clay we sometimes find on beaches, so they particularly liked all the clay pots in the museums.  I see many buckets of goopy clay being hauled back to the boat in the future...

Next stop, the nearby island of Aegina where we go on our quest for the world’s best pistachio.

 

Deserted north shore of Gulf of Corinth

 

Gulf of Corinth, too small

for today's big tankers

 

Identifying types of pots...

...and drawing her favorite ones.

 

 

My favorite (given my recent

octopus encounter) : a 12th century BC

Mycenean pot with an octopus on it

 

This statue was found half buried in the sand in a shipwreck...

fascinating to see what saltwater does to marble. 

 

Our homemade guide to Greek columns



 

 

Maggie identifying column types



And of course...the Parthenon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gulf of Corinth/Galaxadi and Delphi

After Messolongi, we sailed under the Rio-Antirrio bridge at Rion, the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world and an amazing feat of engineering considering the deep water and geologic activity in the area, and anchored off the town of Galaxadi.   A picture perfect town with an ancient history and a nice museum describing its key role in Greek sailing ship building in the 1800’s, it doubles in size in summer with tourists but was wonderful to visit in the off-season.  Our only little hiccup was when we found the bread store closed on October 18 due to the anti-austerity protests.  The weather was amazing, with beautiful blue skies, flat calm water for swimming, and flowers still blooming all around. On one of our walks, we went down some steps to a small pocket of a beach, and I took my shoes off to walk in the water at the bottom of the steps.  I felt a little tickle on my ankle and looked down to see a long skinny shape disappear under the step.  I stepped away and looked down…a curious (hungry?) little octopus came right back out.

We also took a day trip to Delphi, the site of the most important oracle of ancient Greece until it was destroyed by earthquakes and Christian anti-pagan efforts.   Family favorite was the stadium where athletes competed every four years in the Pythian games roughly between 600BC and 400AD. According to the signage, athletes in the final races wore only helmets, shields and greaves.  We all had a bet on whether a greave was A) a Greek type of loincloth or B) a neck kerchief, or C) some other type of full body armor.   We all lost!

 

North half of the Rio-Antirrio bridge

 

Tenho anchored off the town of Galaxidi

Bougainvillea blooms all over town

 

Our friendly little octopus

 

Hugo shakes hands with the octopus

 




All that remains of the Temple of Apollo,

home of the Delphi Oracle

 

The stadium of the Pythian games at Delphi

 

 

Gulf of Patras/Messolongi

The Gulf of Patras is known for fall thunderstorms and did not disappoint either during our crossing or afterwards, while we holed up in Messolongi.  It's an interesting approach to the town from the Gulf, down a 3 mile long dredged channel with stilt houses, fishing boats and flocks of flamingos, in the largest natural wetland in Greece.   Messolongi is famous for its role in the 1821-32 Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman empire: Lord Byron, a British poet in the Romantic movement, came here to “help” in 1824 at the age of 36 and without any military experience, but instead died of fever, and after a year-long siege, Messolongi 's revolt ended and it fell to the Turks. 

When the weather improved, we had a perfect sail under the bridge at Rion and down the Gulf of Corinth to Galaxadhi, a lovely little seaside town where we’ve spent the last few days anchored in front of town.

Gulf of Patras thunderstorm. 

Many of the boats are already hauled up for winter,

although the marina also has a sizeable overwintering

group of cruisers.

 



Thunderstorm blowing across the harbor in Messolongi



 

Houses along the channel approach to Messolongi

 

Flock of flamingos in background

 

 

 

Arrived in Ionian Islands, Greece

It's about 250 nautical miles from Sicily to Kefallonia, the largest of the Greek Ionian Islands. We tried to time the two night sail so we would arrive in the morning, but with better winds than expected (and a wife who refused to slow down), we found ourselves skimming along calm seas above 8 knots, faster than expected.  The good winds continued, and by 3am on the second night we had arrived at our island (with a wife who refused to anchor on an unknown shoreline in the dark).  Before we knew it, the massive line of thunderstorms we’d seen in the distance was upon us, and we spent four hours doing doughnuts with lightning strikes all around, interspersed with blinding rain and howling winds, John cursing his obstinate wife the entire time.  Nothing like a little family adventure to make the heart grow fonder!  But all’s well that ends well, and it was nice and calm by the time it was light enough to see the narrow inlet, town and quay.  A day in the nice little town of Argostoli was perfect to clear Greek customs, resupply with fuel, water, and food, clean up the boat, and do some homeschooling.  From here we head east through the Gulf of Corinth between mainland Greece and the Pelopponese peninsula, then through the Corinth Canal to Athens.

The town quay of Argostoli. 

Deserted construction sites like the one on the right

have been a common sight on our trip. 

last stop in Sicily, now off to Greece

After the Aeolian Islands, we went through the Straits of Messina separating Sicily and the boot of Italy, believed to be the site of Scylla and Charybdis, the monster/whirlpool faced by Odysseus and Jason and the Argonauts.  Pretty mild when we went through with the wind and the tide in our favor, but given the rapid depth changes and tide/wind potential, I can see how it could get pretty rough if you timed it wrong.  But a whirlpool? 

We're now anchored in a lovely little bay on the east coast of Sicily right off the town of Giardini Naxos, which was founded in 734 BC.  To the south we can see the smoking peak of Mt. Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and to the north is the hillside town of Taormina, home of a Greek (and later Roman) theater with incredible views of Mt. Etna.   Spent a day enjoying the beach, then the next day figured out how to get up to Taormina: locked the dinghy on the beach north of the train station at the north end of the bay, then through the hidden pedestrian tunnel, up the rough switchback trail, and then even higher on a "mom forced march" to the Greek theater and Moorish castle at the very top.  Kids earned their ice cream today!

Tomorrow we head to the Ionian Islands in Greece, our last multi-day/night crossing on the way to Turkey.



Tenho anchored off the coast of Sicily near Giardini Naxos



View of Mt. Enta from the boat



Greek theater in Taormina

(Maggie in mom's big floppy sun hat)

The castle is on top of the highest hill in the background

 

Still plenty of flowers in October...

Maggie found a good place to put

one of them

 



Italy's Aeolian Islands

A big high has settled over the area, so not much sailing.  But that’s just fine because good natural harbors are almost non-existent on volcanic islands, and the bottom drops off so steeply that anchoring would be difficult in any kind of storm swell.  The Greek wind god Aeolus must be with us - it's been dead calm and perfect for seeing the volcanic Aeolian Islands!

There are seven Aeolian Islands, all part of Italy, and all easy day sails apart.  For example, one day we started on Lipari with a visit to the archeological museum, motored to Stromboli over lunch, and by 4pm we had anchored, secured our dinghy on the beach, and joined a guided hike of Italian, Czech and Russian men up the mountain (you can't go past 400m up alone).   It was a bit comical to watch the German hiking group head out, with their impressive array of hiking boots, gators, hiking sticks, fancy backpacks and helmets already on, as little 8-year Maggie waited for her turn to start the climb in her sneakers.   It was a two and a half hour climb to the 920 meter (~3,000 ft) summit, the last hour of which was steep switchbacks.  There was barely enough room for us to squeeze by the German hiking group, who had stopped to rest.  The suspense grew as we neared the top, where we passed an ominous heat shield-type emergency shelter, and could hear the rumble of the explosions in the crater and feel the fine sand-like ash occasionally raining down on us.  By sunset, we were perched on the edge of the crater (absolute lack of guard rails is another sure sign the Italian legal system must be different from ours), and every 20 minutes or so a big eruption sent magma hurling into the air in front of us.  In fact, the eruptions are so predictable that any regular and mildly explosive volcanic eruption is now called a “Strombolian eruption.” The most surreal part was the a capella accompaniment by the Chinese girl in the group who sang throughout the eruptions. If you've heard Chinese singing, you know what I mean.  After about an hour, we hiked/skied back down through an immense black sand field in the dark, no moon to dim the brilliant Milky Way above.  Back in the village at the bottom by 10pm, that good Italian wood-fired pizza never tasted so good!  We found our dinghy on the dark beach, motored back to the boat to shower off the black layer of volcanic sand covering us, and slept like logs.

Still in the throes of volcano fever, the next day we motored around to the north side of the island, where we drifted for hours, watching the huge rocks from the eruption spray into the air and then careen madly down the massive rockslide face of the volcano and plunge into the water near (but not too near) us.  The rocks were falling so fast you could actually hear them “whizz” as they fell.  And the slope was so unstable that the rocks falling and triggering more rockslides sounded like a steady rain in the background.  We came back again at night when all you could see was the glowing red shower of rocks blasting down and finally extinguishing themselves in the water.  

 



Stromboli, the "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean"

Hugo checks out the emergency shelter on top

 

 

On top of Stromboli!



Stromboli eruption

(note the edge of the cliff in the front of the photo,

just in front of us)



Maggie enjoying the motor around Stromboli,

swinging from the halyards in her harness

 

Sitting on the back deck of Tenho,

watching rocks from the eruption hurtle down

3,000ft and splash into the water

 

Finding obsidian and pumice on the beach

(I think half the beach is now on our boat)

 

in Sicily

We took advantage of the good sailing weather and sailed right past Sardinia and arrived yesterday in Sicily.  The pass between Sardinia and Sicily was the hot spot for tuna fishing!  Was great to finally get onto land though after seven days of being on the boat.  The Palermo port is a gritty busy working part of town...we were debating whether some of the buildings were falling apart from pollution and age or if it was still the carpet bombing of WWII that hadn't been fully repaired. Spent today reprovisioning the boat with more food, doing laundry (nearest self-service laundry was almost a mile away, but better than doing it all by hand...one of my least favorite parts of boat life), and then went to the marionette museum and theater this afternoon/evening, plus the obligatory mom-mandated church visit.

Sicily has quite a marionette tradition and the stories they act out are amazing - what a great way to learn history. We saw one about Orlando (aka Roland, in English), the valiant knight of Charlemagne, his true love Angelica, a pagan princess from Asia, and Agramonte, a Muslim African king.   The marionettes were as big as Maggie, and the show included conch horns, drums, player piano accompaniment, lights...and even though it was all in Italian, we had the cliff notes in English and Hugo's Spanish helped keep us up on the plot.  We could only imagine what it would have been like to see the entire story acted out over many months, like an old-fashioned version of a TV mini-series, rather than just in one night.   Inspired by the marionette theater, the kids made their own, complete with a princess who bashes the dragon on the head with a club, thereby saving the knight pinned underneath.

Tomorrow we head for the volcanic Aeolian Islands, then through the Straits of Messina to the east coast of Sicily. 

Fresh tuna for dinner!

Fish fileting lessons

A swallow joins us for a rest

Sicilian marionetttes

(as big as Maggie and Hugo, behind them!)




Maggie and Bradamante, the great female knight

 



Boat version of a

marionette theater



Sir Patrick and Princess Margaret

Draco the fire-breathing dragon