Cruising Log for Greece, 2009

Image: Map of cruising in Greece 2009. Credit: L. Borre. — Map of Gyatso’s cruise through Greece, 8/29/09 to 9/30/09.

Sailing from the “boot” of Italy across the Ionian Sea to Greece at the end of August 2009, we then spent a month island-hopping our way to Turkey. Gyatso will be wintering-over at Yat Marine in Marmaris, Turkey, so we made a beeline through the Greek Islands from the Ionian Sea, through the Corinth Canal, to the Aegean Sea. After a summer of little wind and no rain, we experienced an abrupt change in the weather. The meltemi (north) wind blows strongly for days or weeks on end in July and August but luckily begins to die down in September. Even so, we stayed in port several times waiting for the weather to improve. This gave us the perfect excuse for exploring inland, the highlight of which was a visit to ancient Delphi. A month is just enough to get a flavor of Greece. After visiting 15 ports and 12 of the Ionian, Cyclades and Dodecanese Islands, it definitely whetted our appetite for more. Our cruising log and passage notes for Greece are provided below in reverse chronological order.