We arrived
at the dockside of Khalkis and were assisted in going alongside by Geoff, a
Frenchman who has spent 30 years living in Wales(those old wine smuggling
routes die hard, eh?) – His wife, Simone, speaks English with a strong French
accent but he speaks English with a Welsh accent. They were a very nice couple on a very nice
31’ cruiser.
The bridge with its currents
The transit
is an ancient one. The Emperor Justinian
was the first to bridge the distance (that we know). It can be a terrifying piece of water. The current reverses up to 7 times a day, and
even at times has north current in the mainstream and south on the periphery, a
sort of whirlpool. The reason for all
this has yet to be explained and Aristotle himself was so perplexed by his
inability to understand it he is reported to have jumped in in frustration! Maybe it was just an August day?
The current
You have to
find the Port Police to book your transit – not easy, as they are in back alley
with no signs until you see the building’s doors. It costs E18.77 to pass, and you are
instructed on the procedure. The Port
Police control the nightly passage but it is Khalkis Municipal Employees who
determine slack tide/slack current and decide when the bridge will open. You are instructed to be on standby from….x,
usually 10:30pm or so. From then, the
Municipal guys monitor the flow and then hit the “go” button and you have 10
minutes to get your bum into gear.
Your radio
call comes “Common Sense, Common Sense, Prepare Your Boat! To which you answer “Port Police, Port
Police, this is Common Sense, Understood.”
To get out
of our berth was the stuff of nightmares.
In front was a 70’ Plastic Fantastic which we dare not hit, and behind
were 2 yachts rafted up, cutting off an easy escape. The plan was to have the Admiral hold fast at
the bow with a forward line (extra fenders added) whilst the lackey on the
wheel hit reverse and full left rudder to rip the stern out to midstream, at
which point the boss could let go and we would proceed in a stately fashion
backwards into the channel. Worked
perfectly. No boats were damaged in the
filming of that exercise, and we then ponced about in the channel waiting for
the bridge to part (it falls down a little, then retracts to each side from the
middle). At one point in the procedure,
me foolishly assuming I was first, I glanced upstream and saw the massive
fishing boat Konstantinos bearing down on us.
This is a bridge where might-is-right and big guys go first. I let him pass. Then the call came from the Port Police
“Common Sense, pass the bridge.” I swung
in behind Konstantinos and then found a cheapskate plastic dude trying to cut
me off – a couple of these motorboats arrived late and we knew they hadn’t had
time to register and pay. Suddenly he
backed off and Carol said he had just been told by the Port Police to get back
in line! Didn’t know her Greek had
improved to that level, but back off he did.
Through we
went. Now we’ve done this a few dozen
times going down the ICW, but this one is apparently a drawcard. There were hundreds (hundreds!) of sightseers
on the bridge waving and cheering as we thundered through, hoping for all get
out that the tide didn’t suddenly kick in.
Once through, we ambled off to starboard to a huge wide open bay that is
30’ deep almost to the edge and anchored for the night in still calm
waters. The tension was all relieved, we
hadn’t hit anyone and we hadn’t hit the bridge and the Australian flag was
flying high (we had a young girl come along earlier in the night asking it we
knew so-and-so because they moved to Australia.
She was a bit young to understand how big it was but I’m sure if her
friend’s brother plays for Carlton I’d know).
We also met a man called Peter who lives in……Karrinyup. Milverton Avenue to be precise. He is mostly retired, the kids run the
business and he has bought an apartment down near the bridge. He wanders to Greece each year then heads
home when it starts to go coldish. He
offered to help us out by driving us to hardware stores but I’d already gone
all over town not having any success so we missed a later catchup.
Out in the
bay, it was a couple of dry-and-dry’s and off to the bunk. (Cinzano Bianco, 750ml, €6.00, not even on
special!)
Down the channel
Today was a
big one. 51.8 nautical miles. We passed a superb new bridge over the channel
to Evioa, 128’ high from memory, with a whole mess of guys in small boats
fishing in the narrows. Each one had a
beach umbrella on his boat and a small inboard motor and tiller.
Farther on
down we passed one of the signs of “Le Crise” in Greece – an entire modern
cement plant idle and shuttered. Then,
three or four small ships laid up, rusting away.
Cement plant - out of commission
Rusting away
We came
across a man out chest deep in the water fishing for ? Maybe occies?
He had a pole which didn’t have any net on it so it wasn’t for scooping
and he was way out in the water. Any
suggestions?
?
We were
intending to anchor in a small village only 12 miles from the last night’s
anchorage but we got there so early we decided to make some more miles.
Bad move.
The Meltemi
kicked in and we were then hunting for a home for the night in 40+knots with
one 52kn coming off a mountain. Long
story short, we motored right across the channel and are in…..
The Bay of Marathon
What a
beautiful bay this is. We are at least a
hundred metres from shore and are still only in 14’ of water. The charts lie. We couldn’t get a hold in close (so we
couldn’t swim in to the beach bars L ) but further out we are in tight.
The Bay
This is
where Darius the Persian dickhead got his arse well and truly whipped by the
Athenians in 490BC. Darius didn’t like
the fact that the Athenians and the Eritrian cities combined to assist in the Ionian
revolt. (We passed Eritria earlier in
the day.) He sent two guys with a
bucketload of men and ships and took Eritria but then when he tried Athens, he
came up a little short and all his guys got killed a lot. We are only 17.4 nautical miles from Athens
here, about 30-something kilometres.
Looking into the west here we can actually see the two passes the
Athenians blocked off to bottle the Persians up. This setback, and then Darius’s son Xerxes'
unfortunate encounter with Leonidas and the Spartans, gave rise to 200+ years
of Greek ascendancy and then the rise of Western Civilisation. The wind is still howling somewhat but the
Greeks camped in the trees are enjoying themselves - it is the final week of
Greek holidays and some are still making the most of them here.
The Admiral
and I are enjoying Gilbey’s G&Ts in the cockpit - the wind might blow, but
it is a hot wind and we are still in our bathers.
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