Sunday 21st - Monday 22nd October - last days at Varkiza

I hang on for a couple more days at the event site. Amongst the nations represented are Russia (competitors and coaches) and Turkey (jury member) and there is an opportunity to make some connections. To Tatyana and Pinar, I stumble an explanation of the plan: a Russia to Russia solo windsurf, a route going south on the Black Sea coast, an objective to reach Sochi.

12th October - end of day Hydra

A few hours upwind sail to the island of Hydra. Easy conditions, but have a silly fall whilst checking phone, and put some new holes in the sun damaged sail. Oh well, more clear than ever that a third sail will be needed, and have Insignia repair cloth to patch this mess up once on land. Stop at a beautiful spot on the car-less island of Hydra. Good conditions here - pebble beach, fresh water - to make a nice repair, and time enough left before dark to hike up the mountain behind the hamlet.

Friday 5th October - End of day - Elaía

Have become quite fond of Kokkala, but there's an opportunity to get away from what is a slightly awkward corner. Safest launch - that bypasses a windless shorebreak - is to throw sail in off dock and follow with board.

Decent sailing wind again so this a very brief update. Now into the Aegean and sailing up the east side of the Peloponnese into the Meltemi (NE) headwind. The coastline is stunning! Impressive scale, beautiful, and minimally populated. It really does remind me of Norway apart from being a) warm (no complaints) b) having more solid wind (yeah!) and c) having a river of debris running parallel to the coast. It's not just plastic, but plastic is everywhere in this flow-of-stuff down the coast.
Hope for a fuller catch-up soon.

A difficult few days. Headwinds make even short distances a challenge, the coast is either jagged limestone shore or shear cliff. The very few landing spots require long detours into windless dead-ends. Spectacular and remarkable, but not easy!

24th Sept - continued... End of day: Pylos

Search for the Kyparissia Eiffel tower. "Wrong town," says the sandwich bar guy, but helpfully provides directions (and a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBB1Z02RFmA) to the real not-real thing, a few miles up the coast. Excellent sandwiches (I go plural), and nice to exchange a few words :)

A few days out of Vasiliki now and already a wealth of experiences that have got away from me without being told... Here's an attempt at a catch up.

Welcome to Greece. Had a few low profile days in Corfu. Then made a front door entrance in the middle of Kalavostasi beach, meaning I met lifeguards Ioannis and Lazarus - and I couldn't have met nicer people. Next day I landed late and slept rough again, but in the morning almost the whole town of Vrachos beach showed up with coffee, breakfast, then lunch. Wind came before dinner arrived, so sailed to Lefkada, and met with Guy and Justine - french sailors first encountered along the Portuguese coast. Nice to reminisce a little :), they first spotted me at Nazaré...

Pleased I sailed the Albania route. There are easier ways to reach Greece but the less travelled paths are often the more interesting ones. Here are a few pictures of this ex-communist and until recently very secretive country. It is certainly a largely untouched coastline, though tourism is changing the aspect of the more accessible parts. Behind some beaches - apparently 'virgin' on satellite imagery - are now long terraces of apartments under construction. Time will tell if this progress leads to real benefits for the inhabitants.

Made it to Albania :)