Corinth to Marmaris

[Buena Vista]

We will be spending 4 - 5 weeks cruising through the Corinth Canal to Marmaris in June this year and would appreciate any advice and suggestions on an itinerary, preferably day sailing.

We welcome any advice at all, but specifically we are looking for advice on good anchorages, things to do, things to see, favourite retaurants, places to avoid, prevailing weather in June etc.

Thanks in advance
Brownie

[Jacques2]

Hi !
It will be the best period for sailing Eastward . Enjoy it !
You will find a lot of answers to your questions in the Imray Pilot Book for Greece and Turkey. After reading it, you will have - of course - new questions but it will be easier to answer to precise one point or another one.

[svBeBe]

There are many others on this forum that have more experience in that area than us, but here is a list of some of the places we visited last summer (listed west to east):

1. Aegina (or Aigina) 37.44.53N 023.25.68E Anchor outside the marina area. Easy walk to good provisioning. See a guidebook for the historical things to see. We also anchored at Profitis Ilias Cove on Aegina for a few days at 37.41.90N 023.28.03E to wait out N winds.

2. Piraeous (Athens) --Zea Marina 37.55.99N 023.39.22E There is room to anchor outside the marina but I would not feel safe about leaving my boat unattended there. Very easy access to train/subway to Acropolis-Parthenon. Excellent museum with active archaeological dig beneath. Large Carrefour across from the marina for easy provisioning.

3. Varkiza (only if wind from N) 37.48.96N 023.48.51E Gorgeous large beach. Nice town for lunch. Can also catch bus into Athens to get to Parthenon but only if leave someone aboard in case wind shifts. Completely untenable if wind from W or S. Should wind switch to S, you can move about 6 NM north around the point to Kavouri and anchor at 37.49.02N 023.45.80E. There is no dinghy access to land at Kavouri so it is not possible to catch a bus into Athens from there.

4. Sounion 37.39.18N 024.01.09E Temple of Apollo on hill directly above anchorage; not a difficult hike up. Depths greater than shown on charts. Small sandy beach. We anchored there 5 times, once for 4 days to wait out 40+ kts wind. Easy bus access to Athens.

5. Kea 37.40.14N 024.19.20E Anchor on eastern side or town quay on western side. Best visited NOT on weekends because fills up with Athens motor yachts and partiers.

6. Kythnos (our favorite) 37.24.88N 024.22.67E Hot spring up hill at northern side bay of this anchorage. Great sandy beach. Very ancient ruins on hillside on south side of bay. Not tenable in W winds but great for all other conditions. Excellent place to wait out meltimi. No provisions. Isolated except for 1 taverna.

7. Syros 37.23.67N 024.52.60E Our favorite island. Dock at town quay. Short walk to bus into main town of Ermoupoulis. Also can rent a car for a day to visit the unique old walled city Anos Syros on the mountainside and to explore the island. Anos Syros is not to be missed.

8. Mykonos 37.27.86N 025.19.60E Dock at unattended 'marina' with no power or water. Take bus into town to clear in; do not attempt to walk because road is far too narrow and dangerous with heavy tourist bus traffic. Spend one day wandering the town. A 'must-do' is a ferry day trip to the ancient sacred island of Delos. Takes a full day to explore this site. There are also several places to anchor on the southern side of Mykonos but getting a ferry to Delos would be difficult from the southern side.

9. Naxos 37.06.26N 025.22.48E Dock at marina across from town quay (only tiny local fishing boats can dock on the quay itself). Walk the town. Lovely place with hundreds of restaurants and bars. Another Temple of Apollo but it is really only a doorway. The temple at Sounion is the biggest and best preserved. From Naxos you can take a ferry to Santorini (Thira). It is safe to leave the boat in Naxos. Or you can sail down to Ios and take a ferry to Santorini from Ios, but sailing back north might be impossible due to the normally strong northerly winds.

10. Ios 36.43.35N 025.16.41E Try to moor inside the tiny harbor on the inside wall of the town quay. Tie off leaving about 2 metres distance from the quay wall because when the high-speed ferries arrive or depart there is a huge surge that causes lots of back & forth movement against the quay wall. Most people take a ferry to Santorini (Thira) from Ios. Absolutely do not leave your boat in Ios moored to the newer outer harbor docks on the WSW side of the harbor. In N winds that outer dock is totally untenable and you must vacate immediately. Personally, I would feel safer leaving my boat in Naxos for a few days for a ferry trip to Santorini than leaving my boat in Ios. FWIW, we sailed to Santorini and anchored overnight in the caldera near a tiny island; but there is no access to Thira itself. Best to see Santorini via ferry.

11. From Naxos (assuming visiting Santorini via ferry from Naxos), I would sail farther eastward -- next stop at Fournoi about 60-65NM. We stopped at the southern tip of Fournoi in an isolated bay 37.31.93N 026.30.36E. We stayed only 1 night in the isolated bay and did not go ashore. There was nothing there.

12. Samos 37.41.30N 026.56.77E Can anchor outside the harbor at Pythagorion or inside on the town quay. Great beach on outside; great town on the inside. Lovely place. Easy to take bus to main town of Vathi if you wish. Lots of touristy things to see and do.

13. Kos 36.53.75N 027.17.32E Clear out of Greece. Motor over to Bodrun and clear into Turkey 37.02.05N 027.25.57E

14. After clearing in Turkey you have your choice of so many anchorages that it is pointless to list them here. The only anchorage that I would say is a 'don't miss' is at Knidos where there are extensive Roman ruins. It is a tiny anchorage with a tiny dock in front of the single restaurant where yachts raft-up nightly. Very reasonable rate and electricity is available. 36.41.09N 027.22.47E

15. A good last anchorage before entering Marmaris is at Serce 36.34.63 N 028.02.83E. The entrance is difficult to find until you are practically on top of it, and there is a reef extending from the southern side in the entrance so hug the northern side of the entrance closely. Once inside the bay does a 90-degree turn to the right. Way up in there are some moorings. We stopped only overnight and did not want to bother with putting down the dinghy to go to a restaurant, so we anchored on the left just inside the entrance. Several gulets were also anchored there, but they all moved on before sunset. From Serce it is only about 22-25Nm into Marmaris.

Judy

[maxingout]

We went in the opposite direction with the meltemi blowing against us every day. We arrived at our next anchorage by noon every day to escape the carnage. You should have a great trip.

[Buena Vista]

Judy (svBeBe) - excellent information thanks, just the sort of thing we were looking for to get us sarted.

Dave (maxingout) - sounds like a tough trip, did you have any favourite places along the way?

Brownie

[atoll]

if you are coming from the ionian through the gulf of corinth,i personally would spend more time exploring the gulf of corinth which has some great unspoiled spots,is half the price of the aegean,has no charter boats,and very few tourists.

my favourite is nisos trizonia,a ,protected natural harbour with free mooring,a tiny island with a few tavernas,great seafood at affordable prices.

agios nikolaos,protected anch with fishing harbour and small town.

erateini nr galaxidi,sheltered anch.

Galaxidi protected harbour and anchourage,from here you can arrange day trips to Delfhi and consult the ancient oracle!!!

there are numerous other beautiful sheltered bays on the north side of the gulf of corinth

personally the aegean in june is somewhere to be avoided!!! unless stopping in the more southerly islands

[Buena Vista]

Originally Posted by atoll

if you are coming from the ionian through the gulf of corinth ........

Thanks for the input Atol, yes we will be coming through the Gulf of Corinth. We hadn't thought too much about this area but will certainly add it to the itinerary.

Brownie

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Buena Vista

Thanks for the input Atol, yes we will be coming through the Gulf of Corinth. We hadn't thought too much about this area but will certainly add it to the itinerary.

Brownie

you might want to get hold of a copy of the imray guide by rod heikell, for the ionian this has the best info for the area.

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by Buena Vista

Judy (svBeBe) - excellent information thanks, just the sort of thing we were looking for to get us sarted.

Dave (maxingout) - sounds like a tough trip, did you have any favourite places along the way?

Brownie

Every place was a favorite anchorage after beating to windward for half a day. Fortunately there were plenty of good anchorages a half day apart.