What to do while the Meltemi blows

Eastern Peloponnisos, Greece

Meltemi winds are the strong, dry north winds of the Aegean Sea, which blow from late June or early July to September, reaching full strength in July and August. They blow strongest in the central Aegean, typically peak in the afternoon and often last for days without a break. The winds are dangerous to sailors because they can come up in clear weather without warning and blow 30 to 40 knots. While some boats take advantage of the wind and sail south, most find a safe harbor and wait it out, especially if you are headed north, like we were.

One of the major pastimes in these situations is to watch other boats; watch them anchor, watch them drag, watch them re-anchor. And that can take an enormous amount of time from the day. With the windy, heeling, spinning conditions on Berkeley East, the Meltemi makes it difficult to do any major boat projects, but little annoying repairs can be accomplished. Whatever the task or activity, it must be something that can be abandoned on a seconds notice and returned to after the crisis at hand is resolved. Cleaning the cabins and catching up on the blog also made the list of things to do while waiting for the wind to pass. Blogging seemed like much more fun than cleaning.

Just days ago, we were enjoying some very beautiful, peaceful weather in the Saronic Islands and eastern Peloponnisos. We were actually complaining the wind was often too light to sail. We went from anchorage to anchorage, town to town without much concern about the weather.

Party in Poros

In Poros, a large landlocked bay, we anchored BE out and took the dinghy a mile into town in flat water. We also water skied in calm conditions, with the exception of the large wakes from the passing ferries. It was a completely different world than the experience of the Meltemi.

While in Poros, we enjoyed the “Supermoon,” the largest and closest full moon of 2013. It was spectacular from the boat, so we decided to go into the full moon party at the hotel across the bay and see it from land. Only in Greece can there be a full moon party in a location where you cannot see the moon. We sat, watched and chuckled as groups flowed into the hotel bar looking for the moon, only to be told it was not visible from the “Full Moon Party” location and they had to go to the other side of the hotel. Clearly it was just an excuse for the locals to have a party at the hotel’s beach bar. Eventually, at about 4 am, the moon would be visible from that spot for anyone who was still awake.

The windmill perspective

We often laugh when we see photos of Greece in travel brochures and cruising guides, as they are usually incredible aerial shots that look nothing like the view from a boat or the land. It really is deceiving, and it is next to impossible to see the town or area from that point of view. Ermioni is a quiet town on the mainland of the Peloponnisos. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much. But when we realized that it sits on a long finger with water on three sides, we began searching for the highest point to get that eagle eye view. We found it on the hill, at a windmill restaurant and Ermioni quickly became a completely different place, one of the most beautiful we had seen in Greece. Perspective is everything.

Nafplio – Nafplion – Navplion – Nauplion – Nauplia

Never have we seen so many different spellings for the same name of a town, and the list above are only the English translations, there are also the Greek spellings. But even though we didn’t know how it was spelled or pronounced, Nafplio – Nafplion – Navplion – Nauplion – Nauplia quickly topped the list of our favorite places in Greece so far.

Oraia (beautiful) is the word Greeks use to describe Nafplio – Nafplion – Navplion – Nauplion – Nauplia, and we agreed with that assessment immediately. The town is a mix of Greek, Venetian and Turkish architecture with winding streets and charming squares paved in flagstone and marble.

The imposing ruined fort Acronafplia sits high on the hill, 900 steps above.

We arrived on a Friday and anchored on the town dock. It looked like a sleepy place, with a huge, empty parking lot behind Berkeley East. How sad, we thought, that was yet another lovely town fallen victim to the slow Greek economy. But just hours later, the parking lot was full of cars, the streets were full of people, the restaurants and bars were buzzing. Surprisingly, we were some of the few international tourists there. We were surrounded Greek tourists on holiday. We quickly settled into the place, it had a wonderful, lively vibe.