After a busy August we headed south from Zakynthos to the quieter Peloponnese. The steering problem we suffered is documented in a previous post but we had a lovely relaxing time. We met up with the Dizzie crew in Katakolon to the relief of Hector and Phoebe-Plum who had old friends to play with again.

Katakolon is a strange town where everything opens the moment a cruise ship docks and closes as soon as it leaves. Here we hired a car and visited Mount Olympus, the amazing archeological site and the original location of the olympics.

In the picture of the ships below you can just see Yves Christian astern and in the foreground. The ships are about half a kilometre behind her and are like floating skyscrapers on their sides.

Cruise ships arrived every day bringing a whole town with them

One of the museums at Mount Olympus, cool inside

From Katakolon we headed south again to fix the steering. One of the highlights of the season was Pilos and Navarino Bay. A huge naval battle was fought here in 1827 as part of the Greek War of Independence between the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet and the allied navies of Britain, France and Russia. There was a secluded monument there.

A monument to the battle and a couple of churches

Waiting for the engineer and feeling battle-worn too

After heading to Kiparissia and our steering fix, we headed further south to Methoni, meeting our friends on board It’s a Doddle who had sailed clockwise around the Peloponnese. Beach time was great and all the children had a wonderful time ignoring their parents and playing all day and night.

It was time to part after a few days of fantastic R&R. It’s a Doddle to the north and us further south around the tip of the Peloponnese. I’d like to say it was good captaincy and weather forecasting, but there was a bit of a storm brewing further north and we had half an eye on heading west again at the end of the season rather than further south. We also wanted the kids to enjoy more time with the two children on It’s a Doddle, so we changed our minds at the last minute and went north too. And thank goodness we did…