Yesterday, we awoke to a fine morning for our passage through the Corinth Canal and into the Saronic. Our booking time for entering the canal was 10.00 and the instructions were to call Corinth Canal Traffic Control on VHF Channel 11, when we were 3nm away from the entrance.
We arrived in good time and were told to wait to the north side of the basin and await further information. Whilst there, a very large industrial floating convoy emerged from the canal, making it clear why the canal operated a one way only system!
Two more boats signed in, one, Maya, a sailing catamaran and the other, Sarah, a large motorboat towing a tender. After a number of exchanges between traffic control and the three waiting boats, Sarah was told to take the lead and head into the channel and we were to follow.
We entered the canal bang on time, which was impressive coordination by Traffic Control.
The canal cuts through the narrow isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland. Construction started in 1881 but due to geological and financial problems, the work was not completed until 1893.
At 3.2 miles long, 25m wide the maximum permitted draught is 6.5m and the limestone from which it is cut rises to 79m above sea level. It really is an awesome sight as you pass through as can be seen from the following images.
The canal closed in Spring 2021 after rockfalls and significant work has been ongoing since then. It opened for the summer in July 2022 then closed again for construction to continue through the winter before opening again just 3 days ago on 1 June 2023.
The level of work being undertaken is clearly visible whilst transiting through the canal.
The total journey time was approximately 30 minutes before we emerged back into the open sea.
From here, we were not exactly sure where our next mooring place would be. We had requested a berth at Zea Marina, who had not yet responded and there were also options anchoring on Nisos Salamis, just off the north coast of the Greek Mainland or finding a spot in a harbour or bay on Aegina, further to the south.
For once the winds were with us so we hedged our bets and had a lovely sail between these points for about 4 hours.
With no news from Zea, we decided to head to Aegina where there was quite a bit of choice regarding where to spend the night.
Firstly, we briefly popped into Aegina harbour but it was absolutely packed so we quickly exited and made our way south towards Perdika.
This proved to be a good move as we found a lovely small harbour with room to moor, dropping our anchor and reversing up to a new quay. Again, the skipper of the adjacent boat kindly helped us with our mooring lines and we were soon securely tied up.
As the afternoon and evening wore on, we were pleased that we had arrived when we did as many other boats tried to find space in the harbour and by 19.00 it was packed with many craft rafted between the moored boats.
Around the harbour there were lots of fish tavernas, some of them specialising in octopus.
We chose one of these for dinner, which was a great end to a memorable day.
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