Peloponnese

The Peloponnese

Updated Aug 19, 2006

General Cruising Area in the Peloponnese

Taken from Google Earth

From Athens, our route around the

Peloponnese including our Fall Trip to Italy

Our First View of the Peleponnese from Sea

In the background a sailboat can be seen trying to make its way north against the NW wind

using the shelter of the Peloponnese to escape the 3 foot swells (The photo tends to flatten out

sea so the swells cannot be discerned too well.) We did an inland trip that took us through these mountains. Click here to see some of those pics.

A Look from Dakare's Nav Station at the

Weather for our First Days in the Peloponnese

Our First Cloudy Night All Summer!

(The images shown are taken with Dakare's APT Satellite System)

Our first night in the Peloponnese, we saw our first cloud cover.

The next morning our satellite wx showed us this pic.

Looks like the wx we saw that first day moved out over Turkey

Sept 14, 2006

Approaching Weather - Sept 14

Yellow Cross is Dakare's position - Clear wx at pur location

The system is approaching from the west, just at the foot of boot of Italy

The redder the image, the stronger ths weather system

Weather the next Morning, Sept 15, 0400 UTC

Leading edge has moved across Italy and is approaching the Peloponnese. The system appears to have dissapated over night but may grow during the day.

And in the end, we got nothing but sunshine. About 3 days later, we got a light shower from some of the system that was still passing to our north.

Places We Visited:

Cheli Bay

Mistras

Monemvasia

Mycenae

Sparta

Nafpolini

Pylos

Cheli Bay; Sep 13-14, 2006

Cheli Bay, just north of Spetsai Island, was our first stop in the Peloponnese. On the chart it looked pretty interesting and as we approached Cheli we were quite impressed with the homes lining the water. Obviously there is some serious money there. Unfortunately, the bay itself was a bit disappointing. It was a great anchorage from the standpoint of protection, but it delivered little of what we were seeing outside the bay. Inside, there was a small town and a yard with a very small wall for some yachts to tie up. The rest of the bay consisted of not so attractive hotels and businesses servicing the locals. We had ample room to anchor.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Cheli is that was in Cheli that we saw cloud cover for the first time since we cruised the Aegean. We thought for sure that we would get some rain but it never happened. As such, we only spent the night in Cheli and moved on the next day.

Cheli & Spetsai Island

Cheli Bay

Cheli was a very well protected bay with ample room to anchor

Mistras; Sept 17, 2006

Some Scenes from Mideival / Byzantine Mistras

Monemvasia; Sept 14-21, 2006

Our orignal intention was to stop at Monemvasia for 2 nights so we would have a full day to see Ancient Monemvasia. As it turned out we uised Monenvasia as a staging area to see the interior of the Peloponnese. Thus our 2 day stay turned into 8 days. This is so typical for us. With that said, it turned out to be a good move. We wound up being side-tied in front of the Coast Guard at the small fish boat marina. There was plenty of depth for Dakare along side the quay. We had access to unlimited water and there was no charge to stay. What a great deal! Typically we could plan to spend about 50-60 EU/night + water and electricity. That could have been in excess of 400 EU. So of course we wanted and did take advantage of the free slip.

Peloponnese By Car

Our inland trip is drawn in Red

We rented a car in Monemvasia and drove to Sparta, Mistras, Mycenae and Nafpoli. We also returned via the mountain roads. The trip through the mountains with its deep ravines and gorges, high summits and vertical walls made for an interesting return trip. The scenery was spectacular.

Google Earth View of Monemvasia

If you look closely you can see the causeway

connecting Menomvasia Island with the Mainland

Perspective of Monemvasia Island and the Mainland

Monemvasia Harbor - Dakare is on the left and the old town is shown as a red ellipse on the right.

According to Heikell (Pilot Guides), parking Dakare in the Fisherman's Harbor was iffy.

In fact, it was the best thing to do. We side-tied immediately in front of the Coast Guard Boat. The winds were blowing out of the NE and causing a swell into the harbor both on the north and south sides on Monemvasia. Being able to tie up into the Fisherman's Harbor provided us with the opportunity to get a good nights sleep.

Monemvasia from the Sea


Our First View	Karen Capturing the Moment

West Wall	East Wall

Center of Old Town	Church on Top of Massif

Monemvasia Schematic

The layout of Monemvasia, The Lower Town of Old Town can be seen on

The lower right. Upper Town, where the elite lived, can be seen in the upper section

center of the island. The Byzantine Church, Agia Sophia is the Yellow Mark

in the upper Tight of the diagram while the Citadel, the highest point in Monemvasia

is delineated by the most right-centered portion of the red trail shown in the center of the island.

The causeway is to the left.

Sunset over Monemvasia

Monemvasia - From the Inside


Dakare in Tiny Harbor with Monemvasia in Background	Lower Town Left

Lower Town Center	Lower Town Right

Repairing the Wall - a lifetime Job!!! (Look Just left of center and you will be able to see one individual on a ladder. His job is to repair the wall. he was there with a hammer, punding on the wall manually to remove loose rock)	The Entrance Street into Monemvasia

Main Street, Manemvasia	Donkeys are necessary to move supplies

Entrance into Upper Town	The Tunnel into Upper Town

Agia Sophia on the Summit	One of the 16 Cisterns on Summit

The Dome inside Agia Sophia	Agia Sophia

Preserved Mural in Agia Sophia (15th Century)	View of New Town from Old Town Citadel (You can see the modern causeway connecting the island to the mainland)

You can't get any higher than this! Top of the Citadel	Karen after Summit, Ready for a Cool Drink

What's left of Upper Town	The Causeway Connecting Up & Downtown

A Few More Scenes from Menomvasia

Mycenae; Sept 17, 2006

The Mycenaean culture, which flourished in the Late Bronze Age (1700 -1100BC) applies to all of the Mycean culture spread thoughout Greece and the Aegean. Mycenae was a fortified citadel. Only the ruling class lived in this hilltop fortress. Artesans, farmers, merchants, etc. all lived outside the citadel.

Better Than Current Day Soap Operas!

2 Accounts of Agamemnon's Death

Taken from Doreen Kinderly's Book - Greece, Athens and the Mainland

The Curse of the House Atreus (p 179)

The Death of Agamemnon (p 53)

King Atreus, King of Mycenae, slaughtered his brother Thyestes's children and fed their corpses to Thyestes. For that outrage, the gods laid a curse on Atreus and his descendants. Thyestes's surviving daughter, Pelopia, bore her own father a son, Aigisthos, who murdered Atreus and restored Thyestes to the throne of Mycenae. Atreus also had a heir, the energetic Agamemnon, who seized power.

Agamemnon raised a fleet to punish the Trojan Paris, who had stolen his brother's wife, Helen. He sacrificed his own daughter (To Artemis) to obtain a favorable wind. When he returned victoriously, he was murdered by his own wife, Klytemnestra, and her lover - none other than Aigisthos. The murdering pair were in turn murdered by Agamemnon's children, Orestes and Electra.

Klytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, had ruled Mycenae in the ten years that Agamemnon had been away fighting in Troy. She was accompanied by Aigisthos, her lover. She was intent on taking revenge for the death of her daughter, Iphigeneia. Klytemnestra receives her husband with a triumphal welcome and then brutally murders him with the help of Aigisthos. Agamemnon's fate was a result of a curse laid down on his father, Atreus, which was finally expiated by the murder of both Klytemnestra and Aigisthos by her son Orestes and daughter Electra.

Also see: The Golden Mask of Agamemnon

Also see: Our tour of Troy

The Entrance Into Mycenae

Believed to be the Oldest Monumental Reliefs in all of Europe,

The Lion's Gate (Cerca 2500BC), still stands guard over Mycenae,

Sans Their Heads


Mycenae fortification on the hillside	Entrance into Mycenae

Burial Area A unearthed by Scheilman	The gate from the Inside of the fortress

The Cyclopein Walls claimed to have been built by the Cyclops	The Tomb of Atreus or alternatively The Treasury of Atreus

Nafpolini (Nafpolion), Sept 17-18, 2006

Nafpolini was once the capitol of Greece immediately after Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire. It had been settled and influenced by the Venetians and that influence can be seen all over the Old Town in the architecture. It is a very charming town, with many streets blocked off to traffic. It has become a popluar tourist attraction for good reason. It has much to see and enjoy. Below we tried to capture some of the flavor of Nafpoli. We highly recommend going there. It was, in addtion to Monemvasia, a major highlihgt of our trip to the Poloponnese.

The harbor is in the center of the chart and the Old Town area is shaded.

The Palmadi fortress (Shown in pics below) is off the chart but immediately behind

Old Town.

Around and About in Nafpoli


Dan and Karen Enjoying Sundown, Overlooking...	...the Bourtzi Defensive Castle in Nafpoli Harbor

Our Hotel, King Othon in Old Town Nafpoli	The Hotel Othon is just behind the bell tower in this pic

Talk about good Ice Cream... This is the best we ever had anywhere in the world. Made on site ...	...with fresh milk, it was fantasric!!! Made with more pistachios than normal, this pistachio gets a 5 Star rating - Special Note: The pistachios come from Aegina

The Bavarian Lion commissioned by King Ludwig in 1834	Another View of Old Town

The Palmadi Fortress

The 3rd and Upper Fortress Overlooking Nafpoli


Town center and lower fortress - now a hotel on the left	Karen mucking about in the upper fortress

Edible Fragosiko growing high on the cliff	Nafpoli as seen from the Fortress

	A Horrible Dungeon

Inside court near Kolokotrones Dungeon	The Upper Fortress from a lower bastion

We Took The Senic Tour Back to the Boat

(Nafpoli to Monemvasia)


The Scenery was great!	The mountains were massive and the gorges deep

Elonis Monastery

Mountain Top Village	We ate at a little Mom & Pop Taverna in the Village

Sparta; Sept 17, 2006

The Spartan King Leonides

Spartan King Leonides now stands guard

in front of the local high school

Some Scenes from Ancient Sparta

(What little there is left of it)


Paved Trail Through Olive Trees leads to the small site that was Old Sparta	The Theater the best preserved part of ancient Sparta

New Sparta in the background past the Olive Trees	Another view of the Theater and New Sparta

Pylos; Sept 21-25

On the cusp of the left most Peloponnese finger lies Methoni and Pylos. Pylos had a 2 mile wide enclosed bay and we chose to stay there rather than Methoni that is open and exposed from the SE to the S. A cute little town, seemingly only occupied by local Greeks and a few German sailors. One couple, Evelen and Richard on the M/S Rush turned into very good friends. We spent quite a bit of time with them and exchanged many ideas and information.

Pylos Harbor

Pylos Town with Dakare's Track Shown

Wildflowers of Navaronne / Pylos

A Worthwhile Consideration!

One item in particular that proved to be very beneficial for Dakare is Richard's Wx Satellite System. Richard had fabricated a true 1/2 wavelength stainless steel (Imnox) antenna to receive NOAA Wx Sat pics (APT) and had found a source for a signal converter and software display package. He now sells this system: Antenna 450EU, Converter R2FX 250EU. The prices shown included shipping. A limited version of the software can be obtained for free and a paid for upgrade is available. The pictures shown below can be obtained with the version of the free software. This is about 2 to 4 times cheaper than most commercially available systems. The fantastic thing about his system is that it outperforms my commercial system by many fold and has a greater deal of flexibility in how the wx imagery is displayed. We don't normally advertise products but this is a case where I think an exception is warranted. We are really impressed with this system and anyone who is interested in this type of technology should give it a consideration.

Pictured to the right is the antenna as fabricated by Richard. Each antenna is individually tested to ensure that they are optimally tuned and functional. Richard can be contacted at: msrush@web.de for further information regarding his excellent and extremely price competitive system.

Phone:

0030 / 6938528310

0041 / 1713414705

Thanks to Richard, I have now adopted the same software (WxToImg) and I am using it in parallel with my existing Ocens Software. This is proving to be a real boon in interpreting the wx information contained in the wx satellite photos. In particular, I like the MCIR with Precipitation setting that comes as one of the options on the system to view the files. It is superior to my IR cloud enhanced photos with Ocens (See Below.)

Real-Time Weather Sat Photo Showing Thunderstorms and Precipitation

NOTE: The images shown above do not do the sat pics justice as they

have been reduced in pixels to display them in this website. The

noncompressed versions of these images are really impressive.

Scenes From Pylos


Rock Formation Leading Into Pylos & Navaronne Bay where the allied naval forces of England, France and Russia inadvertantly defeated the Turkish Navy and was the turning point in the war for Greek independence	Paul & Cheryl Shard on Two Step quite qaccidentally found Dakare while they were rounding the Peloponnese on their way to Malta. Great to see them again.

Evelin & Richard on M/S Rush (See A Worthwhile Consideration! above)	Pylos Town

View of unfinished marina from town	Town's War Memorial (War of Independence)

Area Bounded by Navaronne Bay and Nestor's Cave


Sign pointing the way to Nester's Cave	Nestor's Cave in the middle

Sign pointing to Navarino Castle	Navarino Castle

View of Voldokoilio Cove from an arch high above in Navarino Castle	Greece's Best Beach - Voldokoilio Cove Protected, warm, clean, beautiful fine sand, not crowded and geologically interesting

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