All good things must come to an end so we bade fare-thee-well to the group on ‘My Way’ and sailed towards the Gulf of Patras – the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Basically to get to Athens you have two ways – sail around the Peloponnisos or into the Gulf of Corinth and through the Canal. It’s about 200 miles shorter to take the canal route so we chose it – after getting away late from Croatia we have to make up time, plus the pictures of the Corinth Canal are spectacular. Well to get to Corinth you must sail through the Gulf of Patras and then find a place to hide out. 
For our first stop we chose the city of Messalongion. It is a quirky little harbour with a very run-down waterfront and no visible services. We anchored out because the docks at the marina weren’t connected to the land so we’d need to use our dinghy anyway. We went ashore (Jessie, Marina and I) and walked about 6 blocks through a rough commercial / residential neighbourhood before we got to town. Much to our surprise, it was a nice little town and if we had more time I would have liked to explore more. As it was we bought some really tasty ground chicken, fruit and other staples and headed back to Ross and the boat. The most memorable part of Messalongion is the long canal to get to the harbour. The area has a number of salt marshes and the channel is dredged. It reminded us of the Bayou in the movie Forrest Gump – with old cottages, mostly run down, standing on piers or stilts and a bunch of docks in similar levels of disrepair.
I notice a surplus of forest gump references, are you fans? Also hearing about your trip is uber-cool, but you know what they say, seeing is believing! Maybe another photo essay?
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