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| Kilada entrance |
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| 2017 at the Argolic Gulf entrance - time to reef the sails |
The Continental Coast of Greece has many big gulfs. We have already talked about the ones in South Peloponnese, the Messiniakos and Lakonikos gulfs. From the South coast, sailing 60nm to the North along the Peloponnese we will enter the Argolic gulf, named after the oldest European city, Argos, which was once one of the Greek major cities, well before classical times.
Argos lies at the end of the gulf, and I have referred to its brilliant history, in the previous post, about the region that is continuous to this one:
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| Waiting for the big wind - Genoa furled and two reefs on the main |
https://cruisingalma.blogspot.com/2022/10/sailing-and-cruising-in-different-greek_25.htmlFor the ones that sail from the North, sailing from the Saronic Gulf, the Argolic gulf is the first big one to SW, after passing through the small Hydra gulf. It lies a bit more than 50nm from Athens, the major city in the Saronic gulf, and Greece's modern capital city.
As on the East coast of the Peloponnese, the Meltemi blows here with much less force, and for the same reason: strong katabatic winds coming down from the continental mountains run along the gulf and oppose the Meltemi.
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Astros' port |
When the Meltemi runs wild on the islands of central Aegean this gulf is heaven and, contrary to the East coast of Peloponesse, it offers great sailing conditions.
In this gulf, except at night, there is rarely no wind. The wind blows with less force in the morning and increases in the afternoon but rarely blows over 20kt. 10 to 15 knots are the prevailing conditions and that is one of the reasons I really like to sail there.
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Astros' beach |
For that reason, and also because, as the wind blows parallel to the gulf's length, there is always a nice place to stay at the end of 16nm of great upwind sailing, on one, or the other side of the gulf, because this gulf offers a big number of nice places, ports, and anchorages.
But, pay attention, and if you see, far away towards the continent, the sky turning dark gray or even black, don't hesitate to reef your sails (a lot), and don't do it too late.
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| Astros, view from the port |
Two times, sailing there I saw the wind turning almost instantly from 12 or 13kts to 45, and one of the times I saw a catamaran escape narrowly from a nasty accident, unable to take the main down and heading to an island, without the possibility of changing direction, due to a potential capsize.
At the last moment, they succeeded in bringing the main down, controlling the boat with the engine. I saw things so badly for them that I followed the cat to pick the crew up, in case they chose to jump out before the cat hit the rocks. With only a little bit of genoa out, I was doing 14 to 15kts, and not looking for speed, just trying to prevent the boat from going faster, and maintaining full control.
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Nafplio: at the right, the old walls |
These sudden squalls are not predictable and are not previewed in the forecast, have to do with katabatic wind amplified by a front, and don't last more than half an hour.
If you reef your boat in time they will not cause any problems because the sea has no time to grow, and even if the waves are very steep, they will not be bigger than one meter.
Note that you will find much more cruising boats here, and incomparably more charters than in the previous regions I posted about, but even so much less than on the Saronic Gulf.
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| Nafplio: the fort at the port entrance |
The proximity of Athens international airport and the many charter boats that are stationed around are the main reasons, as also the generally gentle or moderate wind conditions that characterize these two gulfs.
There are fewer charters but there are at least two fleets that operate in the gulf.
There are many ports and anchorages in the gulf and the chances are that the two fleets are somewhere else, but if you sail enough time here, you will have the bad experience of seeing one fleet arriving at what was before a quiet port or anchorage, and that will probably spoil you the day.
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Tolo and Tolon island |
You will think that no way, there would not be enough places for them, but you will be wrong because they will find a place in a way any other cruiser would refuse, rafting the boats, mooring alongside several boats, or anchoring the boats very close, without respect for any privacy, or even security, making a lot of noise and partying.
Anyway, you will get lucky most of the time, and there are some locations where they usually will not go, like for instance Tolo.
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Tolo, at the right, Plateia island
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Continuing sailing North along the coast and exploring the gulf's left shore, at about 12 nm of Tyro (see the previous post) we will find Astros.
You can anchor on each side of the port, along the beach. The bottom provides good holding, in both cases, but the North anchorage is better, because on the South one they don't allow you to go near the port entrance, or the beach and the protection will therefore be limited.
Providing there is not a strong wind from the South, the port is surprisingly good, deep, with many places, water and electricity are available.
Unfortunately, since the last time I have been there, it seems that the port was turned into a sort of base for a charter flotilla and only 6 places are left for visitors, a very small number if we take into account the number of places available in the port, that is relatively big.
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| Tolo |
On the weekend it is not advised to visit because that's when the charter boats use the port and besides the confusion, there will be few places, if any available.
Astros is a very nice little town, a fishing port that is now mainly turned to tourism but not yet to mass tourism. You will find plenty of restaurants, a nice ambiance, and affordable prices.
Sailing from there to the North gulf coast, which we could call the end of the gulf, there is plenty of places you can anchor, being the bottom mud with good holding and small depths, but the landscape is not particularly nice and you will be far away from land.
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| Tolo |
After Astros, the first truly interesting place is Nafplio, near the end but already on the gulf's right side. Nafplio origins are very ancient, being independent of Argos till 2600 years ago when it was conquered by Argos and became its port.
The city's origins were linked to its qualities as a natural port, and the strategic defensive position that the nearby hill provided.
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| Vivari, entrance |
The ancient city was there, surrounded by walls and only its location explains how it was able to survive so many years independently, having as a neighbor the powerful Argos, which was 2700 years ago one of the main powers, in ancient Greece.
In more recent times Nafplio didn't lose its importance as a commercial port, first, as a Byzantine city, then, conquered by the Franks (in the 4th crusade), and later as a Venitian city, before being conquered by the Ottomans.
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Vivari |
Few will know that the city was, in modern times, for some years, the capital of the First Hellenic Republic.
You can anchor outside, but North of the city the protection is limited because the depths will not allow you to get protection under the port walls. South, the protection is better but the bottom is a mix of rocks, seaweed, sand, and mud and the visibility is not always good to choose the right place for setting the anchor.
The port has almost always places for mooring and the city deserves a visit. It is a nice quiet place that escaped mass tourism and a good place to rent a car to visit ancient Argos, the oldest European city.
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| Vivari |
The port had a problem with a bad smell (that seems to be taken care of), it does not have electricity and you have to take care with the holding of your anchor (let it go far away from the quay) because the bottom is mud, and in some places soft mud, that does not provide a good holding.
If strong North winds are expected I would not leave the boat there unattended, but in normal circumstances, if you previously tried the holding pulling the boat against the quay with the engine, it is adequate and those disadvantages are well worth the quietness, and the availability of places without too much fuss.
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View from the anchorage at the entrance of Kilada |
To the South, among the Gulf East shore, the first nice anchorage is Karathonas bay, a big one with a sandy bottom.
Plenty of people ashore on the beach but few cruising boats and the bottom allows you to stay far away from the beach, and from the noise. Three beach restaurants ashore that close at the end of the afternoon. At the weekend loud music is to be expected, and the restaurants will close later.
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| View from the anchorage at the entrance of Kilada |
Near, to the East, you will find Vivari, a very protected anchorage, at the end of a deep and large cove. One that was hard to find when the navigation was not by GPS and plotter.
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| Anchorage at the entrance of Kilada |
The landscape is not as nice as in Tolo, but the protection is even better, the restaurants are cheaper and I had never had trouble finding a place to anchor, without excessive proximity to other boats.
Such good anchorages have been used since ancient times and normally have a story, and an ancient city behind them, and that is the case here.
At the end of Tolo bay, on the hill, over the rocky promontory, you can find the ruins of Asine, which were already old in Pausania's time.
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| Anchorage at Kilada's entrance. At the right, the little chapel |
He says that then only the Apollo temple was standing.
The ancient city that Homer named among the ones that had a fleet, was razed by Argos during its war with Sparta. Asine allied itself with Sparta, but after an initial success, when the Spartan returned to Lakonia, Argos completely destroyed Asine, leaving only the Apollo temple standing.
The inhabitants fled in the fleet and the Spartans gave them land, in the Messiniakos gulf, for building a new city.
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Kilada cove |
They raised a new Asine where today is Koroni. You can find there the ruins of another Apollo temple. I have talked about Koroni and the Messianakos gulf in this post:
https://cruisingalma.blogspot.com/2022/10/sailing-and-cruising-in-different-greek.htmlFrom there, sailing North you get to a big bay with two beaches, spoiled by several sea farms.
To the East you will find Salantis, a deserted small bay, with an almost deserted beach, and nice scenery, only a bit spoiled by the ruins of a hotel.
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Kilada cove |
You will find a sand bottom and suitable depths to anchor. If the wind is strong from the North probably you will experience some swell and some rolling.
But I do prefer the small cove that you will find to the East, almost at the entrance of Kilada and that is almost always deserted.
It is easy to spot because on the North side it has a chapel.
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Kilada cove, the entrance |
It does not look to offer much protection, but I have been there several times without any problem, and the protection is much better than it looks. The bottom is sand with some rocks. You have to search, but if you do that you will find a perfect place to lay anchor (to the center), and it is worth the trouble because the scenery all around is beautiful.
From there if you sail to the East you will enter the big Kilada cove, which, protected by Koronida Island (private), that lies in its entrance, offers one of the most protected anchorages in all of Greece.
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Kilada cove, the entrance |
As would be expected you will always find there a lot of cruisers, but the space is so big that there is always space for another sailing boat, without being too close to your neighbors.
Amazingly the surrounding area and Kilada village seem to have escaped a massive touristic occupation and the general impression is of tranquility, being the views around quite nice.
The village is very agreeable, with good restaurants, good provisions, nice prices, and nice people. There are some small quays there where boats with small draft can moor, but it is always crowded and I prefer to stay on anchor. There are plenty of places to leave the dinghy when going ashore.
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Kilada cove, the village |
I like the place a lot and I have thought several times about leaving the boat on the hard for winter in the shipyard that lies at the end of the cove, and that manages the miracle of not being conspicuous, being almost invisible from the anchorage. The shipyard has an excellent reputation, but the prices are a bit too high for the ones that have a low budget.
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| Koronida, the private island that closes Kilada cove |
Just a bit more to the North you will find Porto Heli an amazingly good natural port that was a bit spoiled by an extensive urban occupation along its shores, and that last year was further spoiled by a new huge marina, that is constituted mainly by floating pontoons that occupy part of the area that was used for anchoring.
It is ugly, expensive, badly projected even if I believe that it will bring more charters to Porto Heli, as well as permanently fixed fleets, and that's what they want.
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| Porto Heli, the quay and the city |
Before this monstrosity, you could moor at the city quay, and because there was no electricity and the water was expensive, it was not particularly difficult to find a place.
The quay is nicely integrated into the city, that without being beautiful, has a nice atmosphere, good cafés and restaurants and was a great place to replenish the boat with food, water, and diesel, with supermarkets just in front of the quay.
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Porto Heli, entrance |
It has also one of the best chandleries to buy anything needed for the boat. The shop is small but the owner is very helpful and knowledgeable, and if needed, will go to Athens to get what you want, without charging more.
I have not been there since they built the new marina (2021), but for sure, Porto Heli did not become nicer, and that is not something new.
This should have been a very beautiful place before beauty has been taken away by men and their disorganized urban occupation. The new marina is just the last chapter of a long process.
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| Porto Heli |
But I know that they still allow boats on the pier and probably it will be easier now to find a place.
Probably it is still a good place to replenish diesel and water tanks (by trucks) and to take shelter from bad weather, in the quay, at anchor, or even at the marina if you don't mind paying 5 times more than on the quay.
With Port Heli, we reached the East entrance of the Argolic Gulf. To the East lies Athens and the Saronic Gulf, with the small but beautiful Hydra Gulf in between.
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Porto Heli |
That is the region where most Aegean charters are located, one of the regions with more cruising boats around.
Maybe I will talk next about the few anchorages in that region that are not crowded, even if I only cruise there when I am escaping from a strong Meltemi.
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| Port Heli, view from the quay |
I prefer to do that than to be forced to stay for a week or more, in a port, or in an anchorage, waiting for the Meltemi to subside.
But one thing is for sure, with new big marinas in Porto Heli and Ermione there will be new charter fleets operating from there, and with these places as a new center, the relative Argolic Gulf tranquility will have its days numbered.
So, if you want to know the Argolic Gulf as I have described it, hurry, because it is not going to take long for the Argolic Gulf to be as crowded as the Saronic Gulf.
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