The Peloponnisos is the southernmost mainland area of Greece. Strictly speaking it’s not an island, but it is separated from the rest of Greece by the Corinth Canal. This area is quite sizeable being roughly 350 miles from NE to NW. The famous areas of Sparta and Olympia are located here. The eastern side is on the Aegean Sea and the western side on the Ionian. On the southern side are three peninsulas, each about 24 miles long, forming two large gulfs. The tips of these peninsulas are known as the “Cape Horns of the Med”, due to strong winds and rough seas often encountered here but so far we’ve had only very light winds and smooth seas. The strong winds are very often katabatic winds coming down from the mountains that rise to 2,400m.
Brian and Carol arrived safely in Nafplio by bus from Athens.
The cruising guide said that Nafplio harbour had a faint smell of sewage, and it wasn’t wrong – the town sewage gets discharged into the harbour and the odour is very noticeable. Here we laid alongside a rough concrete jetty, which had old tyres fixed in position to act as effective buffers. These were needed as the harbour isn’t well protected from NW winds and had quite a slop.
Envoy lying alongside jetty in Nafplio
View of the Nafplio waterfront with castle walls in background
.JPG)
During our second day in Nafplio a catamaran was trying to berth alongside the jetty ahead of us, but came too close and hit our port for’ard stainless steel rubbing strake. No damage to us, but this was the second time in as many weeks that we’ve been hit by other vessels.
When visitors join us for more than a few days we report to the Port Police to get our Transit Log updated with our visitors’ name and passport details. This is very simple and involves filling out a few forms and paying a small fee of usually around 20 Euro, which includes a night’s stay in the harbour.
In Nafplio we also took on 600 litres of diesel at Euro 1.49 (about NZ$2.40) per litre. There is no fuelling berth, so the diesel is delivered by a small tanker. Although I’m not in favor of bio-diesel, this was in fact bio-diesel, but blended with our existing fuel the bio content will be minimal.
Brian, Carol and Laurie enjoying a beer in taverna in Porto Kheli
View of Porto Kheli taken from Envoy at anchor
View of Kiparissi taken from Envoy at anchor
.JPG)
Ieraka is a small, sleepy village in an inlet, completely hidden from seaward. Here we anchored in a depth of 5 metres and could see the anchor and chain on the seabed. Shortly after anchoring a large loggerhead turtle swam close by and looked at us curiously. Since then we’ve seen several more turtles up to about 1.5m long.
A loggerhead turtle swimming close to Envoy
.JPG)
Envoy at anchor in Ieraka (2)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Photo of Envoy at anchor in Ieraka shows the small harbour
.JPG)
A strange looking three wheel car we found in Ieraka
.JPG)
In Ieraka we met Nikos cruising from Piraeus to the Ionian on his distinctive converted 1945 coastal trader, looking rather like a pirate ship.
TECHNICAL
All going well and nothing to report, so let’s talk about Envoy’s main engine – a “Lugger”, made by Northern Lights Marine, Seattle, USA.
This text is largely borrowed from Robert Senter, commonly known as “Lugger Bob”.
The Lugger starts out as a John Deere industrial engine block (as in John Deere tractors), and then the specific marine parts are designed, engineered and installed at the Northern Lights Seattle factory. These parts include the wet exhaust manifold, turbocharger (where applicable), exhaust elbow, air intake system, after cooler (where applicable), cooling system surge tank, heat exchanger, seawater pump, auxiliary drives, gear oil cooler, front accessory drives, engine mount brackets, mounts and wiring harnesses.
The Lugger is quieter than a John Deere because its specific pieces are typically large, heavy, extremely overbuilt castings whereas John Deere marine engines are usually welded and fabricated lighter sheet steel parts. That gives John Deere a lighter, less expensive engine, which is a good thing, competitively speaking.
Luggers are not competitive in weight or price, but only in fuel efficiency and long term value. The only people who buy them are commercial operators who bet their lives and business on the extra durability ….... or, passage making cruisers who consider the additional cost a small price to pay for peace of mind when they are thousands of miles from land.
Although Envoy is a heavy boat, weighing over 30 tonne, she is round bilge full-displacement, and easily driven. Our Lugger engine is rated at 143 hp, but mostly we’re cruising along at about 1,500 rpm, using much less than 143 hp, and consequently running very economically. Your rpm and speed has a huge effect on fuel consumption and cruising range – for example at 6 knots Envoy uses about 1.08 USG/hr, and has a range of about 6,100 miles, while at 8 knots she uses about 4.05 USG/hr reducing her range to about 2,200 miles. So there’s really no point in trying to go 2 knots faster when burning nearly four times as much diesel.
LOG
Up to 5 July have spent 97 days aboard, and cruised 720 miles for 132 engine hours.
Brian and Carol arrived safely in Nafplio by bus from Athens.
The cruising guide said that Nafplio harbour had a faint smell of sewage, and it wasn’t wrong – the town sewage gets discharged into the harbour and the odour is very noticeable. Here we laid alongside a rough concrete jetty, which had old tyres fixed in position to act as effective buffers. These were needed as the harbour isn’t well protected from NW winds and had quite a slop.
Envoy lying alongside jetty in Nafplio
View of the Nafplio waterfront with castle walls in background
.JPG)
During our second day in Nafplio a catamaran was trying to berth alongside the jetty ahead of us, but came too close and hit our port for’ard stainless steel rubbing strake. No damage to us, but this was the second time in as many weeks that we’ve been hit by other vessels.
When visitors join us for more than a few days we report to the Port Police to get our Transit Log updated with our visitors’ name and passport details. This is very simple and involves filling out a few forms and paying a small fee of usually around 20 Euro, which includes a night’s stay in the harbour.
In Nafplio we also took on 600 litres of diesel at Euro 1.49 (about NZ$2.40) per litre. There is no fuelling berth, so the diesel is delivered by a small tanker. Although I’m not in favor of bio-diesel, this was in fact bio-diesel, but blended with our existing fuel the bio content will be minimal.
Brian, Carol and Laurie enjoying a beer in taverna in Porto Kheli
View of Porto Kheli taken from Envoy at anchor
View of Kiparissi taken from Envoy at anchor
.JPG)
Ieraka is a small, sleepy village in an inlet, completely hidden from seaward. Here we anchored in a depth of 5 metres and could see the anchor and chain on the seabed. Shortly after anchoring a large loggerhead turtle swam close by and looked at us curiously. Since then we’ve seen several more turtles up to about 1.5m long.
A loggerhead turtle swimming close to Envoy
.JPG)
Envoy at anchor in Ieraka (2)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Photo of Envoy at anchor in Ieraka shows the small harbour
.JPG)
A strange looking three wheel car we found in Ieraka
.JPG)
In Ieraka we met Nikos cruising from Piraeus to the Ionian on his distinctive converted 1945 coastal trader, looking rather like a pirate ship.
TECHNICAL
All going well and nothing to report, so let’s talk about Envoy’s main engine – a “Lugger”, made by Northern Lights Marine, Seattle, USA.
This text is largely borrowed from Robert Senter, commonly known as “Lugger Bob”.
The Lugger starts out as a John Deere industrial engine block (as in John Deere tractors), and then the specific marine parts are designed, engineered and installed at the Northern Lights Seattle factory. These parts include the wet exhaust manifold, turbocharger (where applicable), exhaust elbow, air intake system, after cooler (where applicable), cooling system surge tank, heat exchanger, seawater pump, auxiliary drives, gear oil cooler, front accessory drives, engine mount brackets, mounts and wiring harnesses.
The Lugger is quieter than a John Deere because its specific pieces are typically large, heavy, extremely overbuilt castings whereas John Deere marine engines are usually welded and fabricated lighter sheet steel parts. That gives John Deere a lighter, less expensive engine, which is a good thing, competitively speaking.
Luggers are not competitive in weight or price, but only in fuel efficiency and long term value. The only people who buy them are commercial operators who bet their lives and business on the extra durability ….... or, passage making cruisers who consider the additional cost a small price to pay for peace of mind when they are thousands of miles from land.
Although Envoy is a heavy boat, weighing over 30 tonne, she is round bilge full-displacement, and easily driven. Our Lugger engine is rated at 143 hp, but mostly we’re cruising along at about 1,500 rpm, using much less than 143 hp, and consequently running very economically. Your rpm and speed has a huge effect on fuel consumption and cruising range – for example at 6 knots Envoy uses about 1.08 USG/hr, and has a range of about 6,100 miles, while at 8 knots she uses about 4.05 USG/hr reducing her range to about 2,200 miles. So there’s really no point in trying to go 2 knots faster when burning nearly four times as much diesel.
LOG
Up to 5 July have spent 97 days aboard, and cruised 720 miles for 132 engine hours.
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