In the wake of megastar Lord Byron

The breeze died during the afternoon. When it got dark it disappeared. The next morning it was calm. We took the moorings, pulled up the anchor and left the berth at the quay in Astakos. There was still no wind when we came out of the bay and motored down the coast on the mirror-like sea.

To port lay the mainland. To starboard, the mountain range of Itacha stretched out in its full length. From our position it looked as if it continued unbroken across to Kefalonia.

Today's goal was Messolonghi to the south, at the far end of the Gulf of Corinth.

The English poet Lord Byron had followed the same route less than 200 years earlier.

Megastar Lord Byron

Byron was one of the mega stars of those times and had a passion for Greek culture. When the Greeks started the struggle for independence, he decided to act on his romantic vision : Freedom and democracy in an independent Greece. 

From his more or less voluntary exile in Genoa he sailed to Kefalonia. It, like the other Ionian islands, was then a British protectorate.

After five months of preparation and diplomatic negotiations, he hird and armed 40 men from an Albanian tribe. With them he went in two ships over to Messolonghi. One ship carried the mercenaries, horses and weapons. Byron and a few of his friends sailed the other, which was smaller and faster. 

Close to the mainland, Byron's ship spotted another. It turned out to be an Ottoman warship. Byron sailed from it, but gave up sailing into Messolonghi. Instead, he sailed up to Astakos or Dragamesto, as the city was then called.

Against Astakos

A few days later he left Astakos to sail to Messolonghi. 

En route, the ship ran aground. Twice. When he reached Messolonghi he ran aground for the third time. Now on a sandbank in the strait between the mainland and the small island of Oxeia.

A rebellion threatens

The next day he and the crew were given a hero's welcome in Messolonghi.

The rebels were divided into several rival factions. The contradictions were great. Many feared a civil war between the rebellious Greeks.

But one goal all the rebels completely agreed on.

Wealthy exiled Greeks had collected a very large sum of money. They had entrusted Byron to donate that to the freedom struggle.

That donation everyone thought they were entitled to receive. 

Again and again, an increasingly disillusioned Byron had to say that his support was conditional. It depended on everyone standing together in the rebellion against the Ottomans.  

Three months after his arrival, Byron died without having united the rebels. He didn't get into battle either, which had been the whole idea of ​​going to Greece to support the Greeks in their fight for independence. 

But Byron's efforts were not in vain.

The Greek cause

Byron was a mega star not only in England, but all over Europe. News of his efforts and death gave him a hero’s status, helping to turn sentiment in favor of the Greek cause.

Later England, but also France and Russia intervened in the conflict. It was decisive for the outcome and led to the formation of present-day Greece.

Lord Byron remained a heroic figure in Greece after the war.

Even today there is a Byron Street or a Byron Square in every major Greek city. As recently as 2008, Byron's death anniversary on 19 April was made a national holiday.

In the wake of a megastar

On the route, we passed the Ecinard archipelago, which consists of a dozen smaller islands and islets. Part of the islands was bought by the Emir of Qatar 10 years ago. The plan was to turn them into luxury resorts. But things don't always go as planned. In the tenth year, the initiation of construction awaits the approval of the authorities.

Coming to the flat marsh landscape, we sailed between the mainland and the island of Oxeia, which is set to be the jewel of the Emir's luxury resort. Incidentally, this is where Byron ran aground when he arrived at Messolonghi.

Later in the war, the Greeks dug a channel out to the Gulf of Corinth, which is where you sail into the city today.

When we were well clear of the sandbanks, we steered towards the docking buoy for the channel.

The channel is almost 2,5 nautical miles long. On both sides, houses lay side by side on stilts half out of the water. Most with a wooden bridge that extended further into the water. A fishing dinghy lay by some. At other surf and supboards. In several places people were swimming and waved at us as we slowly sailed into town on this peculiar canal.

In high demand

Messolonghi has over 30.000 inhabitants and a long and proud tradition of seafaring and boat building.

The city has two marinas. One is a quay without any facilities. The other a marina with access to water, electricity, shower, toilet and laid mooring lines. The latter was in high demand after yesterday's harbor maneuver.

We went to the marina. Easily got the mooring line out of the water and didn't get it caught in either the propeller or the bow thruster.

Windy weather

Windys weather models all agreed. In the next few days winds would be strong. It would come from the west and increase in speed in the 90 nautical mile deep and a few nautical mile wide bay.

The marina would provide super good protection, but it was a long way into town and not much life.

So maybe it was better to find another place for the next few days.

A little way inside the Gulf of Corinth is a marina on the small island of Trizonia.

On the Navily app, we could see that there were a few boats. But since not everyone registers on the app, it was impossible to know if there were any available berths.

We clicked into the chat function on Navily and contacted one of the boats.

Soon after, we got an answer

»There are plenty of free places here and it's really nice here« was the answer

…Super

We had no more than 36 nautical miles to get there and would the wind with us when it came during the afternoon.

Under the bridge

The next day we left Messolonghi and sailed out of the channel. When we reached the duck buoy we steered into the Gulf of Corinth or the Gulf of Patras. Patras is Greece's third largest city.

To port and starboard and ahead we were surrounded by large mountains. "Like sailing on a large lake" wrote Heikell in his pilot book. Appropriate description. It was exactly how we imagined it must be to sail on one of the large lakes in the Alps

When we had passed Patras, we called the guard on the Rio–Antirrio bridge, which connects the Peloponnese with the mainland. Impressive structure with four towers that rise almost two hundred meters into the air.

»Call again when you are a nautical mile from us« replied the guard

Quite strange to have to call a bridge guard to sail under a bridge with a clearance height of 65 metres.

When we got closer, we called again.

»Pass under span 3 from the North. Keep course and speed. Please confirm«

A ferry was just leaving the Peloponnese. Now we remembered reading somewhere that transports of dangerous goods must use the ferry. If we kept our course and speed, we would go clear of each other. Nice to avoid a nerve-wracking bearing on the ferry that was probably carrying dangerous goods.

Trizonia

The wind came when we had passed the bridge. At first it made little ripples on the water. Then it quickly reached 15 m/s. The waves were 1-1,5 meters high and were steep. Good thing we had them with us.

We steered directly towards the westernmost point of the island. As we got closer we decided to enter the narrow strait between the island and the mainland.

The strait is barely one nautical mile long. In the end, we turned 90 degrees to the right. We sailed a short way along the east side of the island. Then, we reached the bay where the marina was.

Here there was complete shelter from the waves. Only the ripples that jogged on the surface of the crystal clear water revealed that it was blowing hard.

The first thing we saw when we sailed into the marina was our Swedish sister ship and neighbor from Aktio Marina.

He had left Preveza long before us and had, he said later, had engine problems just after he had passed the Rio-Antarrio bridge. Rather uncomfortable because he had had to dockl at the marina on Trizonia for sail. But the landing had gone well. He couldn't fix the engine himself and had found the only mechanic for miles around. Now the mechanic was waiting for a spare part. But the supply chains were still not quite working. So it was difficult to say when the spare part would be delivered.

As we got further in we spotted our contact from Navily. They eagerly waved us to the berth in front of their boat, took our moorings and welcomed us to Trizonia.

Now we lay broadside with the bow up into the wind, which would come from the same direction for the next few days. It couldn't get much better.

The marina was huge. Built once in the 90s, but never completed.

It appeared that preparations had recently been made to install stands for electricity and water. But shore power was still only available in a few places inside the quay along the land side, where some boats had clearly been laid up for the winter.

At the end of the long quay it was as if we were suddenly in another world. Several taverns with guests at tables in a small square. A few hotels. Some of them with beach chairs and serving on the sandy beach next to the crystal clear water.

Party

It was Saturday. Once in a while a small boat came from the mainland with people in festive clothes who checked into one of the hotels. In the evening, a couple of groups of people held a party at the two taverns.

When the dinner was over, a DJ played Greek music on the small but powerful system he had set up in the square.

A dozen of the guests from one of the groups got up and formed a ring in front of the DJ. In the center of the ring, a man danced a solo dance, which the others with rocking movements applauded by clapping their hands in time to the music.

In turn, one of the dancers was invited into the middle. Young and old, women and men. Everyone danced a solo dance. Some more. After a few hours they stopped. The ring dissolved. The Greek music was replaced by ABBA's Dancing Queen and the rest of the evening was played and danced to classic western disco music.

On Sunday, the guests left the island with the small motor boat that sailed them the short way over to the mainland. But the boat returned with new guests who once again brought life to the small square

Everything is fine

In the summer there are 600 to 1.000 people on the island. In the winter, only 50 make up the island's permanent inhabitants. When Onasis came to the island he was so excited that he offered to buy it. But the residents refused to sell. They would probably do the same today. Because as Minas, who owns one of the taverns, told the newspaper Greeke reporter

»I was born and raised here. My father is from here. In the winter it's a bit difficult, it gets a bit cold, but if you have good company, good wine, and good food, everything is fine«