Practical Boat Owner - January 2016

... their guests Richard and Janie Hare

Cruising

A Saronic and
Argolic odyssey

I

t was all going so swimmingly. The easyJet flAthens right on schedule and we were no sooner out of the ight touched down in

were bang on target for the early afternoon hydrofoil to Porto Kheli where departure gate when we stepped onto a bus leaving for Piraeus. We

our friends Clive and Tricia were waiting for us aboard their Beneteau 331, sundowners on ice. Easy-peasy.Moineau,

behind the Piraeus ticket offi‘the hydrofoil’s fully booked. You’ll have to wait until this ‘Sorry sir,’ said the nice lady ce,

evening’s service.’ That’ll be the signifishe cautioned. Oh well. We had to expect some hiccups in cantly slower FlyingCat,

Greece during 2015. In the end, it wasn’t too bad: the FlyingCat took about three hours, and we made it by bedtime.Dawn broke the following day, and after

a well-earned good night’s sleep – we’d been up all night at Gatwick to catch the 05.15 fla chill-out day to include a public transport ight – our hosts sensibly suggested

expedition to the island of Spetses. This involved a fiquay at Kosta, from which a high-powered caique rammed us across the narrow ve-minute taxi to the tiny

Spetses strait for the jaw-dropping price of pSpetses25, albeit for the four of us.

We ambled for a pleasant hour or so around the pretty and uncrowded town. Cars are prohibited on Spetses, although the ubiquitous Greek motorbike with its

Richard and Janie Hare fl y out to Greece to join friends aboard their Beneteau 331 for a 10-day cruise of the Saronic and Argolic gulfs

Clive and Tricia Sparrow aboard Moineau‘Sparrow’), and... (French for