Category: scenery
Piraeus
The Ocean Wolf had many adventures but has spend September in Piraeus/Athens.
At the outer pier Ocean Wolf feels small between all the large motor yachts that tower over her. At the far end of the pier is a ginormous 130+ meter yacht that dwarfs anything in the vicinity.
The marina has some bars and restaurants and the city is nearby with some additional food options. Kontosouvli (Spit roasted BBQ pork) is a recent favorite after we found a nice little restaurant that freshly prepared this.
When not watching Netflix or roaming the inter webs we find chores to perform. Our last claim to fame has been the installation of a new B&G Triton display to replace a flaky old analog display that suffered from bad connectors. In our experience the plastic of the connector becomes brittle with age and fails to ensure a reliable electrical connection. The net result is that the analog display have been malfunctioning at random intervals. This is unfortunate because we like we look of them.
Enter the Triton display. Bit by bit the 21st century is brought to the Ocean Wolf.
The process was simple; we unmounted all the displays. This made the wooden panel available for modification. Until now the B&G displays al fit through round holes in the panel. The Triton display requires a rectangular mounting hole. Hence we applied our woodworking skills and the versatility of the Fein power tool to make this.
Once done it was a piece of cake to mount the display and to connect it to the NMEA 2000 network.
Next we had to see the Acropolis. Greece is known for its long history and the acropolis of Athens is a must see. We thus embarked on a trip with the local city bus. As soon as we arrived at our destination bus stop the ancient buildings started to appear left and right. (This happens frequently anywhere in Athens). We hiked around the acropolis and enjoyed it from below
Here a view to the acropolis from Areopagus with Parthenon hidden behind the temple of Athena Nike . 
Next: more boat works.
The deck needs caulking. The proceeded with the usual sequence of steps: remove old sikaflex, sand the seam, tape the decks, apply primer, cut the primer from the old sikaflex, apply new sikaflex, remove tape, don’t step in the sika. 
All was made somewhat easier due to the use of our new friend the caulking gun:
We also treated some problems in the paintwork. So we went to another sequence of steps: grinding, oxalic acid, primer, primer, fairing compound, sealer, etc, topcoat. (This needs completion.)
Then we proceeded to change the engine oil and oil filter as it had reached the recommended number of hours to do so. Pro tip: don’t buy oil at the nearest yacht chandler near the marina but invest in some advanced googling to locate the local oils dealer. This cut the price by half and took care of delivery of two 20 liter drums of oil. Replacing the oil is a simple process of applying a lot of sweat and rags to soak up the spills. Replacing the filter can be done from a comfortable position lying on top of the engine. Care should be taken to avoid lying on the non-ergonomic parts. That is a challenge. But we managed to replace the 35 liters of engine oil. Hurray. Next up replacing the generator oil.
Skiathos
Skiathos
Skiathos is a nice little island with an old town set on some hills with style full old houses.
We anchored opposite the beach, a short dinghy ride away from the port on the other site of town.
The small streets near the fishermen’s port are littered with shops, bars and restaurants. The nearby airport brings many tourists to the island which translates into a healthy tourist industry.
We strolled along the port for a bit and found nearly every boats is available for charter, island trips, day sails, etc etc. As of yet not evaluated is the local chandler..,
Deaulos Orion
Today we ended up at a nice calm bay after a day of motoring and sailing. Early in the morning around 02:00 we passed the old bridge in Chalkida across the Euripus Strait. This is a narrow channel of water separating the Greek island of Euboea in the Aegean Sea from Boeotia in mainland Greece. The bridge only opens for a short while between the tides when current is minimal. Water flow peaks at about 12 km/hour(!) In order to cross a visit to the port police is mandatory. Here they explain the procedure ( standby on channel 12 from a certain time, they’ll call each ship twice: once to prepare for departure (anchor up etc), and once to start passing the straight ) and they also check the cruising tax paperwork and payment. After the visit to the port police we visited the bridge authority (or whatshamacallit) to pay for the crossing. While in the process of doing this late in the afternoon we had the opportunity to the the tidal current at full force going south. Passing the open bridge was quite an event as it turned out that Chalkida has some active nightlife and yachts passing by the old bridge is part of the festivities.
Athens
There are a number of them on the boulevard around Zea marina, but the highest density is found close to the commercial port across the hill. While on the move in somewhat remote areas finding some specific parts can be a challenge. But Athens has a reputation to keep as it is the center of one of earths ancient civilizations. Thus we found our circlips and capacitor with relative easy. The capacitor was the primary challenge and it took 2 chandlers with blank stares until number three pulled out the business card for the rockstar shop that had our desired model in stock. We tried some more chandlers in the marina area in vein until we resorted to walk to the one of the business card: 
From there on finding the circlips was easy.
Circlip
We passed the Temple of Poseidon while on route from the west to the east coast of the Attica region .
The Rock
Perhaps not “that” rock, but a rock nonetheless.
It sticks out if the water halfway between Poros and Egina in the Saronic gulf. As per Google maps it’s Vrachonisis Petrokarovo… An ancient legend says that small but fierce fish eating dragons live in between the crevices. These live to be a thousand years before they nest and hatch a pair of golden eggs. Or that is what I imagine.
More rocks and cliffs. See buildings for scale.
