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South-West entrance to Navarino Bay The Scene : Navarino Bay, south-western Peloponnese The Cast and their Roles: Ivan Ivanov: To expand his Russian empire at the expense of Mehmet Turkman. Stavros Kleftiko: To gain freedom from Mehmet. Mehmet Turkman: To keep Stavros under control and maintain his Ottoman empire. Mustafa Ali: To take Stavros’ Peloponnese, as promised to him by Mehmet. Emmanuel LePenseur: To aid Stavros in his romantic, revolutionary freedom fight (having pre

The Ancient Peloponnese We are moored alongside at Kiparissia, next to ‘Money Penny’ and ‘Blue Eyes’ (our Belgian sailor friend, Daniel). We had a lovely sail down from Katakolon, accompanied only by the odd shearwater swooping low over the waves kicked up by the morning’s katabatic wind, dropping down off the Peloponnesian mountains to the warmer sea below. Kiparissia means cypress tree. The town is nestled in a natural amphitheatre below the high, wooded and pointy-topped m

Missy Bear at the port of Olympia Missy Bear has sailed from Sicily across the Ionian Sea, through the Inland Sea and arrived at Katakolon, on the mainland Peloponnese. Incredibly, this would have been the route taken by some competitors travelling from the Greek polis in Magna Graecia to participate in the games at Olympia. Those ancient athletes would have actually landed not at Katakolon, but at Feia, which is north of the peninsular. But that harbour sunk into the sea fol

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Greek in charge of a kingdom must be in want of an island. " (Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice) Many versions abound regarding Odysseus’ birthplace. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Ithaca know a good story when they see one, and even if Odysseus was born elsewhere, that hasn’t stopped the Ithacans adopting him as their own. Saatchi and Saatchi could not have improved the branding and merchandising. We have seen Odysseus S

Proof that Odysseus lived in Vathi, Ithaca? Well, we have seen the statue and found the street name in Vathi, so that must be definitive proof that Odysseus came from Ithaca. Alix with Odysseus in Vathi The locals would certainly have you believe that, because it’s terribly good for business. But I’m not convinced, as I explained last season in “ The Voyage of Odysseus ”. Not only does the theory not make sense from a sailor’s geographical perspective, but should Homer’s epic