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Missy Bear running down the roadstead of Modon We were running under jib down the western Peloponnese from Pylos to the bottom of the first Peloponnesian finger. The low walls of the castle and the tower at the headland jutted out into the narrow strait between the finger-end and the islands. The battlements grew steadily more apparent and imposing. The later Ottoman tower and Venetian fort Then we gybed onto starboard tack and broad reached down the roadstead to what the Ven

Giolova Lagoon - the green wetland. Missy Bear is in the turquoise bay to the right with Pilos just visible "Knock knock." "Who’s there?" "Amos." "Amos who?" "A mosquito" We were just drifting off to sleep. We were at anchor, the sea was calm, taverna music from the shore played quietly, there was an occasional slapping of water against Missy Bear, when suddenly… Richard smacked his ear. That could only mean one thing. A mosquito! We both sat up and put lights on. Not a trac

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