harry
@sysop.ooo
sysadmin sailor slacker programmer currently on the wine-dark Archipelago in my BCC 28, Indigo
Two pretty yachts in Porto Cheli - the second is Shamrock V, last surviving America’s Cup J-Class; a sign in modern and Tsakonian Greek, the latter the last surviving Doric dialect; a sign while walking the route of the first marathon towards the Lyceum.
Idly imagining dozens of Athenians loudly reciting their think pieces in the agora and tearing each other to shreds because a Euripides play riffing on the Trojan cycle didn't please every single citizen simultaneously.
Got a little karma for mocking an English sailor nearly exactly one year ago at the Scottish border. Sailing for Eyemouth, he put into Burnmouth (and ran aground). They’re 2nm apart! …& today I lazily ran downwind into Plaka, moored, & found myself in Sabatiki, 2nm north. (No grounding though 😮💨)
In Monemvasia, ‘Gibraltar of the East,’ whence Malmsey wine was once shipped and for which it is named 🍷⛵️🇬🇷
Spent some days in sandy Pylos last week. Visited the tholos (Mycenaean) tomb called Thrasymedes’. (A son of ‘wise’ Nestor, wanax of Pylos and giver of mostly bad advice in the Illiad. His reputed palace in the nearby hinterland I visited some years ago.)
Persuasion is basically the second half of a much longer novel. Austen just decided not to write the first part. This is why it is her best novel
Mandatory yacht inspection by the harbormaster of Sami, Kefalonia. Frankly she was embarrassingly easy to bribe.
Reaching between Κεφαλονιά and Ζάκυνθος. 5-6 knots in 10-12 knots of wind.
At anchor, dusk, in the bay of Abelike, Meganisi, just north of Ithaki. We’re bound for Patras, then onwards to the Corinthian Canal.
Rewired Indigo's 2x 130w solar panels from series to parallel (better performance when one is shaded - increased current isn't a concern with such a small array). Add the new lifeline mounting location (which reduces overall shade), & Apollo's fulgent summer sun 🇬🇷, & voila: our first kWh day!
Indigo coming into anchor under sail ⛵️#sailing Palairos, 8-10 knots of wind. (The yankee is furled to manage speed, and you can see the anchor prepped below bobstay.) Great video courtesy of Sam from Sheffield.
I'm concerned people think I'm joking about this.
Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 2mo agoI like the part of the Odyssey at the Phaeacian court where Homer has Odysseus turn to the camera and say: "Now, we've all been having a lot of fun here today, but let's remember who the REAL heroes are---the hardworking bards and harpers in your own neighborhood. Remember to leave a tip, kids."
Leaving a Lefkas marina pontoon under sail power alone ⛵️ (conditions were optimal: wind fifteen on the nose, marina’s exit astern, Indigo moored to end of the pontoon)
Anchored for tonight off Aetos, Ithaki. Here, a bronze age citadel of lesser fame than Mycenae or Pylos - is it Odysseas’ palace 🏺? We’ve come two & a half miles from Vathy. I sailed it on wind which was mostly just rumour - an hour or more, fifteen tacks, to drift out the harbor channel ⛵️ #sailing
Close hauled in seven knots, tacking south and past the sunset to Kefalonia.
Newly repaired foresail looking fly in 5-7 knots off the port beam. (She’d taken a beating in the 40+ knot blow between Sardinia and Sicilia.) 5 stars & my thanks Quantum Sails Corfu, a family-owned sail loft which appreciates that boats should have soul ⛵️:)
Indy sailing herself into Nsis Vido anchorage in light airs. She’s 26 and able to look after herself!
Seems unwise to name a boat after an object whose most famous property is being stuck on a rock 🗡️🪨
