Another great castle greeted us in Methoni – it’s amazing how big these castles are!

We’re finding it to be really pretty hot still – mid 90’s – and the water is also quite warm – low 80’s.

A nice little breakaway to a small island south of Methoni called Sapientza gave us a very peaceful night and a nice walk up to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is a beautifully constructed building – but like so many is in complete disrepair. We were amazed that evening to see it emitting light as both Stefan and I were convinced it was completely dysfunctional.

Just before dusk I spotted a magnificent mountain goat with the biggest horns ever!

Our next stop was Foinikounta which is where we are to say goodbye to Anne and Stefan as they’re bored of having a broken fridge – and a new one has arrived, but 150 miles away! However, we made a trek to a local Olive Oil pressing facility for a demonstration – bloody place was closed!

Our next anchorage at Porto Cagio was around the bottom of the second ‘finger’ of the Peleponnisos and the run south was truly spectacular – as was the arrival into a dramatic anchorage…

…but I’d have enjoyed it more if the chain gypsy on our windlass didn’t break! The cast bronze gypsy simply split in half while laying out 60M of chain!

As is often the way, I dreamt gypsy’s that night and in the morning hatched (and accomplished!) a temporary fix – which would allow us the continue using it. However, our normal mode of operation when deploying the anchor is to loosen the clutch and let the anchor free-fall to the bottom – this is no longer possible as the clutch is jammed on hard – keeping the two halves of the thing together. Our windlass is VERY slow, so anchoring from here on in is going to be challenging – and I’ve no idea how we’ll manage to med-moor again. Fortunately, brother to the rescue! Steve will bring a new gypsy to us that we’ll have shipped from California – so we’ll only have to manage like this for about 3 weeks.

Next stop – Monemvasia – a really special location!