Sailing to Greek mainland from Galaxidi – Trizonia islet – Nafpaktos – The Rio Antirrio Bridge – Mesolongi

Excited Sailing in strong winds | sailing From Nafpaktos to Mesolongi (western Greece)


This post continues from our previous post

Read more about The Rio Antirrio bridge Here

From Galaxidi to Trizonia Islet

Trizonia islet, offering a freebie harbour dock and fresh water spot
(But electric power and wifi4EU are not available).

June 3, 2024 Leave Galaxidi at 9.45 a.m. * anchor chain lifted heavy concrete, rock and muddy!

12.25 p.m. Arrived Trizonia islet harbour and docked side tie. Receive help from neighbouring sailboats. thank you guys. There is no fee for dock and fresh water spot on quay for self service.

You can park your boat here at your convenience. But there was no electricity because it had all been dismantled.

Strolling to the other side, there are 3-4 restaurants serving customers who have crossed over from the mainland or sailboats. One day we took a small taxi boat crossing to mainland side for shopping. The fare is two euros per person for one way. We had dinner one night at Taverna. I ordered fried calamari which is generous served! We extended our stay until June 5th.

Trizonia islet (3 – 5 June, 2024)

Fried Calamri at Fish Tavern Kalypso restaurant in Trizonia islet

From Trizonia islet to Navpaktos 

June 6, 2024 

We left Trizonia Islet at 9 a.m. calm and cloudy with light rain. At 10.45 a.m. approached to the entrance of Nafpaktos harbour. One sailboat is already docked and local boats. Impossible to do stern tie anchoring here. That’s why a few sailboat anchoring at the bay outside.

Nafpaktos

Nafpaktos is a beautiful small Harbour if your boat can fit inside.
The Venetian Castle of Nafpaktos is at the top of a hill that overlooks the city. 

We decided to continues to next stop..Mesolongi. It would be exite passing under The Rio Antirrio Bridge.

In several more hours it would take us to reach our destination. I couldn’t wait to sit down and enjoy polish the stainless steel at front deck. Less than half an hour later, the wind started to pick up, so we pulled out the headsail and when it began approaching the Rio Antirrio bridge. Stephen radioed to the traffic control to get advice for the lane to get in while the Wind started to getting stronger.. The traffic control asked for how high the mast? 60 feet’s Stephen replied.

Soon enough, we passed under the bridge without crashing.

But the wind wouldn’t stop blowing. If we had known the wind was this strong, we would not have traveled today. However, one must reach the city of Mesolongi. From a day that was thought to be easy, it turned out to be another exciting day.

East Wind 30 + kts, boat speed 7.6 – 9 kts Every time you look around the gulf of Patras you see white caps ahead and back. Until we start to see the point and further and feeling better. My mother then start calling from Thailand and ask about spicy chili dip…should she made it to served with braised chicken so recipes. I told her quickly. She can see wind and waves from a video call. So she said ok with a good mood voice. lol I was so worrying before. Windy.com said winds today 14 kts not 40 kts

We then read about winds in this area, I realized that it often occur. The Rio Antirrio bridge will be closed when high strong wind also a cancellation of the ferry.

2.30 p.m. Approached to the entrance of the Mesolongi canal. Watch red and green Buoy.

Missolonghi or Mesolongi (6 – 8 June 2024)

Inside the Canal you can see houses on a canal bank. We are feeling likely in Thailand and not in Greece. There is a restaurant at the entrance that, even though we looked and looked at it, it still wasn’t like the Greek we had seen. Completely differe from the Dodecanese island where we came from.

Sometimes in Greece we have to do a location check. As we finished our 42knot down wind blast we entered a long channel which was lined with houses on stilts amongst the extensive salt flats. Looked like we had time wrapped out of the Aegean and into Southeast Asia.

We motoring near the Messolonghi marina which we can see hundreds of sailboat mast. We circled around for a little while to make sure not for ferry dock and finally decided to side tie dock in front of the restaurant-bar located opposite the Messolonghi marina which a few boats docks along this quay. One left space would fit our Moody. Good-strong free wifi4EU and free Wi-Fi from a restaurant in front of our boat.

June 7-8, 2024 Extended our stay in Mesolongi. There is no fees charge for dock while we were here. {no power and no water on quay)

The book said people here are friendly. That’s right people here are generally very friendly. Last day of our stay I bicycled to town which is big enough for me to get lost 3 times it can lead you out into different directions. I end up a whole streets of Saturday farmers market also end up to the Lagoon. Many coffee shops and pastry shops. People here enjoy bicycling as well. On Saturday night the music opened loud until 3am!