Monday, July 13, 2009

Aegean Mini Pilot: Pigadhi

Its the final day of the sailing blogs review group writing challenge, and its also the last of these mini pilots from the Greek Aegean. For those wanting more, you could check out the cruising wiki site here though it seems a bit out of date and the Orei page doesn't mention the magnificent marble bull.

The final port of call was the fishing village of Pigadhi on the mainland and an easy sail to the Sunsail base. Maybe because of that it seems all geared up for the many flotillas that find it a conveniently easy short day sail (as in this write up in the Daily Telegraph travel section).

As you turn into the bay in which it nestles as in the Navionics chart picture above, you can check where you are going the right way with two convenient landmarks.

Firstly there is a rectangular tower on the top of the hill to the left: this commemorates the local legend that Pigadhi is where Achilles left to fight the Trojan war. Secondly on the headland to the right there is what is known as Toad Rock:

Hmmm.. could be a bunny rabbit as well.

Pigadhi itself is a small fishing village, basic rather than pretty. Maybe because of the regular visits from the flots it didn't feel like it had to make much of an effort.

Yes a local did rush out to help with our lines, but there was a clear quid pro quo in that he just happened to be the owner of a taverna, and a taverna with a big Sunsail! flag, and with menu order forms conveniently labelled with boat name (useful for the larger flots).

And the food wasn't that great, either in range on the menu or quality when it turned up.

It was a winding down, tomorrow's the last day sort of place.

Summary

Harbour fees: none

Rating: *****

Best bit: er..... hmmm.... let me get back to you on that one.

2 comments:

O Docker said...

Thanks for sharing these reports, JP.

We're sitting in our favorite marina in SF Bay, after a great morning's sail to get here. The weather has been perfect and we've got a few days to get lost in our favorite city. (Even with GPS and all of our electronic goodies, somtimes it's nice to get lost.)

But still, this can't come close to sailing in Greece or the Med. If you went back, would you choose this area again, or the Ionian, or ?

JP said...

Sounds fantastic O' Docker.

I would be happy to go back, and would definitely choose the Aegean over the Ionian, as the latter is much too crowded. The Aegean area we were sailing had a less over developed feel which is great.

Having said that it isn't my first choice for Med sailing. Highest on my list would be the western Med spots - like Sardinia and Malta/Sicily e.g. the Mid Sea.

This is because a) like trying out something different and haven't been that end much and b) everyone says its a great area to sail.

But its hard to go wrong in the Med: all the countries around seem to have got different varieties of what I call "olive oil cooking" which means it both tastes good and is actually good for you.