33. I love sailing Greece | South Peloponnese | Sailing Greece

Last week on Kauai, we were hit by a boat and a severe storm packing 60 knot winds. We left Ithaca in search of another beautiful island, Sikintos, where we visit the iconic Shipwreck Beach. This place is spectacular and even better than we had anticipated. The huge white cliffs and bright blue water make perfect backdrop for us to swim, play and explore. And as darkness falls, we are fortunate to have the place to ourselves. This week, we set sail south for the Peloponnese where we visit Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, where Trace considers a new career in sprinting. As we venture further south and with the sailing season coming to an end, we find ourselves a little more isolated. This unique area is full of history, forts, mythical caves and pristine beaches. Woken this morning by gunshots and some hunters in the hills, I believe. And then after that, we had an earthquake, which, at the time, we were downstairs and we just felt the boat kind of vibrate or shudder and we looked at each other and were like, was that an earthquake? And then we Googled it and it was. It was about six kilometers over that way from us. And we're off. We have, it's gonna be a little bit more wild. Touristy. Touristy, less people around. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, we're excited. The first leg of the journey is a short 25 nautical miles and will take us from Zakynthos to the anchorage of Katakolon. You don't have your weepings this morning. Update on the trip so far. We are currently in about 1,000 meters of water and cruising over a shipwreck, which is quite interesting. Yeah, we have no wind, so we're currently motoring. We did sail for a short while this morning, but it's a very beautiful day, lovely and warm. A cargo ship, it's a big army ship. Yeah, jumped off, let's leave it at that. Yep, we are in Katakolon. Well, we're off to Olympia this morning and we're up early to get the 8.40 bus and train. Yeah. And yeah, I'm excited about it today. Yeah, me too. Cruise ships rolled in this morning, nice and early as well. Yep. And yeah, it's just another perfect day. I think the next week we've got seven days of sun, so it's very exciting. And being a PE teacher, does this place hold a special place in your heart? Yeah, I used to love watching the Olympics, and I still do. It's, I think the drugs and the cheating and all that sort of stuff, which was still happening back then, plays a bit more of a role now. It's a bit of a downer, but yeah, I still love the Olympics and I'm looking forward to going where the original site was, so it's pretty cool. The train from Katakola to Olympia ran more frequently when the cruise ships were in town. We caught the first train at 8.40 a.m. and it cost 10 euros each for a return ticket. The trip took around 45 minutes, traveling through Pyrgos and the countryside. On your marks, get set, go! Well, if you did the two-meter run, you killed it. About 20 seconds. No records here. Pretty cool, though. Yep. Bit different to our current day stadium, isn't it? Oval-shaped. This one's got a little bit more character, I reckon. Oh, well, you've just beaten me in a race. Fair and square, definitely, yep. And where are we now? Now we are where they light the flame for the contemporary Olympic Games, since 1936. Hmm, so, yeah, this is where she happens. Pretty cool. Our ticket to the ancient Olympic site included two museums, the Olympia Archaeological Museum, which exhibits the finds during excavations of the site, and the Museum of the History of the Ancient Olympic Games. Who is he? It's a statue of a bull. It's pretty exciting when we leave, but especially exciting. Yeah, big day today. How far are we gonna go? It's around 50. 50 nautical miles. It'll be quite interesting, what we see. We haven't really read or seen much online about what we came here to do in Katakulun. We have been to Olympia and checked that all out, which was pretty cool. Busy at work here, filleting away. Yes, not a bad place to be doing some work. Filling in your fish. Great view. Cruising along, we're motor sailing. Yeah. Happy with life. How would you like it cooked? I'm not fussy. You're not sure of what type of? I don't know how to cook different fish that don't catch many. Well, we're going into the bay that we're gonna anchor in tonight. Sun's going down. Timed it perfectly as normal. Yes, it is. We're into Navarino Bay. Some pretty cool rocks that we've just cruised past. It's a good entrance to the bay and it looks like there's heaps of forts around as well, which hopefully we can go have a look at. There's a lot of history in this bay. A lot of really interesting, important history. ♪ Invisible hand for the sky before we started falling ♪ ♪ We're torn apart and then slowly come to a halt ♪ ♪ And we stumble down upon our knees so we started crawling ♪ ♪ The darker the sky, the brighter the stars ♪ ♪ Shining upon wherever we are ♪ ♪ And the farther the sky, the brighter the stars ♪ Wow, how was that for a sunset? Yeah, it was crazy cool. Gave me goosebumps. Really cool. I don't think you can get really sick of sunsets like that. New places, huge rocks. No, there's a fisherman just over there and I was wondering if he just sees it every day now and is just like, oh yeah, whatever. Been seeing it for 30 years, don't really care, but hard to imagine. It's pretty awesome. Special for us anyway. We'll remember that. Yeah. Good morning. Morning. This is what we've woken up to this morning. Very serene, the birds are chirping. Smells really fresh. No one and nothing around. There, what's happening over there today? Yeah, we're gonna climb that mountain. There's a fort on the top. And then what? What's happening tonight? Well, we haven't made a decision yet on what's happening tonight. It's our, we celebrate two anniversaries. Yeah, we've got one when we met and then one when we obviously got married. So this one is, today's when we met, 19 years ago. Whoa, whoa. So we're talking of either going over there in that far corner, there's a couple little beach bars or we might be going to the beach and making a little fire and cooking up the fish that we caught yesterday and a couple of spuds, we don't have much left. We anchored at the northern end of Navarino Bay, which gave us great access to the Fort of Navarino and the iconic Hoi Ta Koi beach. Perfect, as we were pretty keen to stretch our legs and check them both out. How's the walk been so far? Pretty easy. Yeah, it's a pretty good track, really. Wasn't expecting that, so I did tell you that I'd read that you need to wear long pants. Your legs would get all scratched up. How are your long pants going? Mine are quite warm. Well, I did say that I was going to risk my life not wearing long pants and you chose to, so don't come whinging to me. I listen to ******* advice, too. Anyway, maybe we'll find some rugged bushland on the way back down as we're going the other way around. Maybe. I don't know if people back in the day appreciated the view or they were just looking out for warships. I'd say both. Surely on a nice day, they went, oh, what a ripper. Oh, damn, there's a ship. Not a good day for fighting, damn. All right, let's see if we can get inside this bad boy. This looks pretty safe. Let's watch how fast you move under that. Survived it. Is there a roof above you? Seen better days. Assuming there's been a bit of an earthquake here. She's toppled down. The fortress was built by the Franks in the 13th century and was fought over and passed between the Venetians and Ottomans for many years due to its strategic location. With this beach located nearby, surely fighting would have stopped over lunch for a quick dip. Couple of steep drop-offs. Anyway. Phew. Risqué. A bit risqué down there. Whoa. That worked out. Whoa. That's nice. That's beautiful. Come across a large cave. We have come across a large cave. It's huge. Absolutely huge. Just out of nowhere. Looks straight out into an amazing bit of water. When we returned to the boat, we discovered this was the mythical cave of Nesta. According to myth, Hermes, one of the more mischievous Greek gods, hid the 50 cattle he stole from Apollo in this cave. That's a cute flower you've got there. You still have it. I thought it was a gift. Yes, anniversary gift. 19 years today, me and you. I gave you one too, but you still got it. I still have it. I picked the flower and couldn't quite get to you to give it to you and you glanced and saw it and then you picked one. I've been to it. Well, we can see Kauai in the distance. In clear-looking beach. It is sandy. Very sandy. Yes. We've got to walk back through the wilderness over there. Yep. Bottom of the... I just want to feel alive, boy. I feel hurt all the time, boy. I can't see straight. I've been running on the freeway like you're blinded by the headlights. They go past me. I see the last me that I ever will be. And that got me asking, if living this lightly, is that been the right thing? Or should I have been a little bit more focused on the place that my feet needed to go? And as they go past me, I see the last me that I ever will be. And that got me asking, if living this lightly, is that been the right thing? Oh, babe, it's been like at least six months since you got a new pair of sunnies. And what happened to your latest pair? He sat on them. And they... It was dark. The light was not on. No. We were taking in the sunset. Yeah. And you were just getting too excited about the sunset and sat down and pop. So we're cruising past Polos in the Bay of Navarino and it is exactly today, 20th of October, 192 years ago, that there was a huge battle in this bay. It was really monumental for Greece. There were Ottomans and Egyptians in this bay waiting to attack. During the battle, Greece pretty much won their independence. The Russians, French, British, all came to their aid. They heard about the situation and they all came and, due to their superior firepower, overcame the Ottomans. They had less boats but better firepower and they overcame the Ottomans and the Egyptians. And Greece came out on top and it was all done via sailing boats. Next week on Kauai, we continue our voyage around the southern Peloponnese, stopping in at Mithoni and Kalamata, famous for its fat black olives. We also find a mix of diverse anchorages, some that are challenging and some that are stunning. Thanks for watching guys. If you're looking to support us and keep the videos coming, it's as simple as hitting the subscribe button. Thanks!