Vouraikos gorge railway

Well, yes there is a story, after a choppy crossing north to south and then surfing before the wind under the bridge we turned up at the marina in Patras to be told that visiting boats were prohibited 🚫! We could see that the ‘visitor’ pontoon was damaged but there were plenty of empty moorings on the other pontoons, but were told we couldn’t use them. The very pleasant marina guy told us to head to the town quay, so we did, it was very choppy in here and was usually where the super yachts moored. I can see how it would work for them but for us.... Anyway we went alongside and found our slime lines for the bow, and by carefully pulling one and releasing the mooring bow line and tightening the mooring stern line we managed to end up stern too but we had to be well off the quay 2m because of the swell both from the wind and the passing commercial traffic. We used the dinghy to get to shore and spent pleasant evening walking the pedestrian precinct of Patras hoping the wind would ease, it hadn’t by the time we returned pulled up on bow lines a bit more and crashed out. We awoke in a rush when the dive platform crunched the quay (we have checked now and no real damage) that was scary, a tug had come in alongside on the quay next to us kicking up a lot swell and making us drag mooring chains. GREAT now what, well we pulled up on the lines again and then tried to go back to sleep. Later we ended up getting up again when what turned out to be a short storm with thunder and lightning heavy rain and high seas arrived, John popped out to tie down the dinghy but nothing else we could do except wait and watch the sea churning and the tug looming next to us.
In the morning it was as flat as a pancake and the sun came out, you wouldn’t credit it. We decided it would be safe to leave the boat so decided to take a rack and pinion train ride through the Vouraïkos gorge between Diakopto and Kalavrita going over 49 bridges. Stunning scenery, the photos don’t really do it justice.
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