In 1980 I set off early in the season to research the harbours and anchorages in Greece for a guidebook on sailing around Greek waters. It was early in the season to be setting off when depressions still rumbled on through Greece and the likelihood of bad weather is high. Still I’d prepped the boat in Levkas and was eager to be off researching the book. The idea was to do an eccentric circuit around Greece and then cut through the middle in a couple of zig-zag voyages to pick up the bits in the middle. I had no idea what I was in for. And I was alone in this endeavour with what turned out to be a faulty autopilot so I had to hand-steer most of the time.
By early April I’d got to the southernmost part of mainland Greece. Cape Matapan is the second most southerly point of mainland Europe, just missing out by a smidge from Cape Tarifa in the Strait of Gibraltar. In the winter and spring, depressions entering the Mediterranean hurtle east until the tall mountains of the Peloponnese block their progress and
