23rd June 2013 Poros, Epidaurus and Ak Sounion.
Tranquility and Birthday Treats

We have had a week of ease. The meltemi is blowing so we did what everyone does - find a nice spot and just sit it out. And it has been very nice. Past Spetses to Idhra (Hydra) and on to Poros Island. Poros town is lovely and convivial. And the island has coves and little bays to escape to when it gets all too hot and fraught and you want a bit of peace and quiet, and space to swim and explore. So we did a mixture of both.

On Friday we also took yet another "interesting" Greek bus to the famous amphitheatre at Epidaurus and discovered more than we had anticipated. The theatre is known for its near perfect acoustics and because it's in a pretty remote location, it hasn't suffered the same sort of pilfering and damage through the centuries that other sites have. It was built in the 4th C BC, designed by Polykleitos the Younger (of course!). It has the only surviving circular orchestra (meaning stage) and two side corridors with huge gateways on enormous pillars through which the actors came. The theatre is still used today for evening performances of various ancient Greek tragedies and comedies. There is a cross marking the centre, then a 6ft wide semi-circular depression to collect rainwater, and then there are 34 rows of stone seats, a diazoma (walkway), and finally a further 21 tiers of seats put up by the Romans much later. You can talk in a normal voice, tap your foot or whatever in the centre of the stage and be heard right up into the top tiers. So impressive.

Shows how little we know though. The theatre was just one part of a much larger site called the Asklepieion or Sanctuary of Asklepios, a healing god who was a mortal physician deified by Zeus for retrieving a patient from the Underworld. The Sanctuary was a therapeutic and religious centre active for about 8 centuries from 6th C BC. It pioneered medical treatments - its symbols of a staff and serpent are familiar motifs seen in pharmacies around the world. It (or what was left of it) was only discovered in the late 19th C and archaeological work is ongoing. So out to dinner after that to celebrate Epidaurus and the boat's birthday.

Saturday, we celebrated my birthday by doing the markets and buying some nice bits for later bbq and took ourselves off to somewhere quiet and sheltered where we could swim off the back of the boat and escape the heat. A lovely day and evening, with lots of nice messages from family and friends, home and abroad.

The meltemi is blowing through and we need to start making progress north to be in the right place for Sophie and Alastair's visit. Today we headed across to Ak Sounion, a cape SE of Athens on which the famous Temple of Poseidon resides looking out over the Aegean Sea. It is made of marble (444BC), had 34 slim Doric columns (15 survive), an Ionic frieze made from 13 slabs of marble depicting mythological creatures, battles and the adventures of Theseus. It also had a high-tech design feature that helps to combat the effects of sea-spray erosion (the columns cut only with 16 flutings rather than the usual 20). We are anchored right under it, it is imposing and we can dinghy and just walk up first thing tomorrow.

Minor point - dead calm most of the way here, couple miles off the cape wind went from virtually nothing to F6 in the opposite direction. We are getting quite used to being confused. :-)