In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we make our final push north to mainland Greece and we go back in time to visit the Acropolis where the ancient Greek Part...

Closed Captions (CC):
Well we nearly made it. Our tram which

is just parked here took us to here and the

tram ain't going no further because of that over

there. So we're gonna get on the

interwebs, find out where we are and find out

how far it is to get to where we want to go

Lost in Athens!

We're leaving Kythnos us today

and we're heading for mainland Greece

Yeah it's a big thing you can't miss it

it's just over there, so even with or

without an auto pilot we're bound to get

there. Yeah yeah so we're hoping for fair

winds and calm seas and off we go

yeah almost our final push north

depending on what our plans are for the

winter and we have a plan that's in

motion and we'll let you know about it

as soon as we've confirmed it but in the

meantime we'll see you in Greece, mainland

We will yeah.

We had between 12 and 18 knots of wind

on our passage and speeds between 5.2

and 6.4 knots along the way

And after just over five hours we

arrived at Sounion and anchored in sand

in four metres with 36 metres of chain

out. We were finally on the Greek

mainland overlooked by the Temple of

Poseidon on the cliff on the edge of the bay

Monday morning just after first light I

was woken up by a banging and a

clattering outside. Going up on deck what

did I see but the big red monster

machine and the blokes at work building

a new breakwater just off our starboard side

Because we want to go to Athens to buy a

couple of things and also see the Parthenon

we've decided that today's a good day to

leave Sounion where we stayed overnight

last night and go to Varkiza, which is

much closer to Athens and it will allow

us to get public transport fairly easily.

The weather's really nice there's a light

breeze, not too sure until we get around

the headland what we're going to find

whether it's sailable, on the nose or what have you

There's quite a few yachts around, there's about

ten yachts within visual distance and a couple of tankers

as well. It's quite a busy area obviously coz

Piraeus is just around the corner. It should

take us about three hours I think it's

about 15 and nautical miles

so we'll see you when we get there

We've arrived. Yes bang on time, 3 hours exactly. Yep and we did get a

bit of sailing to start with didn't we?

Yeah but then the wind when we came past

the island the wind was on the nose and

sails away unfortunately. Yeah

Strangely enough we looked at the forecast

this morning and this was not meant to

be happening here wind wise so you just

never know what you're gonna get really

You can look at all the predictions you want but

the reality of what you see on the ground

or on the sea is what you've got to deal

with so it's a westerly - yeah it's coming

from the west! It's what 20 knots? About 20 knots yeah yep so we're in what four

metres did you say that? We are in four metres of

water and it's a sandy bottom and we've

got thirty metres of chain out which is

eight to one, plenty. We're not going anywhere are we?

So I'm gonna dive the anchor and take

the chances with the two wind surfers

yeah the wind surfers so I'll put

something bright on

Well this is it

we've made it to mainland Greece and

today we're gonna go back in time to the

Parthenon yeah we're gonna catch a bus

up to Athens itself

yeah and then we will find a way to the

chandler we need to go visit and then

we'll find either a bus or a tram to

take us to the Acropolis where the

Parthenon exists. It's so exciting! It is.

Oh gosh we moored the dinghy at the dock there and it's

the wall is really high! Yeah. Oh, that was fun

getting back in's gonna be fun as well! Well it's easy you got gravity working

with you when you get back in. That's true yeah. Just

jump. Take all the bags off first

Anyway we've got to catch a number 122

bus - yep - which will whisk us to our

destination. Yes so excited. Yep

We now have a mantus 10mm chain hook

sing the praises of Mantus. In Mantus we trust

So that's part one. The next bit is to do a 15 minute walk to the tram stop and take

the tram to the Parthenon in Athens, mainland Greece. Wow!

Well we nearly made it. Our tram which

is just parked here took us to here and

the tram ain't goint no further because of that over there

I think they call that the end of the line

So we're gonna get on the interwebs,

find out where we are and find out how far

it is to get to where we want to go.

Lost in Athens

We are currently

strolling through the back streets of

Athens and we've come across something and

we want to know which of our viewers can

tell us what they are. We do know what

they are - do you know what they are?

Leave your answers in the comment

section down below. Yeah

I think we've found it

Crikey, all that scaffolding, they're

probably still building it. They've been

working on it for 30 years - restoration - yeah - and they reckon they've go another 30 years worth of work. Wow

Onwards and upwards then

I'm not sure what time it is, probably about

two o'clock - maybe a bit more

but we've finally arrived and we've got to

climb up some more steps

Right let's get in there, it's not as

busy as we thought it was gonna be

I guess it's coming to the end of the

summer season. I mean when you look at

all the ticket booths that are around

you can see that they're set up for thousands of people. Yeah

Yeah and I think we're fortunate we've come when we have. Yep.

I've a feeling we're not allowed to drink drinks inside.

So it's 20 Euros

per ticket to see the Acropolis and

there are several other sites around. If

you buy a 30 euro ticket then you can go

to all the other sites and that ticket

is valid for five days, but really we

just want to see the Acropolis not the

other things. Well contrary to what we read on the website you can come in here

with backpacks on I think what you're

not allowed to do is bring suitcases and

large holdalls. But backpacks of our

size are certainly okay. Another thing the

polished marble on the path is really

slippery so just be aware that when you

choose your footwear

So you can see where they're reconstructing these parts

Just before we left boat this morning I

was having a conversation in the chat

section underneath one of our videos

with Murray who is a longtime subscriber

and patron and he was telling me that

they built this with very good advanced

mathematics and one of the things they

used to figure out how everything was

going to be put together was the

Fibonacci sequence

Go figure. No pun intended there of

course. Now I don't know if you can see but

up there I heard rumours that this is the

inspiration that the creators of Lego

got their idea for Lego making. It's not

true by the wa,y it's not true, I'm just joking

Here's what these Lego pieces

look like close up. You can see they've also got a

slight angle to them so if this was if

this block was actually flat horizontal

and they would be slightly angled. Clever people, very clever people.

I don't know if you can see but all the way up

there is a horse's head and it looks

perfectly like a horse's head and the

roofline used to go up to a V into a

point and there was a freize across the

top of there but a Pommy bloke called Elgin came along

and stole them all

Hmm less said about that the better

Just look at the detail here in this carving

These columns were made in the Doric

fashion which means that they've got

very plain tops and they also don't have

any base stone at the bottom

Doric temples were built to look very

much like the original wooden temples

Here's an example of an Ionic building

with the scrolls at the top and the

columns sitting on a base, so this

building is slightly newer than the Parthenon

In order to make the columns

look straight they are actually

very finely tapered because it gives an

optical illusion of straight columns

when you look from the distance and

apparently every single column is made

uniquely see even though they're made

with individual parts you couldn't sort

of swap a couple of parts from one

column with another one because they're

all unique to each particular column, isn't that amazing? Clever people very clever people

What we're looking at here are actually

copies of the Caryatids I believe that's

what they're called the columns carved

like women that are holding up the roof

of this little temple and originally in

the 19th century Lord Elgin carried off

the third from the West and also the

column of the northeast corner. They've

been replaced by copies, in fact I

believe all of them are now copies so the

others are in safekeeping but Lord Elgin

took those columns and he also took a

lot of the freize from the Parthenon back

to the UK where they are now situated in

the British Museum and there's some

contention as to whether the British

Museum will send them back to Greece

because Greece wants them back

We'll see what happens

Now that looks interesting

There's no plaque here to tell us what

that is, there is a plaque just up ahead

on the path here, maybe that tells us

what that is but it's er fascinating

The only problem here is the ground is so

uneven and you're trying to look up at things

but you've got to keep an eye on where you're walking

We've been enlightened. St. Mary of the

Cave. Unfortunately we can't go in there

which is a shame because

looking at this picture or sketch it would be fascinating

Time to go? I think so. It's been huge hasn't it? Yeah

It's well worth the money and you know that you're paying towards the restoration

We came, we saw, we walked

Now we got to get back to the boat. Yeah

More walking. More walking!

And trying to find the right tram and the

right bus. Yeah before it gets dark. Yeah

What an adventure Baz. It is

Join us next

week on Sailing A B Sea as we experience big

wins at Varkiza, install our Mantus chain hook and meet

friends in the Evia passage on the way to Porto Rafti. Like our vlogs? Give us a

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