ALEGRIA

ALEGRIA — Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 Some cruising grounds are simply better known than others. The southern Peloponnese is not one of them, and that is precisely the point. Aboard ALEGRIA, a Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 run as a boutique catamaran, the itinerary reads like a list of places most charter guests never reach: Venetian fortresses standing over empty bays, gorges and caves cut into austere ridgelines, water so clear the anchor chain is visible on the seabed, and villages where Greek tradition is still lived rather than performed. The Saona 47 is a sensible platform for exactly this kind of cruising. Her beam gives genuine stability at anchor and under way, her shallow draught opens up coves a monohull would have to admire from a distance, and the flow between saloon, cockpit and flybridge means the yacht is lived in outdoors, as she should be in these latitudes. Accommodation is arranged over four cabins, each with a double bed, sleeping eight guests. It is a straightforward, egalitarian layout — no one is relegated, which matters on a catamaran shared between two families or a group of friends. Her home port is Kalamata, with embarkation also possible from Pylos and a handful of smaller harbours along the coast: Stoupa, Methoni, Agios Andreas, Limeni, Gerolimenas and Gytheio in the Mani, as well as Zakynthos and Milos. The operating area extends across the southern Peloponnese and the southern Ionian. The crew keeps the tone of the yacht: attentive without ceremony, and genuinely useful when it comes to knowing which bay is sheltered tonight, which taverna is worth the tender ride ashore, and when to simply stay at anchor a little longer.