Chilling with John

On Thursday 14th June we motor-sailed up from Lakki to Arkhangelos, with only a light SW wind, where we picked up the red buoy.

Lin's brother John arrived on the overnight flight on Friday 15th June. Dimitra picked him up at the airport and she and Tassos brought him across to Arkhangelos in their motor boat, unloading him with his luggage directly onto our boat. Simon and Christiana arrived during the morning and we all had lunch and dinner at Stigma.

On Saturday 16th we motorsailed up to Arki, still with a light southwesterly wind, where we found a space on the quay. We had lunch and dinner at Nikolas and in the afternoon swam from the town beach.

On Sunday 17th we walked over to Tiganakia, where we spent the morning, before coming back for a beer at Nikolas and lunch aboard. In the afternoon we went back to the town beach to swim before dinner at Nikolas.

On Monday 18th we walked up to the church in the hill above the village, 

then followed a rough path down the other side to the beach at Limnari, 

where we swam. We walked back past the farm and beautiful bougainvillea 

to Nikolas for a beer before sardines on toast on the boat and back to the town beach to swim in the afternoon.

On Tuesday 19th we walked up to the Kastro - a few ancient stones, probably once a watchtour/beacon 

- then down to the lighthouse on the headland 

before scrambling down to the town beach.

On Wednesday we motored down to the Katsadia bay on the southwest of Lipsi, against a light southerly wind, and anchored on the west side of the island. We walked into town to do some shopping, then got a taxi back before having lunch at Delilah and an omelette for dinner aboard.

On Thursday we motorsailed in a light westerly wind down to Arkhangelos, where we again picked up the red buoy. We went for a lunchtime beer and dinner at Stigma.

On Friday we had a rough walk over the headland, past some ruined buildings

and up to the saddle between the two peaks of Arkhangelos, above an attractive deserted bay on the north side. 

We instinctively ducked as the plane from Athens came over our heads to land at Partheni.

It was very hot, so we decided not to go on to the higher peak, but instead walked back to the peak above Stigma, with the remains of the Italian gun emplacement and perhaps of the ancient monastery, before scrambling back down.

On Saturday we motorsailed with a light southwesterly wind down to Lakki to do some shopping. We ordered bon filet at To Petrino, but had some trouble explaining how we wanted the steak cooked. In the end all our steaks were overdone - Simon and John asked for their steaks bleu and got them rare, while Lin's rare steak was definitely medium. 

On Sunday June 24th we motorsailed down to Palionisos with a moderate northwesterly following wind, where Pothitos had reserved us a buoy. Simon and John went to watch the football at Pothitos's before we had dinner there. 

On Monday June 25th we had a brisk sail under genoa down to the anchorage in Vathi Bay on Pserimos. There were already a few boats there, so we had to anchor quite a long way out from the beach. 

Next morning, Tuesday, we left Vathi in a light easterly wind and motored back to Palionisos. The wind blew up from the south and the night saw a little rain, torrential early next morning. Once the rain had cleared we walked along the rocky path to the little beach at Syki for a swim. This time there was a gullet and a motor boat anchored off so we did not have the beach to ourselves. We had ordered a lobster spaghetti from Pothitos for dinner.

On Thursday 28th we motor sailed back to Lakki in a strong southwest wind, which had huge gusts all over the place as we approached Xerokampos, so we got the genoa in and motored into big waves round the corner. We went to dinner at Costa's with Sue and Steve, who had been anchored in Lakki Bay since May, Steve working on the boat. On Friday 29th Lin and John walked round to Merikhia for a swim and in the evening we picked up our hire car and met Al and Kitty for dinner at El Greco. On Saturday we drove round to Alinda for a swim and lunch at To Steki before taking John to the airport for his flight home. In the evening we met Kitty and Lida to go to the bag workshop at Pikpa, where Lin bought two bags made by the refugees. Lida is a local woman who sews and set up the bag workshop, where the refugees make beautiful bags for sale.

We spent Sunday, July 1st cleaning the boat before taking it round to Evros marina early on Monday morning to leave it for July, while we went home. We caught the 12.30 catamaran to Pothia, then the ferry over to Merikhia, where we had dinner before taking a taxi to the airport and our flight home.

Map of our voyage with John