From Ammouliani to Skopelos

We spoke too soon at the end of our last blog, when we were on the quay at Ammouliani. At 6pm someone came to tell us that we would have to leave the quay because two big tripper boats were coming in, so we left and went and anchored in the bay, where we enjoyed a peaceful night.

After Simon had mopped the spilt petrol out of the dinghy, we left Ammouliani at 8.30 into a light northwesterly wind and motored over to Diaporos island to check it out. 

There are lots of good anchorages there, sheltered behind the island, and a lovely beach, but it looked very bleak (like everywhere else) on a cold grey day. 

The little islands on the way in, Ambelitsi and Peristeri, are uninhabited according to the census, but both had houses on them, probably summer homes.

By now the wind had swung round to a Force 3 southerly – on the nose – as we motored down the east side of the Sidonia peninsular (the middle finger of Halkidiki). There was a series of beautiful sandy beaches, backed by forested hills, but nobody on any of the beaches. We had an amazing experience halfway down – we same another yacht sailing for the first time since leaving Leros ten days ago. Actually we only saw it when it passed us going the other way, we have become so lax in keeping a lookout with so few boats around (even very few fishing boats).

Today Mount Athos was not clouded, so we could see the whole mountain.

Near the bottom of Sidonia we went in to Paralia Sykia, intending to look for Saul’s dad, Mik Smith, who was last heard of living in Sykia. 

However, Lin decided that it was too windy and exposed to leave the boat at anchor, so we went on, round the bottom of the peninsular,

passing a craneon a barge moving very slowly with a tug 

and into Porto Koufo, 

a landlocked bay on the southwest corner of Sidonia, where we were helped to tie up alongside the former U-boat quay by an English couple who had just sailed up from Kira Panagia, where we plan to go tomorrow. That was lucky, because it would have been difficult getting on to the quay without help – we had to turn in tightly because of shallows, the wind was blowing us off and the quay was very high (not easy to get up to once we had tied up). The pilot warns of fishing boats throwing people off the quay late at night, so we hoped it wouldn’t happen to us.

Although it is a very small village and, like all these places, half-dead,

we found a supermarket open where we could stock up for the next few days. After a cup of tea, Simon got to work to finish cleaning up the dinghy, removing the muck from the glue that had been dissolved by the petrol.  

At about 8.30, just as we were finishing our dinner at a taverna on the front, we saw a lot of activity around the catamaran and then saw it leaving the quay. Simon hurried over to the quay to find a man on our boat banging on the windows. We had to leave because the fishing boats were coming in. He gave us ten minutes, so we quickly had pudding, paid, left the taverna and got off the quay, going to anchor just off the beach as it was getting dark. Three big trawlers came in to unload their catch to a fishmonger’s lorry.

We got up early on Friday morning to leave Koufo at 6 am to go to Kyra Panagia in the Sporades. It was a bright sunny day,

though still quite cold, although there was cloud on the southern horizon. Half way down we were met by quite a big school of dolphins, half a dozen of whom played around the boat for about ten minutes. It proved very difficult to film them on the compact camera!

The wind was very light southwesterly, so we had to motor. On the way we saw our second yacht sailing up to Halkidiki (we have seen yachts entering and leaving port, mostly Kavalla charters on Thassos). We decided to detour on the way to look at Piperi, the only inhabited island in the Eastern Sporades that we have not visited. The island is a bird and monk seal sanctuary, which boats are not allowed to approach, so we had to visit it from a distance. According to the census it has six inhabitants, though these were probably naturalists who happened to be there on census night.

On the way we passed the long flat island of Psathoura, off the eastern end of which there is reportedly a sunken city, perhaps Halonissos,

the even flatter island of Myiga

and the more substantial island of Gioura (all uninhabited, though Gioura is supposedly home to a herd of wild ibex, though we could not see any).

We met another, smaller, school of dolphins off the south coast of Gioura. Lin noticed some rings appearing on the surface of the sea. Simon said “they can’t be dolphins or we would see them”. Sure enough, shortly after, a couple of dolphins popped up and half a dozen more were swimming fast towards us from ahead. These ones only played briefly around the boat, before moving off.

We motored through the narrow passage into Kyra Panagia

and anchored in the middle of the main bay at 13.45, having covered 48 miles.

There was nobody else here, until three or four small yachts, probably a flotilla, came in together at teatime and anchored out of sight in the other bay – it was a Sailing Holidays flotilla – in the morning we counted eleven of them in the other bay.

Lin checked the fuel gauge and saw that it was only just above the red, which was surprising as we had put in 120 litres in Thassos to give us a tank 7/8 full, since when we have only done 170 miles. We checked the bilges and there was no diesel in the bilge, so we must have used a lot powering into the wind and waves, with our barnacled hull (and maybe running the watermaker) – or the gauge is faulty. We decided to stop off in Skopelos town tomorrow to fill up.

We had expected that the water would be warmer in Kyra Panagia as it is a shallow landlocked bay, so that we could enjoy our first swim of the year, but the water temperature was still only 16.5. After warming ourselves up with a row and a short walk ashore (until it got too rough),

we stripped off and plunged in for a swim round the boat, which was a shock, but lovely, leaving us with a warm glow once we had dried off.

We had dinner in the cockpit for the first time, though well wrapped up.

After dinner we noticed a small herd of cows on the shore.

A hungry seagull was calling for food, so we tossed it a bit of old bread. Soon there were dozens of seagulls who had come for feeding time. We tossed them a vary hard lump of dried-up brown bread, which they were a bit wary of, but soon one brave seagull had a peck at it, then others joined in and as one swooped off with a big chunk they all chased after and started fighting for it!

We woke up to fog rolling in from the east, which soon blanketed us. We decided that we would not risk running out of fuel, so we would sail to Skopelos town. We left at 6.30, edging our way out through the fog under engine, counting eleven Sailing Holidays boats in the other bay, and turned west round the headland as the fog lifted.

We got the sails out to beat up to the northeast corner of Kyra Panagia, then tacked onto a beam reach for Skopelos. The wind was light and dying. We managed just over ten miles in four hours (helped by a current) before the wind gave up and we motor-sailed the rest of the way.

We went onto the quay in Skopelos town.

Simon fiddled with the fuel gauge, which was faulty, but without success until he gave up, when it gave a reading after we had put in 150 litres of diesel, but as it did not go up when we added another 50 litres it is probably still not working.

It is so strange to be warm at last, in the company of a lot more yachts and in a town that is alive, unlike the half-dead towns in the north. After filling up with fuel we walked around the quay and did some shopping.

We had dinner in Kyratso Kitchen, on the quay, which had a big board of photos of celebrities outside, the only one of whom we recognized was Jamie Oliver. The restaurant was packed and the food was excellent – the best gavros we have ever had and an excellent light moussaka.

We felt very sorry for the restaurant next door, which had only one customer.

We left at 9 next morning, Sunday 12^th May, to motor round to Panormos Bay, on the other side of Skopelos, which is a small enclosed bay, very sheltered. There was one laid up little yacht in the bay so we could choose our spot to anchor with a line ashore.

Soon after we arrived a charter yacht came in, had a look and left, then a tripper yacht came round the bay and went on. Then a Sailing Holidays flotilla came in one by one for their lunch stop, though most turned round and went away again. One decided to drop his anchor over ours. I called at him to stop, which he did. He then circled round to drop about five metres from the original spot, though clear of us.
Before lunch Simon tried to mend the leaking deck shower. Having dismantled, cleaned and reassembled it, it leaked worse than ever. After lunch Simon struggled into his new wet suit(the water was still only 16.5 degrees) and spent three-quarters of an hour cleaning and scraping muck of the waterline.
Tomorrow, Monday, we will set off for Orei, on Evia, via Palio Trikeri island (the last inhabited island up here that we have not visited.