From Khalkis to Tinos

We left Khalkis at 8.30 on Wednesday morning, 16 May, and wound our way through the channel, passing under the road bridge with room to spare. 

Just around from the bridge we passed a shipyard where the Blue Star Ferry Diogenes, that we have taken from Leros to Athens, was in dry dock.

There was sun and some wind at last, but it was Force 2-3 on the nose, so we motored again. We had intended to go to Almyropotamos Bay on Evia, but we decided to press on and arrived at Nisos Khernision (Xero) at 15.45, having covered 45 miles.

We had expected to find the bay empty, but there were two yachts already there (and two more came in later), but we found a comfortable place to anchor on 6m of sand.  It is a beautiful bay

and the sea temperature was 18.5, so Lin had a swim.

We had a long night’s sleep to recover from being up till 2 the previous night and left Xero at 7.30 with a very weak southerly wind. We motored round Tragonisi, a “strictly private” island with one inhabitant, according to the census, but with three very large houses and their own harbor.

The other larger Petali islands had substantial houses on them, Khersonisi

and Megalonisi,

 

 but are uninhabited according to the census, so presumably these are second homes.

The wind gradually swung round as we motor-sailed towards Andros, eventually reaching a Force 4 northerly. We arrived in Batsi at 12.15 and went alongside the quay. 

We had a week’s holiday in Batsi about twenty years ago, but there has been so much construction since then (and maybe our memories are weakening) that we could not recognize anything or remember exactly where we had stayed.

We went for an excellent lunch at a taverna overlooking the bay, run by a very friendly Greek owner and his German wife, who had been there for 33 years. 

When we got back to the boat, the harbour master came up and asked us to move forward, to make room for another boat behind, although there was lots of room on the other quay and even if we moved forward there would only be room for a coracle behind us. Nevertheless, we moved to keep him happy. We then went for a walk up the road to find the recycling bins and to see if we could recognize anywhere from our previous visit. We succeeded at the former, but failed at the latter.

We came back down a long flight of steps through town, passing the taverna where we had had lunch. The taverna owner recommended we go back up and follow an alley round the town, crossing a stream and seeing a neoclassical villa for sale for 2 million euros.

We had pesto pasta for dinner after our big lunch and got to bed early.

We left Batsi at 7.45 with absolutely no wind. We motored down the West coast of Andros, past the narrow channel between Andros and Tinos 

and down the West coast of Tinos to Tinos Town in the southwest corner of the island. On the way the wind went round the clock, so we had the genoa out for a bit on one tack, then on the other.

We always keep a good look-out ahead, but on ferry routes you have to keep a good look-out behind as well. We did not see the first fast ferry until it was about half a mile behind us. He clearly intended to pass inside us, close to the shore, so we held our course and surfed his wash, rather than turning to face into it. 

The same happened with the second ferry, which we had seen from a long way off. 

The second ferry passed us soon before we got to Tinos town and was clearly getting ready to leave again as we reached the harbor entrance, so we held back until he had left.

We reached the harbor, after 27 miles, at 12 to find very few yachts there, so there was plenty of room on the quay. Two young men in hi-vis jackets took our lines very professionally and booked a diesel delivery for us – they turned out to be self-appointed harbor staff, but only asked for a tip when they had finished, rather than demanding a ridiculous fee, as often happens. They seemed delighted with the 5 euros we gave them and we were delighted when the diesel truck arrived more or less at the time promised. While we filled with diesel, the harbor authorities turned up to demand their fee of 14 euros – apart from Orei, the only time we have paid to stay anywhere on this whole trip.

We went for lunch in a very good little taverna up a back street recommended by the Greek Gastronomy Guide. After lunch we walked up to the hideous church of Panagia Evangelistra with its sacred icon. 

As our Greek Island-Hopping Guide explains: “The icon is reputedly the work of St Luke … and, if true, shows a remarkable anticipation of Byzantine art…. It came to light in 1822 after a passing nun saw a hunky bronzed workman digging in a field and had a vision (of what, history hasn’t recorded). Given instructions where to dig he unearthed the icon, miraculously unharmed.” The church was built on the site of the discovery, the icon has miraculous curative powers and attracts huge numbers of believers to Tinos, and the nun was declared a saint.

After looking round the church and looking at, but not kissing, the icon, we made our way back down the carpeted walkway along the main road.

After shopping we went back to the boat, read and chilled before a light omelette dinner.