Heading north again.

We flew to Athens on Sunday 14 April and stayed a couple of nights with Lena. It was freezing in Athens, while England enjoyed its Easter heatwave. On Monday we went to lunch with Nikos and Fani and on Tuesday took the ferry to Leros, arriving just after midnight.

When we got to the boat we found that the boarding ladder had been lifted and jammed under the solar panels, so we could not get aboard. Simon went to find a bit of wood to try to haul it down, but that did not work, so eventually Lin quietly went aboard the next-door boat and then across to ours and managed to get the ladder down with a couple of judicious kicks. So we did not have to spend our first night sleeping out in the cold!

The boat was in good condition – dry and not too much dust - but there was still plenty of cleaning, polishing and maintenance to get on with, and it was still cold. We spent two weeks pottering around in Lakki, getting the boat sorted, seeing friends, reading and going to our favourite tavernas. We had planned to go for some walks, but somehow there was never time.

For Lin’s birthday we had Ray and Carol, Patrick and Margaret and Frank and Lin for drinks, 

then we all went up to Dmitri’s for a birthday dinner,

with a little birthday cake!

We spent Good Friday evening in Poppy’s, waiting for the Easter parade to go by, watching the fireworks and listening to the firecrackers, some of which were much too loud for Lin. 

As the parade approached, 

Nikos gave us all candle

 At the end of the parade came a refugee family with four little boys, so we gave them our candles, with which they were delighted.

We decided not to go for the celebration at midnight on Saturday night – the burning of the effigy of Judas and lots of explosions. We were very tired so went to bed and slept through all the noise.

We went up to Arkhangelos 

for lunch on Easter Sunday with Al and Kitty, their friends Kate and Sarah and Kitty’s father and stepmother.

 Most of them swam, but the sea was only 18 degrees and we chickened out. Rowing back to the boat was enough for us!

We had not decided whether to go north or south for this year’s long trip. Last year we had gone north, but had to turn back from Samothraki because the engine would not reverse, missing out on Thassos and Halkidiki. Since the forecast was for a week of south winds, we decided to head north again.

On Monday morning, April 29^th, we set off north from Arkhangelos, aiming for the new marina at Agios Kirikos, the island capital on the southeast coast of Ikaria. We had a comfortable motor sail in a Force 3-4 southerly wind, arriving at 1 pm after 35 miles. We thought the new marina was wonderful – very well built quays, at just the right height for comfort, with rubber strips along the top to fend the boats off. 

After lunch we went for a walk, onto the ferry quay, with a view of the town and the mountains behind,

and the monument to Ikarus, 

then along the coast, towards Thermia, a derelict spa, though we did not get there, and we cooked aboard in the evening.

All the forecasts for Tuesday were for a Force 4 southerly wind. We set off from Agios Kirikos for Psara, to the northeast of Khios, in  a Force 4 westerly, to find the fan belt slipping, so we sailed under bare poles while Simon tightened the fanbelt. When we got to the East end of Ikaria the wind went round to the south, but now Force 6. A few miles off Ikaria the wind died and then went round to the north, so we dropped the mainsail and decided to head for Khios marina, instead of Psara. After a while the wind went round west and we had a confused sea, the main component being waves from the west of about 2 metres, so we rolled all over the place. Eventually, as we passed the southern tip of Khios, the wind went south again, but at Force 5-6, rather than the 4 expected. We shot up the coast and went in to the derelict, uncompleted Khios marina, but we found that the wind was blowing straight in through the entrance, making it very uncomfortable, so we decided to head on for Kardamila, on the north-east corner of Khios. Although the pilot said that it had strong gusts in a southerly, we hoped that it would be more sheltered than the channel, though we still faced a Force 6 southerly wind going in. We had covered 70 miles in ten hours, including the time spent fixing the fan belt and getting sails up and down.

We saw that Cynusure, from Lakki, was alongside the end of the quay, but we decided to anchor in the southeast corner of the bay, as recommended by the pilot, which was lucky, because later a trawler tied up on the bit of the quay we had thought of going on to. The wind dropped in the evening and, in the end, we had a peaceful night at anchor in a lovely bay.

We found that we had sprung a batten in the main on the way up, because the piece holding the batten had split. Simon glued it in the evening and reinserted the batten next morning, which, fortunately, held. Repairs completed, we set off at 08.00 on Wednesday, 1^st May, for Sigri, on the South West corner of Lesbos.  We had an uneventful 57 mile motor-sail in a southerly Force 4 wind, dropping later to a 2, (apart from a close encounter with a cargo vessel) 

and arrived at Sigri at 14.30, where we anchored in the south bay, off the castle. 

A British boat, who had crossed from the Sporades, came in a bit later. The wind and swell got up a bit and when they decided to move to the north bay, we decided to follow them.

The next morning, Thursday May 2^nd, we set off for Myrina on Limnos at dawn, 6am. 

The wind started a southerly Force 3, which gave us a nice beam reach, but later moved round to the north, which made it even colder than on previous days. 

We got to Myrina at 14.30 and tied up on the quay, alongside a very nice Bulgarian family on a skippered charter.

We had decided to take a break in Myrina, a town that we love. In the afternoon we did some shopping, took the washing in and had showers. In the evening we had an excellent and very cheap dinner in a fairly new taverna in town, Grammofono. Lin had a superb prawn saganaki for 7 euros. On Friday morning, we went to the archaeological museum, which was now open (last year it was closed for renovation). The display was superb, with excellent explanations of everything on display. In the afternoon, we had a good lunch at the fish taverna on the fisherman’s harbour, 

After lunch, we walked up to the castle to enjoy the wild flowers,

the view down to Mia Hara in the harbour

and the coast to the north

and the south

and to look for the deer, which we could not find. 

We left Myrina for Thasos at 6.15 on Saturday, 4^th May. It was a downwind sail in a South-South East Force 4 wind, forecast to swing round. We did not want to risk a crash gybe, so we motor-sailed with the genoa. We had an inhabited island to tick off, Koinira on the east coast of Thasos, with a supposed population of five. There was a house on the island, but no sign of life and we could not see a landing place, 

so we sailed round it and on, reaching Thasos after 58 miles at 15.00, where we went alongside in the new harbour. 

The harbour was almost empty when we arrived, but late in the afternoon about 20 charter boats came in, mostly with Bulgarian crews, apparently taking part in a regatta, pretty well filling the harbour.

We had reached the northernmost point of our adventure, having covered 275 nautical miles in a week. Although we saw a few yachts in anchorages, we didn’t see another yacht on passage all the way. Time for a rest!

Sunday was very windy, with occasional showers. We explored the ancient ruins in Thassos. In the morning we went to the archaeological museum, which looked new and built at enormous expense. It was as good as the Myrina museum, but on a much larger scale, so it was an overwhelming experience, trying to take it all in. Lin was very taken by the fifth century BC bath.

We went back to the boat for lunch and in the afternoon explored the ruins. We walked through the agora, which was beautiful with the luscious grass, wild flowers and trees amid the ruins. 

After the agora we went the wrong way, up a track through beautiful woods and meadows with wild flowers and bird song. We retraced our steps and passed a temple of Dionysus and then up the hill to the theatre, meeting a lost chicken on the way.

The theatre was still closed for restoration (the sign at the bottom said it was 200 metres, but those were Greek metres – it was at least half a mile up a steep hill). We then went further up to the top of the hill to the ruins of a medieval castle

built on the base of the ancient acropolis, 

and a temple of Apollo, 

with fantastic views down to the town and the harbour.

On the way down we took a path which skirted the theatre, so we at least saw it, though it is more memorable for the location than for the remains.

In the evening we went to a taverna by the old harbor, Simi, which had heaters on, and we had a very good dinner. A Bulgarian couple behind us spent their entire meal playing computer games on their phones, not speaking to each other at all and barely touching their food!

On Monday, 6^th May, we hired a car for the day to explore the island. The main road goes all the way round the outside of the island, with roads off going up to the various mountain villages. Until the nineteenth century most people lived in those villages, to avoid pirates and raiders, only moving down to the coast in modern times, so while the coast is lined with modern towns, now mostly tourist resorts, the mountain villages retain their traditional form, though they too have been much affected by tourism, catering for tourists and with many houses taken over by expats or for rent as summer homes.

Our first stop was the Monday market at Prinos. This was not very exciting – poor people supplying poor people with cheap fruit and veg and cheap clothes. We just bought a little basil plant and some salad. 

We then drove up into the hills to Mikros and Megalos Prinos (Kazaviti), 

with Macedonian style stone houses with timber balconies, 

most of which had been restored, probably as holiday homes because we didn’t see any people. The road up through the forest was lined with wild flowers, especially poppies.

We drove on down the rather boring east coast, dropped in to Limenaria to check out the new harbor, then back up into the hills to the village of Kastro, where we had lunch at Kostas’ taverna, which was the former school. 

Kostas told us that nobody lives permanently in the village. The young people moved down to Limenaria and as the older generation died off, the younger ones restored their houses to use in the summer or to rent to visitors. Kostas himself drove up every morning and back in the evening.

Some of the houses were derelict or destroyed, 

but most had obviously been restored.

Kostas gave us the key to the little church and directed us to the bone house,  

 where the bones of the dead are put in boxes

(and eventually tossed in a heap on the floor) after exhumation.

He then showed us around the 14^th century big church, 

which was very lavishly decorated and well maintained (no photos in the church), with an enclosed balcony for the women. Embedded in the outer wall was a stone with an inscription from the medieval castle, though it had been put upside down.

After Kastro we drove back down to the coast and then up to Theologos, which had been the principal town from the middle ages until the nineteenth century. This was quite a big town, strung along two streets, with some large houses, but rather disappointing after Kastro.

We drove back down to the coast again, along the south coast to Alyki, which is a pair of small, well-sheltered coves that has been inhabited continuously since the seventh century BC. The archaeological site is beautifully laid out, with lush green grass and wild flowers along the paths between the remains,

which include a temple of Apollo,

beside which was a knarled olive tree,

a sacred cave, a large early Christian basilica,

and ancient and medieval marble quarries. In the ancient quarry was an unfinished column base.

From Alyki we drove up the much more attractive East coast along a windy hilly road through forests, looking down to coves and beaches. Our last stop was at Panagia, a traditional mountain village with a stream running through it,

where we had coffee and cakes. We stopped off at a supermarket and returned the car at about 7 before having scrambled egg on toast for supper.

On Tuesday May 7^th we motored down to Limenaria (no wind) through a thunderstorm, with heavy bursts of rain and lightning on the mainland behind us and on the hills of Thassos. It was cold! There were surprisingly large seas, which had us rolling around uncomfortably. We were accompanied for a couple of miles by a young dolphin, who appeared to be herding us away from the shallows. It was eventually joined by another young dolphin and an adult, who disappeared. At Limenaria we went alongside in the new harbour, ready to sail over to Halkidiki the next day. Apart from a couple of small laid-up yachts, we were the only yacht in the big new harbor.