From Panormos to Khalkis

On Monday, May 13, we left Panormos on Skopelos at 6am for Orei on Evia. The wind was forecast to be Force 1-2 East, which it was in the bay, but as soon as we got out to sea we suddenly had  Force 5 northerly, which must have come from the big grey cloud hanging over us. Not long after we had left we saw Skopelos enveloped by thick fog.

We motor-sailed with the genoa until the wind gradually went round west and dropped to almost nothing as we approached the Volos Bay. Simon wanted to detour to visit Palio Trikeri island, to tick off another inhabited island, which did not please Lin because she was concerned about the unpredictable weather and wanted to get tucked up in Orei as soon as possible.

On the way we met two ferries racing each other from Volos to Skiathos.

With the wind dropping to almost nothing, though still with thick grey clouds, Lin agreed to satisfy Simon’s whim and we visited Palio Trikeri, briefly.

On the headland entering the gulf of Volos we sailed past the little village of Agia Kiriaki, with the town of Trikeri dramatically on the hilltop above.

We got to Palio Trikeri safely, had a look around the village from the boat,

and motored and motor-sailed on to Orei, arriving at 1pm, having covered another 46 miles.

Orei has changed dramatically since we were last here in 2010. The harbour has been completely rebuilt and a new jetty built inside the harbour. The north quay, which was dilapidated when were last here, is spanking new, but was full of boats fitting out, having launched from the neighbouring boatyard. 

There was plenty of room on the new jetty, to which we tied up.

We walked around the town and did a bit of shopping (including a new bottle of gas, delivered to the boat, for 8 euros) and once more admired the lion (dredged up from the bottom of the sea), who is encased in his or her crumbling box.

Simon went to pay our harbour dues and print out the papers for the boat tax and we then went for dinner in a littler ouzeri, the only place open, where we had delicious horta and sardines and a huge prawn saganaki, all for 24 euros with wine.

On Tuesday morning, May 14^th, Simon went to the Port Police to see if he could pay the boat tax. A very friendly port policeman explained that we had to pay it in a bank and they don’t have a bank in Orei. We still have four days to pay to avoid a 1000 euro fine.

We had an uneventful 40 mile motor in no wind, seeing no other yachts, to Limni on Evia, where we went alongside on the new outer part of the quay. 

The digger that was dredging the entrance stopped to let us through. In the afternoon a big fishing boat came in behind us, which gave us good protection from the swell as the wind got up. 

We were a bit worried that we would not be able to get round him to leave through the narrow entrance, but Lin mobilised her Greek to find that he was leaving at five. So we will get woken early by his thumping engine right by our bed.

After school a little fleet of Oppies was out training.

Limni is a very Greek town. We had an excellent and very cheap dinner at the Platanos taverna and got to bed early.

We were woken by the trawler at 5.15 and left Limni for Khalkis at 7.15. Again there was very little wind, though we managed to fill the genoa for an hour as we motored down, again seeing no other yachts. We got to Khalki at 11am and decided to go alongside at the north end of the quay (it is too shallow for us further south). We thought it would be easier to get alongside port-side-to because we would be going into the current, which would give us steerage way  -  the current out in the channel was running at 4 knots. However, it was a tight turn in to avoid a yacht parked further up, there was a back eddy by the quay so we had no steerage way and the wind was blowing us gently off. We had three tries (on one a man took our line but could not hold it) before deciding to go starboard-side-to, so we went out, swapped all the lines and fenders over and came in without any problem.

Behind Khalkis the 1743 metre mount Dirfi still had a lot of snow on it. Apparently the snow was 10 foot deep last winter.

As soon as we were tied up Simon went off to the supermarket to stock up and to pay the cruising tax in the bank. He had to wait in a queue for half an hour, but it only took three minutes to pay the tax. After lunch Simon went off to pay for and book our passage of the lifting bridge, which is scheduled for 1 am. The system has changed since we were last here and that described in the pilot. Simon went over to the Port Police building on the other side of the bridge and was told that we now had to pay in the office in the harbour on the other side. He re-crossed the bridge, negotiating a series of pedestrian crossings (at which most drivers only stop if you step out in front of them), and went and paid. The woman in the office told him then to go to the Port Police to book the passage, so he went back to the Port Police building to be told that the relevant bit of the Port Police is in a new building on the other side. He could not find the building, so went back to the harbour office, where he was given a map and directions and was told that the office opened at 4. As it was now 3.30 he had a coffee and turned up at the new Port Police building at 4, to find it closed. A German couple arrived soon after and about 4.15 a cleaning woman opened the door and told us to go in the back entrance round the corner. At last Simon got to the office and booked our passage. We were told to standby from 10pm, with the radio open for instructions of Channel 12. The bridge was scheduled to open at 1 am, but we were told that if there were no big boats going through they might open it earlier.

The most amazing thing about our day in Khalkis was how warm it was after being cold for two weeks! We were in T-shirts and almost changed into shorts.
Going through the bridge was very straightforward, although it did not open till 1.30. A tug and three yachts came through from the south first, although the lights on the bridge showed it as open to south-going traffic. We had been warned very firmly not to cast off until we were called, but as we saw the north-going yachts racing for our quay we decided it was best to keep clear. Leaving was easy as the south running counter current enabled us to ferry-glide off. Soon after leaving, we were called and were the only boat going south through the bridge. The bridge started opening even as we were going through it (the roadway is lowered and then slides under the roadway on each side). We anchored just around the corner, under the railway station and castle, at 2.30 and got to bed.

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.

Mount Athos

We set off from Limenaria at 6am on 8th May. It was a very grey morning with very light wind, starting northwest then going south. Our plan had been to sail across to the north of the east side of the Athos peninsular to take in all of the monasteries. However, it was very cold, the peninsular was shrouded in cloud and the seas were on the beam, so we rolled horribly. After an hour or so we decided to skip the east side of the peninsular and head straight for the bottom before heading north up the west side to Ammouliani.

Mount Athos was hidden in the clouds, with snow still lying in the gullies.

We saw four or five dramatic monasteries through the mist before we reached the bottom of the peninsular, where we saw our first monastery close to, Grand Lavra, the largest monastery and the first built on Athos in 963. It is the first in the hierarchy of monasteries.

As we reached the corner a fishing boat crossed us.

Along the south coast was a series of settlements, with churches surrounded by large houses, which we guessed must by sketes, monastic communities separate from, but subordinate to the main monastery.

We were a bit anxious about going too close to the shore, because any yacht with a woman on board has to keep at least 2 km from the shore. Lin disguised herself as a man, given away by her pink jacket. However, tripper boats soon arrived, with a lot of women aboard, and went close to the shore, so after that we didn't worry.

Setting off north, we clocked up the monasteries (sorry if you are not into monastery pictures!).

Agios Pavlou, founded in the 10th century, traditionally Serbian.

Dyonisou, founded in 1375, also traditionally Serbian.

Gregoriou, founded about 1395

Simonos Petras, founded in the 13th century, but frequently destroyed by fire.

Xiropotamou, founded in the 10th century, but most of the buildings date from the eighteenth century. Here, if you are male, you can find the largest extant piece of the true cross.

From here on the monasteries seemed rather soft, since they had quays and a regular ferry service, rather than being perched on precipitous cliffs.

Moni Ayiou Panteleimonos. You might have guessed that this is Russian. Founded in 1169, it was badly damaged by fire in 1968. In 1913 it housed 2,000 Russian monks, reduced by the 1970s to thirteen, now about 70 Russian and Ukrainian monks. Putin visited in 2005.

Xenofondos, built in the tenth or eleventh century.

Doheiariou, founded in the tenth century.

Moni Konstamonitou. Founded in the eleventh century, the lowest ranked of all the monasteries.

Zografou, founded in the late ninth or early tenth centuries by three Bulgarina monks from Ohrid, it is traditionally Bulgarian.

Having had our fill of monasteries, which we did not think were as impressive as those of Meteora, we kept on up the coast to Ammouliani. As we approached Ammouliami we smelt petrol. The fuel tank in the dinghy had flipped when we were rolling and the cap of the fuel gauge had come off, letting out five litres of petrol, which dissolved the glue holding the rubber pads on the floor. Rather than getting into the dinghy to sponge it out, we decided to let it evaporate before we cleaned it. At Ammouliani we tied up on the quay, which is normally full of tripper boats, but they are obviously not doing much business in this weather.

Ammouliani is not the most attractive town, and is a nightmare in summer when it is bursting with tourists, but we walked over to the other side to see the new caique harbour and bay beyond.