Category: Greece

Skiathos – Mamma Mia on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays Anyone?

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A lot has happened since my last blog, with many miles travelled, an on board robbery which included my laptop (with a whole heap of unfinished blogs) and camera, and some fairly hefty boat maintenance issues to address as La Mischief starts to show her age.

So lets start again with our adventures with my son, Alex and his mate Milo, which all began in Skiathos.

After anchoring in the bay, we checked out the town and worked out that if you timed it right you could get a spot on the town wall. With Alex and his multitude of camera gear coming, we thought the wall was an excellent place to get him settled in.

The airport at Skiathos right next to the town bay, an by right next, I mean 20m. Makes for some interesting plane watching. Alex duly arrived and we got him settled in with a nice meal overlooking the old port. Skiathos is a great little spot, with nice shopping streets, lots of restaurants overlooking the old port, and of course Mamma Mia playing at the outdoor cinema on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays (and no – we didn’t make it, but thanks for asking!)

Next day we hired a car and drove around the island – the highlight being the old deserted Chora on end of a cliff. Complete with drawbridge for keeping baddies out. If that didn’t work there was always boiling oil.

We also visited a nice monastery with wine that cures sadness (thought all wine did that?) and some really nice beaches on south side, which Skiathos is famous for – noting the great anchoring opportunities.

Returning to La Mischief, we invited Lynn, a very old (as in long time) friend of Jenny’s and got the low down on the Greek economic crisis, which has been blown out of all proportion by the press, who haven’t grasped the fact that nothing has changed for tourists – its only the locals who are suffering.

We had a day’s wait for Milo, so we shot off to Skopelos (the next island across) for the day. Got another hire car and drove round to Mamma Mia church – you just can’t get enough of Mamma Mia in this neck of the woods. It was well worth it as the church has a very spectacular location, perched on top of a cliff, overlooking the ocean.

We did a circuit of the island, stopping at a few very cute bays with small walls and small resorts at their head. Quite green and once again a favourite island of ours. Last stop was Skopolos town, which got a tick of approval. Driving back to the boat, we got caught in a big thunderstorm. We were running a bit late, which meant we got back in the dark so decided just to anchor in the same spot in the bay as the wall fills up at night.

Next morning, it was off to pick up Alex’s friend Milo in the dingy, who arrived on a 6.30am flight from Athens.

With Milo (and windsurfer sail) safely on board, it was off to Skyros.

For pictures of Skiathos, please see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203983486580413.1073741977.1620379103&type=1&l=c7fba87af3

For pictures of Skopelos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203983557662190.1073741978.1620379103&type=1&l=c28e250696

No Room at the Inn

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We left Gavatha at 7am heading for Nisos Ayios Evstatios, a small island 50nm away in roughly the direction we were heading in. It was a pretty uneventful trip until we got there to find two big barges adding extensions to the quay. These turned out to be well needed as there was room for the ferry and one other boat, and that space was occupied by an Australian Privilege cat who was flying a boxing kangaroo and not the Australian ensign. We really didn’t have time to stay and chat as just after we anchored in 2m of water just off the small beach, the ferry came in and got agitated with us anchoring there. I’m pretty sure the ferry drew more than 2m but we decided that we didn’t like the anchorage much anyway and decided to get out of there and do a night sail across to the Northern Sporades. The guy on the republican, anti-Australian flag cat (him, not me) suggested a good anchorage on Nisos Kira Panayia called funnily enough Ormos Kira Panayia. It looked a good place to anchor in the dark, so we decided to head there.

We got in at 1am, dropped anchor and went to bed. Next morning we awoke to a pretty bay, but with thunderstorms closing in. Up came the anchor and the wind and we decided to keep to the lee side of the islands and make our way to Skiathos with only a couple of channels between the island where the swell was up. The strategy worked pretty well as the rain came down and the thunder and lightning show kept us on edge. We passed between Alonnisos and Peristeri and across the bottom of Skopelos. As we got to the strait between Skopelos and Skiathos, we got hit with a short, sharp chop and we had to head across the waves until we got in the lee of Skiathos before heading north.

We finally got to Skiathos and dropped anchor in 7m of clear water in a beautiful bay called Ormos Siferi, just to the West of Skiathos town. By now the weather was clearing and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon as we dingied across to the NE cover of the bay and did the short 10 minute walk into town.

Lesvos – Home to Women Who Wear Comfortable Shoes

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Apologies to Robin Williams (Good Morning Vietnam) for starters and then probably to a few more after that.

The motor sail to Lesvos was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. We stuck to the coast of Turkey and then got into the lee of Lesvos, both of which kept the swell down. As we sailed along the east coast of Lesvos, we entered shallower water and played dodgem with numerous craypots and fishing nets.

Lesvos is a strange looking island, with two giant landlocked gulfs cutting into what is the third biggest Greek Island after Crete and Evia.

We pulled into the wall at Mytelini, which had oodles of space. It wasn’t the most attractive wall in the Greek islands, our spot was right next to the bus stop. Mytelini is the capital and behind the waterfront had some cool little winding streets full of nightlife. We consulted Tripadvisor and found the best restaurant in town was 200m from La Mischief. Octopus in Red Wine seemed to be the local specialty and once again the 6 of us enjoyed some great Greek food.

Next morning the 6 of us became the 4 of us as we waved goodbye to Scott and Tiki who were off home via Athens. Then the four of us took off for our grand tour of Lesvos, the highlights of which were very cute little fishing villages (some of which rivaled that one we found in NW Spain – Allan). Petra was also worth a visit to see the monastery perched on top of a hill/mound in the middle of the village. And then there was Mithimna, with its 14th Century castle overlooking the town, it’s very cute harbour and the most enormous sardines that were more like small fish; and turned out to be the best sardines that I’ve ever tasted.

Lesvos is also a bird watchers paradise and our last stop for the day was the salt lakes where the flamingos hang out. Who would have thought – flamingoes in Greece? We managed to see them off in the distance so we able to tick that one off.

Back in town we decided the restaurant from the night before was so good we would eat there again.

Next morning the 4 of us became the 2 of us, as we waved goodbye to Kim and Jane and set off towards Skiathos. Lesvos is such a big island that it takes a whole day to sail from the East side to the West side. We had planned to stop at Mithimna, which had taken our fancy on the drive around, but the wall is small and there were no spots left. So we pushed onto a little village called Gavatha. We pulled up to the wall and were later joined by a yacht from Slovenia. The town itself had a nice church on the hill, a small resort and a rusting WW2 Tank (nothing unusual there!).

Then it was off towards Skiathos.

For photos of Lesvos, see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203961916201167.1073741974.1620379103&type=1&l=d61691fbac

 

Meltemi – An Often Used Greek Word meaning Blow your T@ts Off!

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With our delayed start, we realized we wouldn’t make Lesvos the day we left Cesme, so we hatched yet another plan and headed across to Khios to check back into Greece, before a short sail up to Oinoussa, to check out the birthplace of a lot of Greek Shipping magnates (except Onassis – he was born in Turkey and then moved to Argentina evidently).

The wind picked up as soon as we left Cesme and with two reefs in, it had soon hit 30kts. Khios was nothing to write home about so as soon as we’d finished with the formalities, we left and headed back out into the windy straight that separates Turkey from Khios. We now understood why Cesme was such a popular windsurfing spot.

It took us 2 hours to battle the 10nm into the wind, which at one stage hit 44kts (50kts apparent). I was very happy to pull into Oinoussa, past the statue of the mermaid perched on a rock in the sea, to the town wall where we parked. It was too cold to swim so a walk was in order. Sleepy little town with some friendly people and lovely colorful traditional Greek fishing boats. Met some kids from New Orleans who Mum owned a place on the island – they come back every year for summer break.

Next morning, it was up at 6am and off to Lesvos, some 50nm away.

For photos of Ionoussa see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203935460019779.1073741964.1620379103&type=1&l=db557a8f6c

For photo of Khios see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203935464779898.1073741965.1620379103&type=1&l=46b6104b18

Off to Pythagorion – In Theory

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Samos was our next stop, and once again took up Garry and Marti’s recommendation to stop at Pythagorion. So after summing up the square of the two shorter sides and finding that they equaled the sum of the longer side of the right triangle – as well as exhausting all the other bad jokes about Pythagoras – off we went to Samos, where the subject of my appalling sense of humour lived a long, long time ago.

Our somewhat cunning plan was to put La Mischief in a marina and catch a ferry across to Turkey so we could see Ephasus and Pamukkale. Great idea in theory but for the fact that the ferry wasn’t running on the day we needed it to run because of a lack of paying customers.

So time for Plan B, which was to enjoy Samos for a few days, get a new water pump and a float switch for the bilge pump (as my second electronic float switch had now stopped working – two years after the first had failed). I’m now very much a fan of the old fashioned Rule float switches.

But first, a drive around the island, checking out all the beaches and sites. After an early morning swim, we checked out Samos Town (Vathi) and picked up some boat parts and checked out the old town. Glad we chose Pythgorion over Samos Town.

The drive round Samos is 155km, so makes for a good day. We were recommended a great little village called Manodates (where cars don’t get a look in) up in the mountains for lunch. The road up passed through sub tropical rain forest and on certain sections we were glad we didn’t encounter any oncoming traffic. The lunch was really nice, the home made wine not so. After some more beaches and swimming, we pulled into see what was left of the ancient ruins of Ireon, and the Temple of Hera. Unfortunately there is only one column remaining – but still worth a look.

Next day it was boat repair day. Whilst the others went exploring/relaxing on hired beach chairs, Dee and I got to work. First step was to ride into town on the foldable bike and pick up a new Sureflow pump (less than half the price of my Jabsco) and a new bilge float switch. There was another Aussie boat on the same marina pier and Melinda kindly offered her husband Dave to come and help. The fittings for the Sureflow were quite different, so back on the bike and into town to see what I could do. Wasn’t all that lucky and tried to butcher something up but it didn’t work. So in with the old one with Plan #3 to get it fixed in Kusadasi.

After Mojito’s on La Mischief with Dave, Melinda and a young Pommie guy called Ash (sorry Ash if you read this – Dee deleted your friend request by mistake and can’t find it) who was crew on a Jenneau 57 and was turning 20 alone. After drinks on La Mischief we e walked the kilometre into town to celebrate Ash’s birthday and you guessed it – another round of Mojitos (and dinner).

We’d checked out of Greece the night before, so it was an early 6am start to sail to Kusadasi in Turkey.

For photos of Samos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203935477420214.1073741967.1620379103&type=1&l=d20872d876

Arki – Greek for Very Cute little Village.

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After the cushion overboard episode and a quick swim, we decided we would live with turning on and off the water pump manually and headed north to our planned first stop in Arki. With the Northerly well and truly set in, we motored all the way, up the east side of Leros, past Lipsi and onto the wall at Arki. Garry and Marti had given us a hot tip for a restaurant at Arki, and we managed to tie up side on to the small wall.

What a cute little spot Arki turned up to be. You’d be lucky to find 30 people living permanently on the island, and rumour has it that they are all related. It was a great place for a swim straight off the back of the boat and by now Dee and I were back in the groove and swimming 30-40 mins a time.

After the swim we headed up to the Church of Metamorfosis, up on top of the hill outside of the small village. We took in the views and headed back to the boat for some more quite delicious French Red and Bubbles if I remember correctly.

Then it was off to our recommended restaurant (the one ending in 1956), for some very delicious Greek food. We were struggling with ordering the right amount of food and once again managed to over order – but not to worry, La Mischief was only a 50m crawl across the small square.

Weather Reporting for Dummies
Weather Reporting for Dummies

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Cute Little Arki
Cute Little Arki
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June 2015 – The Adventure Continues On

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With Dee and I back in Greece, and a serious lack of blogging going on (due to numerous excuses I have to say), its well and truly time to fire up the blog and let you poor folk shivering away in the Australian winter know just how good cruising around the Med is. We got to Greece in early June, spent a couple of days recuperating in a seaside hotel close to the airport, before hopping on the plane to Leros with our five heavy bags full of boat parts and half a blow up windsurfer/SUP (as Emirates decided I couldn’t bring the sail section).

In Leros it was not all fun and cocktails. Before the play comes the work. In no time at all I had Dee scrubbing the decks, removing the effects of a Saharan red mud rainstorm. We worked through a long list of boat jobs – 60 odd jobs in total. Dale had reconditioned one of our shower sump pumps and machined up some latch locks so we gratefully fitted those. It took us a little longer than we thought to work our way through our list. After a week and a bit, the day before Kim and Jane were arriving, La Mischief was looking pretty darn good (to quote George of the Jungle) and we were getting closer to finishing when, bugger me, the fresh water pump’s pressure sensor refused to play ball!!

Never mind, it was out to the airport to pick up Kim and Jane at 7.30am (ouch) in our hire car, and we finally gave ourselves a break and spent a day being tourist – breakfast at Skippers (at the marina), lunch on Pateli Beach, looking up at the castle, a quick drink at The View to guess what, check out the view, and then back to Ostria for dinner, an old favorite. In between, I organized for someone to look at my pump, and for some fibre-glassing work to be done.

In Leros we also found time to socialize with the other yachties – a great past time given the stories and information they have. We had drinks on a Seawind 1160 from the USA and Dee keenly did the grand tour to see what Camelot was like. Also ran into a couple of Australians in Garry and Marti – Garry being the guy who set up the original Cruising Helmsman magazine and his wife.

Next day, it was time to pick up Tiki and Scott to bring us up to the full compliment of crew. Of course we needed to check out another restaurant and as the request was for live music and seafood, we headed to the Pateli Beach Bar. Logistics were somewhat of an issue, but with three slim girls and some slow and steady driving, we managed to deliver 6 people to the restaurant in the hire car. Certainly not OH and S compliant.

Being the weekend it was impossible to order a new pump until Monday, so we decided we would cruise down to Kalymnos for a couple of days, until the pump was ordered and delivered from Athens. We headed for Emporios on the NW side, and had a great reach down in 20kts of breeze, before making our way into the bay and picking up a restaurant mooring. Emporios was a cool little spot, with sugar white houses set against a pebble beach with crystal clear water. Out came the two SUPs and much swimming and paddling was done. Tiki and Scott had arrived from France with a suitcase full of wine (and a few clothes), making our pre-dinner drinks on the front of the boat a very delightful occasion.

Dinner was according to the restaurant name written on the mooring ball, so off we went in our dingy to Artistico Café, just off the beach under some tamarisk trees. The name suggested music, as did the posters and photos, and George the proprietor did not let us down with an impromptu jam session with House of the Rising Sun being the highlight.

After a windy night, we got up to find one of our front cushions blown away, due to a combination of some good French wine being spilt the night before and us forgetting to re-attach the cushion to the boat following the cleanup exercise. So off in the dingy to comb the shoreline to no avail. Meanwhile Kim had gone for a swim and a beachcomb and heroically returned with a somewhat damp cushion. Disaster averted.

Now that we were finally on the water, we’d decided that we would push on with our dodgy water pump rather than going back to Leros for a new one. So then it was off to Arki.

For photos of Leros see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202129610274664.1073741933.1620379103&type=1&l=9feb07d97f (includes photos from last year as well)

For photos of Kalymnos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202129600234413.1073741932.1620379103&type=1&l=e7ee7e7a6b (ditto about last years photos)

Too Late for the Party

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Ios is known as a party island, but by the time we got there in mid-September it was well and truly starting to wind down.

We arrived and parked in a beautiful bay called Ormos Milopotamou in incredibly crystal clear water – the visibility was awesome. We could just about see the anchor 40m away from the boat. Best viz we’ve had so far.

Safely anchored, we snorkelled into shore and had a look around. The bars and nightclubs that were going full tilt in July and August were now in their death-throws come mid-September.

With names like “Farout”, the bars were out to attract the young crowd. Ios attracts a lot of young Australians and there was quite a bit of evidence of this with Ozzie flags and paraphernalia scattered around.

It was great that it was uncrowded – I don’t think it would have been good in the middle of the seasons with lots of drunken Australians. We took advantage of the uncrowded beach and pulled up a couple of beach chairs and had a cocktail as we watched the sun go down.

Next day, we motored the short distance around to the main port, where for a change we picked up laid lines rather than dropping our anchor.

Our cunning plan was to leave the boat in Ios and catch a ferry across to Santorini. This plan was (luckily) foiled when we discovered all the early and late ferries were fully booked.

Instead we high tailed it up to the chora, in our case by foot (the rest of the crew took the bus) up some nice stairs. The chora is pretty cool, packed with bars, restaurants and shops as well as some archetypal Greek churches perched high up with great views.

We decided to designate it dancing night as surely there would be some great bars to go dancing in. This was in fact the case but all the bars were dead, bereft of people. This didn’t however stop Dee who managed to dance despite the empty dance floors.

Next day was Dockers vs Port and after a mixup in times we decided we needed to high tail it to Santorini and watch it there.

 

For our photos of Ios, see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200527878912381.1073741903.1620379103&type=1&l=8aee168a64

A Hidden Gem of an Island

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It was thanks to a nice lady in Siros (who fixed my watchband for free), who said we must go to Folegandros, that we ended up here.

We arrived after a long sail with geneker pulling us along nicely. The wall is quite small but we found a spot and did the usual anchor out the front and back tied to the wall with the gangplank out the back.

Later that evening two Greek guys from Samos, Dimitri and Christos, pulled up beside us in their motor boat, a traditional Greek fishing boat that had been fitted out for cruising. I helped them tie up and in return they gave us a gigantic bottle of wine. I suggested they come on board and help us drink it. We had a great night with them, first on La Mischief and later on their boat. It was interesting to get their perspective on the Greek crisis and life on Samos. We left them when they hopped on a bus up to the Chora, somewhere they had specifically come back to go to.

The Chora was indeed the highlight of the island. It’s perched on the side of a cliff face, a sort of mini Santorini. Still further up the cliff is a church, with a wonderful meandering path up to it. To get the best possible view, you climb on top of the church to look down onto the Chora. Great spot for sunset.

The Chora is an oasis of shady trees on an otherwise barren island. Its largely enclosed in a medieval kastro dating back to the 13th century, a tangle of narrow streets spanned by low archways bursting with colourful bougainvillea and hibiscus against the backdrop of white houses and blue frames.

The whole chora comes alive at night, lit up beautifully with restaurants and little shops. Perfect place to stop and eat Greek food at one of the many restaurants.

Next day we went to hire some scooters but got turned away because of a lack of international drivers license. Uh??? They did however rent us a car, so off we went to explore the island. We drove up and down the entire island, stopping off at a number of the beaches, which were delightful. It didn’t take long. We nearly got stuck driving up a steep road from one in a thoroughly gutless front wheel drive car but somehow managed to get enough grip to keep going. We also went back and explored the chora during daytime.

Next day we said goodbye to Folegandros – a real hidden gem of an island – as it was off to Ios.

For photos of Folegandros see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202316501586830&type=1&l=76ea69b34f

Venus De Milo Territory

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Mylos sounded interesting so we penciled it in. It’s where a farmer dug up the Venus de Milo a few years ago. Most of her is in the Louvre in Paris, except for her arms that disappeared following an altercation between the Sultan’s Governor and the French, who had a brief skirmish over her.

It was a 50nm sail/motor from Naxos and as it was late in the day, we decided to anchor in a bay on the east side of Kimolos, a neighbouring island. We anchored in just enough sunsight to have a swim before darkness descended.

Next morning we had a blustery sail in a southerly – something of a change from the regular nor-westers. Made our original choice of anchorages very suspect so we just kept on going through the mini cruising area enclosed by Milos, Kimolos and Poliagos where Rod had suggested there was a number of attractive well sheltered anchorages. The wind of cause then swung round on the nose as we cruised up the north coast of Milos. We had a look at anchoring off a small island with a cave half way towards the turnoff to Ormos Milou, the sunken crater at the centre of Milos. Instead we kept going to Adamas, the main port in Milos and pulled up on the wall. It wasn’t very crowded so finding a spot was easy.

Adamas was pretty low key so we caught a bus up to Plaka and wandered up to the very top where there is an old Frankish castle with some amazing views. The old town with its lovely lane ways was nice to wander around as well.

The next day was a big one. We left early(ish) to make sure we had time to visit Kleftiko, an amazing spot on the south-west tip of Milos, not to be missed under any circumstances. We anchored off and lowered the dingy and went exploring the white cliffs, swim throughs and caves. A spectacular coastline, not missed by the tour boats that started to arrive in droves. Our cunning plan to get there early worked a treat as we beat most (but not all) of the tour boats.

We parked the dingy up on the beach and snorkelled through a few of the caves, which was fun.

Then it was back to La Mischief and off to Folegandros.

For photos of Milos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202307079871293&type=1&l=0457340ee6.