Our 10th wedding anniversary: Mo and I have now spent the majority of our marriage cruising on the boat!
The fresh winds were persisting, and the fishermen's advice to Bill was to stay within the shelter of the islands. Once again, the overnight trip did not seem to be viable. As the fishermen were in harbour, there was extra pressure on space at the bottom where Bill has moored British Tiger. Come out, and the space would bound to be taken immediately. There are still a lot of holidaymakers with ribs taking up space on the quay. We decided to take everyone out for a day sail on Fuga. Angie had had a bad night and stayed at home to rest, but everyone else came on board.
We set off for Ormos Peristera, but conditions seemed so good that we extended our route to see 'the brothers', Nisos Adhelfi and Adelpoulo. Once out of the lee of Peristera, however, the seas became quite high, so we turned around and went in to the bay to anchor, swim and have lunch. Afterwards we set off again, and beat our way up to the wreck, where we had another brief swimming stop. April and Louise took turns on the helm. The girls fancied riding back in the dinghy, until the fumes from the engine changed their minds. Afterwards we went up to Angie's and consumed the curry she had prepared for the overnight trip.
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| Kathryn with Bill | Daisy steers |
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| April steering.. | |
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| April and Louise enjoying the water | Louise and Daisy getting diesel fumes |
I had downloaded some of the photos and video taken over the two days, and set off to take some photographs of Steni Vala from the water. We then edited them, and set them to Rod Stewart's 'Sailing' as a souvenir of Kathryn's family holiday. As usual, this process took quite some considerable time, with false starts at various points in the process. Mo and I spent the rest of the day reading, then went ashore for a meal in the Restaurant Fanari (Lighthouse) by way of an anniversary celebration. With wine, it set us back just over 30€!
A sailing trip to Tzortsi was proposed, with lunch at the taverna on the beach. We readily agreed to this, and Kathryn, Daisy, April and Louise with Bill and Angie all appeared around noon and came on board. We set sail and made a broad reach out towards the 'brothers' and then a closer reach in towards Tzortsi bay. On the way in we were hit by several gusts, and had to reduce the jib. We anchored, swam, had a drink, then went ashore to the taverna. It was extremely pleasant sitting in the dappled shade of the olive trees, and the food was really good and excellent value. Afterwards, the girls each in turn had a ride in the dinghy at full throttle, at which it will just plane. Bill and Angie had set their sights on an enormous piece of driftwood, and this was duly swum out to Fuga. When everyone had had enough, we set off, towing the dinghy and the tree trunk behind us. We made good progress despite this, tacking up the channel in the fresh wind. We anchored briefly off the beach under Angie's house to land our log, and then anchored for the night off the rocks as the harbour was already full. We briefly went up to Angie's to bid Kathryn and family farewell before returning to Fuga for an early night.
We left the anchorage off the rocks at Steni Vala, and sailed down to Patitiri under jib. We anchored in our usual spot off the beach, although with the more easterly wind the swell was entering the harbour and Fuga was rolling horribly. We spotted Bill and Angie on the quay, seeing Kathryn and the girls off on the ferry. I attempted to pick up the wifi connection that had served us well the previous week, but without very much luck. There was an e-mail with attachments blocking the queue. Eventually, I gave up, and we took the laptop ashore. We saw the port police, who stamped up our transit log without a murmur, then I went to the internet taverna, while Mo made her way up the hill to the shops for supplies. The better connection allowed the mail with two large documents full of photos of our rental house in Bicester to come down, followed by all the rest. We did what we had to do, then returned to the boat.
With the fresh north easterly wind blowing, we did not fancy beating back towards Peristera. Instead we decided to try Ormos Murtia, the south easterly facing bay at the southern end of Alonissos. We anchored at the western end of the pretty bay. There was a popular beach ashore and a taverna. Unfortunately, Rod, whose tome we read after anchoring, was right. The swell managed to work its way around the headland and into the bay, so that although we were reasonably sheltered, we rolled quite badly. As each ferry passed on its way from Patiri or Skopelos, this was given a little extra help!
The wind the next day was less, but the swell still in evidence, so we set off back towards the north. Mo helmed for a while as we tacked up the channel between Alonissos and Peristera, but we had soon had enough and made for the wreck in Ormos Kalami. There was a charter yacht there free-anchored with a British family that rather cramped our space for mooring, but we managed to anchor up and get a line ashore in the midst of a crowd of swimmers launched from a tripper boat that followed us in to the bay.
. We spent the morning enjoying our surroundings, shared with a couple of other motor boats, and yet another tripper boat. I was able to use up the last of my two day's of internet access. I swam around the wreck, and took the dinghy off to take some photos. We then set off, yet again having to beat up the channel. I fancied looking at Ormos Firakos, a bay on the north-eastern end of Alonissos, where there used to be a marine research station. If it proved to be inadequately sheltered we could always go on to the alternative, Pelagos, another 6 miles to the north. We arrived as the wind was beginning to swing north westerly, so there was no problem with depths or shelter in the bay. We anchored in the pool behind the breakwater/quay in about 4.5 metres, and took a line to the rocks ashore. The wind soon decreased, and blew gently out of the bay. There were a number of fishing boats moored behind the quay, close into its root, and as the sun went down lights came on around the harbour, though we noted the navigation light at the end was inoperative (but people came to fix it the next day).
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| A small holding with olives | Its own church |
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| ..wind guage.. | Firakos harbour from the old research station |
The following morning, the most enormous herd of goats came jangling their bells down to the harbour and up onto the hillside. It was difficult to see who or what, if anything, was driving them. We decided to have a short walk, and took the dinghy onto the quay. Depths shelved considerably as you approached the side of the bay, but were considerable off the end of the quay itself. We walked up the road a bit, but in the heat of the day there seemed no point in going too far. We admired an olive grove with an immaculate small holding, complete with its own 'chapel' in the garden. The odd car full of tourists arrived at the end of the road: some stopped and visited the 'mobile taverna' (operated it seemed by the occupants of the nearby dwelling). The research station buildings were closed, and there was not even a road approaching the buildings. A feeding and watering station for the goats was nearby.
The wind had freshened once more from the north east, and was now blowing into the harbour. We decided to make a move, and get ourselves settled in the bay at Pelagos. On the way out we took a look at the small cove on the south eastern side of the bay, facing the harbour. There had been a fisherman anchored there the previous evening, so we had decided to go into the harbour. It would make a pleasant little anchorage for one boat with lines ashore. We enjoyed a lively beat across to Pelagos, and settled for a cove in the bay in the northwest corner of Ormos Kyra Panagia on Nisos Pelagos. We laid our anchor so that we faced into the wind, and took lines ashore to the rocks to keep us tucked into the cove. The water was so clear that even in 6-7 metres you can see every pebble on the bottom.
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| Fuga in the cove at Pelagos | The bottom 7 metres below |
Mo in particular fancied staying put for a while. The surroundings are superb, if slightly desolate. She had designs on a chicken, and spent a morning cooking it, then later preparing soup from what remained after the meat had been taken off.
We managed to while away the time, reading books, swimming, snorkelling and sun bathing. We replaced the bung in the grp hull of the dinghy, and managed to get much of the barnacles and other fouling off while it was suspended from the davits.
We left our anchorage, and set off for Patitiri. At first there was little wind, but later a breeze filled in from the north east, and we were able to make reasonable progress. Curiously there was a considerable north westerly swell running, and Bill later confirmed that while we were holed up in our cove, there had been some quite strong winds. We anchored in the harbour around lunchtime. This meant that the shops would be closed and we would have to wait for the evening, but we were able to get a free wifi connection and deal with the mail and banking. Bill was down in town, and came on board. We decided not to bother with shopping that evening, as he suggested we could borrow John and Val's car to go by road the next day. So having dealt with the nerding, we set off for Steni Valla, where we found the harbour quite busy so that we had to use the 'ferry berth' slot.