The shopping trip didn't happen. We made to go into one of the berths vacated by the overnight visiting charter boats a bit too late, and found ourselves more or less back in the same spot, but shifted up a bit to allow the ferry, actually a pleasure boat, in. We arranged to have supper on board, with Bill, Angie, John and Val. We started at 1830, and finished around 7 hours later! Liz and Andy from a charter boat joined us for a few before suppper: we had struck up a conversation as we helped take their lines. No wonder the boat was a bit lighter at the end of the evening!
The shopping trip didn't happen again. Bill was nursing a bad head until after lunch, by which time John and Val had disappeared in their car. We wrote it off as a bad job, drank lots of water, and attempted to recover. Bill had reported problems with the buttons on the web site, so I had the book out again to try to find out the cause, and experimented with a different version of the code. I found I had forgotten rather too much of my DOS command language, so had difficulty re-compiling the Java.
We needed e-mail again, and the wifi at the Ikion was not connecting with the internet. John and Val needed their car. In the end we decided to take Fuga down to Patitiri, where we spent the afternoon happily working on the wifi there from the comfort of the boat. We arranged with Bill and Angie to come to Patitiri in the evening, so that we could all go up to the old chora of Alonissos. We went ashore when the shops re-opened at 1730, and came back loaded with necessities such as beer and wine.
The chora proved to be lovely. Destroyed in an earthquake in 1965, it had been abandoned. However it has since been rebuilt to a considerable extent, although it is also littered with ruins if you go down some of the side streets. Built right on top of the hill, there are views of the south, east and west coasts of Alonissos. The main 'street' up to the castle is wall to wall in restaurants, galleries and tourist shops, and everywhere there are little churches. After walking around for a while, we settled at Angie's favourite restaurant, and sat on the slightly draughty upstairs terrace. We enjoyed our meal, surprised to hear so much English spoken around us. (A lot of the property has been bought by ex-pats). There was almost a full moon, and moonlight glinted off the calm water as we returned to the car for the journey back to the harbour and a final night cap. Bill and Mo settled for hot chocolate!
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| The chora of Alonissos seen from the south | The view along the north west coast |
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| Exploring the main street | A church in the main square, a castle beyond |
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| Small churches abound | Ruins still lie beside the rebuilt houses |
While our location just off the beach was great for the wifi, it had not been so good the previous afternoon as we were troubled by the local youth who saw Fuga as a diving platform and the dinghy as a beach toy. Now it proved a mistake overnight! We were opposite and not far away from the local nightspot, so Mo had been kept awake by the noise and befuddled music, although by no means on the scale of Skiathos. At 0430 the received english tones of a no doubt well lubricated guy could be distinctly heard, along with the odd refrain.
We left the anchorage at about 1000 hrs having completed our last minute wifi and motored to Skopelos, where we went alongside. We may have been lucky with our timing as the marineiro appeared and enabled water and electricity for 10€, so we were able fill the tanks, rinse out our washing, and hose down the cockpit cushions while topping up the batteries. The usual parade of mini tankers was absent, so we phoned the Eko guy and he appeared after a while. His delivery nozzle fitted the deck filler, so we topped up the tank. Anticipating problems filling we had transferred our cans into the tank earlier, and he then filled our cans on the quay.
After lunch we set off for Ormos Skantzoura on Nisos Skantzoura, an uninhabited island approximately 20 nm south east. We tried sailing for a while in a light easterly wind, Mo snoozing to make up for her broken sleep overnight, but finally had to give in and motor the last few miles. We found a large accomodation boat, similar to a gulet, anchored at the head of the bay with lines ashore, and another yacht, so anchored outside them both, with a line ashore. Mo hung our washing out to dry.
The yacht and the 'gulet' both left by about 1000, so we then had the bay to ourselves for a while, before first a charter yacht and later another came to join us briefly. The snorkelling proved to be disappointing. The bay faces south west and is a deep V-shape with a small beach at its head. The sides are chaotic marble type rock, deeply undercut by the action of the sea, so that the slightest swell creates a continual blowing and gurgling sound. The island is low lying, and covered in the usual mediterranean scrub.
We swam and we read and relaxed all day. I had intended changing the generator oil, but time slipped by. I was immersed in the horrifying experiences of Hortense Daman, a young girl who worked in the Belgian resistance, and who survived the war with her parents in concentration camps. (Child at War by Mark Bles). It was quite calm in the evening, but overnight a slight swell entered the bay, causing noise from the rocks and, for the second night running, an aggravating chafing noise from the anchor strop which we had not encountered previously, and which we had put down to excessive tension in the chain. By the morning, the swell had largely died away.
We got under way about 1000 hrs, recovering the dinghy, and making sail straight away. We had a northerly wind, about F3 at first, that made for gentle sailing on a broad reach across flat seas. We were making good time helped by a favourable current, although we think that the log impeller must be fouled as it is under reading. Gradually the wind built to F4, and we were making over 7 knots over the ground. As we came under the lee of Skyros we began to get stronger gusts down from the mountainous terrain. We took down the mainsail in the approaches to Stenon Valaxa, the narrow passage between Skyros and the offlying Nisos Valaxa: it would not do to receive a gust in there with everything flying, besides which the main was now too much. We found least depths of 7 metres in the passage, but once through the wind was ahead of us and we rolled the jib. We were unsure of the layout of Linaria: Bill had told us that the ferry berth had moved since our pilot guide was published. It did not look particularly sheltered either, and our preference is to anchor free if we can. We headed up into the bay north of the port, and after collecting one ball of weed, found a sandy spot in which to drop our anchor. Checking it later, I found it had dug in ok, but the bottom generally is fouled with many old tyres, other rubbish, and even a large wheely bin amongst the luxuriant weed. Anastasia, a British ketch that we had seen around in Steni Valla and later in Skopelos, and whom we had overhauled on the journey, had no such luck. They eventually gave up and went elsewhere.
We had picked up a Navtex forecast the day before from Limnos, but had not had an update. It is really the only one that covers the northern Aegean, but we had found in amongst the high islands we had not been able to receive it. Consequently we were taken rather aback when we found (with the benefit of a mobile internet connection) that Ugrib and Poseidon agreed that we were in for strong to gale force winds, and rain. These built up over the evening. Imagining that someone, somewhere, had come up with some anchor watch software, I Googled and found a program called NavMonPc and downloaded it. It picks up the NMEA sentences from the GPS and instrumentation, and provides a number of useful charts, dials and logs including alarm functions on position, wind and depth. At 0330 we were accordingly jolted awake by a siren sound from the computer, only to find that a wind shift had moved us out of our defined circle. The program is great and beats mounting an anxious anchor watch. (Paul Elliott, its author, is retired, and enjoys developing and maintaining Navmon as a hobby: I wish other software authors were as conscientious.)
Dawn brought moderated winds, but heavy rain. We are learning once again where our deck saloon windows have become unsealed and leak. We spent the day listening to the wind howling, punctuated by heavy showers of rain. I amused myself on the computer, with sporadic access to the internet on the mobile phone. Mo read, and in the evening we watched a film.
Tuesday was not much better, and we amused ourselves in much the same way. In the afternoon the wind started to drop off a bit, and it was dryer, so I took the opportunity to tighten up the rigging. This had been an objective right from the start of the summer, as the rig seemed a bit slack after the replacement rigging was fitted last summer. In the event it didn't take long: I hope I have followed Mike's (of Ionian Boat Assitance, who did the re-rig) advice! We watched another film in the evening.
Wedneday dawned. The wind had eased right off, with the exception of one heavy gust overnight. There had been plenty of rain and Mo's array of towels and tissues to catch drips through the saloon windows was saturated. Perhaps rather too late we deployed the canvas cover over the saloon windows. We decided to bring the dehumidifier out from my wardrobe, where it had been hiding for two or three years, and set it to work to get some of the damp out of the air. Later in the morning we launched the dinghy and went into the harbour at Linaria. As it was the first time off the boat for some while, even walking up to the church was an effort. We bought some bread and milk, and watched a crane digging mud and sand from the harbour. Large concrete blocks were parked ready to deploy, and somehow a digger managed to load a tipper truck with the proceeds from the crane's efforts despite these obstructions. The part of the quay designated for yachts was fully populated with local fishing boats, presumably while works are in progress. The weather was brighter as we returned to Fuga for lunch, and to read and doze the afternoon away. We watched 'The Reader' in the evening, underlining the book on the same theme that I had so recently read.
On Thursday it was windy and showery. An e-mail came in from Emma, the property manager for our house in Bicester, now under new agents. She attached a statement of the expenses incurred refurbishing it. This raised the question of how much we owed on Oxford as a result of the work done there, so I fired off a friendly e-mail suggesting that they might wait for some of the money pending the next rental payment. Briefly as the weather cheered up we considered making a break for it, or moving to a different anchorage. Neither seemed very attractive. We would hardly now get back to Skantzoura before dark, and then be no better off. At least we knew that the anchor was well dug in and secure here. Mo suggested that we lay the kedge as additional security, with more strong winds in the offing. We did so as a second bower, hopefully to reduce our tendency to swing.
When it came, the response to my email made my blood boil: they seemed to be asking for over 60% interest backdated! I asked for clarification, and when it eventually arrived, it did nothing to improve my mood. I fired off a riposte, but fortunately perhaps it was bounced by some vagary of the internet. Over supper we looked at our accounts, and decided to give them substantially what they wanted, although it means we will have no current reserves. I set up the transactions on Nationwide and Lloyds, and at least went to bed settled if unhappy.
UGrib was still showing rain for Friday through Saturday, and moderate to strong winds. Heavy cloud clung onto the hills to the north of us, dumping their rain, but by the time they arrived over us the clouds were mainly spent. It was everywhere grey and dark, and there was little incentive to go ashore. We did receive one very heavy squall that brought with it a deluge, and were glad of the canvas over the saloon windows that kept it from pouring through.
I must have spent too much time on the computer, printing log sheets, Sudoku puzzles for Mo, and analysing the property account and e-mailing; after lunch I seemed to get a vision disturbance. Maybe working for so long below with the boat swinging about, and light and ventilation blocked by our canvas cover, had got me a little seasick! I went to bed and tried to sleep without much luck. In the evening we watched and enjoyed the film 'Hilary and Jackie' about the cellist and her sister.
We were expecting strong winds, but early in the night we were woken by the wind sounding horrendous. The worst had passed before I got up to set the anchor watch program, but it was gusting up to Force 8 then, but moderated a bit soon after. Mo was glad we had the kedge out.