As I promised at the end of the previous blog, this post starts with our arrival, on 25th September, in Ormos Apokriosis on Kythnos.
The anchorage is very special to us because on a memorable charter holiday in 2002 we arrived here having “survived” two very rough days sailing from Mykonos via Ermoupoli, where my sister actually got off the boat and took the ferry to Poros due to the wind and waves. I think she still wishes she had got off in Mykonos!
We were absolutely delighted to find the beach taverna still there with the same family running it.
The waiter was amused to hear that the last time we saw him he had been crawling on the beach with his toys.
It was really lovely to stay there for a couple of nights…
….. and, in the intervening day, we took the dinghy to the anchorages at the entrance to the bay.
These are probably two of the most popular anchorages in the Cyclades, partly because of their beauty but also because they are a convenient first, or last, night for charter boats out of the Athens/Attika peninsular based fleets.
We far prefer “our” anchorage.
27th September proved to be a rather frustrating day. We left O. Apokriosis at about 10am and sailed round to a lovely looking anchorage – Agios Stephanos, on the east side of Kythnos. There is relatively little anchoring space, which wasn’t helped by a yacht at the head of the bay having laid two anchors and screaming at us to keep well away from him at front and both sides. We motored around the two other yachts at anchor and finally found somewhere we liked but the anchor dragged. We tried two other spots and, on our third attempt tried to let the anchor settle before setting it, but to no avail. Each time we put revs on and pulled we dragged and each time the anchor came up encased in soft mud and weed so, we left. With hindsight we could probably have stayed because it was so calm that the weight of anchor and chain would have held us but we have never relied on this – we always aim to be well and truly secured to the bottom.
So we headed back up the coast a little to Loutra. When we were there two years previously we had berthed in the harbour and walked around to look at the anchorage in Ormos Irini which we thought we would try. Unfortunately, in that anchorage we encountered, once again, lots of weed so we ended up berthed at the harbour which is no bad place to be but we prefer bobbing at anchor.
We hoped, having returned from the mainland, to meet up once again with “Coriander” and were able to arrange to meet on Syros three days later. Having stayed in Loutra for one more day we sailed across to Syros and anchored off the holiday town of Finikas, on the south west coast….
….. leaving a short hop the following day to Azolimnos, our agreed meeting point.
On approaching Azolimnos the following morning we saw ahead the small island of Gäídharos so took the opportunity to “bag” it! The chart shows a 2m bar about half way into the bay so we took care to anchor well in front of it.
It would have been a nice place to spend the night but we had our rendezvous to make so contented ourselves with a stroll up the hillside for views of the lighthouse and Ermoupoli in the distance.
If we are in the vicinity again and the weather is calm we might return.
Probably due to its close proximity to Ermoupoli, a number of villas and hotels have been built around Azolimnos bay but it has retained a nice atmosphere and we had a lovely evening ashore drinking, eating and catching up.
Even though it was less than a week since the last strong winds had abated, another blow was forecast to start about four days later. So, it was decision time again. Stay in the Cyclades and find a sheltered anchorage for its duration of come up with an alternative?
On studying our weather App “Windy” I believed that Evia might be the best option.
This screenshot only shows the forecast for 11pm on 6th October but the purple colour [nasty weather] was, in the following days, spreading across the whole of the Cyclades and even the Sporades. The orange colour [not quite so nasty but we prefer to avoid sailing in it] was also showing as covering a wider area including most of Evia. So, after discussion, Mike and I agreed that Eretria – the bay I have circled in yellow] was the place to sit out the worst of it because, according to two forecasts it was going to remain blue [calm weather].
Based on those forecasts we had approximately two – three days to get to the south of Evia and another three days to Eretria so by leaving the following day it meant we could take it quite easy.
Setting out in flat seas and no wind at 8am on 31st…..
…….. we had intended to go to Tinos for that night, followed by Andros and then Evia.
Having passed Ermoupoli….
…. the wind started to get up a little so it was time to put the sail out. Unfortunately the direction was wrong for Tinos so we changed our destination to Andros. For an hour we had perfect wind and our SOG [speed over ground] was pretty impressive for our good old gal.
I have to admit though, that our log reads a bit high, our navigation programme was telling us it was actually 8.7knots – but hey, that’s still good going don’t you think?
It came as rather a surprise an hour later when the wind dropped, literally in about a second, from 13kn to 2kn – and stayed that way for two hours. Unfortunately, when it returned to a healthy 18kn it was blowing us off course so another decision had to be made and the Andros landfall was now abandoned in favour of Karystos, at the south western tip of Evia.
So instead of taking three days to get from Syros to Evia, taking in two other islands on the way, we did the trip in 8 hours! It’s a shame that we missed out on Tinos, where we have never been but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
Although it looked like a nice place….
…. we were pretty tired so decided not to go ashore and spent the evening deciding on where we would like to spend our “saved” days. We opted for Panagia.
The small town of Panagia is at the north eastern end of Ormos Almiropotamou. The Cruising Guide suggests anchoring either off the town in 12m or across the bay off the hamlet of Agios Dimitrios in 7m. The hamlet anchorage was already taken and I was unsure about the town anchorage feeling it was a bit exposed to gusts from the north so we followed the coastline between the two. Much of this stretch was 20m plus and, as often happens, when we went closer to shore to find shallower depths we felt to be too close to the beach. We finally found 16m, in what seemed to be a suitable distance from the shore, and dropped the hook. We really do need to learn that the perspective from the boat is not the reality!
We could have been much closer in. But, it was great holding and we were sheltered and it was a splendid place to spend four nights.
On our second evening we walked to Agios Dimitrios as other cruisers had reported there being a good authentic local restaurant. We found it and were the only customers that evening, except for a neighbour who probably calls round every evening to share coffee with the elderly couple who run it. We aren’t totally convinced that it was actually open but I did ask and was told Yes. At least I think that’s how the conversation went as neither of them spoke any English at all. The menu was delivered in rapid fire Greek and, having caught a few words, I knew that there was chicken. I asked for chicken and she kept telling me that there was “Bifteki” [beefburger]. I guess she wanted us to have these but neither Mike nor I are that keen as they are often dry. Maybe we missed out on the best Bifteki ever and unfortunately disappointed her, but the chicken freshly cooked over coals was excellent.
The following day we walked to Panagia and were surprised by the number of cafes lining the waterfront.
It is definitely a place where Greeks spend holidays. We really liked it.
One enterprising hotelier, hoping to enchant children had converted the grounds into a seafaring/pirate hangout.
The children still inside us found it amusing!
Walking back towards the boat we saw a sign for “The Old Olive Tree” so diverted for a look.
Next to it was a lovely small church….
…. with a beautifully painted mural above the door.
We returned to the town again the following night to join in the obligatory evening stroll along the harbour before an Ouzo and a pleasant meal.
The weather forecast had remained constant and was still showing Eretria as the place to go so on 5th October we sailed 20 miles north and west to get there. On arrival there were already 9 boats and 4 more came after us – so we weren’t the only ones thinking it was a good bet and, fortunately, we were proved right.
The weather did deteriorate – a couple of days were chilly, drizzly “Manchester” weather but although we got some wind, we didn’t see anything over 20kn.
We quite like the town of Eretria. It has all you need in terms of shops [supermarket, good butcher, plenty of bakeries] and also a laundry. There are two “RORO’s” [Roll On, Roll Off Ferries] which ply the route between Eretria and Oropos, on the mainland.
We decided to take a trip across to see what Oropos had to offer.
Answer – Nothing! It was probably one of the strangest towns we have been to in Greece. It is a decent sized town but yet rather run down and there was no-one around even though we arrived well before the lunchtime/early afternoon closure of shops. We decided that its main purpose is its ferry link with Evia, especially for people wanting to spend the weekend in Eretria and, indeed, on the following day [Friday] far more people were getting off the ferries arriving that evening in Eretria.
12 miles east of Eretria lies Aliveri which has a Lidl! We couldn’t miss this opportunity so, while the weather was still a bit inclement south of Evia, Aliveri looked to be OK so we sailed down and anchored right in the middle of the harbour in good mud. The Cruising Guide suggests Med mooring to the harbour wall but warns of ground tackle [old moorings] littering the area where you would want to lay your anchor. We could have gone alongside but, as I said earlier, we prefer to anchor and there was plenty of room for this.
Aliveri is actually the inland town and the village at Aliveri harbour is called Karavos.
It is a quaint little place though looking the other way, to the east, you get a very different view.
Funnily enough, it’s a view you get used to and it really doesn’t mar the place at all. In the village we saw a sign to the “Aliveri Tower” which sits in the power station grounds. As it was the type of sign seen everywhere in Greece depicting an ancient monument we assumed we could visit but, having walked round the bay it was clear that it is now out of bounds. We therefore had to content ourselves with a photograph taken from the boat.
It was now time to start making our way back to the Cyclades as the weather had improved again but, before we leave Aliveri there are two things worth a mention. The first is that a café owner in the village told us that during the time we had been in Eretria, Karavos had seen very strong winds with gusts over 50kn – so it seems like we made the right choice and that the ICON forecast on Windy had been pretty accurate. The second is that whilst wandering round the village we passed a garage at the side of a house that had been converted.
Rather an unexpected find and we love purchasing local things. The wine went down very nicely…..
…..though not at the same time as the local capers sold to us earlier in this trip by an elderly man who had picked them himself and was selling them on the quayside at Loutra harbour.
So, making our way south again we stopped for one night at Ormos Vlikho and then, after a short 5mile hop at the lovely Nisis Xero.
Xero is one of a group of small islands [Nisidhes Petaloi] which lie just off the SW coast of Evia. It was a lovely place to spend the evening with sundowners on the beach……..
….. a fitting way to end this post. Cheers!
