Skyros, the largest and eastern-most isle of the Northern Sporades, proved to be our favorite of the Group. It’s much quieter, and has much of the charm of the Cyclades with older style whitewashed stone houses with blue trim, and the Chora (hilltop village) of Skiro. Here were fewer tourists, and the pace more to our liking.
Skiro’s ancient monastery and castle
We try to avoid mooring in harbours, not only due to the cost and the formalities, but also because we like to swim several times a day, and you mostly can’t do this in harbours. Skyros had a superb bay for anchoring just a few hundred metres from the main harbour of Linaria, and at anchor we could hear bells ringing on the collars of the goats as they foraged for food. Their meat is a delicacy here, and one night ashore in a taverna Doug and I enjoyed a delicious goat casserole.
The picturesque Linaria harbour in Skyros
Another night we had local lobsters and met an English couple who have lived here for 40 years, and he was the lobster fisherman, telling us that in Skyros they catch lobsters using nets rather than pots. In appreciation of us buying his lobsters he bought us a jug of delicious local wine.
We enjoy a dinner of local lobsters - Laurie, Doug & Sharon in photo
There is also a very interesting handcraft shop run by an Austrian lady artist called Monika, and Sharon & Diane found plenty to interest them.
Monika’s quaint handcraft shop in Linaria
From Skyros we had a cruise of about 70NM eastwards to Sigri on Lesvos, taking about 12 hours. The Naiad stabilisers performed well with a 18 knot wind and 1m seas on our beam most of the way. This passage took us across the main shipping route to the Dardanelles, and several times we needed to keep a close radar watch on ships, and make course alterations to avoid them. About 57,000 ships pass through the Dardanelles annually (160 per day) mostly carrying petroleum products.
We had to alter course to allow this ship to pass safely half a mile ahead of us
There is also a current setting south, and at times we needed to steer 15 degrees to port of our required course to compensate.
We spent a couple of nights in Sigri, and while anchored there a large yacht of about 25m anchored with his chain across ours. When we wanted to leave I asked the yacht’s captain if he would mind moving so we could retrieve our anchor. He was very cooperative but preferred to don his scuba gear to free our anchor – easily done in only 8m of sparkling clear water.
We anchored in Port Sigri and a large yacht ran it’s anchor chain over ours
Diver being towed above our fouled anchor
The yacht’s skipper dived in the clear sparkling water to free our anchor
A great restaurant overlooking our anchorage had a huge selection of Ouzo
At this time the weather forecast was warning of another Meltemi gale of several days duration – very common in the Aegean during July and August, so we needed to find good shelter. As Amy was flying in from London to Lesvos’s capital of Mithilini we decided to moor in the harbour there for the duration of the gale, and spend some time touring Lesvos by car.
Mithilini is a great and sheltered harbour to stay in, except for one thing – the quay is adjacent to the main street and the noise of traffic, particularly motor scooters, car horns and car “boom boxes” drives you mad after a while. This noise continues without interruption all night long, and it seems that Greeks don’t drive more than a few metres without sounding their horns.
Envoy moored Med-style in Mithilini
We took a rental car and visited the coastal villages of Plomarion, to the south-west, one day, and Mantamados and Molyvos, to the north, the next day. All three destinations proved to be just great, with atmospheric narrow cobbled streets, elderly Greeks sitting around drinking coffee and ouzo, and just a smattering of tourists.
Two shots of the atmospheric streets of Plomarion
Laurie & Doug check out butcher’s shop in Plomarion
Although it was hot we were able to stop and have swims along the way to cool ourselves down.
Laurie & Amy cooling off in a rock pool
Two shots of the village of Mantamados on Lesvos, famous for yoghurt and cheese
Doug, Laurie, Sharon & Amy in this one
Quaint harbourside restaurants in Moyvos
Early on Sunday morning we heard the sound of a military band and jumped out of bed to see a parade of soldiers marching along our street with the traffic banked up behind them. They stopped at a nearby flagpole, hoisted the Greek flag, saluted and then marched off. In the late afternoon they marched back again, and lowered the flag. We had encountered this previously in Kavala on the mainland, and it’s interesting that there is a military presence on most of the Greek islands.
Parade of soldiers saluting the Greek flag
On the 24th we loaded 900 litres of diesel at Euro 1.42 per litre (about NZ$2.45) cleared-out of Greece, and headed over to Ayvalik, just 15NM away on the Turkish mainland coast.
TECHNICAL
Nothing much to report. The main Lugger engine had still been having occasional starting problems, twice needing six attempts to start. I was pretty sure it was the starter solenoid, so last time it didn’t start I tapped the solenoid sharply with a rubber hammer, and it’s been fine since. We have a spare solenoid on board, but in any case the solenoid terminals can be bridged to start the engine.
LOG (to 24/8/11): 113 days aboard since leaving Marmaris, 1,588NM cruised for 324 engine hours.
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