This round lump of marble separated from the mainland by a shallow sea strait enjoyed some power and prosperity in ancient times from Thasian gold mines. Today its prosperity is based on the natural beauty of the island: its sandy beaches, pine clad hills and ancient monuments attract a growing number of tourists each year. Us amongst them.

Our planned passage would be to Limenaria on the south west coast. An overnight passage of about 55 miles. It took us 13 hours with over half of that sailing.

Having rowed ashore for our take away pizza we left Mirini, Lemnos at 20:30.

There was a beautiful sunset over Mount Athos. We expected easterlies around midnight just as we passed the lee of the north of Lemnos and I note from the log that at 00:30 we were indeed under a reefed main & foresail. Around 06:00 we had big seas on the beam that did not lessen until we were at our waypoint 3 miles SE of Limenaria.

On Monday morning at 09:45 we arrived. Inside the harbour a boat was just leaving so we slotted into his berth alongside. Lily was crazy to get off the boat and jumped before we even had the passarelle boarding ladder sorted ……… more later!!

 

Harbour entrance & Limenaria

We went for a sleep. You are always tired after a night passage. We awoke to find Lily had arrived back on board with her paws caked in melting tar. A fraught day followed. We tried to get most of it off with washing up liquid. Apparently tar is very toxic to cats if they ingest it, and it can be fatal. Louise managed to track down a vet and persuaded him to let us come along immediately not wanting to wait hours until he opened in the evening. It required an anaesthetic to knock her out and cut out, shave then clean the mess. The vet was great .He didn’t think there would be further problems other than tender paws but we would stay within reach over the next couple of days just in case. It took her 8 hours to start to come around. Guess who’s confined to quarters!

  

Limenaria was nothing special. We found it dusty and a bit tacky, but pleasant all the same

   

Limenaria

On the Tuesday the plan was to move around to Scala Marion a wee cove not far from Limenaria. We anchored just off the beach behind the breakwater. It was quite exposed but only light winds were expected and the anchor was well in, and it was lovely ……… that was until a group with a ghetto blaster arrived at 19:00 You would not have believed the volume not to mention the crap music. Even the other beach users were annoyed, very unusual for the Greeks as noise is just part of their culture. I have a video but unfortunately no pics.

We left and headed for Skala Kallirakhis, hoping to anchor outside the harbour but there was just too much weed to try anchoring. Our only option now was Ormos Prinos but it was now already sunset and we would arrive after dark.

 

Finally at 21:30 we rounded the shoal water of Ak Prinos and anchored in the bay just north of the ferry terminal. A hotel nearby was also playing disco but at least it was 80’s stuff. Louise thoroughly enjoyed it texting her pal Sheena each time a track reminded her of their holidays in Greece in the 80’s. I was even able to sneak in some more wine than usual. Lol

All in all it’s been an eventful introduction to Thassos.

  

Ormos Prinos

We will say here another day perhaps and then decide what’s what.

After two nights in Ormos Plati we were driven out by the combined attack of the beach bar music until the wee small hours and the relentless flies that seem to have arrived.

So on Thursday about 09:30 we upped anchor and set off for the west cove of Ormos Thanos just under 4 miles away. It was very picturesque and seemed ideal. The flies however had followed us, perhaps I should shower?

  

Ormos Thanos

The main issue however was the direction of the waves, although slight, we were pitching from side to side and it deffy wouldn’t have been comfortable to (not) sleep through.

On we go again then ………. just after 13:00 we set off to the next bay, Ormos Pavlou. It looked more promising. Only problem though was that by now the wind had really gotten going and outside the lee of the bay we were met with white horses coming from the direction we wished to go. After a brave attempt that was abandoned as well. Back to Ormos Plati and the flies it was, where at 15:00 we dropped anchor again in the same spot.

  

Lily discovered the spray hood shade and “Cat Trampoline”

Friday night & Saturday morning was spent scrubbing Camira’s  bum. A long job with a snorkel, especially the keel but she did prove to be a lot faster through the water after it. My feet however took a battering, lol.

 Not the prettiest feet you’ll agree even before my fight with the underside of the boat.

Having finished cleaning we headed back to Mirina bay to anchor and provision up for the next passage up north to Thassos. It was looking good for Sunday or Monday.

Of course we had to have a farewell meal. We went back to Cosmos again.

 

Ferry leaving as we arrive

 

Sunset in the bay

  

On our way to & in Cosmos Taverna

On Monday we eventually arrived and anchored at the east side of Ormos Platy, after wrongly identifying another bay. How ever did we get here from Scotland?

There is a large reef you have to avoid in the way in but it is well marked.

The bay has a significant area cordoned off for the Mark Warner Club, but there is still plenty of room and as a bonus you are able to watch the dinghies and windsurfers.

  

Sunset & Mark Warner Club

We have noticed on our travels a lot of development that appears almost finished but no occupation, perhaps as aresult of the austerity measures? who knows

Unoccupied development

The next day we moved to the west side when two other yachts that had been there left.

A very peaceful spot after the water-skiing boat had finished for the night … or at least it was the 1^st night !

     

The east side – very pretty

On the Sunday while out for a walk Louise happened on some sort of celebration, outside the town hall.

We are not sure what they were celebrating but the costumes were nice.

    

The Dancers

Lily, seemingly unimpressed, took up residence on the “Owl & Pussycat”

 

Pussycat but no owl

Tomorrow the plan was to leave and head round to Ormos Platy , a bay just round the corner a few miles.

This sailing lark is becoming far too sociable.

Having been invited onto a boat for a drink you then feel, rightly, obliged in return to invite them back onto yours. This of course is multiplied by the factor of how many boats are originally involved.

This situation gave rise to the most people we have ever squeezed into Camira’s cockpit, I think. Though there were some close calls back on the west coast of Scotland.

So, the story so far…. On the Tuesday night we were invited on Jill & Steve’s boat, next to us. They had invited the Swedes Haakan & Eva, and their own pals Mike & Claire. On Wednesday the same number on Sally the Swedish boat. We added to the mix on Thursday by adding in our German pals Wolfgang & Renate on Camira

With only a day’s respite we ended going out on the Saturday ashore for  sundowners which we managed to keep to that. We didn’t go on for dinner.

Motley crew on “Sally”

 

10 bods and associated feet on “Camira”

    

Drinks in the appropriately named Sunset Bar

On the Saturday (13th July) we moved into the quay where we planned to stay for a wee while.

We had decided to let Lily loose and she fair enjoyed herself but seemed to be getting confused a few times (or so we thought) and going onto to other boats by mistake. Talking to a Turkish man later it appeared she had done the rounds of a few boats.

    

Lily on the loose

It’s a ridiculous amount of money to berth here overnight Euros 3.70 plus VAT. So since it was Saturday we extravagantly had another night out, this time to the Phonogram Taverna just ourselves this time. Very nice but understaffed however we are not in a hurry these days.

Phonogram

We had Wolfgang & Renate over a night and the Highland Park was christened at the end. Sore heids the next day !

As per a previous blog we had been here before  in the next bay over staying in the Porto Myrina Palace Hotel.

I decided to have a further mini tour of Mirina & walk over through the Romeikos Gialos (The Greek Coast) to revisit the place.

       

Sundry Mirina town pictures on the way

It was much as remembered but seems like a different life ago! Neilson are still there though seemed a bit quieter than I remember when we were there

       

Porto Myrina Palace

Early one morning Louise took a hike up to the castle and got some cracking pictures from the ramparts.

A small deer in the centre picture

Goats and deer roam freely around the castle

Lit up at night it looks fantastic

      

The harbour (Ottoman Qtr) & breakwater

   

The Greek Qtr looking over to Porto Myrina in the distance

  

 

Lily lazing about fish watching off the back of the boat.

It’s now Wednesday the 17^th and we’ve been invited onto a Swedish boat  for drinks tonight after having been on the British one next to us last night!!

We will need to give our livers a break, soon.

We have paid for up until tonight so tomorrow is decision time.

The day after the storm still on anchor we ventured ashore for dinner with Renate & Wolfgang. “Dr Wolfie” is accident prone and this evening getting off their catamaran he dropped his mobile in the water.

He immediately got his kit off tied a 10kg weight to his wrist and plunged into the depths to retrieve his phone, which he did a moment later, however it didn’t work after that.

   

The quay and Camira in the bay in the distance

  

We went for a glass of wine while he changed again for dinner

    

They had recommended the Cosmos restaurant and again it was around in the Greek Quarter. It had great views of  Mount Athos….. You can’t get away from it!   ever!

The next day we took the dinghy ashore and went exploring. We had been to Limnos / Lemnos before in 2008 on a Neilson Surf Sail & Cycle Holiday. Louise had convinced me to try Calamari here and I remembered the small tavern with the blue seats at the small inner fishing harbour.

Calamari cental 2008

Built near the site of the ancient capital, Mirina has only recently adopted its ancient name. Formerly it was called Kastro after the Genoese castle dominating the town.

     

Around the quay area the old Ottoman part of the town

It has a really nice feel to it and we both wish that we could take the boat out of the water here for the winter but unfortunately there are no lifting or storage facilities. We may look at other parts of the island maybe Moudhros might have, we’ll see.

Gordon yesterday ? …… No I dont think so !

     

The main street heading to the “Greek Coast”  the old Greek Quarter

   

The busts of the hanged men

In July 1770 Lemnos was occupied by the Russian Admiral Orlov and temporarily freed the inhabitants from the Ottomans, unfortunately on arrival of the mighty Ottoman fleet the island was returned to its former condition of slavery.

In reprisal the Ottomans razed the Holy Trinity Church and killed 300 among the elders of Lemnos. The Bishop Joachim II & Priest Monk Teacher Kosmas were hanged from the holy trinity bridge. Their busts now adorn the entrance to the Metropolitan Church of Limnos

  

The metropolitan chuch of Lemnos and just a nice building

It has two “proper” supermarkets. After all the mini markets we have been used to even I marvelled at the well stocked goodies on show. Oh boy I am losing it!

Back at the boat in the early evening the storm clouds were gathering and we postponed a night ashore with Wolfgang and Renate just in case it came in early……… It did and with ferocity.

I have no pictures as we were busy watching our anchor and transits as the wind whipped us around the bay. We had over 40 meters of chain out and we held OK but it was brutal. Winds were well over 50 knots  and forked lightning was hitting the water. We didn’t know at the time but boats were blown aground & numerous people had been killed up around the area of Nea Moudhania. A Russian man and his young son in Potidhaia , where we had just left a couple of nights ago ! It was on the Greek news that some areas were declared a state of emergency.

We stayed a further few days in Porto Koufo.

We much preferred the southern end. The water was far clearer for swimming. Another boat with a seldom seen Israeli flag had nicked our mooring buoy anyway, how dare they.

Next on our loose plan was to visit Thasos via the northern coast of Greece beyond the Akti Peninsula. However the Meltemi prevailing wind blows from the NE up here before swinging to the NW further south. That could mean a bash into it. There are also warnings of very big and dangerous seas off Akti and especially near Mount Athos. So we would need to see what the weather had in store for us.

The other option would be to head off the wind a bit to Limnos and maybe then jump up to Thasos?

We decided on the latter. It’s roughly 55 miles to Mirina on Limnos so an early start was planned, up at 03:00 and we managed to get away for 03:20, not bad!

  

Mount Athos in the dawn

The forecast had been NE 9-15 knots at first then dropping to 5 knots later.

As it turned out it was initially a wee bit stronger than forecast and we hit big seas (as warned) off the tip of Akti. We considered turning back but with a falling forecast we just battled it out.

Just for a change the weather played ball and as forecast it calmed down a bit in the afternoon.

About half way across we were surrounded with tuna hunting and jumping out of the water around the boat for 3 hours. Seagulls were picking off the small fish the tuna didn’t catch.

I tried my very expensive lure that I had bought, secretly, in Mytilini and no sooner had it hit the water I was into a big fish! My rod is a thick boat rod I used for sea fishing off of Largs when you could get big cod. I managed to get the fish to within a boats length away when the line gave way! We were really looking forward to fresh tuna. We tried again and lost another lure ……that was us out of lures so no more fishing until we can restock.

 

The one that got away

We arrived in Mirina just before 19:00 and anchored off the beach. Wolfgang & Renate were on the harbour quay and warned us off an expected storm the next day, maybe better to come in, but we decided to stay in the bay to let Lilly wander the boat and not have to lock her in (if we went stern too) after her long passage. We were underway for almost 15 plus hours with more than half of that sailing and the rest motor sailing so not too bad.

    

Approach to the bay in Mirina

       

View from our anchorage at sunset the first night

Although we would have still liked to visit Salonika we couldn’t really be bothered with the slog back up. So with the forecast for NW winds we thought we would begin our journey back towards the middle finger and then beyond perhaps to Thassos or Limnos with a short hop back through the canal (again!) and anchor for the night just off Potidhaia.

Air Photo of the canal from the Pilot

Our initial planned anchorage just beyond the bridge to the  right just off the beach.

At 18:10 according to the log we left Nea Moudhania heading for the canal. This time we had to negotiate the two big boats, normally berthed just past the little harbour, leaving for their night’s fishing. All good though and again very friendly , laughing and shouting across to us.

No sooner had we put the anchor down at the other side of the bridge the wind swung to the SE, light at first, but by about 20:30 it was up to 23 knots blowing straight up the gulf. This was not going to be our anchorage tonight. Again I see from the log at 20:00 we motored south to Fokia where we thought we might get some respite from a bight of land. We anchored at 21:00. We had just enough light for me to dive in and check our anchor. It was in but I wasn’t overly happy with it. We were on a lee shore with shallows nearby of 2.0 meters quickly shoaling to nothing.

With the wind steadily increasing, at 22:00 we gave in, it was up with the anchor and headed across the gulf to Porto Koufo. It was going to be a long and bumpy night sail.

There is nothing worse than an unplanned night sail when you have just settled down for tea and looking forward to a good kip! Hey Ho that’s sailing for you. We reached Porto Koufo and anchored (in the south of the bay this time) at 07:15. We had been underway, and some of it good sailing, in total for 13 hours. Time to sleep.

    

Porto Koufo south end of bay at sunset on Saturday night