Koufenisia & Skhinousa

Small passage plan today was 13.5 miles then another 4.

Ever since our first crossing to the Aegean which tracked a bit further south than here, people have said “Oh you should have visited Koufenisia”. So given we were so close, that was the plan. There are in fact two islands Kato (Lower) Koufenisia and Epano (Upper) Koufenisia.

The main village is on Epano Koufenisia, which has a small harbour and an anchorage off the village outside the harbour.

However on reading the reports on Navily (An app with reports from other sailors) we decided to give it a miss. The harbour is reportedly difficult to find a space in, the anchorage suffers badly from the wash of big ferries which arrive and depart 24 hours a day, and the tavernas / supermarkets are just OK and a bit pricy. We are finding that in the Cyclades.

Additionly I quote from the official pilot book – “Anchor in the bay in 3-5m, clear of the ferry turning area. Reasonable shelter from the meltemi but there is always a residual swell which causes yachts at anchor to roll horribly”

Eh no thanks!   Maybe later in the season, if we are still nearby, and we might get a place inside.

Not to give up entirely however we headed for Detis bay (No.2 on the chart) on Kato Koufenisia via the islands of Karos & Andikaros.

I see from the log we arrived at 13:30, dropped the anchor, had a swim, lunch, got the cockpit cushions out intending to spend the night here. It was very pretty and the water crystal clear.

Well by 16:00 we had had enough! – we were rolling beam on continually with the swell and this was then exacerbated by the wash coming in from the ferries passing way out in the strait. Lily was actually sliding from one side of the cockpit sole to the other, lol.

Time to leave! A quick look at the pilot book seemed to offer a solution on the nearby island of Skhinousa just under 4 miles away, let’s go.

As we were leaving a Greek day charter boat arrived with 9 people on a day out. It was a wee Moody 28. The Greek skipper’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw us and was waving & mouthing across to Louise “Me Moody, you Moody”. It would’ve been nice to talk to him but the anchor was up and we were off .

Just after 17:00 we were anchored in Almyros Bay on Skhinousa. It was night and day, what a relief we would sleep that night after all!

We ate on the boat that night just happy with our move.

Looking through the binoculars I thought I could see what could be a taverna in the distance.

– I’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot of taverna visiting in this year’s blog I hope the missus isn’t taking advantage of my newly started monthly pension! I shall need to review my spreadsheet closely.

I could see the top of what looked like a couple of “palm leaf” type umbrellas you would find round a pool. Louise got her Google maps and trip advisor going and sure enough the pictures had a pool & shades not unlike what I was looking at.

Double bonus, we hadn’t expected a taverna. That was tomorrow’s adventure planned then.

Taverna spotted just over that hill by the wall

Next morning and Lily preventing the dinghy launch as it’s her shade !

There was a little jetty close by so no need for the engine that night. Off we set to the taverna.

Turns out it’s a little hotel complex and was completely full, mostly Italians. It’s still their annual holidays and I think Italy shuts down for two or three weeks and they all pile across to Greece where it’s cheaper.

The meal and the service were very good but yet again not cheap. Think we will have to revert to Gyros Pitas & a beer!

The walk back in the dark was fun.

Next day we headed around to Myrsini the main town and port to provision the boat.

It’s quite a small anchorage.

There was one other boat already at anchor and as we were busy anchoring behind him a French yacht decided to push in , he just hovered about basically getting in the way . He was about a foot away from us ! Anyway tempers frayed and eventually he had to move away elsewhere. As a result our anchor was not in as well as I would have liked . On diving down it was lying on it’s side. It was calm so we decided to take the risk however it meant one of us staying on the boat.

Quite a small space which later filled up even more

I think I can count on 2 fingers how often Louise has rowed the dinghy and this is one of them. After an exhausting hike up to the Chora to the supermarket she then did a grand job rowing back .

The intrepid missus pugwash

That night we were surrounded by a massive catamaran and motorboat, but our chain held. When the ever present ferries arrived – Karma – the Frenchie got told to move to let them in.

03:00 a.m. ferry arrival

When all’s said & done we were glad to leave in the morning