Mytilini & Seagull Island

The route from Scala Loutra to waypoint 3 for 5 nights then on up to anchor at the flag

On Saturday morning 21st May we motored the 13 miles around to Mytilini Marina, followed by Brian & Sara on Tutela. We had managed to get a berth on our old pontoon C which would be good for Lily’s comings and goings – more later.

It was nice to be returning and got a lovely welcome from Vivi & Anastasia in the office as well as Zoe and Stratis who work in the marina. I am pretty sure they gave us a discounted price it was only 15 euros a night and when I settled our bill they didn’t charge for water or electricity.

Louise quickly made friends with (almost) royalty, Major Clive Forestiere – Walker and his lovely wee wife, Christian, who took a real shine to Louise. They had just bought a brand new motor yacht and Louise ended up putting the new name and the Royal Yacht Squadron insignia on for them. I got invited on later as well for a look around and it included a detailed instruction on how to use a pressure cooker from Christian, lol. Clive had completed a number of tours in Crossmaglen, bandit country, NI back in the troubles before going into stock broking. They were now both well into their seventies. Christian was a bit overwhelmed by it all poor wee soul. They departed for Turkey a few days later.

No show without punch – Lily on the brand new cruiser for a nosey , mind you so was I at the time

Another night we opened the bottle of champagne that Brian & Sara had bought for Louise’s 60^th back in March and invited them onto Camira to share it before we all headed off to “Katy Wynettes” the taverna just across from the marina for dinner.

Unfortunately the night was marred by our return to the boat to find there had been a horrendous cat fight with blood and poop everywhere. Lily was a bit shaken but recovered quite the thing over the next few days, thankfully

We visited the usual sites, a wander into town & around the harbour,

a visit to Nan, the cooperative restaurant run in aid of and partly by the refugees. We had a chicken korma, OK I would’ve preferred a full Bhuna with all the trimmings – spiced onions, papadums etc – but still good to get that taste of curry.

After 5 days in the marina we headed 15 miles north to the NE corner of Lesvos and anchored off what has now been named seagull island, proper name Nisos Asproniso. It was a seagull colony with quite a few fledglings already trying out the calm waters. Now seagulls are meant to be diurnal and sleep at night, but one guy hadn’t heard this and was in party mode all night! lol