At 07:00 just as it was getting light we set off back down the channel past Nicolas still presumably asleep. No sign of the fisherman.
It was a mixed bag of motor sailing and a lively 2 hours in the Xios channel (between Turkey & Greece). In the latter stages were we had a steady speed of 6 knots under sail.
During this later passage in the channel we were approached by a fast Greek Coastguard rib who took up station beside us matching our speed. All of them dressed in balaclavas and black wetsuits. They were thinking of boarding us I think, but in the end we just spoke on the VHF instead.
“Where are you headed and how many people on board? “.
We were not allowed to take any pictures but exciting all the same. Looking for refugees methinks, the political situation with Turkey being a bit hot after the latter’s coastguard recently depositing 50 refugees on an island in a river marking the border up in the north and removing their clothes to force the Greeks to rescue them!
We arrived at 16:30 after 44 miles and just over 9.5 hours which allowed some “playtime” ashore for Lily that evening. And play she did! …
Gawd knows how she got into these holes? ….I had to manhandle the passarelle between her & the stern bathing platform to get her out. We discovered later she was entering the tunnels from the boat in front of us! Game invented I had to “rescue” her a few more times.
We met up with Pakkis again and had arranged to out for lunch with him and Litsa but circumstances dictated in the end it wasn’t possible. He was currently busy both with workers on his house and also with taking his boat out the water and when he was eventually free we had a weather window for the last longish passage to Samos that we didn’t want to miss. We will see him again next time though.
It also meant that a planned dinner on Nicolas‘ boat was relegated to a “special aperitif” which must’ve taken him just as long if not longer to organise, five or six courses with lovely bottles of French wine. He was going to stay a bit longer in Xios and wait out the forecasted bad weather to come before moving south later in the month.
During our 4 day stay in Xios we visited the town a few times to catch up on laundry and had lunch in the castle courtyard and fish tavernas. Two of our usual haunts.
Castle courtyard blisteringly hot and it’s 21st October but …..
….. Christmas looms !
