27th June

Today we are heading into Skopelos town.

The houses and, it’s said, 120 churches are piled one on top of another around a rock amphitheatre above the harbour. The houses are jammed together along narrow curving alleys that restrict access to all except pedestrians, donkeys and the occasional suicidal motorcyclist. I imagine it’s little altered fom bygone days bar a few more tavernas & the like to cater for the tourists.

Skopelos harbourside

It would have been nice to visit in the evening I think but we never made it.

The harbour though pretty is positively dangerous in any  strong winds. I have seen some horrendous videos on you Tube and even the pilot book warns sometimes impossible to enter or leave!

The remarkably successful 2008 film musical Mama Mia was filmed on Skopelos and catapulted the island into a “must visit” place for fans in the same way Captain Corelli did for Cephalonia. There are now innumerable Mama Mia bars around the island and previously deserted bays are now on the Mama Mia boat tour itinerary.

Not to be out done we hired a car and set off for the famous church were the wedding took place.

We got there just as one of the tour boats arrived and joined with the happy throng to scale the steep rocky climb.

Louise wasn’t a fan of the exposure and some of the boat tourists looked ready to expire on the way up, lol.

No sooner had they all seen the church & rang the bell they were back off down again leaving us and a few other independent travelers to savour the sights alone.

The first sighting of the rock & the church perched on top in the distance

The English couple also visting abliged with a picture of the three of us with the church hovering expectantly in the background

Just before the tour boat arrived

The climb

Don’t really understand the bell ringing but those of you that heve seen the film may ?

Please note NEW CLEAN T shirt & breeks – more later….

The descent

On return to the harbour Lily’s GPS tracker history showed she hadn’t moved for three hours and I was worried she was either stuck or had lost her collar so I set off  through the back of a Taverna the only way possible that I had persuaded the lady owner to let me access the steep hill behind. Now the hill was thick with gorse and with the lady shouting dangerous , dangerous I set off to get the cat. 40 minutes or so later having managed to force my way through brambles & bushes I got to within shouting distance of her GPS position but no further. At that point the GPS started to move – the wee bugger had probably been asleep ! and was now heading down.

I followed with blood pouring from my arms & face, my new t shirt and shorts totalled. The Greek woman’s face was a picture as the “grandpa” assisted me out of the final part of bushes and back through the taverna.

We did go back later to buy a beer and thank her.

Unfortunately no pictures , lol  Mama Mia !

Sunday 25th June

After a brief tour of Skiathos town harbour in the boat we headed off to our next destination, Loutraki on the island of Skopelos. It’s just under 10 miles away and a couple of hours to get there.

We arrived at lunch time and tied up stern too on the floating pontoon. The pilot book warned that it could be busy but there was ample space for us. Lily was off immediately and the woman on a Russian boat next to us was totally enthralled by her.

Loutraki is a modest tourist resort and the once sleepy village is now invaded by visitors from Skiathos who come for its splendid beaches to the SE of the harbour. Up the hill, Glossa is the second largest village of the island after Skopleos town. It’s a steep hot climb but Louise & Diane set off to explore, apparently there is a good restaurant up there. On the way back down they got talking to a couple who had rented a villa up the hill . He turned out to be Stuart Trevor of the Allsaints brand & his set designer girlfriend Natali Papageorgiadis. We ended up bumping into them again in a taverna and having drinks and a lot of fun. It would’ve developed into a real party night if  Natali hadn’t dragged him away in the small hours as they were up early the next day  for the private ferry boat back to Skiathos and their flight home.

Stuart & Natali

There is a small beach just outside the harbour and numerous tavernas to keep us fed & watered. Skopelos island is very green and fertile and is intensively cultivated. The smell of pine is everywhere. It’s a lovely place good for a few days anyway .

Views from the hills above Loutraki and another possible harbour stop – looks a bit busier though.

Our harbour Loutraki we are the last boat on the left of the pontoon.

Note vantage point for the picture – more later !

The Sporades means scattered or sown. The northern Sporades curve in a sickle shape from the southern corner of the Trikeri peninsula, that we’ve just come from, up to the tiny sea-washed rock of Psathoura.

Today we are heading to probably the best known of these islands, Skiathos, 39 miles to the north east.

Unfortunately the wind is bang on the nose for the longest leg today but we want to get there to prepare the boat & provision for Diane coming so it’s going to be of a motor job for at least part of the way Not that I’m whining – I’ll leave that to the shaft.

We arrived at 14:30 and anchored in the bay (Ormos Siferi) just around the corner from Skiathos town. It’s no longer permitted to anchor in the bay just south of the airport runway, not that you would really want to with the amount of large ferry traffic around.

Ormos Siferi  middle left

Airphoto from the Greek Pilot book – more ferries than that now !

It’s not an ideal spot but the only real viable option available. One of the sailing downsides of Skiathos are the limited number of possibilities for anchoring but there are a number of boats nearby similarly placed and it’s relatively calm weather. So all good.

Leaving the dinghy on the beach you can then take the bus to town or just walk in.

Having cleaned the boat & stocked up the night before Diane arrived we wandered into town to explore.

We have always wanted to visit Skiathos and although we imagined it would be quite touristy we were looking forward to it. The town itself was far busier than what we have become used to but I can easily see why you would choose it for a two week holiday. Lots of tavernas, some high quality restaurants by the looks, loads of bars and generally a party town atmosphere.

By chance we stumbled on a proper Indian restaurant – so sheer bliss for us that night and you could watch the planes arrive on their low level approach out in the bay into the bargain.

Diane duly arrived and we spent the next couple of days chilling during the day & visiting the town at night.

A beautiful day for our trip.

The plan had been to walk into Milina for 09:00 and hire scooters.

Originally Brian & Sara where also coming but changed their mind at the last minute not wanting to leave the boat unsupervised on the mooring having, like us, lifted it on spec.

We hired a scooter, probably one of the worst I have seen. It was an old two stroke that apparently, we were told, would conk out at some point and I was shown the convoluted way of restarting it.

Now the Pelion mountain is probably up there with the highest ranges in Greece and at times I had to push with my feet and use full throttle to get us up the hills. lol

The idea had been to visit the mountain villages of the Pelion, two in particular Pinakates & Milies but the guy who hired us the scooter omitted to tell us that long term road works would prevent us visiting what we believed to be the most picturesque. However it was still stunning never the less

Our first destination though was Argalasti – along the coast road where we stopped for coffee & a wander.

Argalasti

Thereafter again along the coast to Kala Nera.

Kala Nera was not our cup of tea just tourist tat, sunbeds and not nuch else.

Kala Nera

From Kala Nera we started our climb up into the Pelion proper, heading for Pinakates.

Pinakates

We did try to get to Milies but as I said above we couldn’t due to road works so it was a tortuous return back down to Kato Lechonia.

This was a good bit !

We were not that far from Volos now having covered a bit of ground

Volos is one of the most important commercial harbours in Greece, handling most of the exports from Thessaly. Until the disastrous earthquakes of 1954 & 1955 it rivaled Piraeus. The large flattened areas of the city were rapidly rebuilt and once again it is propspering

As we weren’t going to visit Volos on the boat I suggested we go on the bike and have lunch only a further 15 kms or so north. It was a mistake the roads got bigger, busier and faster and Louise who isn’t the best lover of bikes in any case found it too nerve-racking so we turned back.

A visit to Ano Lexonia to see the narrow gauge railway that snakes its way up the mountain to the villages we had just visited and we called it a day.

A lot of fun, but a long day in the saddle & sun.

Milini turned out to be a very pretty seaside village about a twenty minute stroll from the anchorage. We normally walked in if we were eating there in the evening or just going to the mini markets to stock up. There were also two other tavernas reachable by dinghy around the anchorage as well that we visted with Kieren, Hannah, Brian & Sara (who had arrived a few days after us).

Walk in to Milini

I did dinghy it in day to fill up our water containers at the small harbour and returned to  ……….. picture says it all …..

“ Where have you been?” 

Not usually allowed was soon put away , lol

Two of the “local” tavernas

Nelson – Kieren & Hannah’s wee dog decides to board the dinghy via a swim & soaks us all.

Am I bovered ?

Sunset at the anchorage and Tutela, Brian & Sara’s boat

It’s now Wednesday the 14th June. A week from now Diane arrives on a cheap direct flight from Edinburgh to Skiathos one of the Sporades, an island group not too far north of where we are at the moment.

It means we have a little time to explore the Gulf of Volos.

However today we are just heading across the strait from Orei to Ak Stavros, just before the entrance to the gulf proper. There is a little sheltered corner known as Aghios Dimitrios. It’s only 5 miles or so away but we still have a whine so I am going to dive under the boat again – this time to clean the antifoul off the propeller. This is the last thing we can think of that might be causing the whine. In previous years we had never antifouled the prop.

We will see?

It is a lovely sheltered spot that we have to ourselves so we decided to stay a couple of days lazing about.

Aghios Dimitrios

Friday 16^th June

It’s a bit overcast and threatening rain today as we move around into Ormos Ptelou and a little bay east of Loutro called Pighadi. You have the option of anchoring off the beach or on the east side or, according to Navily, pick up a yellow buoy. This is what we did but not sure if it was the one intended – we will see!

It’s a sleepy village and as it was raining on and off we decided not to bother blowing up the dinghy to go ashore. We still have the whine!! Louise thinks it’s a bit quieter though.

A tower on the west side of the bay is locally called Achilles Tower & Pighadi is said to be the place from which Achilles set sail for Troy and ultimately his appointment with the underworld (after his Achilles heel incident).

Pighadi

Saturday 17^th June

The sun is back out and we are heading around to Vathoudi & a little village called Milina that has been recommended. It is situated on the SE corner of the Trikeri peninsula and is well protected by the Alatas island in the west and the peninsula itself in the east.

There are quite a few boats permanently on mooring buoys here and we did try to arrange for one from, it turned out, a Scottish lady, but unfortunately the timing was not good that night for her to come down to the anchorage.

On arrival just after 7:00pm & having logged just over 22 miles we circled the moorings hopefully looking for a free one. Hannah & Kieren were here and had picked up a buoy on chance – turned out to be your “wummins”. She wasn’t happy at first the next day but relented when Kieren explained he had arrived late the previous evening & offered to pay or move. We also managed to find a vacant one that looked suitable, next to a French yacht who advised it would be OK to take it, happy days.

Nice sail to Vathoudi

Approching Milina

Our mooring from the boat & ashore (Camira centre)

There used to be a Sunsail jetty here but it has long since gone as has Sunsail.

Orei was pleasant and reasonably priced except for the fact that the electricity was a card based minimum purchase of 20 euros from any of the “Tabac” like stalls along the harbour front. You could, we found out later,  get 7 euro cards but the Dick Turpin Inc. we frequented seemed to boast a shortage of that variety, lol. And although they could apparently be used everywhere in Evoia this geographically would be our last planned stop on the island.

Ah well! Maybe we can use the balance next time.

We were stern too on the North quay just over the wall from a small town beach. For some reason we do not have many pictures of the actual harbour itself so I have taken one from the pilot along with a schematic to remind us.

The bottom is sand & weed, good holding but there is a 2.5ft tidal range at springs that you need to watch out for – very unusual for the Mediterranean. Coasters use the outside of the south quay & if you happen to visit the tavernas nearby when they are unloading (which we did) it’s impossible to hear yourselves talking, happily it doesn’t adversely affect drinking.

Robb & Lizzie

In ancient times Orei was an important maritime city. Above the harbour the remains of the Acropolis that guarded the city can be seen. In 1965 a Hellenistic Bull was dredged from the sea by fishermen and placed in the town square.

A load of Bull

Today it seems to have a modest summer tourist trade and a few yachts that venture into Stenon Oreou.

Views from the harbourside

We didn’t expect 10 days stay but it wasn’t too arduous having met up at differing times with Dale & Linda and Rob & Lizzie, the latter ending a rather late liquid night on Camira as a result of the noise from the trawler where they were berthed.

We, or rather Lily, made friends with a couple of boats, A Bulgarian couple with a small dog with dyed pink ears and a Dutch couple sailing a 22 ft gaff rigged dinghy – I was on it and could hardly move & both of them were well over 6ft each ! We also met a lovely Liverpudlian guy who was stuck in Orei harbour as after having bought the boat his wife decided she wasn’t keen on it and an expected friend had let him down. He didn’t feel confident enough to go off on his own. I felt quite sorry for him as he was only able to use the boat as a “caravan” but none the less he seemed to be enjoying it as best he could.

Dale, Linda & friend

The boat was not due to be hauled out until Wednesday 7^th June so in the interim one day I took a walk along to Pirgos, the village where we would be taken out & the next a 12km walk to Istiaia – the nearest ATM for cash !

Walk to Pirgos – harbour off in the distance top left

The rather more risky walk to the bank

Nice square but some dodgy food perhaps ?

To be hauled out by tractor & sled was a 1^st for us to be followed sooner than expected by a 2^nd!

The outs and ins where relatively stress free other than on the 2^nd launch when we felt a small bump which turned out to be a wee dink in the gel coat, easily fixed in the winter.

Dimitri the engineer donns his wet suit while his team on the tractor guide us aircraft like onto the sled & make us fast. He then disappears under the boat with his snorkel to chock up the hull and secure the boat. We are then pulled up the beach & across the main road into the yard.

On the 1^st haul out he thinks he has sussed the issue – overlong screws used to secure the cutlass bearing, you can see the scoring on the shaft.

We are relaunched full of hope & relief and set off BUT unfortunately still have a whine! Dimitri directs us back to the harbour where he gets on board and off we go so listen to the sound – we decide to replace the “new” shaft seal in the hope that this must be the cause. So the whole process is repeated. We have done all we can seemingly do.

It’s now Tuesday 13^th June & tomorrow we will leave Orei after 10 days stay, a week more than intended & also probably just in time as Lily is getting brave and venturing up into town where there are a pack of wild dogs running free. One day they had turned as a pack on another dog & it had only narrowly escaped.

It’s been a nice stop but the dogs would prevent us returning I think.

Another 40 miles planned today along the south west tip of Evoia and up into Stenon Orei. Stenon means strait.

The wind was fresh and we had a lovely sail along Stenon Lithada. (Wpt #1) This part of Evoia is particularly beautiful and a number of possible fair weather anchorages that we might have stayed at if we didn’t have the appointment at Orei.

We sailed near a “Neilson type” Surf, Sail & Cycle centre bringing back great memories of our dinghy & windsurfing days.

At Wpt#1 (below) you pass between a number of islands and a sand spit each side of which again are a possible couple of anchorages though you would have to watch the current which is fairly strong here. A beach bar opens in the summer & it looks popular with campervans. It’s a lovely spot.

Over to the left somewhere (below) is the famous pass of Thermopylae.

We tacked over to Wpt#2 and were headed by a freshening breeze. We continued tacking about half way to Wpt#3 but in the end gave up as it was taking far too long.

This channel seperates Evoia from the Thessaly coast and in places particularly narrow, little more than a mile across and there can be currents of up to 2.5kts. At Orei its the highest tidal range in the Eastern Mediteranean, at springs 2.5ft.  It was a bit of a slog on the motor & in retrospect might have been preferable to continue sailing and get in late. We did however get a stern too berth one of the last available that evening so yin & yang.

Well, with a recommended engineer set up for the following Monday at Orei we felt a modicum of optimism that after the weekend we might be shot of our whining issue.

A number of sailing friends on line had offered opinions & like them I believed the culprit was either the newly fitted stern gland or the newly fitted cutlass bearing. I was sure the noise was not from the gearbox which had also been removed during the winter.

Time would tell.

Today’s passage was a bit longer than had been planned due to the back tracking yesterday!

We would pass Limni, a little village that Louise would have liked to have stopped at. Bob & Andrea, friends from our winter in Kalamata had stayed in the small boatyard & apartments here during covid and had loved it. Unfortunately the water is very deep outside the harbour for anchoring and there was no space likely available inside so it was a 36 miler up to Loutra Adhipsou.

The sun was out and warm at last, Louise even taking the opportunity of sunbathing on the foredeck clear of sails. There was no wind so engine at low revs all the way up. It would be a long day. We did pick up a little wind later which allowed us to motor sail and add a little speed.

On arrival just under 8 hours later we dropped anchor, with one other boat just off the “thermal baths”.

The baths are in fact a bluff of red volcanic rock through which boiling hot streams of water vent. We swam ashore coated ourselves in sulphurous mud and then washed it off in the thermal springs & small caves. Well what else would you be doing on a Saturday night? …… down the West End having a curry followed by a few pints ….. eh, perhaps best not pursue that thought too far!

The beach, what there was of it, was jam packed with Eastern European tourists vying jealously with each other for a space as a patch of sand materialised . Thankfully we could just swim back to the boat suitably exfoliated.

Shortly after our swim ashore the storm clouds started gathering and the beach emptied within minutes.

After a torrential downpour the skies in typical Greek fashion cleared again.

Other than our swim we didn’t venture ashore as we were planning to leave early the next morning and couldn’t be bothered inflating & deflating our dinghy.

Adhipsou port just around the corner is the ferry terminal on Evoia for the ferries from Arkitsa on the mainland.

From the boat it looked nice enough if a bit touristy and the majority probably being from Romania & Bulgaria driving south through the relatively close northern borders of Greece. Now we have nothing against them but, other than one very nice family we met on a boat, the land based variety seem to be a very sullen and unsmilling bunch who have  taken over vitually most of the northern resorts of Greece. Looking at the very high end cars it wouldn’t be a large leap of the imagination to suggest a lot of Mafyia money.

Just us and our neighbours at anchor overnight.

Leaving the thermal bath anchorage and the ferry terminal now visible off to the left.