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.
