Friday the 30^th September saw us paying our berthing dues to the Port Police and setting off the 80 miles to Lesvos and Mytilini Marina. 

It’s been a strange summer, not least, weather wise.  Lots of wind, keeping everyone in port, interspersed with a few days of calm with little or no wind to speak of. We still had a fair distance to go and this particular passage would cross the part of the Aegean that has seen the high winds whistling out of Turkey so we had to take our opportunity to leave when we could.

Initially the weather forecast looked good with 18 to 19 knots of wind. We set out just before 3 o clock in the afternoon planning to arrive at Mytilini marina the following morning but no wind arrived and it was a long 17 hours on engine. The Navigation lights yet again were dodgy flashing on & off, lol. I had hoped to cross the busy shipping lanes just before sunset but we actually arrived slap bang in the middle just as darkness descended. I had to call up one LBC to ensure he had seen us but all was OK and another who kindly altered course for us.

This was Lily’s 1^st night sail & I was on edge. I admit I get more stressed than Louise when it comes to the cat. In the end I had been up 23 hours continuously (despite Louise offering to spell me – bad skippering in practice, I know!) until dawn saw us coming down the east coast of Lesvos & the marina being about 2 hours away I slinked off for a kip. At 08:15 we were tied up on good old C pontoon.

That night we met up with Silvain & Sandrine to go for dinner at the harbourside. Sandrine loves her restaurants & has a French culinary app that recommends places. When we saw the one she had picked we were worried as we had visited it with Nikolas a couple of years before and it was terrible! This time round however it was very good. Shared plates of meze followed by fish – maybe its forte is fish? We probably wouldn’t have gone out at that night as we were still tired but they were leaving the next morning and it would  perhaps be the last opportunity this season.

Silvain & Sandrine

We stayed 9 days in the Marina had a reunion with Nikolas, who had arrived in Skala Loutra the big lagoon just south of Mytilini. You can get the bus to and from it.

Reunion in Mytilini – Terrible pic but the best out of three ! lol

In all the times we have been in Mytilini (2 winters!!) we had never visited the castle. It’s considered one of the largest fortresses in the Mediterranean. The 1^st Byzantine phase of the fortress is estimated to date back to the 6^th Century AD.

The Fortress at Mytilini – the crypts and water storage were amazing.

Adolescents and their phones

Lunch at Ermes (a favourite)

On the 10^th October we moved around to Scala Loutra where we anchored for a further 8 days, again waiting for a fair weather window.

Mohitos at anchor on Camira in Scala Loutra courtesy of Nikolas

Lily’s 1st trip in the new dinghy – she couldn’t wait to get back on board.

While in Scala Loutra we took the ferry across to Perama before having lunch on our return at the “ferry port” taverna. We had been to Perama by car before and thought it a bit deserted but we found more facilities open this time exploring on foot.

Who pays the ferry woman?

The old tanneries now derelict

Return journey and lunch (again!)

Perama Ferry Trip

The initial planned option was to visit Psara (Option 1) before going to Chios but if the weather wasn’t playing ball then it’d be direct to Chios (Option 2)

Option #1

Option #2

Finally the weather having dictated to head straight to Chios missing out Psara (this year anyway) we motored around to Avlonas (Wpt No. 4 below) to anchor the evening before departing for Chios, this would’ve saved 5 miles / 1 hour from our passage, but after failing to set the anchor three times and then pulling up a fisherman’s net ! we scampered back to anchor at Marmaro near a fish farm (chequered flag)  – leaving Nikolas to take the brunt if any from the fisherman if he didn’t set off early enough the next morning. Had he been there I would’ve of course offered to pay for any damages.

Well bye bye Lesvos 2022.

Earlier this year way back in July on our northward passage we paid our first visit to Moudhros and I said “I could spend the whole summer here”

Well who would’ve thought that was almost what happened!

I had made mention in a previous blog of a few chores that needed taking care of before we could move on.

Now that all is OK I can reveal the actual reason was medical. A small lesion I discovered turned out malignant and had to be removed. Luckily there was an excellent Urologist Surgeon on Lemnos. Simultaneously I contracted a virus that put me on my back for 14 days; upside was I lost a stone in weight, lol.

In effect including the couple of weeks or so Louise went back to Scotland. We / I have spent a total of 88 days on Lemnos, 78 of them in Moudhros. I still love it !

During our time here we have met some wonderful people.

I have already mentioned Pakkis and Litza.

If I had needed to return to Scotland for treatment Pakkis had offered to return from his home Chios, an island 90 miles south, on the ferry and sail our boat back down to Chios and arrange for it to be safely lifted out for the winter next to his. A similar offer made by Marcus, a German guy & his wife Issabelle, who are now in Lesvos Marina. Sophia the car hire lady who reduced her charges and gave us some free days car rental into the bargain for my trips into Myrina / Doctor.

Happily none of those kind offers were needed and on 28^th September we headed for a day out in the car to visit Plaka & Kontias in the north and a final dinner before setting off south to our eventual winter billet on Samos just under 200 miles south.

There was now no one left on the quay, Silvain & Sandrine our new French pals having set off a couple of days earlier.

The view from Lemnos northward to Samothraki ( of fragrant concubine fame, mentioned earlier)

Plaka harbour

Kontias for a coffee stop

Sunset & dinner at Giannakaros’ taverna run by three brothers & very good it was too

Ah well that’s it from Lemnos for this year. One of my favourite Greek Islands

It’s becoming a bit of a Lemnos fest this year !

Sat 13^th August. We are back in Myrina on anchor.

George , Barbara, Peter & Fiona and us heading back in the stealth dinghy after a night out with them.

Coffee and Bougatsa in the square on the way to do the laundry.

One of our favourites in Myrina “The Gramophone”

Ultimately we will be heading back down to Lesvos & then a possible meet up with Nikolas in Xios after hopefully visiting Psara but there are a few chores that may keep us in Lemnos for a wee while yet.

We also want to let Lily have a bit of time ashore – hopefully here. If that’s not possible then  back around in Moudhros. Her last paw ashore was 22nd July. Nearly a month stuck on the boat!

It is now blisteringly hot and she took the opportunity to cool off in the defrosting fridge.

It’s cool for cats !

Having hiked to Lidl & AB supermarkets one evening we went directly for dinner with our shopping bags. Now apparently this is a no-no! as it embarrassingly reminds Louise of her girl’s holiday with Karen & Carol some time back when they got sloshed and only got the afternoon’s shopping home in the early hours of the following morning. Hence the photo below.

Ouzo meze at the corner of the harbour – well you really have to No?

After 5 days in Myrina and with no vavancy on the busy quay looking likely we headed back around to Moudhros. It’s now the 18^th August.

Unfortunately our premium inside berth was gone and we were even lucky to get the last available space on the quay. We are berthed across from a lovely Greek couple from Xios, Pakkis & Litsa.

Lily’s new pals

They love Lily and it’s reciprocated. Pakkis has introduced her to raw calamari that he fishes for each day and she now goes mad for it.

He had given us some as well that Louise cooked up with chilli tomatoes and garlic – just had it for lunch washed down with ice cold retsina.

On Sat 20th Aug there was a free concert laid on by a local boy made good “Stelios Rokkos”. For those of you who would know Moudhros is about the size of Millport with only 2 tavernas and a scattering of smaller cafe bars. They were expecting an influx of 6,000.

Luckily we had booked a table at To Kyma, one of the local harbourside tavernas. The dinner that evening was unsurprisingly a limited choice affair given the volumes expected. Nevertheless it was still very good, as was the concert a sort of Greek Rock & Pop affair.

Stelios Rokkos after dinner in To Kyma

Now you may have been confused by the title of this particular blog.

The small day yacht at the back of us was called Ὑψιπύλη pronounced “Hypsipyle”.

I was quite impressed that I had managed to work it out almost correctly unaided, whooohoo!

Hypsipyle

George the owner, thought so too & he brought me a bottle of Limnos wine with the same name as a gift. He explained that she had been an ancient Princess of Limnos & I should research the story online, which I did.

This is my potted explanation:

“Having neglected her shrines Aphrodite took the hump with the women of Limnos. Placing a curse on them she caused them to “emit a foul odour”.

Not unsurprisingly the men of Limnos looked elsewhere for some less smelly birds, namely the Island of Samothrace, a wee bit north of Limnos.

Having brought the “fresh girls” back with them to Limnos as concubines, the “smellies” were less than impressed and killed off all the menfolk on the island.

Hypsipyle however secretly saved her father (King) Thoas.

She ruled Limnos and when the Argonauts visited the island, she had “Ugandan” relations with Jason and had two sons with him.

Later the women of Limnos discovered that Thoas had been saved by Hypsipyle and she was punted off as a slave to Lycurgus, King of Nemea (Another nice wine by the way).

There she became the nurse to the king’s son but let him get killed by a snake while in her care and she was chucked in jail. (What a girl !)

She is eventually freed from servitude by her two sons.”

I’m convinced the Greeks must’ve had wacky backy back in the day.

My Greek is obviously far better than my art! but what else is there to do on a blustery Sunday, lol.

Off roading again in a hire car totally unsuited to the terrrain – this was the easy bit !

It’s now the 26th September and in total we have spent 87 days in Moudhros and probably about another couple of weeks in Myrina. Its time to move on south to our winter berth on Samos. We are hoping to leave in about a week (possibly next Sunday) when the strong southerlies have passed and will try to meet up with Nikolas on Lesvos on our way down.

Thats all for now

We were waiting on suitable weather for the bigger trip back down to Lemnos and it looked two days hence.

We had the option of sailing direct from Ralucca Beach near Ouranopolis on the mainland where we had moved to from Amouliani (Option 1) or returning back south west to Sykias first shaving 10 miles of the bigger trip to Lemnos.(Option 2)

Option 1 . (and Xerxes be damned)

Option 2.

The gamble was that Sykias can, as you have seen from a previous post, have a bad swell entering the bay.

In the end we took the chance and headed 21 miles back down to Sykias. It was rolly but not too bad, phew.

We are now very, very low on stocks and originally we thought of the pizza bar on the beach road, but neither of us could be bothered with inflating & then deflating the dinghy as we were both tired and an early start was planned for the next day.

A delightful dinner of pasta and tinned tuna, Mmmmm I hear you say (apparently one of Harry’s favourites.) followed by, I believe, the last available glass of wine and bed.

06:30 and the wind looked great on the forecast for a one tack sail all the way south but after starting really well it died and we ended up motor sailing 8 hours of an 11 hour passage in sometimes 2m beam on rolly swell – yeeeeuch.

Leaving Sykias 06:30 and Mt Athos.

57 miles later at 17:30 we were anchored in Myrina just off the beach in our usual spot. To be honest I anchored a wee bit too close to an Italian yacht and so after inflating the dinghy Louise went ashore for some basics to see us through until morning i.e. wine & gyros kebabs and I stayed aboard to anchor watch.

As it turned out we were ok and anyway makes a change from the normal practice of Italians crowding us, lol.

The harbourside was full of boats and a number in the bay anchored along with us.

Myrina harbour and castle, always a lovely sight

Lying in the NE corner of Singitikos Kolpos, just south of the site of Xerxes canal is the island of Amoulini.

The canal was ordered by king Xerxes of Persia in 480BC, in preparation of his invasion of Greece. It is said that he hoped to avoid a repetition of the disaster some 12 years previously when the Persian fleet was destroyed by storms when rounding the Mount Athos peninsula. (You can see the site of it at Nea Rodha Wpt#3 on the chartlet below)

Only about 15 miles as the crow flies we however totted up about 20 as we tacked back & forth across, originally intending heading to round the south but in the end arrived via the north.

We anchored off the main town next to the ferry dock. It’s not an ideal or particularly safe anchorage with quickly shoaling waters. However the forecast was for relative calm so we were happy for one night. Years ago we couldn’t get in here as there were too many boats. There were none this evening ……eh I wonder why, do they know something we don’t? lol.

We found it very touristy down near the harbour and full of brash Bulgarians,

but up near the church in the old square it’s still very Greek. We had discovered a delightful “small plates taverna” on our last visit and we revisited it this time. It was just as good, lovely people and busy with friendly locals.

Quasi Modo and his small plates

Only downside of the evening was I had earlier dived down to check the anchor and got stung in the eye by a wasp or jelly fish and was now doing a fine impersonation of Quasi Modo, lol.

Ok Louise bashed me one,lol.

Well it was bedlam as expected and on the Monday we tried to unsuccessfully to “escape” to Dhimitriaki out of the way but we were beaten back by wind and waves on the nose which meant the planned anchorage would have probably been untenable anyway.

So back the way we came.

We tried a few other bays which were either too busy, unsuitable or strangely just difficult to set our anchor in.

In the end we came back to almost the exact spot we had left about two hours before on a patch of clear sand. Good anchoring from Louise.

The anchorage at Dhiaporos & some of the  “little darligs “ just enjoying themselves, hrrrmmmph.

On the Tuesday things were more favourable and we did make it this time.

On our way – “Oi, are we nearly there yet?”

I loved this we anchorage the last time but Louise (initially) couldn’t remember it until we actually arrived.

It has a very beautiful and calm shoreline.

Dinner on the boat tonight just enjoying the view and sunset.

Thursday 4th August – night time.

Well that’s me literally back from my first “ shout” . I was  settling down to read Bolitho after returning to our boat on anchor tonight when spotlights from the shore continually flashed on our windows. Thinking it’s just a shore fisherman I go up & shout across “What’s the problem ?”

“Can you help me – small boat!  small boat! “ is the eventual translation . So after reconnecting the battery on the dinghy motor again I head for the shore – it’s his remote control boat apparently worth 1,700 euros that he uses to trawl for fish that has lost it’s drive and is heading off into the wild blue yonder at the entrance to the bay . It’s about metre plus long with all the proper navigation lights so I could see it in the distance .

I put on my yellow wellies and set off to salvage the vessel. lol.

Photo courtesy of Diane Facebook – Lidl East Kilbride. Wellies bought for RNLI colouring now rotting in hut back in Bearsden after doing the garden last December.

Having successfully returned the stricken vessel to her owner on the beach – he promised me a big fish tomorrow – unfortunately we are leaving early ish so will miss out on the pay off.

Well it’s now 09:30 Friday morning and no sign of my fish.

Today we are heading north today to Nisos Dhiaporos. It’s about 30 or so miles away and has beautiful “Caribbean” type water but we suspect at this time of year it will also be swarming with little rent-a-boats, jets skis & the like. We will see.

We literally only used 10 minutes of engine to up anchor and reach the bay entrance before sailing out and around the south of the peninsula. It seemed promising for a sail but the direction of the wind meant one long good tack followed by a dispiriting short one. It was good fun to sail the boat without the use of “Peggy” our auto helm as we tacked up the coast. I see from the log that after just fewer than 4 hours of sailing the wind died altogether and it was a motor for the remaining afternoon.

It was very hot, the hottest day so far. Our engine exhaust monitor was reaching 48 degrees!

We arrived just before 18:00.

Picture from the Greek Pilot Book . We intend anchoring in Ormos Koumaroudhes, the 1st bay after the entrance with the little anchor.

Last time we were here 3 years or so ago was in the company of Bob, Andrea & the Meerkats  (Wolfgang & Renate) and was in June. The rental chaos was far less then. I guess August is not the best time to visit here. Never the less after 18:00 things begin to settle down from the continuous rocking of the day and a relative calm decends.

We had to stock up on provisions so the next day we dinghied across the bay 1 mile each way to the “local” supermarket. Last time the old two stroke gave up and Bob had to tow us back!

Picture from the Greek Pilot Book . We are anchored by the little arrow on the right and the “local” supermarket is across the bay at the arrow on the left.

Calm in the evening after the chaos of the day

We have just looked at the weather for visiting a few anchorages further north before heading to Amouliani Island and then finally back down to Lemnos.

Today though, we have decided is a lazy Sunday watching all the Greeks arriving from the mainland to have day anchored off the beach. I imagine even more chaotic if that’s possible , lol

Being anchored at the other end of the bay from the village proper was far nicer.

Normally we dinghied to the far end , just under a kilometre, but today we just took it ashore across from the boat and walked in to explore .

Turned out there was taverna quite close to us, but given Louise “mounting” the dinghy on the way back and falling in I thought it better not to try beach landing again in “good” clothes at night !

Unfortunately no pictures but it was hilarious.

In mitigation the tubes on this dinghy are a fair bit taller & wider than our old one, lol.

Our anchorage and the bay entrance

Obligatory beer before the supermarket & return walk

Calm restored by “normal “evening transport to the most expensive but nice taverna in Porto Koufos

Only the next and last night did we discover the cheapest & best !

Ah well next time maybe……………….

Just a pictorial representation of a day, dawn to dusk on anchor in Porto Koufo, which came about as follows:

A normal day starts with Lily meeowing at dawn, trying to get us up.

We usually ignore it and eventually she will settle back down to sleep usually across Louise for another couple of hours.

She was particularly vociferous this day so I got up to see what the issue was.

Now I’m not a cat psychologist but I am absolutely sure that (she) having been prowling the boat all night “guarding it “ believes that it’s our turn to get up and “guard”, because no sooner are you up she settles down for a kip, without fail !

So given I was up I thought I would have a coffee & take a few pictures at different times throughout the day.

06:00

Early morning – the Austrian’s are leaving for Lemnos and we have the bay to ourselves.

07:00

Sunrise creeping over the hills

At lunchtime we were joined by an Italian hen party on a catamaran that we think had been rented for a day out. They left late afternoon.

18:00

A Hen Cat or is it a Cat Hen?

and we were then joined by another couple of yachts for the evening.

20:00

A gin & tonic would be nice about now except we dont have any!

Before we head ashore and (she) having slept most of the day gives me a look that says “Aye, same again tomorrow, make sure you’re up”

Tuesday 26th July 06:30

Up with the larks – well at least with George, Barbara, Fiona & Peter who were also heading off back south again to Sigri on Lesvos on route to their eventual winter base on Crete.

We were sailing back up north to Halkidiki where we had been a few years earlier. Our initial destination was Ormos Sikia, a large open bay near the bottom of the 2^nd finger (waypoint #1).

The trip was just under 50 miles and the wind strength and direction was looking favourable for a large part of the way but we were expecting it to die about three quarters of the way across.

As it happens we managed to sail (& on one tack) for all but the last 3 hours of a 12 hour journey and about 40 minutes of that engine time was faffing about not being able to get our anchor to hold in Skala Sikia (too much weed) before eventually moving across to just off the beach in sand at the other side of the bay where we had anchored securely before.

Our final stopping place in Ormos Sikia

Skala Sikia in the distance across the bay where we couldn’t the anchor to hold

Mount Athos – the holy mountain at the foot of the 3rd finger

Sunset at anchor

This was the spot a few years back Lily came ashore in the dinghy and made a break for freedom into the campsite across from the beach – disaster only being averted by a rugby tackle and the carry out pizzas being covered in sand!, lol.

We ate on board this time. A nice guy from Bulgaria swam out to chat to us. Not all the way from Bulgaria you understand, just from the beach.

We stayed a further night and the following day a biggish swell had crept in and we were bouncing wildly – but Louise had a video call with a “pain management physiotherapist” (and she was a pain – a right one!) all part of the process for her to get her back problem seen to. She has to be willing to go through all the steps and this was one of them. We put an anchor rode on to steady the boat a wee bit into the waves.

The consultation finally finished about 11:00. Louise was sea sick and the swell was worse, also the engine temp gauge had been ominously climbing on the last few uses so the motor out of the bay now a lee shore with shoal reefs either side was interesting.

It was not a pleasant 3 hour trip around to Porto Koufo which was the opposite direction from our intended destination further to the north but that’s sailing.

Again we couldn’t get the anchor to hold at the northern end of the landlocked bay so we moved to the quieter and more scenic end at the south where the swimming would be better anyhow. There was only one other nice couple on an Austrian yacht for company.

You can get water at the root of the quay at the northern end in the village, so we usually combined dumping the rubbish, filling up our water jerry cans and provisioning at the minimarket with our dinner in the taverna. We have visited a couple so far but these are pictures of the Dolphin which has a landing platform for the dinghy.

Picture #1

You can see the distance we had to come in, that’s about half way in picture #1 There was no way we would have risked the old two stroke engine and Avon dinghy. The platform, new dinghy & motor have been a game changer.