One Year live-aboards and the Northern Aegean

Over the last three weeks we have celebrated one year on board Deep Blue, said goodbye to Lynn and G, had Tom on board for 10 days and explored some of the prettiest (and largely undiscovered) Greek islands we have encountered. Now as I write this we are excitedly waiting for Fay’s arrival having sailed to the Sinthonia Penninsula in the Helkadiki region of Greece, at the top of the Aegean Sea. We have covered nearly 2,000 nm since we started sailing in March this year - sailing from Turkey to Egypt and then all the way up the Aegean. We have had some cracking sails, a fair amount of motoring in no wind situations and the very occasional heavy up wind beat when we have had to be somewhere to meet up with a guest. We have definitely done the right thing coming up to the North Aegean in an attempt to avoid the unbearable heat of the South and the strong meltemi winds that blow at this time of year in the Eastern Med.

After Lynn and G had left we set sail from Kalimnos to continue our journey north, to find cooler temperatures. We stopped at some delightful islands, all a stones throw from the Turkish coast. The first stop was Lakki Marine on Leros where we were helped to tie stern to on a lovely quay with some excellent facilities including a washing machine and some hot showers! We made the most of both, as such luxuries are few and far between on the Greek islands. We liked Leros and did some walking and shopping for a couple of days before sailing on to Patmos Island.

Patmos is famous for its monastery - apparently because this is where the Greek Orthodox Church originated. It was above the town of Skala Patmos and we walked from our anchorage around the bay and up the hill, following the ancient road, built to service the monastery. It was quite a climb of around 5 kms but well worth it as the monastery and Hora (town) that had grown around it were beautiful and tranquil, the two coaches that spilled out their tourists as we reached the top only staying quite briefly.

Next stop was Samos where we were picking up my uncle Tom. We had a fantastic 6 knot three hour spinnaker run before the wind dropped and we motored the last 11kms. We decided to anchor in the bay next to Pithagorion (named after the great mathematician Pythagoras who was born here), moving to the town quay the following morning to collect Tom.

There is an amazing tunnel in Pithagorion - 5 kms long - built to move water from one side of a hill to the town over 2000 years ago by slaves. It is a great feat of engineering and we walked about 1 km into it along the service path that runs the length of the tunnel while the water channel can be seen at intervals several metres below. The tunnel is stone lined - in places like a gothic cathedral. Apparently it was started from the two ends and they actually met in the middle with only an eight metre deviation on the horizontal axis. The town quay of Pithagorion was very nice but so noisy despite the lack of tourists and very airless that we decided to leave after one fairly sleepless night. As soon as we had done our provisioning we sailed leisurely under spinnaker round to Kerveli Bay, swimming off Deep Blue when the wind died to nothing and then, once anchored, swimming ashore to have a drink in the one empty taverna.

First of July - exactly one year since we set sail from Split and we spent it hiding in a fiord on the west coast of Turkey. We had been forced to stop there because of the wind direction and it being the closest point to our next destination of Khios Island. Sadly this beautiful and isolated place has been taken over by fish farms and the water seemed stagnant though there was a lot of life in it - I swam but kept my head above water. Tom helped Andy and me celebrate our anniversary in the usual way and we all woke to hang-overs the next morning. Before we left for Greece, the chance fishermen who always fish around the outside of these fish farms came to collect the nets they had laid round us the night before and the boys bought six small (and very tasty) fish for the evenings bar-b-que.

Khios island, Khios town on the Southern point and Marmarou on the North proved to be the home of some of the friendliest Greeks we have met so far. It is a prosperous island due to the many cargo ship owners that were born here and now spend their summers here. There are many large villas and expensive tavernas around some of the prettiest bays and we found some gems where we ate locally produced and well cooked food. Exploring this island by sea we encountered some strong winds as they channel between the island and Turkey - Tom said this was the most exciting sail so far and Deep Blue proved herself as we sailed at speeds in excess of 6 knots up wind with reefs in both sails.

From Khios we motored to Lesvos in no wind, stopping en-route to swim in the clear, deep but warm water. It amazing how warm the sea is even when it is over 2km deep! We all loved diving off the boat - following the shafts of sunlight down for a few metres. Plomarion was very run down - we estimated that 50% of the houses there are derelict but once it was a prosperous place as many of the houses are very large (Judy and JP - there are lots of projects here!!) We had a disappointing meal (microwaved) and wandered through the streets as the town livened up after dark.

We have noticed that the Greek villages and towns in less touristic areas are very quiet in the afternoons with most places closed between 2 and 6pm but after 6 the place will fill up with people in tavernas and strolling around the streets, meeting friends and generally being social. Young men buzz around on small motorbikes and in souped up cars while the girls parade in packs. In Plomarion the population was very aged and drinking ouzo the main preoccupation.
Lesvos (from which the word Lesbian originated after a woman poet living there wrote a love poem to another woman) has two sea lakes - large indentations on the South of the island. We were told that the larger, Eastern of these was the more beautiful and so we put up the spinnaker and ran at 6 knots to Kolpos Yeras and dropped our anchor in a little inlet at its SE corner. We swam and generally relaxed over a bar-b-que and ouzo.

Tom was to leave us on the 11th July - taking a ferry from Limnos. The SE corner of Limnos is
75nm from the top of Lesvos and after an overnight stop at Mytilini - the main town of Lesvos and a little more prosperous than Plomarion - we set sail for the top of the island where we planned to stay over night and leave early the next morning. However, as we approached the top of the island the wind freshened from the South East and we thought our luck was in so decided to sail straight away to Limnos while we could. Sadly the wind died after we had committed ourselves and most of the 75nm was covered under motor but we were anchored by midnight in Freshwater Bay and had a good nights sleep.

Next morning we woke to find that we had anchored in paradise. A beautiful sandy bay with a small beach café and a deserted beach. We swam ashore with a few Euros in our pocket and spent a leisurely hour or two drinking Frappe and enjoying the view. A young man has just started the café and of course Tom and we were full of suggestions as to how to market it. We will return with Fay as this is the first truly sandy beach we have found for some time.

Later, after a sail around the gulf we set the spinnaker and had an exciting 8.5 knot sail towards Mirina - the main town of Limnos and the place that Tom was leaving us. The people on Limnos are some of the friendliest we have encountered in Greece - perhaps because tourism has not yet taken their smile and also has lovely sandy beaches. The boat next to us on the unfinished town quay were from Australia. They had been stranded there for over 1 month already and expected to spend a further month because their engine had failed and they were waiting for some parts and an engineer. They were remarkably sanguine about it - there were 6 on board a 41 foot Oceanis like Matelot - and after swapping DVD’s and books we promised to return with Fay.

After waving Tom off we left for mainland Greece in fresh force 6 winds for an overnight passage. The swell had built up and more wind was forecast. Manny from the Oceanis had suggested a place to shelter the next morning if the wind got too much and as dawn broke and the wind increased and turned against us we decided to take his advice, putting into Koufos on the tip of the Sinthonia Peninsula for a sleep and breakfast. By 3pm the wind had not died but we had to get to Marmaras only 12nm up the coast to collect Fay so we prepared to leave. Unfortunately we had picked up and entangled ourselves in an old anchor so it was nearly one hour later that we poked our nose out of the sheltered natural harbour to find that the seas had built up as well as the wind not abating. By hugging the coast and motor sailing we made Marmaras in 3 hours where we found a pontoon berth and a town with cars for hire. We will pick up Fay from the airport and spend a few days based here exploring inland by car before sailing East again towards Istanbul.