The Sporades, Part 1

Janet's off on a little photo safari to the town of Skopelos. Bernie and Di just took off on their bikes for the village of Glossa and I'm 'home alone' trying to stay out of trouble. That's not too hard here in the tiny harbor at Nea Klima on the island of Skopelos. About the worst I could do is make some bull move doing boat jobs but my little tasks so far this morning have been a success and its time to write.

Loutraki Harbor, Glossa above

We had a nice sail down from Nea Skioni in the Halkidiki about a week ago. We left motoring and not expecting any decent wind. So when it began to pipe up a little from aft the port beam I rolled out the genoa and thought we'd just motor-sail for awhile. Low and behold, the wind kept building and we had a lovely sail under genoa alone at 6-8 knots  to  Loutraki Harbor on the island of Skopelos in the Northern Sporades. Lovely place with the village of Glossa on the mountainside above the bay. First LIght III (Bernie and Di) were there with their son Simon and his girl friend Noelia. We went up to the village exploring, hiked the hills and took the bus to the main town on the island, also called Skopelos. All very mellow.

Street scene, Skopelos

The Sporades, technically the "Northern Sporades",  are an island group off north central Greece that are not what might be what comes to mind when thinking of "Greek Islands". They are rugged and mountainous with ancient mountain villages and more modern coastal towns and ports. But these islands are heavily wooded with lovely pine forest. Where the forest has been cut back there are olive groves and occasional viniculture. The Sporades are a little west of the mainstream of Meltimi winds. Summers are a little less hot than further south and we've had warm days and cool nights  with nice breezes that are prefect for sleeping on board. From the fall of the Roman empire until almost modern times the islands were a notorious pirate hangout. So the villages were away from the shore on high defensible positions. They are very picturesque places with narrow lanes between white washed homes with tile or slate roofs, cool and shady, with views to die for. 

Street scene, Glossa

  The coastal port towns are equally lovely once you get away from the tourist scene in larger places like Skiathos and Skopelos towns. Its  amazing that you can be in the midst of tourist bedlam on the waterfront in Skiathos and walk a couple hundred yards back into the village and never know the other world existed. Rather nice.

Janet in Glossa

We did take the boat over to Koukounaries Bay on the island of Skiathos. Interesting change of scene to say the least. Skiathos is sometimes flogged as the "Greek Riviera" island. We visited twenty years ago and could recognize nothing. Bus loads of eastern European tourists are now ferried over from the mainland and then bussed to the beaches. They spend an afternoon, thousands of them packed onto a lovely beach,  watching each other turn red, swimming a little and participating in every form of motorized water sport while listening to absolutely deafening Bulgarian (?) rap from huge boom boxes at the beach kiosks. It was so bad it was fun to watch. Luckily as the sun sets the beaches immediately empty, the hoards disappear into their busses, and quiet descends onto the bay. Actually not bad at all.

Koukounaries beach

We did have a bit of a cluster getting off the hook the next morning. When we set the anchor on arrival we  hooked up very solid. I snorkeled the anchor. The water was crystal clear and I could see we were wedged under the edge of a large sheet of rock which looked like ancient dead coral growth. We definitely weren't going to drag but I thought we might have a little problem on departure. Yes indeed,  it wouldn't come up and we tried  about every angle and trick we knew. Finally I free dove the anchor, it was only about twenty five feet, and could move it a little towards the one direction which had made no sense but might work. Next try we got it freed and up and we were outta there for the town of Skiathos a few miles to the east. So far I've never had to get out the scuba gear to free an anchor, may that good luck continue!

Skiathos, away from the madding crowd

We dropped the hook off the yacht quay at Skiathos and went ashore for a few hours. As described above, tourist chaos on the waterfront and a lovely place once you escape into the town itself. But not a place we wanted to stay so we pulled anchor and moved back over to Skopelos to anchor off the village of Nea Klima. And that's where we are now, a very lovely spot. There is a tiny harbor here and a breakwater which seemed a little suspect shelter wise. We anchored out for a couple nights in a nice spot. We took the bus into Skopelos town and explored some more. 

Church above the quay in Skopelos

We swam in great water. We enjoyed the very laid back local atmosphere. Yesterday we decided to come to the quay and I actually hooked up shore power for the first time in months. The port facilities  are free of charge, very unusual, there is usually a small charge. And there is water and electricity and showers on the beach a few feet away. The small quay is pretty tight and the daily show is watching boats arrive and get stern tied without catastrophe. Interesting variety of boat handling styles to say the least. So far, no actual deaths witnessed.

Yacht pontoon at Loutraki

So the plan is to move on tomorrow. Bernie and Di will head east and south towards the gulf of Volos and then down the inside passage between Evia and the mainland. Their daughter is coming in later in the month and they want to do some of the Cyclades with her. We'll head northwest to the next island of Alonnisos and explore there a few days before heading down to Skiros, the southern most island of the Northern Sporades. In a few weeks we'll cross back over to the eastern Aegean stopping at Psara and Kios before going  down to Samos. We have family coming into Samos on the 10th of August and we're very much looking forward to having them onboard.

Loutraki sunset

Its been great cruising with Bernie and Di the past few months. We'll miss them but in early October we'll be back together  in Marmaris, Turkey. Hopefully we'll see Sabbatical III and other friends there before we all head for home.

Janet's "Cats of Greece" album candidate

Please stay tuned for "Sporades Part 2" . Love to all!

Bill & Janet

Halkidiki, Thessaloniki, Meteora

Nea Skioni

Certainly three of my favorite places. The Halkidiki may have to revert to "once was" as a favorite place. Much of it is now too crowded during the height of the "season" to retain its old charm. Thessaloniki is still one of my favorite cities and in some ways better than I remember it from the last time we were here twenty years ago. And Meteora is one of the great "bucket list" sites, as visually and culturally appealing as anywhere in Europe.

We've been in Saloniki (Thessaloniki) for a week now and it been a great visit. Who says you can never go home again? This city was my home for about a year and my destination for many visits later on. It hasn't changed all that much. Visually its much the same. 

Thessaloniki city front

The people seem more western and the atmosphere in some areas of town is more chic. Its probably cleaner than is was in the eighties and somehow the traffic doesn't seem so bad. The old daily easter egg hunt for a parking spot seems a little easier. The down side is that the Greek economic difficulties are very apparent in many of the commercial portions of the city. There are many, many closed shops and empty store fronts. But to me Saloniki has always been a busy,  bustling and attractive city by the bay with a rich history and a sweet people and that remains.  I've had some very good times here and Janet had visited before with me in about 1990 and liked it as well. The marina at Aretsou is nice, very well protected and very quiet even though there are plenty of tavernas on the street above us and the evening volta takes in the marina until at least ten every night.

At Thessaloniki Marina

To catch you up on our progress to this point, we left Nea Marmaris in  company with First Light III on another motor voyage (no wind) across the gulf between Sithonia and Kassandra and around the south cape of Kassandra up to the village of Nea Skioni. It was nice to see that the southern portions of Kassandra (south of Paliouri) were as lovely and unspoiled as they have ever been and that our old dive spots were still  isolated and lovely. Nea Skioni proved to be a nice fishing village with some tourism that did not detract from the charm of the place. We had some nice meals and prowled the waterfront. Bernie and Di got in some bike riding.

Nea Mouldounia

We spent two nights in Nea Skioni and pushed north to Nea Mouldounia and that town was a disappointment. Its suffered dramatically from the Greek economic problems, the tourist scene was not that attractive and the place was depressing. We left without regret for the final motor north to Thessaloniki.  

New paint

For those of you who are cruising the Aegean or contemplating the act I have to throw in a few words about Heikell's "Greek Waters Pilot" on Thessaloniki. I have a lot of respect for Heikell and his publications. They're  very useful. But his write up on Saloniki is just plain wrong, way wrong, and he should correct his book. I don't know when he was here, probably long ago, but his "first impressions" bare no resemblance to the city or the waterfront to be found today. If you're reading Heikell and writing off Saloniki because of his statements you're doing yourself a disservice and should reconsider. Contact me if you wish, I'll hazard to say I know this place far better than Heikell.

Thessaloniki from near the upper walls

……..anyway, we arrived in the marina at Aretsou without difficulty, got a nice secure berth with First Light III nearby and settled in for exploring old haunts, renewing old friendships, and a little land travel. We rented a car and did a little exploring trying, without too much difficulty, to find our way around after twenty years away. Getting lost in Thessaloniki was always fun. Ultimately, if you go down hill you hit the sea. If you go up hill you reach the castle walls. In between, well, enjoy the city.

Enroute to Meteora

Next day we drove down to Vergina to tour the new museum built directly into the tumulus over the grave site of Phillip the 2nd, Alexander the Great's father. The unmolested tomb was discovered back in the 80s and the goodies within have made for a spectacular display. From Vergina we continued south into Thessaly to Meteora and found a really nice hotel in the village of Kastria. 

A four room suite for 50 EU

 If you remember the old James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only" the monasteries at Meteora figured prominently in the movie. They are spectacularly beautiful 15th century buildings set on rock pinnacles far above the villages below. Until recent times most were only reachable by rope hoists or wooden ladders up the rocks. Now there are decent stairways cut into the rock approaches and its just a matter of placing one foot ahead of the other until you reach the entrances. And its well worth the climbs. The views above and below are world class. 

Views at Meteora

The monasteries themselves are lovely orthodox style masonry with tile roofs and spectacular over hangs. The interior decoration of the churches within the monasteries are wonderful and give an idea of what might have been commonly found in the even older orthodox churches had the iconoclasts not had their way.

Orthodox interior decoration

We spent a good afternoon and a comfortable night in our very small but very nice hotel and explored around the next morning before driving the two and half hours back to Saloniki. Anyone contemplating a little land travel in Greece should make Meteora a priority. Its a great place.

Megalos Meteora monastery

Bernie and Di had family show up the next day as planned. Their son Simon and his girl friend Noelia were eager to get going south for the Sporades so we said goodbye to them for a awhile and took to meeting up with old Greek friends from too long ago. We visited with George Kizas who still owns the Villas Kiza where I lived back in the eighties. 

With George at Villas Kiza

We spent time on the boat and in the Halkidiki with the family of Vassilis Zavalis who was a good friend who died twenty years ago. We have always stayed in touch and we had a nice afternoon with four generations of the family. We've driven around the city getting semi-lost and having nice meals in view spots over the bay. We visited the very excellent archeological and Byzantine museums. The only  surprise, and it wasn't really a surprise, I'd heard about it, was the level of development south towards the Halkidiki from Thessalonki. What used to be a a rural two lane road is now a four to eight lane super highway with stop and go traffic on the weekends. The sleepy villages near where I used to live are unrecognizable with multi-story development being the rule. I used to have a nice ocean view from my pad. No more, the view is completely blocked by new construction. That's life. Much of the good stuff still remains and its been a great visit.

Zavalis family

We're shoving off early tomorrow morning, heading south. We'll spend a night in Nea Skioni and see more Greek friends and then head for the Sporades and we'll back in the islands, man. We plan to meet up with Bernie and Di and start the final phase to this years plan.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

Return to the Halkidiki

Main, stay'sl and genoa

We left Myrina with a forecast for good sailing conditions on the forty mile 'passage' up to the tip of the Athos Peninsula. The forecast was spot on and we had a close reach on starboard tack all the way in company with First Light III. Since we actually 'sail' a relatively small percentage of our time in the Aegean I'll try to attach some proof. 

Any of these photos can be viewed full size by clicking on the image.

Mount Athos on the starboard bow

Mt. Athos rises directly out of the sea to about 6700' as a giant pyramid of granite and marble. Very beautiful! And its just the tip of the peninsula which belongs to the Greek Orthodox church and is entirely inhabited by monks of several communities living in spectacular monasteries dating back to the ninth century. 

Monastic settlement on the south wall of the mountain

No women have ever been allowed on Athos since that time. Special permissions are required for any visit. When I first flew over this area on some low levels in the eighties it was obvious the monasteries were at least in a state of deep limbo and probably decay. There were fallen in walls and buildings were deserted. It was possible to believe this place might cease to exist in another hundred years. 

Views along the coast of Athos

But the opposite has occurred. Now everywhere there is new construction and old buildings have been repaired. Where there was once no evidence of modern life, no vehicles, no sign of electrification, and no roads there are now solar panels visible above monasteries and a few vehicles on real roads. There's been a lot of construction of all kinds and its obviously a viable and growing society. Its all very interesting but most of all the monasteries and the peninsula itself are spectacularly beautiful. Vessels are required to stay at least 500 meters off shore. Our winds had died immediately in the lee of the mountain so we dropped sail and motored up the coast to an anchorage north of the regulated portion of the peninsula and spent the night.

Next day was flat calm so we motored over to the middle peninsula, Sithonia, and spent a night anchored in the bay of Dhmitriaki which was scenic, quiet and uncrowded. I was a good start to a long awaited revisit to the Halkidiki.

Motoring along Sithonia

I'd have to do some real searching to find out when I was last here, probably the early '90s.This area is the three peninsulas which jut out into the NW Aegean from the mainland of northern Greece. They are, from west to east, Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos. Its an exceptionally beautiful place, mountainous and wooded with some of  the best beaches in the Med.  I first came here in 1981 when I was flying out of Thessaloniki. There was little development and with any effort at all you could have a lovely spot all to yourself. Over the years it has changed of course and now those deserted beaches are occupied by crowds of eastern European tourists. Its not a long drive from Bulgaria or what was Yugoslavia and now that those people have some money and freedom to travel they do it.

Southern tip of Sithonia

So Sithonia is much more developed and those lovely spots are mostly occupied by hoards of eastern European beach campers. Its still a beautiful place of course and Porto Koufos, a spectacular anchorage on the SW corner,  is not over developed yet.

Janet's birthday cake

The taverna that I used to enjoy in Porto Koufos   is still there, much enhanced of course, and with some competition, but still one of the very best sea food tavernas anywhere. We used it to celebrate Janet's birthday with Bernie and Di (of First Light III) and had a nice dinner.

Grilled sardines, fried mussels, Greek yogurt, Greek salad, mousaka, bread and wine, for four.

The dinner scene

Now we're in Nea Marmaris after three nights in Porto Koufos. We'll be here two nights and then move over to Kassandra and start the leg up towards Thessaloniki. Nea Marmaras is OK but there's a reason I remember nothing of it from years past, there's not much outstanding to remember. And for the first time this trip we've encountered a place totally devoted to tourism and in the heat of the battle. The 'season' is in full swing and these folks are trying to make their bucks, or euros, while they can and they're already getting tired of the whole scene. They're a little jaded and I have a feeling they won't be their friendly laid back selves again until the 1st of September when the 'season' seems to come to a very immediate conclusion.

Nea Marmaras Harbor

Tomorrow we head east to Kassandra and a port around the SW tip of the peninsula called Nea Skioni. Should be a nice spot.

Love to all,
Bill and Janet
SV Airstream

Laid Back In Limnos

Laid back in the town of Myrina on the island of Limnos for nine days to be exact. And it has been very nice. Things  started out very well with a great sail from Molivos on Lesvos. Sixty miles of 12-18 knot breeze just forward of the beam. Sunny cloudless skies. One meter seas. 7-8 knots most of the way with Otto the autopilot steering while I trimmed and Janet offered refreshments. The 150%  genoa was reefed down to about 135 just for comfort. Otto even caught one partially following sea just right and we saw over 11 knots. It is great fun when we actually get good sailing conditions in the Aegean.

Myrina Harbor from the castle

We really didn't know exactly what to expect from Myrina, the main town on Limnos. We stern tied to the quay and checked in the with the harbor police, who were nice as always, and liked the place from the gitgo. While Myrina may not have quite the beauty of Molivos or the the bustle of Mytilene it does have the usual rugged castle seven hundred feet above the harbor and it does have tavernas and shops lining the waterfront. 

Airstream, 3rd from the left

What it does not have is traffic noise from the main drag and disco music into the early hours. There is no main drag and there are no clubs. It is a picturesque Greek fishing village with a modest tourist industry, mostly Greek tourism, and enough foreign influence to make things easy for us farangs. And that pretty much goes for the entire island of Limnos. Myrina is as cosmopolitan as it gets and there are deserted beaches, nice deserted beaches, and an occasional small resort. 

Janet on the castle wall

Most of the place is either completely undeveloped  or small scale agriculture. Why the olive culture that exists on Lesvos just sixty miles to the SE is not in place here I do not understand. But there is some wheat in the interior and some viniculture. The local whites are good and very inexpensive.

The water front, Myrina

We planned on meeting here with Bernie and Di from First Light III and they arrived about three hours before us having come in from Babakale in Turkey. We've been circling in more or less the same circles since Vanuatu in 2009 and it's always very nice to have their company again. We celebrated Di's birthday at a classic waterfront taverna. 

Birthday dinner with Bernie and Di

 We rented a cheap car and toured the island for a day. It's mostly grassy almost treeless rolling hills with a few small villages and the agriculture I mentioned. There are a couple well excavated archeological sites which take the island history back at least to three thousand BC. And a mere 98 years ago the big central bay of the island, Mouldros Bay, was used for the staging point for the  disastrous  Gallipoli campaign. There's a very nicely kept war cemetery for 887 of the more than 36,000 allied dead from that  debacle. 

From 3000 BC, at least

But mostly we've just relaxed and enjoyed. I've got a few boat projects done. We hike to the top of the castle every morning to get our hearts started and enjoy the view. We wander the streets and nose into the shops. It's in the 80s  during the day and the 70s at night, clear and sunny. The volta, which is the classic evening Greek walk about,  is very strong. From about 9  to 11 PM everyone is out for a stroll along the waterfront checking out everybody else. It's a lovely custom. There's good food, good wine and ice cream at every corner, almost.

Street scene in Myrina

It has been blowing hard out of the north, a classic Aegean meltime, but by tomorrow its suppose to calm down to 16-20 knots and clock around to the NE. It'll be dinner tonight with Bernie and Di and another couple from NZL. We're planning on being outta here early heading for the Halkidiki and the trident of peninsulas which form the coast of Greece in the NW Aegean. Wish us a great sail!

Love to all,
Bill & Janet