Chapter One: ANYWHERE THE WIND BLOWS
We were waiting for a weather window in Leros Marina, but still the wind kept coming. We even had to cancel the haul-out because of it, which left Cordelia with all the growth on her hull that she had accumulated during the winter. After another couple of storms the wind seemed to finally abate, but it was still blowing from the South instead of the prevailing North-East. We’d had vague ideas of sailing slowly down to Kos, then Turkey and back up its coast before heading back to Leros. This, however, would mean heading into the wind and waves, not a prospect we relished.
With the forecast predicting more Southerlies with not a sign of a Northerly for the foreseeable future we only had one sensible option to pursue, which was to change our travelling direction. Consequently Peter lay in a course for Chios. We checked out at the marina and port authorities, and slipped our mooring at 2.00pm on 21st April.
We were riding out the last dregs of a blustery (40 knots) weather system when we motored out of Portolago Bay where the sea was still confused with waves coming from all directions. This, however, was nothing compared to what we encountered outside the bay. The waves were about 1m high and hit Cordelia on her side, shaking and rattling her every which way they pleased. This was not what we’d had in mind for our first day back at sea!
The wind was gusting to Force 7, coming from South-West. We unfurled the genoa, keeping it well reefed. Once we’d rounded the corner we had the wind more from astern and were able to shake out the reefs. We decided against heading for our first bail-out anchorage at Bléfouti and instead carried on between the islands of Lipsoi and Patmos, past Arkoi and towards Fournoi. Cordelia was still rocking and rolling heavily from side to side in the big(ish) freak waves, but around 7.00pm there was a short window of reprieve for a spot of dinner and a cup of tea.
It got dark and overcast, but a 93% full moon fought its way through the clouds and kept us company along the way. When Cordelia was spat out on the exit of the strait between Ikaría and Samos she was once again battling with some nasty waves. Undeterred, we continued up North rather than pulling into an anchorage at Samos.
We started the engine at around 2.00am, just long enough to recharge the batteries, which coincided with a lull. After that, we were able to carry on sailing on the genoa alone until about 5.00am. Then the wind took a break and the waves diminished, so we first motorsailed, but by 6.00am we’d given up on the sail and were just motoring along.
We saw the first light of dawn when we approached Chios and were promptly spotted and called up by the Turkish VTS (Vessel Traffic Separation) guards. As soon as we’d crossed the waters back into Greece the Hellenic Coast Guard hailed us from their nearby vessel and asked us the same questions, i.e. last port of call, number of persons on board, destination etc. Then the Turks alerted us via VHF of a big cargo ship that was coming our way, and told us to maintain our course. The Greeks, not to be outdone, then hovered around Cordelia to protect her and their own territory. Once they were satisfied no harm would come to either of them, one of their officers shouted across to confirm our destination, wished us a good trip, and sped off. Next, Nissos Samos, a huge ferry, got in contact, requesting us to alter our course, so we could pass port-to-port at a safe distance. When they were gone we went back on course to round the North-East cape and make our way into Kardámyla Bay on Chios.
By 10.30am and after a distance of 102NM we dropped the anchor in a sandy patch under 4m of water, then caught up with some sleep. In the afternoon we sat in the cockpit and took in the surroundings. The nearby village was mostly deserted with the shutters firmly closed on what we imagined to be holiday homes. Talking about Mr and Mrs Out-Of-Season! We needn’t look any further for them, the prime examples were sitting right there on Cordelia!
We could hear birds chirping, dogs barking, cockerels crowing, pigeons cooing and the occasional engine of a car or motorbike, but no people. Later in the afternoon we saw half a dozen dinghies racing near the windmill at the entrance of the bay, proving that there were some kind of human life-forms inhabiting this part of the island and that we hadn’t inadvertently landed at the scene of some Zombie-stricken horror set.
Be that as it may, it was really quiet and we were confident we could sit out the forecast storm for the next couple of days. The wind came in the afternoon of the next day. Gusts of 40+ knots displaced Buddy, our tender, on the foredeck, so Peter added another strap and tied him down. The pollen were also flying around and made Ingrid’s nose and ears itch, and even Peter suffered a touch of hay fever.
We were warm and protected under the sprayhood, but decided to spend the evening below deck. Peter let out another 10m of chain as it was blowing up to 60 knots by then. Of course we could forget all about bed when the time came as the wind was howling and Cordelia was heeling. She was shaking violently in the vicious gusts, so we stayed awake in the saloon with crossword puzzles and YouTube. At one stage, when Peter made tea, Cordelia was tilting so badly that Peter’s mug was knocked over and its contents spilled all over the place.
At 2.30am the wind averaged 45 knots, so we had a lie-down in our cabin. We had a rest but no sleep, and Peter got up again an hour later. Ingrid finally fell asleep around 4.00am, and when the wind had eased off some more Peter went back to bed, too.
By 8.30am we were awake again, so we got up and had breakfast. Ingrid cleaned Cordelia from the Saharan dust that had been deposited on her with the wind, then Peter rowed us ashore. We walked along the seafront to the harbour and carried on past a windmill to a (closed) chapel. From there we picked up the road into the village and popped into the local shop. When we paid Ingrid asked for the whereabouts of the port police (in English), the shopkeeper made a call, and five minutes later two policemen turned up at the shop. They soon realised the mistake and took us to the right building. The electricity was off, so whilst Peter was filling in a (paper) form, the port police officer took photos of our documents. Then he stamped our Transit Log, wished us a good journey and sent us on our way, which was back to Cordelia.
Chapter Two: LANDFALL ON LESBOS
At 9.00am on the next day we weighed anchor and motored out of Kardámyla Bay, Chios. Just outside we set full sails, but soon put a reef in both as it was now blowing from South-West, Force 5-6, and Cordelia reached a speed of 7.5 knots. For the next hour we averaged 6.3 knots, then the wind turned more to the South which slightly reduced our speed. In return, we got some great champagne sailing.
A brief lull (1 knot of wind!) saw us motoring along, then the wind made a comeback and we enjoyed nearly another couple of hours of fantastic conditions. At 3.00pm the wind retired (South, Force 1-2) and Arthur, our engine, was once again employed. We kept on motoring along the coast which had only just become visible through the haze of dust. About an hour later we dropped anchor in 10m at Avlonas on Lesbos.
The sun had made an appearance and the scenery was stunning. Not only was the island green, but there was an abundance of trees of various kinds. What a difference compared to the barren landscape we had gotten used to!
We were looking forward to exploring more of the island, so we put Buddy in the water and loaded him with our folding bikes, shoes, rucksacks, rubbish and ourselves. Peter rowed us ashore, then assembled the bikes and off we were! We dumped our rubbish and pedalled along the shore into the wind. We passed the lovely authentic fishing harbour of Purgoi and carried on up- and downhill to Perama.
There they were busy preparing for the season, cutting the verges and renovating the buildings. We found a mini-market for fruit and milk products and wound our way through the village back to the main, though mostly empty, road. One last steep ascent brought us near our bay, then it was all downhill to Buddy.
At lunchtime we were back ashore and walked to the Avlonas Garden restaurant where we enjoyed a mixed grill for two and ½l of red wine, water and fruit were on the house. It must have been the wine, as when we took off on Buddy Ingrid nearly forgot to untie him and then fell into the drink when she tried to get in. This resulted in some very wet clothes, and back on Cordelia, after having washed the salt off her limbs first, Ingrid attended to the soaked textiles. Cappuccino and biscuits afterwards were well in order! The rest of the afternoon was spent on deck with Ingrid nursing her ego while Peter was busy with boat work.
The wind changed direction during the night but the swell was stubborn and would not budge. Cordelia was side-on to it which resulted in a rolly and uncomfortable night, so we moved the next day and motored up the inlet of the Gera Gulf for about 40 minutes to Skála Loutrón. We still experienced some gusts there but luckily no big swell. We were surrounded by trees and hills and felt well protected. On shore we spotted a crowd of formally dressed people (a wedding party?), a boat yard, abandoned ships, a restaurant and a few other buildings.
Chapter Three: SCALING ESCAPADES
We sat out a couple of blustery days in the anchorage before we motored Buddy to the quay wall to look around Skála Loutrón. There wasn’t much to see, so we ascended the path up to the chapel “Panagia Apsili Prosphigopanagia”, came back down after a brief look-see, and carried on along a track through olive groves to the charming village of Loutra with its cobbled roads. We walked around for a bit, were pointed out a “laughing dove” (a rare kind of pigeon) by a couple of birdwatchers and found the local store where we stuffed our rucksacks. Heavily laden we made our way downhill along the main road back to Cordelia.
We were back at Loutra the next day after we’d walked along the coastal road towards Astéria. From the boatyard and tavern we carried on the track around the peninsula and Mount Lutro. We had great views of the Gera Gulf and were surprised how big it was. We reached the main road to Mytilini but turned into Loutra for more shopping, and treated ourselves to an ice-cream before we returned to Cordelia.
We’d planned to have our Transit Log stamped by the nearest port authorities who were situated in Mytilini, so we studied the bus timetable which, to say the least, was sketchy. It showed the time of the bus leaving Mytilini, then you had to work out when it would arrive in Skála Loutrón. We saw the bus at 8.45am from onboard and aimed to pick the next one up from the junction at 9.50am. Well, it did not turn up! Did we see a pattern carrying on from Leros?
We walked back to the bus stop at the harbour where a beardy man and an old woman with a walking stick were clearly waiting for something – a bus? No, they had arranged for a taxi as there was no 10.00am bus. With sign language and very limited Greek Ingrid asked if we could share it. They agreed and about 20 minutes later we were all on our way. The driver took us to the centre, i.e. the seafront, and the woman made us understand it was €5.00 each. When we told her to put the money away as we would be paying for the fare she became quite tearful – aaahhh!
We set off along the quay and found the port authorities. The officers there were all ladies (this was Lesbos, after all), and after a few questions and a form to fill in they stamped our Transit Log. Cleared from the burden of bureaucracy we found our way to the Customs Office (not needed) and from there up to the castle. A nominal fee gained us access to the grounds where we looked at the crypt, the cistern, a church, the fortifications and other artifacts we encountered along the path.
For the way back down Peter had found a little track through a meadow with lovely flowers that would take us to the esplanade which led all the way past the Statue of Liberty and into town.
After a detour to the marina which was guarded by a barrier and security, and a stint of shopping at the “My Market” we made our way to the station and sought out our bus. It was the number 7 (not that it actually said so on the bus itself), and the display at Sappho Square informed us it would arrive in 10 minutes. Ingrid bought the tickets (€1.60 each) from the little blue hut next to the waiting area, and in no time we boarded the bus. By 3.10pm we were on our way home. Peter, in the meantime, had found out that a new timetable had come into effect which did not list the 10.00am bus any more, courtesy of the Greek Easter holidays – doh!
Chapter Four: LEISURE ON LESBOS
We weighed anchor at 9.45am and motored out of the Gera Gulf. From the forecast on “Windy” we expected to tack around the corner once outside, then close-haul our way past Plomari and have the wind on our beam near the spit of Akrotirio Agios Fokas all the way to our intended anchorage at the entrance to the Kalloni Gulf.
It all started well as predicted. Then, on our last tack out to sea, the wind shifted. We motorsailed back to our rhumb line, hoping to carry on sailing along it after the course change. No such luck! We were on 252°, and the wind had overtaken us and was right on the nose. With the engine on and the genoa furled away we got some wind in the mainsail to help us along into the wind and swell, but our average speed was only just over 4 knots. When we altered course to 272°, so did the wind, and it was blowing a constant Westerly, Force 4-5.
We put a reef in the main and, undeterred, motored on. Surely we would have an angle to sail from the spit into the gulf, we speculated. But no, despite the new course being 305°, then 313°, the wind just wouldn’t participate, and although it ended up more from South-West, it was then only wafting a meagre Force 2.
After navigating through the buoyed channel we arrived at the anchorage at 6.45pm, but despite of trying three times the anchor wouldn’t hold and we dragged on each occasion. We therefore decided to move further into the gulf and at 7.15pm finally dropped the anchor off Apothikes.
After a day’s rest in 30 knots gusts Peter rowed us ashore for a little outing. We walked through the hamlet on the main road and turned right onto a dirt track. This followed the coastline to a left turn-off through a gate and up a path to Kalóchtistos or Rodotichos, a 5m high ancient retaining wall. It was quite impressive with its big boulders stacked on top of each other.
After we’d checked it out we went down to a silted inlet, then returned to the outskirts of Apothikes.
There we turned right and ascended the serpentines up the hill until we reached a dirt track forking off to the left. This contoured nicely around the bay and afforded great views down to Cordelia.
The landscape up there resembled a scene from Mars, with its rocks and barren red earth. We did pass buildings, sheep and an olive grove, and eventually got to the beach at Paralia Makara. We sat down on the stones and pebbles for a rest and a drink, then we retraced our steps back to the hamlet.
We intended to frequent the fish-taverna on the seafront for a late lunch feast, but alas, it was closed. Considering it was the orthodox Easter Monday we had expected otherwise, but there was nothing to be done other than return to Cordelia.
The next day we upped anchor and were underway just after 9.00am. There was a southerly Force 1 wind, so we motored back to the buoyed channel making sure to avoid the sandbank. We had an uneventful journey all the way to Skála Kallonís at the head of the gulf, other than Ingrid spotted a couple of black jellyfish.
The anchor went down shortly after 11.00am by which time the wind started to pick up. The forecast had shown us hardly any wind from the West turning North, instead it continued from the South with 25 knots. The swell built up, too, and Cordelia’s sinks were gurgling, and we had it rather bouncy. Our plan to explore in Buddy went out of the window and we stayed on Cordelia, holding on.
The wind and waves disappeared over night, and all was calm when we got up at 7.00am. We launched Buddy and put on the outboard after breakfast, and around 8.00am Peter motored us over to a lagoon. We both had to dismount on its entrance to drag Buddy over a sandbank, then Peter took to the oars and rowed us along the very shallow brackish water. This was supposed to be a twitchers’ paradise, but we were probably a bit too early for the birds to leave their nests. We could hear them singing in the marshes though, and Peter managed to capture one on camera, but for us birds were like trees – we had very little idea of what was what. We got near to a chapel, then turned round and navigated our way back to Cordelia.
On board we had a quick turn-around and picked up our shoes and rucksacks and motored to shore. We followed the road from the Kalloni Beach Hotel along the outskirts of the village, then continued along the main road, turned off onto a dirt track, walked along another road and finally got into Kalloni which featured an AB supermarket. It was the biggest in town and of good size with a great variety of products. We stuffed our rucksacks and bags full of goodies and carried them all the way back to where we’d come from.
We were back ashore the next morning, this time with our bikes. We cycled to the harbour, then through the centre of Skála Kallonís until we reached the Tsikniás river. Along it, we found plenty of twitchers with their cameras and big lenses, and even we spotted what we believed to be finches. We were on a dirt track which was rather teeth-shattering all the way to the outskirts of Arísvi, then pedalled through it toward Kalloni to the AB supermarket.
Peter guarded the bikes while Ingrid did the shopping, and heavily laden we engaged on our way back home. We both carried our rucksacks and had 6 x 1.5l bottles of water tied down on the back of each bike. Given that the track we followed past Kerámi was quite rough and bouncy this made for a precarious ride, and we were glad when we reached the tarmacked roads. Somehow we managed to stuff all the shopping, bikes and ourselves into Buddy, launch him and get him back to Cordelia in one go without losing anything or anyone overboard.
We spent the next few days on board and mainly below when the weather deteriorated and the clouds became darker, the wind stronger and the swell side-on. We got some light showers with Saharan dust, but eventually the sun re-appeared and normal service was resumed. We made it ashore at the Kalloni Beach Hotel, carried on along the road into the village, walked around the harbour and the plaza, and found two supermarkets. Both were open and we bought water, biscuits and ice-creams. The latter were consumed there and then, the rest went back on board. The village itself was quite pretty with lots of restaurants, a nice beach, hotels, a Coast Guard office (closed) and the harbour with authentic wooden fishing boats and men mending nets.
Back on board we relaxed for a while, then stowed Buddy on the foredeck and got Cordelia shipshape. We weighed anchor just after 4.00pm, set the reefed genoa soon afterwards and sailed in a North-North-Westerly Force 6 back to Apothikes.
As we had gusts of 38 knots this was quite exciting at times, and we were happy to put the anchor into 10m of mud.
The alarm woke us at 6.00am and 20 minutes later we were on our way towards Sigri. We had some current against us on the channel out of Kallonís Bay, but soon settled with the rhythm of the engine sound. There was no wind to speak of, so we motored along the coast and past the Aeolian Village where we’d once holidayed with Neilson (now Mark Warner). We also spotted some dolphins but they showed no interest in us and soon disappeared.
About ½ hour to our destination the wind kicked in on Cordelia’s nose and we were heading into 28 knots. Peter was concerned about the viability of our anchorage, but when we arrived there at 10.05am we found it quite protected.
Peter rowed us ashore to a jetty near the castle, and we went off in search for the port police. Despite best efforts they were not to be found, and Ingrid ended up asking a man in a ceramic shop and later a woman outside a café. We found the right building eventually, rang the bell and climbed the stairs to the first floor. A friendly young lady was not sure why we wanted our Transit Log stamped, but did it anyway, copying the previous entries for guidance. She didn’t even want to see any other documents.
Next on the list was the visit to the petrified forest museum. It did exactly as it said on the label, and showed trees that had turned to stone, fossils of leaves and bones inside stones, gemstones of various kinds, and when we went to the outdoors area, more petrified tree trunks.
We had a brief stroll along the beach to gather our thoughts and reflect on what we’d seen, then returned to Cordelia after a visit to the local shop. Once back on board Peter prepared the inner forestay, so we could make use of the “superjib”, if needed for our next passage.
