Chapter One: MEANDERS AT MOUDROS
Another early start! At 5.00am the alarm went off when it was still quite dark outside. We got dressed, checked the forecast, and when we could see what we were doing weighed anchor at 5.40am. We motored past Sigri harbour and hoisted the mainsail. This task was completed just before we reached the narrow gap leading through the North passage. Even in these calm conditions (North-East, Force 2-3) the sea was building up there with overfalls left and right to us. We made it safely through, then unfurled the genoa.
The wind was still on the light side and we didn’t break any speed records, especially not with the filthy hull and propeller, but eventually we reached the windline. For a while we needed a reef in the mainsail, but soon the wind calmed down again and we shook it out. When we hit the traffic we briefly switched on the engine to avoid a couple of big cargo ships, and at another stage of our journey we hove to to let three large ships cross ahead of us at a safe distance. For the rest of our passage we had no further trouble from anyone, and we enjoyed the best sailing in quite some time.
A strange occurrence of a long line of disturbed water with whitecaps happened about 5NM off the coast of Lemnos (AKA Limnos) which rattled us a bit (literally) as we could not figure out the cause of it. Another ½ hour or so later the wind finally had enough and disappeared in the lee of the island. We tried to carry on sailing, but Cordelia was going sideways and well off-course, so on came the engine and we motorsailed towards our anchorage.
At 3.45pm, after 10 hours on the water and most of it under sail, we dropped the hook in 5m in sand at the anchorage of Paralia Parthenomitos on Lemnos. It was very quiet there with no-one else around, not even a barking dog. We recovered over the next couple of days and used the inclement weather conditions to clean off the mud on the chain and in the locker before we moved to Paralia Chavouli ½ hour away.
After lunch Peter measured the water temperature, and, despite it being only 15°C, donned his wetsuit and scraped the waterline and around the propeller. He also reported that the hull was badly encrusted and that it would take days to clean it off. We’d just have to go somewhere with warmer water and less of a current. Not for nothing this place was known as “Freshwater Bay”!
The next morning Peter rowed us to the beach. After relieving ourselves of our rubbish we picked up the dirt road towards Moudros. We walked on the flat for a while with fields of wheat and meadows with wild flowers. The whole island seemed to smell of herbs, chamomile and honeysuckle.
We passed a few houses when the track’s gradient increased, but we soon made it to the top of the hill. The descent was equally beautiful albeit even steeper, and we could see the harbour of Moudros from quite some distance away. The track evened out eventually, passed a small military complex and joined the tarmacked road into town.
There was nobody about on the road, and Moudros itself was very sleepy. We had a look around the harbour, then walked up past abandoned and derelict houses to the centre and the church, and found two supermarkets where we topped up our provisions.
Our rucksacks were heavy, but the walk back to Chavouli Beach was as enjoyable as on the way out. We even saw a raptor hovering high above us! After 6 miles and 170m up and down we were back on Cordelia.
One afternoon we put the outboard on Buddy, and Peter motored us to the next bay at Mikro Fanarakia, where we arrived about 20 minutes later. It didn’t take us long to find the cave we’d read about, and we went in one way and came out the other. We carried on to the beach which was lovely and still deserted. On the way back we stayed closer to shore, then Peter stopped the engine and Ingrid took over. She needed a few attempts to get it going again, but she finally did, and motored us back to Cordelia.
Then, when the wind picked up again, we returned to Paralia Parthenomitos. When we’d first anchored there we thought it had potential as a windsurfing spot, and now we were keen to give it a go. We rigged the iSonic and the 6.8m2, but when Peter was about to attach the sail to the board he slipped off the cockpit bench and took a fall. Ingrid thought he was going all the way into the water and prepared herself to jump in after him, but his stumble got arrested by hitting Cordelia’s stern seat. The sail he was holding onto survived undamaged but this did not apply to Peter. His skin was scraped off on his thigh and a bruise soon developed. He had to take a rest on Cordelia’s stern as his eyesight had become all blurry, too. Afterwards he patted himself down, and, finding no major injuries, connected the sail to the board, sent Ingrid out, got the camera, took pictures of her and made tea, all the while he was still convalescing. What a brave hero!
In the meantime Ingrid thoroughly enjoyed herself on the water, whizzing back and forth for 1½ hours. It was the best session she’d had since Lagos, Portugal, on flat turquoise water with quite consistent wind, and it was a shame Peter couldn’t join in.
As we hadn’t been on land we agreed it was high time to check out what we could find, so after furnishing Buddy with the outboard we motored ashore. The beach was empty other than a “changing room” shed and a freshwater dispenser a little further down. We picked up a dirt track and turned right to follow the contours of the coast.
Not long afterwards we reached a little chapel with an icon of the saint after whom the bay was named.
We turned round and when we reached the beach Ingrid took off her sandals to go back on Buddy. Peter, however, had different ideas and carried on along the track, and Ingrid had no other options but to slip her feet back into the sandals and follow.
When the track sizzled out it turned into a path with small prickly bushes left and right. While their thorns took a liking to our toes we fought our way through, and after some time we reached the abandoned white house we could see from Cordelia. Two pigeons fluttered out when we looked through the broken plastic window. Other than two filthy mattresses, a staircase and joists one wouldn’t trust to hold any weight we didn’t see anything interesting, so we carried on along a faint track we found outside that led to more ruined buildings. A more established track took us away from the derelict hamlet and into the direction where Buddy was waiting. We found the right turn-off down to the beach, and after an unexpected walk of 3.2 miles through difficult terrain we finally got back on board.
The wind had become light by then and it was warm, so Ingrid changed into her wetsuit and mask, took the plunge, and after a few additions to her outfit (snorkel, earplugs, gloves) she cleaned the starboard waterline down as far as she could reach. After about 1½ hours she was cold and exhausted, had a shower off the back and warmed up in the sun. Peter had prepared ouzo and sesame sticks, which helped with the recovery.
We stored Buddy on the foredeck when we motored North. An hour later we entered Moudros Harbour where a couple of French sailors helped us into a space behind a Dutch yacht. We moored up alongside the pontoon and moved later on to let an Australian yacht go ahead of us. In total, we ended up with five boats with room for one more behind us as the Dutch had moved to the opposite side of us. We were a right international bunch of salties!
We filled up with free (the meter was faulty) water, then checked in with the port police where a very nice lady stamped our Transit Log. A hike to the supermarket provided us with lunch and biscuits, then it was back to Cordelia. In the evening we prepared ourselves to go out for a meal.
After some deliberation on a bench on the other side of the harbour we settled on the “To Kyma” restaurant and sat in their garden. A little appetizer was on the house, then we had the Kyma salad as a starter and for mains it was lamb chops for Peter and pork gyros for Ingrid. ½l of red wine helped the big portions go down, still, the cats were very grateful for the scraps. We were stuffed, and with full and aching tummies we made it back to Cordelia for a well needed antidote in form of Ballantines whisky, then crawled into bed.
After a terrific thunderstorm during the night we enjoyed the cleared air for a little hike along the coastal track to the Australian Pier, which was used during the Gallipoli Campaign during the First World War. We then cut inland to look at the houses and gardens in Moudros. It really was a charming place, and we were keen to see more of the area. So Peter pumped up the tyres on our bikes, and we cycled out of town to Koukonisi, a little island connected to Lemnos by a causeway. It had been inhabited since the Bronze Age, but as we couldn’t see a path to walk around it, we found no evidence of that.
Instead, we pedalled to the main road, then took a right turn when we saw a sign to the Military Cemetery and Skandali (what happened there, then?). Rather than turning back towards Moudros at the T-junction we turned left towards Roussopoúli. We saw a sign for Moudros Castle, but as there was no indication of distance or altitude we headed for the village instead of pushing the bikes up the road to Kaminia.
Roussopoúli was very sleepy with no attractions we could spot at all, so we circled around it, got to the church and took the road, then a track, and a road again to Romanón. We stopped at the outdoor museum which showed holes in the ground where reputedly once wine was fermented.
Then we pushed the bikes up a steep road to the remnants of five windmills before we headed home.
Before we got too near, though, we diverted to the cemetery with graves of Australian, British, French, Irish, Indian, Russian and Egyptian soldiers. About 12 miles and 3 hours from when we set off we made it back on board.
Chapter Two: JOYS AND CHORES
We slipped our mooring on the Moudros town quay at 11.00am, set the genoa outside the breakwater and glided gently downwind to leave the bay. At the entrance we lost some of the wind, so when we turned the corner we added the mainsail, thinking we’d be sheltered from bigger winds by the land. Only the wind gusted through the gaps and down the gulleys, and Cordelia reached 8.5 knots! We reefed both sails which brought some respite, but we still had to be watchful, and about 10 minutes from our waypoint marking the entrance to the next bay we doused them both.
Next followed motoring into the wind with peaks of 43 knots (apparent). Peter revved the engine to 2,000 rpm (revolutions per minute) to keep Cordelia’s speed up to just over 5 knots. 40 minutes later we dropped the anchor at Diaphori in about 5m in sand where it bit nicely with the headwind. We sat out some fierce winds with up to 48 knots and caught up with some admin work.
Once the wind had abated we packed our rucksacks, launched Buddy, and motored ashore. We tied Buddy to a piece of stranded driftwood, then picked up a track through a field until we came to a tarmacked road. We followed it through the town of Kontias along a dried out man-made riverbed. We could see a couple of windmills near the outskirts, so we diverted to have a closer look. They had been restored, but the doors were locked, so we couldn’t go inside.
We carried on past quite substantial stone houses along cobbled streets and narrow alleys to the supermarket. It was well stocked with surprisingly reasonable prices, so we topped up on provisions and an ice-cream. The latter was consumed on a bench near the shop, then we continued to more windmills which were equally locked and in good condition.
We took the main road back through town, found our track, and picked up Buddy. We had a little excursion to look for a suitable landing place for another walk, then returned to Cordelia. Ingrid attended to the hull and scraped the port side, propeller and rudder. She wore the whole outfit with weights and fins for this underwater work, but it was still difficult to get down with the buoyancy of the wetsuit. It didn’t help that the water was still on the cool side, but at least she could warm up in the sun afterwards.
We were out again around 10.00am and motored Buddy to the landing place we had scouted out the previous day. Another lovely track through fields took us to a viewpoint which overlooked a wetland. During the right season it was supposed to be teeming with many a bird and even flamingos, but they were probably still enjoying their winter in some exotic location as we didn’t see anything special (but that may have just been us). We did, however, come across a couple of kestrels which were hovering above a mowed field.
It didn’t take us too long to reach the village of Tsimándria. Apart from some building work going on, it was another quiet place. We had an ice-cream on a bench outside the church before we continued our walk. This took us in a circle around the hill next to the village, then along the main road to the opposite side of our anchorage. A fence closed off the path to the chapel we were heading to and, as we didn’t want to upset the locals by trespassing, we turned around.
We had a look at the little fishing boats on the North-East side of our bay, and decided against lunch in the taverna as it was only 11.30am. Instead, we picked up the main road again and found the left turn-off to the track that led back to Buddy. The wind was now from the South and we had a few little waves on our return to Cordelia, but Peter manoeuvred Buddy very carefully and we stayed reasonably dry.
After lunch we repeated the exercises on Cordelia’s hull. Peter attended to the propeller while Ingrid scraped off the calcified remnants of tube worms plus other growth under the waterline. We were still exhausted from the previous day’s work and had more swell today, so we stopped after about 45 minutes. There would be better days to clean, we agreed.
The wind had dropped off completely during the night, and in the morning our bay resembled a millpond. We got shipshape after breakfast and hung around for the wind to return. At 11.00am we were satisfied, upped anchor and motored out of the bay.
By now the wind was a gentle South-South-West, Force 3-4, and as soon as we could change our course out of the bay we set sails. The breeze filled them enough to keep us going, and in the first hour we averaged 3.3 knots. All that hull-cleaning finally bore fruit!
We passed the cape and altered course to 350° which meant that the wind was now on Cordelia’s stern. We trimmed our canvas and sailed wing-on-wing with a top average hourly speed of 3 knots. We were in no hurry, so didn’t mind, and it gave us more time to admire the passing landscape. We even spotted a turtle along the way, but as it also spotted us it dived, and we had no opportunity to take a picture.
Once we’d sailed past Myrina we looked out for the ex-Neilson holiday resort where we’d stayed in 2017, and Peter took some photos when we’d identified it. From thereon the scenery started to change, and it became more barren and rugged. Slowly, very slowly, but surely, we approached our anchorage, and after nearly 6 hours it had taken for the 16.8NM and two attempts we dropped the hook in 9m in a patch of sand with 40m of chain out.
While Peter put Cordelia to bed Ingrid prepared our meal, and we enjoyed an early dinner. We ate on deck, then drank our tea and relaxed in this tranquil spot, and later adjourned for bed and an early start on the next day.
Chapter Three: SAMOTHRAKI SOJOURN
We were awake at 6.00am, ½ hour before the alarm was due to go off, and this allowed us to have breakfast. By 6.45am we were all done, Cordelia was ready, and we were keen to leave. The anchorage had been nice and quiet, and we saw a lovely sunrise, but we wanted to use the South-East wind to blow us to Samothraki.
We set sails when we were still in the anchorage and initially Cordelia could do 6 knots, but the land played havoc with the wind. It reduced its speed, then gusted down the mountain and came from all directions and alternated between all the options. We helped Cordelia along by turning on the engine, and we motorsailed until we’d cleared the landmass. Occasionally she would still need help to maintain speed, but eventually she settled into a good rhythm that kept the average over 5 knots.
The going was great, so Peter made us coffee. This had always been a prompt for something to happen, and we were not disappointed. According to the chart we were in about 1,300m of depth which made us wonder why the waves had suddenly gone big enough to shake Cordelia from side to side. Luckily this only lasted till the coffee and biscuits were consumed and we reached a depth of about 500m.
By now we were whizzing along and we even saw 7.8 knots on the log and managed an hourly average of 6.5 knots. Not bad for an elderly lady (referring to Cordelia, not Ingrid)! The wind was still shifting a bit, and at one stage George, our autopilot, switched himself to “Standby”, so Peter was busy getting Cordelia back on course and trimming her sails. He put a reef in the genoa which calmed things down and still provided excellent sailing.
About ½ hour before the entrance to the harbour we furled away the genoa and continued at 4.5 knots on the mainsail alone. When the time came we dropped that sail, too, and motored into Kamariótissa Harbour on Samothraki. Of course it was blowing over 30 knots when we moored up which made the manoeuvre rather “interesting” and pinned Cordelia onto the wall.
We set out all the fenders to protect her, then put her to bed, had a cup of tea, and headed off to the port authorities. The officer there told us to come back when we were ready to leave, so we carried on along the beach, then stopped at the supermarket on the way back. Ouzo and sesame sticks in the saloon (it was still very windy on top) were well in order when we returned, so was an early night.
After breakfast on the next day we started our preparation for the “Grand Tour of Samothraki”. We rented a blue Skoda Fabia for €40.00 from Moto Rent Matsas who had introduced themselves and left a flyer with Ingrid the day before, and we were out of Kamariótissa at 9.00am.
Peter drove us along the well-maintained coastal road toward Palaiopoli to the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. We were greeted outside the closed museum by a marble replica of the headless Nike statue (original in the Louvre, France). Next, we advanced to the entrance of the complex and paid our fees before we were allowed in.
We headed straight for the Hieron to see the few remaining columns of this holy place of a mysterious religion that predated the Greek gods.
We also looked at the other sites such as the Hall of Choral Dancers, the Rotunda of Arsinoe, the Stoa, the Dining Rooms, the Theatre, and many more. The walk from one exhibit to the next was mostly through woods and we had a little breeze, so it was all a very pleasant experience.
With our cultural appetite sated, we moved on to Fonias for some outdoor action. An at times challenging path along the stream brought us to the first of two waterfalls.
It was quite pretty, but we were determined to see the big attraction, so we crossed the stream and started to scramble up the rocky side. We used the installed wire to pull ourselves up with our hands and stood on the Klettersteig-like footholds. These features gave way to a very steep rubble path which had us struggle and used up all our energy. We recovered by eating our lunch under an oak tree which we shared with some ants (mostly the tree and less of the lunch). Then we made one last effort to reach the flatter traverse before we had a short descent to the second waterfall.
Some people were there already and were sunbathing, but although the water was deep enough nobody swam in it – wussies! We had a rest, took pictures, and, as we hadn’t brought any swimming gear, left this pretty spot. We retraced our tracks to near the oak tree, then picked up a faint path to take us downhill along the other side of the stream.
It led past man-made stone walls and possibly foundations of some buildings, and at times we lost it or weren’t sure whether we were following a sheep / goat track. Peter, with the help of MapOut, however, found a safe and nicely sloped way down and we were soon back near the road.
The gate to it was locked though and had barbed wire along the top, so we had to find an alternative way out. Peter did so by seeking out stepping stones to cross the stream, and we carried on to the car park on the familiar path.
Next, we continued along the road all the way to Kipoi. It started off harmless, but soon the road suffered from fallen rocks on one side, undermined-by-waves stretches on the other, and washed out fords in-between. When we arrived at our destination we had one quick glimpse at the beach, then turned around and back to Palaiopoli.
There we followed the turn-off to Samothraki, and a steep and exciting route took us to the sleepy Chora. We crept through the alleys so not to wake anyone and made it to the castle where we disturbed a nice lady who waved us through. There wasn’t much to explore and after 15 minutes we were off again. A tour around the houses saw us back to the car, and we took the direct route to Kamariótissa.
At the supermarket we got ice-creams and a bottle of Fanta, and, influenced by the sugar rush, decided to check out the only sandy beach on the island. After a pretty section past harvested fields on a good and wide road we reached the flat along the south coastline. The road was equally inspiring as the one to Kipoi but became rather narrow near Lakkoma and quite hair-raising on the last few miles to Pachiá Ammos Beach. Up and down with barely room for a small car to drive on broken down passages Peter got us there and made it back, all in one piece. What an outstanding example of driving skills!
We handed in the car, and at 5.00pm were back on Cordelia for a cup of tea and a rest. Then we got ready for our evening meal out. It was after 7.00pm when we arrived at “Phournélo”. We chose a table on the pavement opposite the road next to the beach to catch the last rays and a bit of the breeze, and ordered a Greek salad, a small “Special” pizza and 1/2l of red wine. The food was very tasty, the wine acceptable and the price reasonable. When we left people were just about ready to start their night out, and the cafés and restaurants were filling up.
We had a day’s rest with editing photos and doing laundry, then we were away again on our bikes along the relatively flat coastal path. There weren’t many cars around, we had a light head wind, and the scenery was beautiful. Sometimes the road was shaded by fig, oak and sycamore trees that grew alongside it. We also encountered olive trees and a plethora of small bushes in various shades of green which interspersed with red earth and rocks.
We had a little rest at a picnic station which featured a BBQ, two tables with benches and a fountain, then we continued past Palaiopoli. We stopped on the road to look at the Castle of Katelouzi and some ruins on the field below it.
We saw no obvious access to either of them, so we carried on through Kato and Ano Kariotes all the way to the harbour near Therma (AKA Loutra). We concluded the harbour was not deep enough for Cordelia, a fact that was confirmed by a Swiss couple in their wooden yacht, stating they had only 1.5m of water underneath them.
We then agreed to cycle up the straight road to Therma. It was steeper than it looked but we both made it to the treatment centre which was closed. We toured around the tavernas, hotels, shops and bakery, and came out the other end without a hint of the warm pools we’d expected to come across. We didn’t search for them though, as we’d read they were rather neglected anyway, and instead set off on our way back.
On the route out we’d earmarked a taverna with the building on one side of the road and the tables on the other near the beach. We parked the bikes at the entrance, crossed over and enjoyed two frappés while looking out to sea. A ginger cat joined us and promptly fell asleep under Ingrid’s seat. We left it there when we saddled up and headed home. After a journey of 17.8 miles we were back on board for lunch.
It got hot, we put the gear away, had coffee, then disposed of our rubbish on the way to the supermarket. Loaded with water and other essentials we returned, stowed away the goods and had ouzo and sesame sticks. This was followed by dinner. Just as Ingrid was having the last bites the Coast Guard was speeding out through the harbour and by doing so created a huge wake which hit all the boats along the quay. Peter jumped off Cordelia to see if anything could be done to protect her, and Ingrid hung onto her plate and beer. When the wave, which we estimated a good ½m high, hit us, the rest of the cutlery together with the condiments and (luckily empty) beer tins went flying. From down below Ingrid could hear a hell of a commotion while Cordelia was battling with this tsunami. Soon the conditions were back to normal and we could inspect Cordelia for any damage. She seemed to have escaped unscathed, much to our relief.
We put on our trainers and left Cordelia at around 9.30am. We marched past the ferry terminal and continued along the falling down pavement to the chapel of St Nicholas which overlooked the harbour and sea.
We checked it out, then carried on to the end of the spit where we saw one person fishing before we returned to the chapel. A yacht was coming in and we watched her mooring up behind Cordelia, then we cut inland on an upward track.
We gained about 25m in height and lost it on the way down to the beach. The track continued over gravel and sand, and so did we. We had a great view over the golden fields, some of which had already been cut and harvested. We also came across a couple of brackish lakes which, due to their shapes, we assumed to have been man-made rather than being natural. A few wading birds squawked loudly in protest when we walked past.
A gentle breeze stopped us from overheating, still, it was lovely to sit down at the pebbly beach and go for a skinny-dip in the sea. The water was warm and shallow and we didn’t go out far, but it was nevertheless a pleasantly refreshing experience. We ate our lunch, and when we had dried off sufficiently wandered on.
Near half a dozen palm trees we turned left onto a rather overgrown track with reed on both sides and stalks of grass that attached themselves to our socks and trainers and pinched our skins. From time to time we removed the worst, only to make room for others. We took a detour to an old chapel (St Dimitrios), then picked up a better track that led past more fields and farm buildings and eventually got us back into town.
After a late lunch we headed for the supermarket for an ice-cream and water. The water made it back to Cordie, but the ice-creams didn’t as we gobbled them on a bench near the empty playground. For dinner we went out to eat again at “Phournélo”. We wanted to try a different pizza with our Greek salad and ½l of wine, and opted for the same table as on the previous occasion. Once again the meal was very tasty.
We kept an eye out for a weather window to return to Lemnos and started to prepare for it seriously on the day before departure. Our first errand took us to the supermarket for vegetables, dairy products, fruit and water which we carried back to Cordelia in our rucksacks. We cleared up, had lunch, and were off to another supermarket for more water, fruit, pizza and a bottle of Tsipouro (a local double-distilled brandy without aniseed).
Then we attended to the refill of our water tank. The connection was near the other end of the quay, too far away for our hose to connect to, so Peter took our shower hose and we set off with two empty 10l bottles. The routine developed as follows: get to the water, connect the hose, turn on the water, fill both bottles, turn off the water, disconnect the hose, each carry 10l back to Cordie, put the water in the tank. Repeat as necessary, which was seven times. Talk about a workout! We were sweating buckets and were as wet as the bottles.
We needed a rest and replenishment in form of coffee and a fig cake before we made it to the coast guard / port authorities. It took a while to get our Transit Log stamped with photocopies taken of our documents and forms to be filled in. When it came to the payment of our mooring fees our young officer had computer problems when he put in the password. With a little help from a friend, a couple of phone calls, and copying details from the computer onto a piece of paper we were finally presented with the bill. We paid our dues and were free to go.
Chapter Four: MEMORABLE MYRINA
We were awake at 6.00am and prepared Cordelia for departure. Twenty minutes later we slipped our mooring at Kamariótissa and by the time Ingrid had cleared away the fenders and lines we were ready to set sails.
We headed for the windline where it blew a disappointing South-Easterly, Force 2-3, so the engine was needed to head into wind. We tried to go off-course but still didn’t manage more than 3 knots under sail, so the engine came back on. We struggled to maintain speed and presumed we had current against us.
Then the wind started to shift to the East. Once it had a bit of North in it and gathered strength the engine was turned off. We reached an hourly average of 6.7 knots and a maximum of 9.1 knots with a reef in both sails, and we enjoyed an exciting ride. George, the autopilot, was handling it well (though he didn’t have to work hard), especially in some big(ish) rogue waves.
We motorsailed again for a while when the wind sizzled out. It returned when we approached Lemnos, and we had a lovely sail past the cape at Ak Mourtzeflos towards Myrina. The rest of the journey consisted of engine on, furl away the genoa, engine off, unfurl the genoa, then repeating the process several times until we reached our anchorage at Órmos Platý near the Mark Warner centre. We dropped the hook at 3.00pm, Ingrid dived on it and we reset it until we were satisfied it had dug in well.
We had a great time in the anchorage as we joined the other windsurfers whizzing back and forth, but also used the clear water to dive on Cordelia to scrub her underwater hull.
When the wind changed to the South we moved up the coast and sought protection in the anchorage off Myrina Harbour. We motored Buddy towards the old fishing harbour and secured him onto a ring next to the steps. Close-by was a water dispenser and we filled up our 10l bottles every time we went ashore.
We explored the town and made good use of the laundry, hairdresser, shops and supermarkets (they had a Lidl), and booked ourselves into a taster session at the winery. There we were served with a variety of white, red and one rosé in different grades from dry to sweet. They were all rather agreeable, and we came away with a few bottles and were even given one for free.
We didn’t neglect to visit Myrina Castle where we’d been seven years ago on a Neilson holiday. We found it rather unchanged, but this time couldn’t get to the flag on the top as the path was cordoned off. We could, however, make it further over to the other side where we found remnants of a cistern, shelters, gunpowder stores, walls and other rocks. We even saw a few of the deer that had been introduced to the island in 1968 from Rhodes.
On the road down memory lane we also had dinner at the same restaurant, and even table, where we ate seven years ago. Unlike then, this time we had swell against the wall, and our waterside seats and us atop of them were splashed at irregular intervals.
We weighed anchor just after 10.00am and the genoa went up as soon as we’d cleared the harbour breakwater. At first we were making around 5 knots going downwind, but once we’d passed the Mark Warner centre at Órmos Platý we were struggling to make 1 knot despite Cordelia’s clean hull. We switched on the engine and motored the last stretch into Vrachos Stivi. We found a place in 4m in sand to drop the hook just after 11.15am, and settled in.
Outside the bay we had encountered wind on the nose with white horses and swell and had been concerned as to the feasibility of an overnight stay, but once we were inside it was calm with lovely turquoise water with a temperature of 22°C. These were the perfect conditions to scrub the growth off the keel. It was hard work diving down and even harder staying down, but Ingrid managed to complete the port and underside before she clambered back on board exhausted and out of breath. She finished the job the next day by cleaning the starboard side which left Cordelia’s bottom very smooth and void of any unwanted cling-ons. We just had to maintain her hull from thereon!
We also ventured ashore and had a little walk up to a chapel and back down and around the west finger of our bay, and were rewarded with some good views of Cordelia and over to Órmos Platý.
Then, when the wind changed in our favour we upped anchor and bid farewell to this peaceful anchorage and Lemnos and set off for the mainland.
