Sailing Calista20 July 2023 – 28 July 2023
Just after lunch we left the anchorage of Myrina and set sail to the small island that lies half way between Limnos and Lesvos called Ag Efstratios Island. We had the downwind sail out for some of the time as the winds were light and we were sailing along nicely downwind.
We arrived at Ag Efstratios Island shortly after 6.00pm and anchored in Sy Efstratios just out from the Port.
The anchorage wasn’t pretty and there was building works going on with constructing of a new sea wall around the end of the bay. The electrical generation plant was also humming the entire time, 24/7.
We invited Sabine and Uli over for a BBQ as we had bought some sausages from the butcher in Myrina. After our meal, the guys were thinking of going back for the remaining sausages which had been left sitting on the BBQ. Paul went out to get the sausages and they weren’t there! Coco was out on the aft deck licking her chops. Low and behold, sneaky Coco had helped herself to the three remaining sausages off the still hot BBQ. Her belly was quite extended and she had a content look on her wee face. The boys weren’t impressed that Coco had beaten them to the last of the sausages.
Around 5.00am the next morning we were woken to the sound of the ferry horn blasting his intensions on entering the Port. Some ferries are horn happy and I’m sure there was no need for sounding it at that time of morning. They must get a delight in frightening the sailor’s in the anchorage.
As we had been woken early and couldn’t really get back to sleep, we got up and had an early breakfast then left the anchorage at 7.00am to head over to Lesvos Island.
There was alot of ship traffic to watch out for as we were crossing a main shipping channel. We also had a fishing trawler come close to us trailing a net and eventually he became aware of us and kept his distance. We were worried in case he crossed over in front of us. As I was taking a photo, he too was taking one of us.
We arrived in the anchorage at Sigri on Lesvos around the middle of the afternoon and managed to find a sandy spot to anchor in. There were about five other boats in the small anchorage.
The sea temperature was 24.4 degrees and we enjoyed a lovely swim.
Lesvos is the third largest island in Greece.
We went ashore to the local bar near the beach and enjoyed some drinks. While we were there, we got talking to a lovely couple who were off a large yacht “Southern Star” that was anchored behind us, and they recommended a restaurant famous for their lobster.
We walked around the town to see what there was. The anchorage looked stunning with the yachts at anchor with their mast lights on. The stars in the sky were quite visable with very little light pollution that you get in the more built up areas.
The following morning while the sea was calm we went in the dingies to check out the shipwreck which was at the entrance to the wide bay.
Apparently it was a Russian yacht that had run aground during bad weather…
Later on in the day we dingied ashore and walked up to the “Remezzo” The Lobster House for lunch.
We managed to get a table over looking the anchorage.
The restaurant Remezzo is famous for their lobster so Uli, Paul and I decided to share a lobster between the three of us. I selected one of the larger ones in the fresh water tank and the waiter managed to sneer it with his net. Poor lobster.
We had some entrees, which we shared while we waited for the lobster to be cooked. We had a fresh green salad with the lobster, and for a change we had some glasses of the traditional Ouzo instead of our usual wine.
After lunch we wandered up the hill to the Petrified Forest Museum nearby, which was very interesting. We saw some unique fossils from when the ancient forest was buried by layers of sediment and volcanic ash more than 200 millions years ago.
Minerals including silica dissolved from the volcanic ash was absorbed into the porous wood over hundreds and thousands of years and crystallized within the cellular structure.
Leaving Sigri we sailed around the corner to Paralia Chrousos where we anchored in a lovely wide bay for the evening. It wasn’t long before we were joined by another yacht which had also left the same anchorge.
It happened to be a lovely Scottish couple Louise and Gordon, and we invited them to join us on shore for drinks. We dingied ashore and found a spot where we could all sit in the shade under the trees.
We ordered some dinner from the mobile caravan. They relayed the meal orders to the family restaurant a few hundred meters up the road and when it was cooked, it was delivered down to the beach. Good service and it saved us walking up the road to the taverna.
We had a lovely casual meal and a few laughs.
The following morning we left the anchorage and went up into Apothikes Bay thinking it was protected from the northerly winds that were blowing. In the anchorage it was blowing at 28-30 knots. Luckily the wind dropped down around 8.00pm and it ended up being a pleasant evening at anchor.
After a good nights sleep, we lifted the anchor to head further around the coast towards Skala Loutra East Bay. We had been sailing for most of the way, then tacked to be closer to the shore. As we were sailing between the coast and a small island we lost compass and wind instruments. We turned off the electrical switch then back on to see if it reset the instruments, which it did.
Not long after that, as we were motoring up the narrow inlet to Skala Loutra, the engine room bilge alarm started sounding. Not a welcome sound when trying to concentrate on navigating up a narrow stretch of water with rocks close by. Sure enough when we lifted the access to the engine room there was diesel sloshing around again. Damn…
We shut off the diesel supply and turned off the engine and luckily our friends on Tipheret were close distance behind, and came up alongside us. We told them of our predicament and threw them a rope to tow us away from the rocks and the short distance further up the inlet and into the anchorage of Skala Loutra East where we managed to drop anchor in the middle of the bay.
The anchorage was very calm and protected.
The reflections were amazing first thing in the morning when everything is still.
We noticed abit of diesel in the water around the hull so we got the dishwashing liquid out and gave a few squirts to dispurse the slick.
Paul started cleaning up the diesel while Uli took us girls ashore, and then he came back to Calista and apparently took over the clean up of the remaining diesel spill as the fumes were affecting Paul’s breathing.
We left the boys on Calista and Sabine and I caught the local bus into the Port of Mitilini. We were very disappointed in the Port, it was very old and dirty with alot of refugees begging in the streets. It was 38 degrees and very hot. We didn’t fancy exploring further a field without the guys, so we found somewhere to have a cool drink and some lunch then got a taxi back to the anchorage.
On the morning we were leaving, we dingied ashore to have a coffee. It is such a sleepy fishing village with a couple of tavernas. There was one upmarket boutique hotel at one end of the bay.
We left the anchorage to head down the narrow inlet. The wind was in our favour and we were able to gently sail down the inlet until we reached the sea. The sea state was quite rough as we motored into the wind along the coast to Paralia Liganari.
We anchored at Paralia Liganari for the evening and had the bay to ourselves. The swell came into the anchorage during the early hours of the morning and we ended up rolling side on to the swell and it became rather uncomfortable.
In a way it was good as we were planning on getting up early anyway to head over to Oinousses Island.
