Sailing Calista2 September 2023 – 5 September 2023
After messaging with Patrick from Tropic Sailing, he advised that they were nearby and said for us to come and raft up to them in Mersini on Schinousa Island. We thought it was a great idea and we would be able to meet up with our friend Claire who was one of the guests on Patrick’s charter. We lifted anchor and ventured out and around the bottom of Koufonisi to encounter rough seas and white caps as we went through the passage between Koufonisis, Schinousa and the south coast of Naxos. We proceeded to motor for about an hour until we reached the sanctuary of the Mersini harbour.
Schinousa Island is located south of Naxos Island and is 9 sq km. Schinoussa owes it name to the evergreen shrub Schinos, a bushy shrub that thrives on the island.
When we arrived into the harbour and marina of Mersini the waters were quite calm.
We dropped about 65 meters of chain out and reversed back and rafted up alongside the yacht “Demilia Star” which Patrick had chartered.
Patrick offered to take our bright new floating lines ashore and secure around the rocks as his dingy was already in the water. We gladly accepted his kind offer.
Two of his guests jumped into the water and took the other line ashore and secured around the rocks. It was good to watch, as we had only just bought the lines recently and hadn’t had chance to use them yet. With Patrick’s suggestion to cross the lines, this proved great advise as the lines could hold the boat steady depending on where the wind was blowing from without taking up too much room, thus keeping Calista centered.
Our neighbour in the anchorage, motor yacht “Athina III” is 60.6 meters long and was built in the Netherlands 1996 for an experienced yachtsman as “Neduse”, however Athina III took on her new identity in 2016 when she changed hands for the first time since her delivery. Athina III can sleep 12 guests in her six staterooms.
She also has a helicoptor landing pad on the upper aft deck. A sports bar on the main deck can transform into a recording studio and a decompression chamber on board makes technical dives possible. She cruises at 15 knots and the maximum range of the vessel is estimated at 5500 nautical miles. The yacht is equipped with an ultra modern stabilization system, reducing roll motion effect.
It was lovely to catch up again with Claire from Gulf Harbour where we used to live. We hadn’t seen her for over twelve months when we were last in Gulf Harbour. It was also the first time Claire had seen Calista in person.
Our view across to the marina and bay
That evening we walked up to the Chora with Patrick and the rest of the guests to Deli Taverna to have dinner together. They were a lovely group of people. We later found out that Christine, who initially helped with the floating lines was a former Mayor of Auckland back in the 1990’s (we were living in Australia at the time) She was a down to earth person and fitted in with everyone, and we would never have guessed that she had previously held such a high profile position.
This sign in the taverna seemed quite appropriate I thought …
Patrick who took this photo of us at dinner runs a sailing charter business “Tropic Sailing” where he comes to Greece for three months each year and charters various boats depending on the groups he has pre- booked for the season. His sailing holidays are normally over a two week period where he sails in the various island groups.
Calista with her mast light and underwater lights on.
We came ashore to have a drink at Nicolas.
Paul is checking the weather – yeah right …
With the Meltemi blowing and moving more North East, we were starting to get abit of side wind and Patrick was concerned that his anchor wasn’t out far enough and he was relying on Calista’s anchor to do all the work. Patrick decided rather the reset the anchor he would leave and head around the corner into a another anchorage which should be more sheltered from the current wind direction.
We weren’t on our own for too long, and other yachts came in and also tied off to the rocks.
Paul put the drone up one morning – the large motor boat is well secured with all the ropes. Looks rather like a spider’s web.
The sea state had settled down outside of the habour and there were still a few larger boats tied back to the shore.
We dingied ashore and walked up to the Chora to check it out in the daylight.
We went back to the Deli Taverna for lunch where we had previously been for dinner with the Tropic Sailing group.
The grilled octopus was very tender and delicious.
Slow cooked pork and sweet potato puree was also delicious.
We had abit of a wander around the Chora. There wasn’t much there to see, but plenty of accommodation.
Looking back to the marina (and Calista) from the top of the pathway. It was about a 1km walk from the Chora to the anchorage. A good workout especially on the way up.
The Blue Star ferries took up quite a lot of room but we were well out of the way for them to manoeuvre into the dock. The swell from them was no real problem.
The Seajets were the most arrogant of all the ferries, they don’t know the meaning of slow.
With the weather more settled, it was time to leave and I had the job of swimming the short distance to shore and releasing the lines. Easy Peasy.
With the lines successfully released and anchor up, we motored out of the anchorage of Mersini around 8.30am to go up to Naxos Island.
