We sailed south along the west coast of Kassandra (the westernmost ‘finger’ of Chalkidiki), past miles of white sandy beaches with Caribbean-turquoise sea. At anchor, you could see every little fish, wonderful.
Very seldom we see other sailingboat here. There are many fishing villages with small harbours, which are usually described in sailing forums as too small, too crowded or too shallow. We wanted to find out for ourselves. We moored for a few days in three small villages: Nea Moudania, Nea Kallikratea and Nea Skioni. The ‘Nea’ stands for new settlements founded by Greeks who were expelled from Asia Minor during the establishment of the Turkish state in 1922. Everywhere there are quite large fishing fleets, some consisting of individual boats, some larger with crews of 8-10 men, the skipper Greek, the crew mostly Egyptian. The villages are really cosy and relaxed, and all have sandy beaches right next to the harbour. There are nice pubs and bars, and the tourists here are either Greek or from North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria or Romania.
The fishing boats head out to sea in the evening and return in the morning, where small delivery vans are waiting to collect the fish in white polystyrene containers. They also deliver ice for the next trip.
On the larger boats, you can sometimes see Egyptians on their prayer mats; they only set sail after they have finished praying. We witnessed a farewell party, with many Egyptians with wheeled suitcases or rucksacks heading for the bus to begin their journey home. They will return in the spring, as the earnings here in Greece are sufficient to feed their families.
As for the water depth: the harbours tend to silt up. Our large ten-year-old almanac usually showed one metre more on the charts than we then found. With our 1.80 m draught, we usually had at least a metre under the keel. However, most sailors have more draught than our Aglaya.
Greece here is very different from the tourist-filled coastal towns or the islands – a wonderful new experience.
