Still on Thassos we are waiting for the right wind to sail south-west. But it’s not coming. On the contrary – it’s getting calmer and calmer. So we decide to motor the 58-nautical-mile leg to Chalkidiki, to the southern tip of the middle finger.
We set off just before seven, with the sea as smooth as glass and no swell, sailing 30 nautical miles towards Mount Athos. The closer we get, the more impressively it towers above us. We can still see many small patches of snow in the steep rocky gullies, and then the numerous monasteries on the rocky slopes. You’re not allowed to moor or anchor here.
We pass the southern tip and then set course for the southern tip of Sithónia, the middle finger. At four o’clock in the afternoon, we sail into the bay of Porto Koufo. We already know it well from last autumn. The small pier is free, so we moor alongside there. Very pleasant. But then a local informs us that large trawlers are very likely to arrive in the evening to land their catch here. We don’t want to get in their way. So we drop anchor in the bay. Actually, that’s much nicer. And sure enough: as darkness falls, one large trawler after another arrives. We count at least eight. They can’t all fit at the pier and have to circle the bay until a space becomes free again. By morning they’ve all gone.
We’re staying another day, waiting for the right wind again, mooring at the pier during the day and dropping anchor again in the evening. There might be trawlers coming around again.
But then we’ll head further south to the Northern Sporades, to Steni Vala on the island of Alonissos. Another fairly long leg. And all along the way, dolphins – lots of small ones, but some big ones too. Some accompany us for a while, perhaps in the hope that we’ll throw them a fish, or simply for fun.
Steni Vala is a small, narrow bay with a pier. We were here once before in 2022 with our friends Andrea and Axel. We remembered it as idyllic and cosy. And that’s exactly how it is again this time. The owner of Café Icarus helps us moor and then hands us a long plank, as we can’t get our stern quite close enough to the pier because of the rocks. After a brief thunderstorm in the evening, we sleep soundly, as if in Abraham’s bosom.
The next day takes us a good 40 nautical miles further south to the island of Skyros. First there’s no wind at all with stormy conditions, and then suddenly 25 knots are on the weather forecast today. In Linaria, the small ferry port of Skyros, we moor comfortably at a bollard. The harbour master recalls that we were here for a few days four years ago, waiting for three new service batteries that were delivered by bus and ferry from Athens.
During that time, we had explored the beautiful island by hire car and on foot. This time, we only want to stay for two nights and simply take a day to relax – and, of course, experience the spectacle once again when the ferry arrives in the evening and Richard Strauss’s ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ (performed by Eumir Deodato) resounds through the harbour.
