After a wonderful rest from the strong southerly wind in Karistos and the night-time bridge passage in Chalkis in the harbour of Nea Artaki, we continued north between the mainland (Attica) and Euboea. High mountains on both sides, an impressive scenery. Just like three years ago, we stopped at the fishing harbour of Loutra Edipsou and soaked our bodies in the hot springs.
From the boat, we could see the fishermen preparing their boats for the night fishing trip. Many of the men working on the boats come from Egypt. They spread out the carpet for evening prayers before setting off. We didn't need to look at our compass to know, where east was in this place. At seven o'clock in the morning (on Sunday), all the boats were back and the polystyrene boxes were packed full with the catch. With very little wind, we motored on to the north side of Euboea, between several small islets, which the locals call the ‘Greek Bahamas’. We could understand that.
What the people lying under parasols on the beach don't realize is, that there is a strong current there. Fortunately, Gisela hadn't checked beforehand how many knots the current could be. Otherwise she would have said ‘We're going round the outside’. Walter didn't say anything, but he knew: up to eight knots. Well, afterwards that was OK. But it was violent: suddenly lots of whirlpools around us, the bow of our boat was being torn back and forth. The helmswoman had to counter-steer violently. It happened very quickly and then we were through. But then the wind came up from the front at over 30 knots and the swell got stronger. No chance of gaining height under sail. So we continued to motor again. In the small harbour of the historic village of Oreoi, we then managed to ‘park’ backwards into one of the last two gaps in the pier after several attempts with a crosswind against the screw effect. Another job well done.
