FROM PAROS TO KIMOLOS AND MILOS

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Kimolos - Kalanitsi

Alma's Log August 25, 2022:

               Kimolos - Kalanitsi

We are still in the Cyclades, in Milos. Well, we had more days with calm weather than what the weather prevision indicated, but not all is as well as it seems. We want to go back to the continent. We are leaving Alma in Crotone in the south of Italy and we want to leave Greece before September not to pay the Greek tax for the month of September (around 100 euros) but are experiencing some difficulties.

The meltemi that supposedly would reach Milos did not show up, the winds for sailing to the continent are weak, variable or even nonexistent and even a boat that sails so well with weak winds cannot sail without wind or with winds lower than 4kts.

I mean if it was a 15 mile jump it would not be a problem (we would be making between 2.5 and 4 kt) but we are talking about an 80nm passage (to the Elefonisos Island), there is no moon and the weather is very unstable with the possibility of thunderstorms. We would not make it during day time and would need to use the engine for a considerable period of time. Two days ago, looking at the wind forecast it looked like we could make it in 4 to 8kts, wind if we leave Milos (Adamas) very early and we tried.

Milos - Adamas

We got up at 5 in the morning in the middle of a big thunderstorm, winds blowing over 20kt and pouring rain. Well that was not previewed, the thunderstorm was supposed to pass well north of Milos, but a check on the windy weather radar showed that the heavier of it was over Milos.

We waited for hours for the rain to subside and the thunderstorm to pass. The thunderstorm went away but it kept raining and we decided to postpone the passage. But when we looked at the weather forecast it was very frustrating; till the end of the month there was not a single day with good wind for the passage. Heavy blue (no wind) was the dominant color on the windy forecast between Milos and the Continent.

Milos - Adamas

After studying all possibilities it seems that the best one is tomorrow, but we will have to sail away from Milos at about 3 in the morning not to miss the weak wind. Well, it will have to do even if we are going to catch 3 or 4 hours of rain. We will see how it comes. The weather continues very unstable with the sky full of clouds, with fronts passing and bringing some wind. 

For more than a month I have being saying the weather looks like September, and now it looks like the last 15 days of September, with rain and thunderstorms everywhere. This summer has been an atypical one in the Med, with strong winds, big storms and many boats in trouble, many boats lost. We have been lucky but we don't want to stretch our luck and like many others will finish the season slightly sooner than what is usual.

Agius Dimitrius

Changing subject and talking about fun and nice cruising: the sailing from Paros to Kimolos was very nice, Isabel style, gliding in flat see with little wind making between 4.5 and 6.5 kt. Kind of enjoying life in a sailboat, reading and surfing the net (amazing how far you can get wi-fi in between islands).

In a hot summer day with weak wind, going to windward is much better than staying at anchor. Too hot at anchor, perfect with the refreshing wind the boat is making. 

Agius Dimitrius

It was so good that we decided not to go to Sifnos (nearer) and continue do Kimolos or Milos. The wind finished in Kimolos, so Kimolos it was. We stayed on a nice anchorage, Kalamitsi, in front of the beach, on 5m of good sand. 

Beautiful all around landscape, but after having being on that anchorage several times let me tell you that it is a "wind maker". There you have always a lot of wind even when outside there is little wind. 

On the other side of Agius Dimitrius

In the morning, gusting well over 20kn, Isabel wanted to stay. I told her that the wind was katabatic wind and that outside there would be no wind. I had to compromise and sailed out only with the jib. Half an hour later she was convinced and I was raising all sail. We went slowly but always sailing till Adamas, inside the huge central bay that almost divides Milos in two.

It was a bit windy and we chose to anchor well far away from the coast where the wind was less strong. Adamas is just a great anchorage, because far away from the coast (maybe 500m) the bottom is at only 7.0 meters, being almost flat toward the coast. Consider to anchor out if the wind is strong.

It has a great anchorage but a bad public port, with water and electricity, not expensive but where the ferry wash puts the boats rolling in such a way that is not uncommon the masts banging against each other, and I have seen many stanchion bent. If you insist in putting the boat there make sure there is a meter between your boat and your neighbor (almost impossible) and make sure the mast is not aligned with the boats next to you. If possible choose to stay at the side of motorboats that roll much less than sailboats.

On the other side , Plaka, the old village

Even knowing all that I put Alma there for a night. Isabel needed to go to the supermarket and to the bakery. I filled the water tank and went to talk with the guy from the diesel truck. I was lucky to find a place just after the reserved local places, after the big motorboats, the only places where you can have diesel because the others are too far away for the truck hose. 

The guy from EKO told me that in the afternoon around 5 would bring me diesel. At 6 PM I went looking for him, he said that only next morning at 10.30. At 11.30 he arrives with the hose and puts diesel on the 48ft motorboat next to me, that had arrived much after I had talked with him about putting diesel and then tells me that he has no more, that he has much work and that does not know when will be able to "serve me", but that he "has trying".

This guy does not respect the order of the requests for fuel and just puts first bigger yachts, with huge fuel demands, even if they have just arrived. I was one day and a half waiting for fuel, with two bookings that he missed, just to tell me that it had arrived a yacht that needed 20 000 liters and that he had no more diesel (and this after many boats passing ahead of me, including my neighbor motorboat). I guess that rich guys from big yachts give him big tips and he just passes them ahead. It gives a bad fame to EKO and to Greeks in general even if he is much more an exception than the rule.

Fed up with this and because after all I have a sailing boat, I just sailed away to the other side of the bay, near the entrance, to Agios Dimitrios Cove. We went sailing, slowly, only using the jib because to put the main in the bag is just too much work for such a small jump.

 It is a very nice cove with a chapel. You have to find a patch of sand (not difficult, but don't mistake sand with pebbles that are almost the same color) and you get a reasonable holding (the sand is hard) in a very beautiful place. You can anchor in 5.5 to 6 meters being the water relatively deep near the coast and without rocks.

But be prepared because when you are just enjoying it there will be a huge number of sailboats full of tourists that will come and will anchor everywhere (5 at the same time) with hysteric girls that will cry of joy (or whatever) while jumping in the water. Kind of a carnival. You will only have peace in the morning, late afternoon and night.

From there we sailed slowly (very weak wind) around the west coast of the island, to Kleftiko a famous and hugely popular anchorage on the south coast, near the SW tip. The anchorage is not marked or detailed on C-Map, only on Navionics. 

The bottom is good sand everywhere, the landscape is beautiful, with coves and caves, but it rolls and rolls, with the movement of the many touristic boats around, and, when they go away at night you find out that it keeps on rolling. For a motorboat tied to the coast it is acceptable, but for a sailingboat it is uncomfortable.

Next day we sailed out in the morning, with weak but steady wind that brought us back to Adamas. I put the boat near the shore, just in front of a Shell road pump, put my 10 liters reserve (in a jerrycan) in the boat tank, found out two 4 liters containers and rowed to the pump. The nice Indian guy lent me a 14L container and I brought to the boat 32L diesel. Went back there again and with the first 10L I had managed to put in the tank 74L. It was not full but almost. I guess it would take  15L more or so.

With 135L in the tank probably it will last till next year, even if I have to go up the Ionian coast, beating against the wind. About the price, well, fortunately my boat, sailing almost all the time, wastes very little, because at 2.30 euros a liter it has become very expensive to motor.

Happy with solving the diesel problem I celebrated with a dive. Yes, on this anchorage, the holding is great, but the waters are also very clear. I like it a lot and you cannot see here many charters but plenty of cruisers chose to stay here for some days.

It is not only the anchorage that is good, Adamas is a nice place and from there you can take a bus to the old town on the top of the hill, Plaka and its Venetian castle. The village is nice, with good restaurants and the view from the castle is superb.

23rd August was Isabel's birthday and we went ashore with the dinghy to eat at a good restaurant. Expensive but really good. A reference if you don't mind to spend about 35 euros per person, Mikros Apoplous. 

We had as starter small fried shrimps, Isabel had a tuna steak and I  a grilled squid. The squid was ok but the tuna was delicious and was so big that I ate almost half of it. The house wine was Moscafilero and was good. If you don't eat an expensive starter neither an expensive desert it would be about 25 euros for person.

24 was the day we should have sailed for the continent, but again there was no wind offshore, and tomorrow we will be sailing away in the first hours of the day. For now I am just sailing the boat to the Agios Dimitrios Cove. It will save an hour tomorrow.

Anchorages:

Kimolos - Kalanitsi: good sand bottom that goes down slowly, excellent holding, nice view all around but lots of katabatic wind, even if there are no big mountains.

All the above pictures are from Kleftico

Milos - Adamas: one of the best you can find. The bottom is sand and it lowers slowly towards the center of the bay. If the meltemi is blowing put the boat faraway from the shore where the wind will be less strong. Milos - Agios Dimitrius: beautiful, the bottom is sand and rock, the holding is good if you can find a patch of sand. The protection is better than what it seems. Some rolling due to the passage of ships and lots of touristic boats. Milos - Kleftiko: all sand, very good holding, beautiful, but you will roll day and night, with the passage of touristic boats and with waves on the beam.

GREECE - FROM KAVALA TO PAROS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rosogkremos

Alma's Log August 16, 2022:

Today we are at Aliki, Paros, central Ciclades. I just finish a delicious dinner cooked by Isabel, better than anything I have eaten in Greece. To be fair I should say that Aliki had the BEST fish shop in all Greece. That is strange but believe me, I know all the Greek coast and practically all the Greek Islands.

We bought some octopus (small and from the shore), a huge shrimp (the only one they had) and more than a kilo of fresh squid, not the variety they have further north with a thick skin, but the one that is similar to the ones that we can find in Portugal.

The big shrimp went as appetizer (it was a female, full of eggs), with a Greek white dry wine ( Greek cellars-nightingales) and then we had the squids stewed with vegetables and potatoes. 

                                                                                            Aliki, Paros island

With the stew we drank a much better, even if not considerably more expensive, red wine, a Nemea from 2018.

I love Nemea and I don’t understand why it has “normal” prices when other lesser quality Greek red wines are much more expensive, I mean normal prices if bought it at a Greek LIDL. The wine  comes from the south region of Corinth gulf. If you have passed there it is not far away from Trizonia, but on the other side of the gulf. I strongly recommend it.

                                                                                  Nea Iraklisa, near Kavala

The last post on Alma’s Chronicles was made a week ago, in Kavala, Greek Macedonia and since then we have been sailing hard, all day long, taking advantage of the good winds.

The best passage was from Limnos to Lesbos, more than 60 miles averaging 7.8 knots but all in all we have made good speed all the way from Kavala and practically did not use the engine (that slows us down because for saving fuel and the engine, I refuse to go over 2000 RPM and that means a speed between 4 and 5 knots).

 

First leg was a short one, with very weak winds, from Kavala to Thasos. We stayed in a very nice anchorage, Rosogkremos). The second was between Thasos and Limnos (we stayed on anchor in Myrina). The sailing was very nice, the sea was not bad and we sailed for a considerable amount of time over 8kt.

        Rosogkremos, Thassos

The third leg, from Limos to Lesbos, was even better, going over 9kt for a considerable period and we averaged 7.8kt. From Lesbos to Chios it was fast, but not that fast, and from Chios to Mykonos it was just good sailing.

Now, for sailing like this in the Med, not practically using the engine for 300nm, you have to choose the right time to do it, just before the wind gets too strong but still when there is enough wind to go fast and sailing all the time.

We also chose places were the wind was weak during the night, and it worked like a charm, in Thasos (Mylina), Lesbos (Chrousos beach, nice place) and in Chios (Paralia Mega Limnionas, not a very nice, but with a good holding).

                                                                                        Rosogkremos, Thassos

 In Mykonos we anchored in a nice place, Paralia Kalafati, no wind when we arrived and I didn’t understand why all the big motor boats where on anchor but tied to the rocks.

I thought that it should be a motorboat mania and anchored in the bay in a nice spot. Then came a guy from the ski motorsports and said that when the wind changed I would be blocking the motorboat channel.

Fair enough, I moved the boat towards the inner part of the bay. I had space but I stayed at about 20m from a line of shoals that are in the center of the bay. No problem, I thought, it is going to be a quite night, like the others. Wrong! At half past one in the morning strong katabatic winds (over 20kt) started blowing, pushing Alma in the shoal’s direction.

Chrousos beach, Lesbos

I had to be on anchor watch for most of the night. The anchor hold and we did not move an inch, but I didn’t know, on a dark night with the boat swinging from one side to the other and each gust seeming stronger that the previous one, and  knowing that if the anchor drags I would have only a few seconds to react.

All this fast sailing towards south (mad for Isabel, nice for me) had the objective of escaping strong winds on anchor, and  allowing us to enjoy some nice weather on the Ciclades, that normally, in this time of the year, are too windy.

                                                                         Paralia Mega Limnionas, Chios

That was not what happened in Mykonos (during the night), but we sailed to Paros south coast, to Alyki and it was just perfect, so perfect that Isabel demanded to stay one more day at anchor. We went to the fish market, to a nice supermarket near the beach and we stocked the boat with (good) provisions. We still have enough water. We took the opportunity to have lunch at a restaurant, for a change. Nice. I lost my panama hat, don’t know how, bad!

We made plans for the next days, taking into account the wind. It seems tomorrow we will be able to enjoy a nice beach in Sifnos, and then one or two days in Milos, before the strong Meltemi kicks in, and just before that we will be sailing to Monemvasia, in the Peloponese, with enough, but not too much wind.

Paralia Kalafati, Mykonos

Well, that’s the plan providing the meteo does not change, something that unfortunately is too common in these parts. But we are not worried; we are flexible and used to changing plans as fast as the weather forecast changes.

Some notes about the anchorages that are referred in the post, and that are shown in the photos;

The most beautiful, by far, is Rosogkremos in Thassos. It is much better than what looks in the map, with clear water and sandy bottom and you can anchor in 5 or 6 meters and almost till the rocky margin. There are no submerged rooks and at the margin the depths is more than 2.5 meters. The only minus is that you can experience some rolling, but not too much. If you want to stay for a considerable period of time you can tie the stern to the margin in an oblique kind of way. 

Paralia Kalafati, Mykonos

The most practical is the port of Kavala, a good one offering great shelter. Talk with the guys from the Club (the visitors' pontoon at the marina is the outside one and you pay something like 5 euros a day. Water and electricity are available and not expensive. 

If you want you can only moor the traditional way, with anchor, backing to one of the odd metallic structures (with a stair) that are protruding from the main quay. On top you will find water and electricity. Kavala is a great and inexpensive city where you can find everything, even a new stove for your boat, a living city with character with not many tourists (most of them are Greek) and very helpful and nice citizens. We love it!

                                                                        Nea Iraklisa, near Kavala

Optionally you can stay nearby in Nea Iraklitsa, in a kind of a secret anchorage (I have been there several times, being the only sailboat on anchor). You should anchor in 5 or 6 meters of clear sand near the beach, all starboard at about 50 meters of the lateral rock that will protect you from the dominant wind and you will stay well protected.

No rolling but sometimes some gusts, not too much.  You have, not far on the beach, a very nice restaurant (best house red wine I drank in Greece) and more to the middle of the beach, near by, a  good LIDL.

Almost as practical as Kavala  is the nice anchorage in the bay were the main port of Limnos (Myrina) is situated. The port is many times full, specially now that some big boats seem to have taken there permanent or semi-permanent mooring, at least for the summer. Myrina is a very nice place, with one of the best wines in Greece. Aristotles only drank wine from this Island. 

Myrina, Limnos

The local Masoutis supermarket, a big one, has a very good collection but if you rent a car I strongly recommend a visit to the island wineries where you will find very nice people, will taste different wines and buy them cheaper. 

I tell you it won't be like in Santorini (that has very good wine too) but where you pay the wine you taste and that the wine that I choose after tasting, cost 70 euros a bottle (I asked for a package of 6...before knowing the price). It is possible to anchor in 5 to 8 meters. The holding (sand and mud) is not bad but in places (with more soft mud) it can be tricky if there is a lot of wind). Near the beach the holding is better. There are no gusts and no rolling.

Myrina, Limnos

Aliky, in Paros, is another very good and interesting anchorage, with very clear waters and a small nice village with very good restaurants, an unexpectedly good supermarket and the best fish market (shop) I found in all Greece. It looked like I was in Portugal, and I can tell you I was missing looking at some very nice fish. They said to me that it was local fish, so don't miss it. If you want they can grill it for you (at no cost and you can eat it on the boat). It makes sense if the fish is big and I saw there some 3 kg nice ones.

                                                                                 Chrousos beach, Lesbos

The bottom is good sand and you can anchor between 10 and 5 meters but take car because the bottom rises sharply towards the beach. The only setback is the occasional swell created by the number of  small boats entering the port and some ships passing by. It creates some rolling during the day but practically ends at night.

Also with good sand bottoms, allowing to anchor in 5/6 meters are the other anchorages mentioned here, Chrousos beach in Lesbos and Paralia Mega Limnionas, Chios. Chrousos looks like a huge oasis in the mountains, beautiful landscape, good protection without gusts, but with a lot of rolling that did not end at night.

Rosogkremos, Thassos

There is a kind of savage big camping there and it looks you can buy food at a kind of improvised shack, but we have not tried it.

Mega Limnionas is a small bay in front of a beach, with Turkey just in front, offering some protection from north and good protection from west. The village over the beach is too ugly to take a photo, but there are plenty of restaurants and I bet you can eat well there at a moderate cost.

Paralia Kalafati, Mykonos

And finally Paralia Kalafati in Mykonos and about that one I have mixed feelings: it is certainly a nice place and it looks like a good shelter, and anchorage in 6m over a sandy bottom, but I arrived there without wind, the prevision of wind for the night was 10 kt or so and I ended up all night with 20kt gusts from different directions.

It seems like one of those places that make their own wind, katabatic wind, and that is why all boats where tied to the shore at the shelter of a high rocky shore. So, if you go there for the night, stay tied to the shore, but the boats are many, too close for my taste, and the view from the middle of the bay is just much more enjoyable. I guess that the right thing to do is to anchor way off, like this big and beautiful yacht, but smaller boats have problems doing that.