Simi
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Mon 7 May 2012 10:14
Simi Town and Pethi harbour
Wednesday 2nd May – Monday 7th may
We left Bozburun early and motor sailed across to Simi town where we duly
checked into Greece.
The town quay was quiet and had plenty of room – we were hailed by the
‘mooring man’ in his orange t-shirt and shown where to berth - this time
we were on the north quay. Having arranged electricity Jacky headed off to
sort out the paperwork and after some walking (from the south side to the
north side and back again all was completed and we were legally in Greece.
There is now a 15 Euro charge to enter Greece from Turkey, the mooring fee
was 5 Euros and the electricity cost 8 Euros (although we witnessed
several boats around us leave without paying the latter)! After the
formalities were completed we set off to get some shopping and re-visited
Georgina’s shop ( she now has a bigger ‘emporium’) we bought the heavy
stuff (beer and Greek wine boxes etc.) and these were then delivered back
to the boat for us. Interestingly she told us that her shop will also
deliver to any bay on the island that has car access and later in our stay
we met up with Bruce and Lyndsey from S/Y Midi who had even been given a
lift back to their boat in Pethi bay with their shopping.
We had a good value and tasty meal at a restaurant behind the main south
quay called O Meraklis, as recommended in the Rough Guide. Also found an
excellent butcher again on the south side behind the main quay side in the
area known as the Bazaar.
We left the town quay around 1100 the following day and motored round the
headland to the south and into the deep fiord like Ormos Pethi. There were
just 2 other boats at anchor so we duly found a suitable spot and dropped
the hook in 8 metres. The anchor took well and we then spent the next
three nights here – a wonderful peaceful spot with clear and clean water
to swim off the stern. Jacky took the local bus into the town (it leaves
the quay in Pethi on the half hour except at 1530 and returns from town on
the hour 1.3 Euros each way) on our last day to get some further fresh
produce although the small supermarket in Pethi had a good supply of basic
produce and the lady was very helpful regarding information about bus
times etc. A Fuel tanker came down to the quay each day looking for
business and there was a small garage about 200 metres up the lane beside
the supermarket where Rob went for petrol for the outboard and generator.
Petrol was 1.99 Euros per litre and diesel in town from the road tanker
was 1.6 Euros per litre and at the little garage 1.67 per litre.
The bay got much busier and at one point we had 13 boats anchored around –
although several had to try a few times before getting their anchors well
dug in. We explored the bay in the dinghy including the unfinished new
harbour where there were several boats tied up alongside the outer quay
using the concrete re-enforcing pins sticking up from the unfinished
surface to tie to!! It was a lovely anchorage and Jacky took some
spectacular pictures early one morning when the water was like glass and
the reflections were stunning.
Reflections in Ormos Pethi Skysong at anchor in the distance
There is a small jetty where the water boat used to call and is now used
by a large fishing boat (starboard side) occasionally at night. On the
other (port) side there were several smallish yachts alongside – no water
or electricity but it did mean no need to use the dinghy to get ashore. We
moved here for a couple of nights before leaving Simi for Tilos.
We left on Monday afternoon and motored round the north side of Simi
heading for a bay near the monastery on the west coast called Emilianos
but on arrival we were not happy about the swinging room in the shallower
areas and most of the bay seemed very deep; so we continued on to the SW
corner and one of our favourite bays – Panomoritis. Here we anchored along
with about 7 other boats at around 1600. By 2000 there were 16 boats at
anchor and 6 rafted along either end of the pontoon – so really busy! The
forecast was for light winds from the N.W increasing during the day so
decided on an early start to get to Tilos without too much up wind
sailing. We set the alarm for 0600 and had an early night.