Leonidhion

S/V Goldcrest
David & Lindsay Inwood
Wed 4 Aug 2010 13:00

A very dull 3 hrs motoring to get here.   It’s a little port and has several pebbly beaches both inside the harbour and just beyond it, so plenty of scope for a swim once again. We moored alongside the harbour wall as the pilot suggests, only to be told to move by the port police.  ‘Skip’ decided to just pull the boat to where they wanted us, but the wind chose that moment to start blowing Red Panda off the quay and we had a stressful few minutes trying to pull her back in again.  I seem to remember making that mistake in Scotland too, so I must learn the lesson sometime – never move the boat without the engine on and someone aboard.  I can’t imagine what the insurers would say to her being blown onto the beach with nobody in control!

 

This is another great place – very relaxed (apart from the one official).  It’s a bit of a culture shock to be back in flotilla-land again though.  We ended up helping several boats in a flotilla of 7 into an already quite full harbour.  It has been quite windy after lunch here.  Strong onshore winds until mid evening replaced by strong and very hot (30C+) winds apparently blowing straight down the cliff behind us (“katabatic winds”).

 

As befits mad fools & Englishmen we chose the hottest part of today to walk the 2-3miles up to the town proper (we got a taxi back!).  It’s a very Greek town, no tourism, in a spectacular setting with rusty red cliffs towering over it – very dramatic: