38:50.90N 24:32.01E Linaria, Skiros (Skyros)

Ariel of Hamble
Jim and Valerie SHURVELL
Sun 29 Jul 2018 18:15


5th June, 2018 Tuesday

 

We covered 70.47 k. miles to Linaria bay on Skiros. We had thought the wind may be favourable to sail to Kimi on Evia but no it was on the nose whichever ways went so it seem silly to waste a day and we motor sailed until the corner of Evia.  Then the sails had to come down as the wind was beating us.

We saw 12 dolphins all working for their breakfast and lots of  birds trying hard to catch the fish which were jumping.  The large vessels on their way to and from the Black Sea were plentiful and two Greek Navy ships were patrolling the sea off of Skiros.  Jim wanted to visit Skiros after all the Cruising Association postings with photographs.  We knew the harbour was small with a ferry coming in regularly and we were not wrong. As we arrived three divers appeared to be diving off the ferry wall and the 7 spaces were taken on the inside quay so we said we were happy to anchor off the beach as we didn’t want to be crushed into a small space.  We were so pleased we did as the very large ferry for the harbour arrived and backed into the quay by the fuel station and it took an hour for the engines to quieten down.  The view for the 7 boats was of the stern of this huge ferry we were better near the beach.  At 2.15 a.m. it was not so funny when two French boats decided to anchor near us and then talk about it before one of the boats had to re-anchor as it was a few feet from the cliff.

The next morning we woke to beautiful sunshine and holiday makers already at 7.30 using the sun beds. We didn’t disappoint them and swam from the boat in 23 degrees.

We took the dinghy ashore and wandered around the little marina (?) and ordered a taxi to take us to the town/village in the mountains where the monastery is built at the very top in the side of the cliff.  Beautiful little shops, restaurants and lots of white washed houses nestled in little lanes.  We can’t understand how they survive as there is so few visitors.  We did a tour of the busiest restaurants and came back to one of the first we passed for a marvellous lunch of Greek salad for two, sardines and hot vegetables, squid and three beers for the grand total of 27 euros.  A bargain and it was delicious.

The lady taxi driver came back for us as the return bus with a unreliable timetable wouldn’t arrive until 8 p.m. so there was no way we could spend another 6 hours wandering around a small village with most of the shops shut for their afternoon sleep. 

Ariel was fine at anchor and we had a slightly rolly night but we had set our alarm for an early start.

 

 

 


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