We left Mitilini on the 5th Oct and stopped for one night in Skala Loutra a lovely quiet cove just around the headland from Mitilini. After a few days living next to a busy road it was lovely to have the peace and quiet of deserted anchorage again. Skala Loutra did have a very small village, the only facility was one taverna serving simple food. Even the small village in the Chora didn’t have many facilities but it was a pleasant walk up the hill and down again amongst the olive groves.

From there we moved onto Apothekes, another very quiet deserted anchorage just inside the gulf of Kolpos Kalloni on the south coast of Lesbos. Again no facilities and even the taverna was now closed for the winter. We stopped here to wait out some strong winds before moving onto Sigri on the W coast of Lesbos’. From there we will cross the Aegean to Alonnisos, an overnight passage of just over 100nm.

While at anchor Chris has been making the best of this time repairing our teak deck that is showing its age of 38yrs. New teak decks are prohibitively expensive and not environmentally friendly these days. We don’t want an artificial teak deck, and I would prefer not to get rid of the teak if it means only having a non slip paint or plastic non slip deck. So Chris has been busy making new planks out of Iroko, cutting them to shape, gluing and screwing them to the deck before sanding them down to match the thickness of the old teak. The old teak is so thin and worn, making new planks as thin as the ones on the deck is very difficult. Not an easy task without his favourite tools and work shed. Then he has to caulk the planks using the dreaded black Sikaflex that takes on a life of its own once it is squeezed out of the tube. Only 20 square meters to go!!

Apothekes