Pyxis - Órmos Kamari, Khíos - Órmos Kaloyerou, Lesbos

Órmos Kamari, Khíos - Órmos Kaloyerou, Lesbos

Pyxis

Karen & Richard

Wed 1 Jun 2011 22:58

Wednesday 1^st June – Órmos Kamari, Khíos - Órmos Kaloyerou, Lesbos

39:00.966N 26:32.606E

This morning we were up and out early as the weather was due to be very quiet, so we decided to continue on north whilst we could.

We motored up the east coast of Khíos, which looked beautiful from the sea, with its mountains rising in the background. Khíos is famous for the production of mastica, a resin harvested from a bush which is used to make chewing gum and paint stick to walls. It, and the neighbouring island of Oinoussa, are also known for the Greek shipping tycoons who come from here.

In the distance on starboard side we could see Turkey in the mist on the other side of the channel. The sea was flat and the weather calm and hazy as we passed through the narrow strait between Khíos and Oinoussa and out into the 27 mile channel between Khíos and Lesbos (Lésvos).

Once in the channel we noticed that we seemed to be crossing a busy shipping channel and we spent a couple of hours following them on radar and even changed course to avoid one before dashing across ahead of the next one. We have learned that out here ‘might is right’ – us yachties simply get out of the way.

Our first port of call was Plomárion on the south coast but we arrived at the harbour just at the wrong time – the forecast westerly F3 rapidly developed into a westerly F5 as we approached. We saw the narrow entrance to the few visitors moorings partially blocked by small local fishing boats and the sole yacht there struggling to get out. Once it had gone, another look confirmed it was too tight to tackle in the strong cross-wind. Another yacht arrived at that point, tried the entrance and then backed out fast as better judgement took over from valour. It then went alongside the small town quay; however, being blown on hard to a rough stone wall with rings sticking out didn’t seem a good prospect to us so we decided to give that a miss.

As it was still early afternoon, we decided to head on east along the coast about 10 miles to the entrance to landlocked gulf of Kólpos Yéras which afforded more anchorage opportunities. What a fabulous decision that was. As we entered the channel that goes up into the gulf we promptly lost the wind and everything was sheltered and quiet. First we navigated up past the reefs of Vrak Kalóyeros, Reef Rock and Square Rock to the small fishing harbour of Pirgos a short way in, looking at the anchorages as we passed them. In the distance we could see the gulf opening out ahead of us. The small fishing harbour was looking a bit run down and so we came back to the anchorages nearer the entrance and selected one.

We are now anchored in the beautiful bay of Órmos Kaloyerou, another peaceful and quiet evening ahead of us. That said, it did take three attempts to set the anchor before we were happy – although the bottom is sandy there is quite a bit of weed down there making it difficult to set the hook.

I went for my first swim of the season and can report that the sea temperature is now perfect; I also snorkelled along the anchor chain to make sure we were OK.