Mesta or not....

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 13 May 2009 14:49
38:13.2N 25:54.7E

Mon 11th May
Not surprisingly we decided to stay in Psara for a full day today. It is
just an idyllic spot and the locals could not be more friendly, which is
perhaps more than can be said of the crew of two German men that moored
alongside us yesterday in a chartered 42ft yacht. They barely acknowledged
the help we gave them and were almost unpleasant in their manner!
Fortunately they left this morning in a flurry of lines and panic!

Sarah did her very best to double the island's GDP by ordering fish for
lunch and was more than a little taken aback by the price!

Certainly a spot we would recommend to anyone heading this way, although
what it might be like in the summer, we cannot tell - oh yes and don't order
fresh fish!

Tuesday 12th May
Set off at 8.30am for the sail across to the southern end of Khios Island
and a village called Limenas, which seems to be a great spot to stay and
also to walk up (2 kms) to a village, Mesta, in the hills which is supposed
to be well worth seeing.

Lovely sail across to the island, crossing the shipping lanes again but
since we were going so well, this presented no problems. However when we
motored into the long narrow bay that is the approach to Mesta, we were
greeted by a less than inspiring sight!

It would seem that an attempt is being made here to dramatically improve the
facilities and so we passed firstly an industrial cement mixing site and
then several huge cranes dredging and placing massive concrete blocks into
place along the waters edge. Across the bay a jack hammer of epic
proportions was drilling into the hillside and so, what with the noise and
dust and chaos, we span round and headed back out to sea.

Our new destination was one of the bays along the southern end of the island
which are fine as long as the wind is from the north. We were spoilt for
choice here and could choose to drop our anchor in any of four completely
empty bays. Sarah selected the nicest looking and we had no sooner dropped
the anchor than the wind veered round to the South and turned the location
into a lee shore (not a good thing!).

But the wind never rose above 10 knots and so we decided to stay for the
night anyway and enjoyed a really peaceful and utterly silent night, well
apart from a hunting owl. (Scops owl?) I also spent many happy hours
casting for fish from the boat in an anchorage where we saw not one fish,
not even when tempted by bread - usually it would be propelled along by
frantic groups of fish - but here....nothing.