Skinousa 07/06/12
Open Blue
Tim & Manfreda Penfold
Thu 7 Jun 2012 20:31
We moved on from Naxos on Thursday the 7th, and decided to head to a small island to the south called Koufonisia, and an anchorage which had been recommended to us by our Dutch friends on Flyer.
We left in very little wind, but put the sails up and tried sailing. We could only make about 3 knots and normally this would mean the engine would go on, but today (inspired by a book Fred had just read) we persevered and stuck with it. About an hour later the breeze started to fill in and soon enough we were doing 5 knots in the right direction.
All was well until we got round the bottom of Naxos and the wind died, so we motored towards Koufonisia and then the breeze started filling in directly on our nose. Twenty minutes later we were smashing into 25 knots of wind and 2 meter waves wondering what the hell happened. As we still had 4 miles to go and it only looked like getting worse ahead, we diverted to another island just to our south and downwind called Skinousa. We went into Mirsini, which was a small and very sheltered natural harbour, but it was getting late and the harbour was full of other boats, we tried finding a place to anchor, but there just wasn't room. Just around the corner was an anchorage in a shallow bay, so we went there and anchored for the night.
It turned out to be a great anchorage with a very nice beach and we enjoyed it so much we stayed another night.