Sunday 20^th September – Nisís Trizónia

38:22.166N 22:04.490E

With further strong easterlies arriving today we have stayed put in the marina at Trizónia.  A few intrepid boats ventured out first thing this morning whilst it was still quiet but the wind arrived shortly after so they will have had a lively passage. 

After breakfast we went out to explore the island by foot; there are no roads here per se, only tracks used to access the very small number of houses away from the small village on the island.  We headed off on each track in turn, wandering along until we reached the house at the end or reaching the sea.  The weather has been overcast, with the sun only coming out occasionally, and the wind has been quite strong, but it has stayed dry and made walking quite pleasant. 

All the time we were walking we didn’t meet a single other person until we arrived back at the village.  In the village, a number of last night’s wedding guests were having breakfast in one of the tavernas and waiting for the small ferry to shuttle them back to the mainland.

We did however encounter some unexpected wildlife.  Aside from a horse tethered on some spare ground and a very friendly donkey who galloped across its pen to see us, we saw a couple of snakes along the track – the first was quite large and stuck its head out from the scrub at the side of the track as we passed; we haven’t identified it yet (friend or foe) but we decided not to go off-piste as a result; the other snake was tiny and in the middle of the track.

Further along we were surprised to turn a corner and see a tortoise scurrying along the track towards us.  When it saw us it hastily turned across the tack and headed for the bushes - we were surprised by how fast it moved.  We ran to catch up with it just before it disappeared from view and will try to identify it as it had an unusual shape to its shell.

We arrived back at Pyxis from our explorations early afternoon and had a late lunch.  A couple of boats arrived despite the conditions, amazingly both heading east into the oncoming wind.  Each seemed to have had a stressful trip so we went to help them alongside as conditions were tricky.  Whilst each had at least prepared a limited number of fenders, the first impressed us (not) by trying to berth with no bow line attached, only a single stern line fed up the side of the boat and through the mid cleat; the crew were then surprised that those on shore would be unable to hold the nose of the boat onto the quay in the strong wind.

The second yacht faired better (had ropes) but for some reason came in downwind in strong wind which made berthing somewhat more exciting than it needed to be, particularly as they said they wanted to use a mid-cleat to a mid bollard manoeuvre to hold the boat.  Perhaps they should have checked first that there was an appropriate bollard available, which there wasn’t.  So I hastily wrapped their stern line round the bottom of a conveniently placed lamp-post to stop them torpedoing the Island Packet in front whilst everyone sorted it out.  We didn’t tell the folk on the Island Packet when they returned, it might have upset them, better not to know.

This evening we have had dinner aboard, listened to the wind continuing to gust, and read our books in the shelter of the cockpit enclosure.  Now late evening, the wind seems to have eased for a while J