Spinalonga and Elounda
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Wed 17 Sep 2008 15:34
35:15.97N
25:43.42E
We left Iraklion
early and had breakfast under way, glad to get away from the place. It
might have been a different story if we had found a safe berth in the
inner harbour, but somehow we felt not.
We motor sailed
along the coast to Spinalonga lagoon. Here it is enclosed on all sides
except the narrow entrance in the north and an opening at the south where a
causeway joins the larger of the two islets to the main island. Depths in
the lagoon are only between 3 and 6 metres, but with 1.75 draught we are fine.
We anchored
first in the lee of Spinalonga island, the smaller islet in the north, which
used to house a leper colony and took the rib to the island to have a look
around.
Remnants of the
houses lived in by lepers until 1957, surprisingly
recently.
Spinalonga
island taken from Crete - the sign got in the shot by accident as we passed by
on a road train!
We then moved the
boat down the lagoon and anchored by the beach in Elounda. (Sailing friends
in this part of the world would be interested to know that Rod Heikell calls
this town Skhisma in the pilot.) Time for a swim and a siesta, before
heading ashore to find a taverna.
We had a peaceful
night at anchor and went ashore this morning to explore beyond the
taverna. Elounda is a small town which obviously caters for English
holidaymakers, but we found it much more relaxed than previous tourist
towns. In one of the supermarkets we found and couldn't resist buying a
juicing machine. Freshly squeezed orange juice is common in tavernas in
Crete, and delicious, so we thought we'd invest in a machine so that we
can squeeze our own. Back on the boat we enjoyed the two most
expensive glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice we've had so
far!