Steni Vala, Alonnisos
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Thu 9 Jul 2009 15:46
39:11.52N
23:55.5E
Thursday 7th July
2009
After a peaceful
night we lifted the anchor and set off for Steni Vala on the next island,
Alonnisos. This meant we would be entering the area covered by the
National Marine Park of the Northern Sporades and we were hoping to see some
dolphins. This would be the longest sail of Kerrie and Lee's trip, about
20 miles or so. Wind was light, but we hoisted the sails and soon it came
round behind us, so we put up the twin headsails. Steering with these up
is a delicate matter, as you have to keep both sails full by keeping the
wind more or less directly from behind, but Kerrie did a brilliant job,
soon working out how to steer to coax the wind into a sail that has
backed.
Before long we
turned the corner and had the wind on the beam, and had a lovely sail along the
coast to Steni Vala. No dolphins, unfortunately, but there's still
time.
We tied up bows to
the quayside, and then found that the echo sounder said we had 0 metres of water
below the keel. Although we were still afloat, this meant that any amount
of swell or wash would have us bumping the bottom, so we came off and moved
further up the quay. Still only 0.4 metres off the bottom, but enough to
keep us off in a swell, so we settled here for the night.
We took the rib
round the little headland to a neighbouring cove, and swam off the beach.
The view from here was beautiful and we spent a couple of hours just lazing and
swimming. Lee went snorkelling and found the day's treasure - a tiny
hermit crab.
The view from
the cove next to Steni
Vala
Harry the hermit crab wondering where the hell he is!
Lee wanted to try
driving the rib, so Kerrie and I elected to walk back to the boat along the path
between the tavernas, and left the boys to play.
That evening we ate
out at one of the tavernas on the quayside and watched the sun go down over the
neighbouring island.
Steni Vala is a
lovely spot, but depths off the quay are very shallow, so bows to is a must, and
anyone with more than our 1.8 draught would need to be very cautious when coming
in. The pilot says there are old mooring chains there, but we looked hard
for them, having already come a cropper once, and we couldn't see any. The
water is shallow and clear and we could see the bottom, but no chains.
Maybe they have removed them??