Souinio Bay to Loutra on Kythos.

May 21

Due to an approaching storm predicted two days out and lasting for 36 hours we had to leave our idealic anchorage to find a more suitable shelter.

There was a small port at Loutra on the island of Kythos a short sail of 20 miles south east.

To be honest we had avoided using marinas and ports where we had to moor ‘stern to the dock’ and use our anchor from the bow set out in the centre of the port. It just seems so crude and a potential nightmare waiting to happen of anchors getting mixed up, shouting, scratches and dragging anchors.  It is just crude and no self-respecting marina or port would dream of setting themselves up like this in this day – unless you happened to be in Greece that is!
We had the potential of going alongside at this particular marina so we deliberately arrived early in the afternoon to find the outside alongside spot empty – perfect!

“NO!!!”, shouted the harbor official “You can’t go there! You have to come inside the port. That area is for latecomers.”  
Grrr! 

Oh well this will be our first ‘anchored med mooring’.   Let’s hope that all my fears are unfounded. Mooring with the anchor is no big deal but with the dingy hanging on davits off the back of our stern we now had to go on our hands and knees and crawl UNDER the dinghy to the dock. The other thing we noticed is the incessant shouting from the harbor officials to all boats as they tell them where to put their anchor down.  Just not elegant.
Nope. Not quite as elegant as one might hope for.