Freya & Us

And then to Samos marina and the end of another sailing year. The marina is modern and well maintained but was clearly built to be more than just a marina. There are lots of shops but all empty as well as apartments and a pool. It gives it a feeling of desolation even though it’s all clean and tidy particularly as it’s a 20 minute walk into town along a dusty coastal track. The feeling of desolation got stronger as we realised there are no staff around! We’d been told this before but when we asked the question we were told there were always 3 people on site but in the 2 weeks we were there the girl who runs it only came in once, the marinaro came in a few times to meet arriving boats but the cleaner did at least come in daily. Security was non existent! That said, it does feel like a safe place to leave the boat, and friends who are staying in Samos over the winter will be keeping an eye on her. On our first full day there we walked into Pythagorio and had a long Sunday lunch - very nice but we booked a hire car for the rest of our stay.

We then had a lovely time exploring the rest of Samos even though it was largely closed as it was clearly winter with temperatures of about 25 degrees! First stop was around the bay to the small town of Ireon where we’d tried to anchor a few days earlier to visit the ruins. The temple of Hydra was a more impressive pile of stones than we expected and very interesting. We spent a day in Vathi, the islands capital but didn’t enjoy it very much as it was very crowded - not good in a global pandemic! We also drove around the east coast to some beautiful small bays including Posedonion and Psilli Ammos both very peaceful as the few tavernas etc were mostly closed.

We had several trips to Karlovassi which is a lovely drive. Paul was convinced we were sinking as we found salty water in the bilges! After lots of investigation we discovered the holding tank was leaking and clearly had been for some time! Amazingly, it wasn’t smelly but still disgusting particularly as Paul had been putting his finger in it and tasting it to establish whether it was fresh or salty! The harbour master in Pythagorio, Anthony, suggested someone who could help in Karlovassi and so after a phone call we went to drop it off and were told it could be repaired. A few years ago we’d tried to visit water falls close by but didn’t find them. We tried again but this time realised we had to swim to them! It was a lovely walk through woods with autumn leaves and a stream though. A couple of days later we returned for the tank but it wasn’t finished. He said he’d do it immediately and so we went for lunch. On returning he’d discovered it was completely rotten and we’d need a new one - which is what we asked him to do in the first place!

We drove back through the mountains which was stunning and stopped at Platanos, a pretty, traditional mountain village with more stunning views. We kept going and found more increasingly unkempt mountain roads where we needed to get out and move fallen rocks. Continuing we went through another village where everyone was out in the street - was there going to be a fiesta? Just outside we found ourselves doing a slalom between more fallen rocks and then another village with everyone on the streets - clearly something was happening! And then the phone started making noises we didn’t recognise - we’d received an emergency message. There had been a major earthquake and we should stay in open spaces. That explained it but while driving we had completely missed a magnitude 7 earthquake! On returning to the marina we felt several big aftershocks where all the boats shook in the water and the rigging rattled - we were actually glad we hadn’t missed it all! Very strangely the water in the marina was rising and falling alarmingly a few feet every 10 minutes or so. This continued for a few days as did the aftershocks, gradually reducing. We later discovered the north coast, where we’d been earlier, was badly damaged with a mini tsunami flooding Vathi and Karlovassi. On driving around we could see that most of the damage was to derelict, abandoned, old buildings which were almost collapsing on their own but not exclusively and we passed a number of badly damaged buildings and closed roads.

We needed to file our boat papers with the port police before leaving to avoid paying cruising tax while we were away. We tried one morning but were told to come back on Monday. Monday was after the earthquake and so when we returned we were greeted by a very rude port policeman who told us we weren’t allowed in the building because of earthquake damage and would have to use an agent. This despite the fact he was still working in said building, we’d just had coffee next door in an attached building and the agent was also next door! The agent was closed! We eventually managed to phone him and arranged to meet him in his apparently not earthquake damaged building the next day. We’d assumed this was now going to cost a fortune but he was actually very helpful although he didn’t really understand why we were using him and only charged 20€!

The pandemic was clearly getting worse all over Europe and the UK had announced another lockdown! Did we really want to go home?! But one morning while sitting in bed planning our day over a cup of tea Paul read in a Greek newspaper that the PM was going to announce a Greek lockdown at noon that day. We didn’t know what travel restrictions there would be or when it would start but we could see flights filling fast and thought that if we wanted to be sure of going home it had to be before our scheduled flights 4 days away. We changed them for the next day and suddenly became very busy! First we had to drive back to Karlovassi to collect the new tank. We drove half way there before discovering the road was closed due to earthquake damage. We had to return almost to the marina and try again over the slower mountain road where we collected a nice new, very shiny stainless steel tank for just 100€ - bargain! The rest of the day was filled with putting Freya to bed. We thankfully had already taken the sails off but there was still plenty more to tick off on our spreadsheet! The next morning, after completing the final lay-up jobs we were on our way to the airport!