Sometimes places just don’t work out as you hoped….. We had planned on visiting several places on the large island of Chios. After leaving the adjacent island of Oinoussa we went across to the North end of Chios. The wind at time was blowing at 20 – 25 knots so was quite fresh. We went into a harbour called Langadha which looked quite lovely however there were no yachts at all in there, no evidence of the fixed moorings (lazy lines) that were supposed to be there and no sign of anyone to assist us to tie up. It was all too hard in the current conditions so we headed further down the island. The main harbour on the island is very large with many ferries coming and going. The area for yachts to berth was very exposed to the prevailing strong winds and apart from the fact it would be quite uncomfortable we decided it was not worth risking trying to park there.
We then went past a marina with hardly any yachts in it (not a good sign!) and called by another small harbour but it was just too small to manoeuvre in in the wind. In the end we just anchored in a reasonably shelter spot off a swimming beach for the night. So, without actually getting ashore we said goodbye to Chios the next day and headed south down to an island called Fournoi, about 8 hours travel away. At least it was down wind all the way.
On our way we had a large pod of dolphins join us for at least 20 minutes. We estimate there were at least 20 of them, it was quite a sight to have them surfing off the bow and occasionally leaping out of the water nearby. This week’s video is just the dolphins if you are interested.
Fournoi island has a reputation of being very windy, which on approach proved justified. We anchored in the very sheltered quarry bay, so named for an old stone quarry at the head of the bay. We can see remnants of ancient columns on the beach, which we are going to explore this morning.
Having almost completed the charter yacht catalogue over the last 25 years, we are fulfilling our long term dream of living the endless summer. In April 2017 we purchased our yacht and plan to spend several months every year in the Med.