North of Poros are two islands, Aigina and Angistri. Aigina is the larger of the two and Angistri sits to the south west of it. The bay of Apolimano is a narrow inlet on the south west coast of Angistri. It faces north west and has a beach club at its head (which would often put us off as the noise/music is tedious).

Having looked at the other bays in the area we settled for this as it looked pretty and there was no 'musik'. Last season we often tied back to the rocks but we haven't had cause to do so this year as the bays have generally been larger and we have swung at anchor. Here there was no space for that so tie back we did. Not as skillfully as before, we were clearly out of practice, but we secured ourselves after having to move the lines a couple of times. We liked the look of place but so did the sea urchins, they were everywhere on the rocks. Even being careful Chris got two spines in his hand and one straight through the sole of the water shoes he was wearing. Cue tweezers and lots of vinegar all afternoon but luckily the spines mostly came out and ceased to worry him after 48 hours.

The bay clearly had three sections, the beach club with swimmers at its head, the middle section was full of small motorboats with families and youngsters playing in the water and outside that, there was room for around three yachts to tie back. It was a pleasant day with lots of coming and goings. Around 17.00 hrs as the families left a small boat with three older teenage lads arrived, they had clearly come for a party and were drinking and dancing away to themselves on the rocking boat . It was an amusing scene and they managed to have fun without disturbing anyone else. We gave them a wave as they left later.

The 'Party Boys' in their small boat

Unfortunately the night didn't go as smoothly. The forecast had three hours of NW winds at midnight but only at 4 knots. We had assumed that after a day of southerlies this would not create a problem......wrong! The NW winds arrived earlier, around 22.00 hrs, stronger at 12-13 knots and kept at it all night. This of course started the swell piling into the bay and the yachts sheltering there were jumping and rolling significantly. If you are just at anchor you can more easily escape such a problem. Though pulling up the anchor in swell is not always easy there is only one item to consider. Now we had three lines back to shore whose ends we couldn't release without swimming there as well as the anchor out forward. We prepared all the lines to just be dropped at the boat end (you can always come back for them later) with minimum lengths and the rest tied up to avoid tangling other boats and watched the situation for an hour or so. Luckily the weather didn't get any worse (if the winds had started reaching 20 knots we would probably have had to make an emergency exit) and we managed to get some sleep after about 02.00.

Unsurprisingly we left the bay at first light with Chris then able to see the rocks and urchins as he released the lines (no more spines) and headed for Korfus on the mainland where we knew the shelter would suit the conditions

Main photo: The bay at Apolimano during the afternoon