The next morning we motored through the town of Poros and its anchorage, stopping briefly to chat across the gap between the boats to 'Lulu' who we last saw in Naoussa Bay and were victims of the 'Idiot Captain' and his large motor boat. Luckily they have now mostly recovered, having replaced the anchor etc though the incident cost them about 5 weeks cruising whilst waiting for new gear.

It was a lumpy sail east along the coast before we slipped between the islands at the cape and turned back west in better sheltered waters. We had identified a few small anchorages along the route but they were either poor shelter or full so we settled for a lunch stop and quick swim before pressing on towards Ermioni.

The plan had been to use the bay to the north of the town for one night. We dropped the hook there but around 19.00 an unforecast gusty south wind came up making it uncomfortable so we tore up the plan again and quickly motored into Ermioni harbour were it was calmer. We got settled just as dusk fell.

Ermioni is a working Greek town with a small harbour and a bay with moderate shelter for anchoring. We wanted to leave Splice for the day to visit 'Hydra' by ferry so made the call to leave her at anchor as once 'dug in' we don't usually move and there is less chance of someone tripping your chain or anchor than when you are on the quay, where it happens frequently!

Hydra Harbour

We stopped here for three nights managing:
- A Wedding Anniversary trip to Hydra, the ferry left at 06.45 so it was an early start. We disembarked at 07.15 and the town was quiet. We had a nice breakfast and then walked up the hill at the back of the town for the view. We had time to expore many of the backstrees of Hydra before 11.00, returning to the same taverna for a fruit drink in the rising heat. We wandered around the rest of the town and watched the boating antics as they all tried to cram in, anchoring two deep off the quay as the ferries continued to arrive and disgorge passengers. One of the laws in the town is that no motorised vehicles are allowed, everything is still moved by donkey......there were a lot of them around, it was clearly good employment for the towns menfolk! By middday the town was heaving. We'd have been happy to leave then but our ferry wasn't until 14.45 so we sat in a bar with iced sorbets to pass the time. Hydra is very pretty but we are glad we took the advice to do it by ferry not our own boat, it's madness in there. Go early before the crowds arrive.

Donkey power in Hydra

- A very pleasant meal at 'Maria's' on the quay at Ermioni to celebrate our 31st Wedding Anniversary. It had been recommended by friends and the restaurant had even painted 'Happy Anniversary' onto a stone as a momento. Traditional Greek food, done nicely and with good service at a reasonable price.

- A brief reunion with Leon and Jessica aboard 'Geordie Lass 3' who we met back in a different Vathi on Sifnos. A beer on board one day and then, the next morning, we were in our dinghy having been shopping when we saw them in difficulty trying to lift their anchor whilst leaving the quay. The next boat had laid his chain over theirs and the full weight of his boat in the wind was preventing them unhooking it. We struggled from the dinghy for 20 minutes and eventually managed to free them. We are fairly used to this problem but with the wind and the weight of the boats it was more difficult than usual.

Regular readers may remember that the first incident in 'Lost Anchor Bay' was the arrival on our bows in the middle of the night of one of a pair of boats that decided to 'moor together'. Inevitably they lost control of the tangle when the wind got up and almost damaged us. You can imagine we were not pleased to return from Hydra to find not one pair, but two sets of idiots had done this, one either side of our bows. Chris went to both and explained they would tangle anchors as the winds changed and they were putting themselves and us at risk. One lot just lifted one anchor and stayed with two boats on one chain in front of us and the other promised to move but then found their chains were already tangled so didn't bother. Luckily the night was calm. The next day the wind did get up, the tangled pair managed to extracate themselves but the other idiots got the one chain caught around the other keel and started drifting down the bay out of control towards another boat. They escaped in the end, Chris could not resist ironic applause and got told off by the Admiral!

Ermioni is a nice town and well worth a vist, we like it.

Main Photo: Mooring chaos in Hydra, five boats fight for a berth in the small harbour.