The Dolphin show

We are now in Kea, waiting for the weather to calm down. We only have one leg ahead of us before we get to Aegina – our final destination.

On Monday, we had a long sail from Orei to Khalkida. It’s about a 60 mile ride, but we had everything that day: wind from any direction and at various forces, some motoring, lovely sunset, and an amazingly long Dolphin show.

We started at 8:30am motoring into the Evia channel with no wind at all. We went slowly as we were trying to catch some fish (no luck on that). A couple of hours later, the wind picked up (straight on our nose) and with it came a school of maybe 10 Dolphins. They started by a couple of high vertical jumps and kept swimming on our bow wave, 3 to 5 of them, over and over again. The were going on the bow wave for some time, then swimming faster on, then jumping and then returning to our bow. As scenery, on both our beams, other dolphins were swimming and jumping. It kept going on and on for about an hour.

It was a spectacular show, very exciting to all of us. Noga thought it’s the cutest animal on earth.

When they left, we decided to start tacking against the prevailing wind, as we had the time and we only had to do some tacking till we can set our course on Khalkida.

As we started sailing, the dolphins came back and rejoined us, kept playing the same old game.

Towards the end of the day, the wind got a little crazy. It would shift in 180 degrees in seconds. The good thing is that we could see it coming (Yael’s specialty is to predict what’s about to happen with the wind). So we managed to sail all the way to Khalkida, through the sunset and the fishing boats outside the town of Khalkida.

At midnight we crossed the bridge and anchored in the bay, ready for a long sailing day to Kea.

I updated the photo album with the latest pictures, and mapped them as well.

Princess Nayeli summer 2009

Back to Orei

On Sunday (August 9th), we left Panormos bay and sailed nicely with the wind back to Orei (we’ve been here about a month ago).
The port was almost full. There was one good berth left, but it was blocked by lines of the two neighboring power boats. We decided to go in anyway. We made it till the blocking lines and waited there to see if we can find the owners of those boats. After a long wait, we decided to behave as the locals would and move one of the lines so that we can go all the way in. We’ve done so, with the help of someone on the quay. As we got in, the owner of the other boat came back, he pushed the button on his remote control to open up the gangway, and went on board his boat. While doing so, he mentioned that another boat is planned to come at 5pm into our berth and that it’s pre arranged.
As this is not our first day in Greece, we knew that there is no such thing to reserve berths in Greek ports, so we just ignored him. You could tell by the look on his face that he has no case.
To be on the safe side, I took the boat papers and went to the port police. The policeman there, was very nice to me, and naturally, knew nothing about this reserved berth. He told me I can stay and even said I don’t need to pay if it’s just for one night.
End of story.

Out of Skiros

On Friday morning we checked the forecast carefully and found out that we have a good window where we can sail back North toward the Sporades. We didn’t know if we would hit Skantzoura or Skopelos but whichever would be good for us as it would be out of the range of the 6-7Bft.
So we left Skiros at 10am. Once past cape Oro we got a steady wind of about 18-20 knots, 60 degrees off our bow. We had two reefs on the main and we were running at 7.5 knots.
We had a beautiful sail (only a little bumpy) till we got close to Alonissos. There we learned the true meaning of a new term: “Borino”. Borino, is some kind of an air turbulence or something like that.
As we got closer to Alonissos, the wind dropped significantly and we kept seeing massive clouds over Alonissos. Yael asked me what they meant, but I had no idea. Fortunately (and thanks to Yael) we still had two reefs on the main (but full blown jib) as we got under the clouds.
Then suddenly, the wind picked up to gusts of up to 25 knots straight on our nose (Borino, I guess).
We quickly furled the jib to the smallest napkin we could get, and sailed close hauled towards Skopelos. The problem was that we couldn’t go close enough and according to my calculation we would have ended up 7 miles south of Skopelos.
After some debate, we decided to keep going and hope that the wind would drop. And this is what happened! When we got to the south most tip of Skopelos, the winds from both sides of the Island merged and the result was almost no wind. This was a good opportunity to take off all the sails and just motor into Panormos bay on Skopelos.
On Friday morning we checked the forecast carefully and found out that we have a good window where we can sail back North toward the Sporades. We didn’t know if we would hit Skantzoura or Skopelos but whichever would be good for us as it would be out of the range of the 6-7Bft.
So we left Skiros at 10am. Once past cape Oro we got a steady wind of about 18-20 knots, 60 degrees off our bow. We had two reefs on the main and we were running at 7.5 knots.
We had a beautiful sail (only a little bumpy) till we got close to Alonissos. There we learned the true meaning of a new term: “Borino”. Borino, is some kind of an air turbulence or something like that.
As we got closer to Alonissos, the wind dropped significantly and we kept seeing massive clouds over Alonissos. Yael asked me what they meant, but I had no idea. Fortunately (and thanks to Yael) we still had two reefs on the main (but full blown jib) as we got under the clouds.
Then suddenly, the wind picked up to gusts of up to 25 knots straight on our nose (Borino, I guess).
We quickly furled the jib to the smallest napkin we could get, and sailed close hauled towards Skopelos. The problem was that we couldn’t go close enough and according to my calculation we would have ended up 7 miles south of Skopelos.
After some debate, we decided to keep going and hope that the wind would drop. And this is what happened! When we got to the south most tip of Skopelos, the winds from both sides of the Island merged and the result was almost no wind. This was a good opportunity to take off all the sails and just motor into Panormos bay on Skopelos.

Skiros – the Island of winds

I had this desire for many years to go visit Skiros. Skiros, is an island that on one hand belongs to the Northern Sporades but on the other hand is located in the middle of the Aegean sea, away from any other island or land. It sits in the path of the summer wind of the Aegean called “Meltemi”, and therefore the locals call it: The Island of Winds.
We decided to take our chances and use the time we have to do our way south through Skiros since the weather looked pretty good.
So we got to Skiros on Wednesday August 5th, just to find out that it was given its name for a good reason. The visible forecast, almost a week from now is for 7bft, and we need to cross the channel of Doros (between Evvia and Andros) which is known for its high seas when the Meltemi blows.
So as it looks right now, we’re changing plans and are waiting for the wind to calm down so we can sneak back north and just to enter the Evvia channel and do our way south through the bridge of khalkis and avoid all this area of bad weather.

The boat is properly moored in the port of Linaria, and we're waiting for the weather to calm down. At least it is nice and cool here...

The Lost Dinghy

One day when we sailed a short way across the channel from Steni Vala to Peristera, Yael was driving the boat while I was at the bow setting up some stuff.
When I came back astern, I noticed that the dinghy was missing.
We usually tow the dinghy (our small tender boat) behind us while the engine is secured to Princess Nayeli’s deck. This time, since we only had a short path we left it on the dinghy.
So the dinghy was lost together with the outboard engine!!!

We turned back immediately and started looking for it. The wind was blowing at about 15 knots so we just went down wind looking for her.
And then we saw her. She was about a mile south of us, about to hit the rocks of Alonissos. And one more surprise – an 8m semi rigid power boat was riding towards our dinghy at full speed. We knew that if they get there first, they’ll have the dinghy or at least demand 50% of her value as “rescue fee”.
We got there together!
While we were maneuvering around her, the other boar caught the dinghy.
We told them that this is our boat, and fortunately they could see that she had the name “Princess Nayeli” written on her bow.
They were then kind enough to return our dinghy.
Needless to say that since then we double check that the dinghy is properly tied.

The Northern Sporades

Naama and Yael's parents left us in Lavrion on July 14th, and we started sailing towards the bridge on the following day.

We had the wind straight on our nose and we had to tack towards the bridge of Khalkidas. We left Lavrion late, at about 1pm, and were thinking to do the 60 miles to the bridge non stop and try to get there before 10pm which is the time the bridge may open.

As we proceeded, the wind got stronger and stronger with considerable waves. At some point we had 24 knots of apparent wind, we had one reef on the main and some jib and were heeling “nicely”. It was a little hard for Noga and Yasmin to hold themselves up in the cockpit, and then we were hit by a small wave at the stern that got Yael and Noga all wet. This was too much and we turned back. We sailed 8 miles back to Porto Rafti. We were doing 8-9 knots in a back wind. We anchored for the night in the middle of Portp Rafti bay, swinging around in strong gusts. But the boat was holding very well and we had no problems.

The next day, the wind died, and we left relatively early in the morning towards the bridge, motoring all the way up. After a lunch stop in the famous town of Eritrea, we proceeded to the bridge. We crossed the bridge at 1:30am. Both Noga and Yasmin woke up for the occasion.

After another night stop in Orei, we reached Koukounaries beach on Skiathos. I think we spent 3 days on that beautiful beach. One evening, while we were sitting in the cockpit, Yael mentioned that there is absolutely no wind, and then with no warning (but according to the forecast), the wind picked up to 30 knots. Of course we were anchored properly and saw a few other boats turning on their navigation lights and starting to find a better place for their anchor.

After Skiathos, we sailed in perfect wind (15-18 knots), to Steni Vala where we have friends from our long trip to Greece 10 years ago. Their parents live all summer in Peristera. It's a deserted island with just a couple of houses. They produce their electricity from the sun. They have water from a small well, they have trees, chicken, goats, etc.
We visited them about 3 times in Peristera. It’s not safe enough to stay overnight, but we could go ashore to see the goats, the chicken, the well, and so on. Like people used to live a few centuries ago.

After several days in Steni Vala (where we had an episode with our batteries and had to wait for the local engineer) we were starving for some nice quiet bay, so we sailed down all the way to Skantzoura (about 12 miles). It’s a small uninhabited island half way down to Skiros. This is where we found the perfect bay.

The water is really crystal clear. When you swim you can see the “walls” of the bay, like in a swimming pool. With a white soft sand it’s really beautiful.

I went walking on the island to see the breath taking view to Alonissos, Kira Panayia and Pilion (on the mainlad). While standing there, staring at Alonnisos, I heard the bush move a little. Then I saw a huge male wild goat, with huge horns like the ones of a buffalo. We were looking carefully at each other for a good minute. I didn’t know what his plans were, so at some point I slowly turned back and started to walk down the hill and back to the beach.

The following day, we left after lunch and tacked against the wind the 20 miles between Skantzoura and Kira Panayia where we are now. This is a huge land locked bay, almost completely closed (the opening is only 80m), and the water here is like a lake. Very quiet, with green hills and cliffs around us, and many wild goats walking around. We couldn’t go to the beach here as the bottom is full of sea urchins in numbers that I haven’t seen before.

All around this area there are many dolphins. Some of them escorted us for maybe 20 minutes.


Next - Skiros, the Island of winds.

This summer's pictures

We did not have proper Internet access for a long time. We are now in Skiros. I will publish a few posts about our adventures so far, but all the pictures for this summer trip can be found at:

Princess Nayeli summer 2009