Nisos Lesvos

For many years Lesvos was a “reluctant” stop for many sailors because of the number of immigrants, not just on the island but illegally trying to cross the short waters from the Turkish shores. Now, it is the jewel of the Eastern Sporades, being larger, grander, greener and more fertile than the others islands, oval in shape, mountainous throughout with two almost landlocked gulfs on either side. It has its own industries based on olives, chestnuts, oak and pie, with tourism just being the icing on the cake, and so we were really looking forward to this next stop!

After our late start on the 6th July, we arrived 66 NM’s south east of Lemnos, in Ormos Sigri, just as the sun was setting. For the most part it was a great sail, on a mixture of a broad reach and goosewinging, (both sails out on opposite sides for the non-nautical readers), with the wind behind us pushing us along and when we got the swell right, a bit of surfing thrown in. We safely dropped our pick in calm waters, protected by the tiny uninhabited islands just off Sigri, watched the sun go down, & ate on board with a welcome glass of vino!

Ormos Sigri, on the west coast of Lesvos

We had an early start the next day to get further north on the island before the winds turned and made it really hard for us, so we didn’t actually venture into the tiny hamlet/fishing village of Sigri, instead heading for Molivos, otherwise known as Mithimna, or Methymna on the North Coast. We had a lovely and somewhat unexpected sail, with a bit of tacking for 30nm’s and arrived at this wonderful harbour a little after 1pm, luckily as the winds really started to kick up around 2pm which would have made mooring more than a little tough, as we witnessed first hand when we tried to help a German couple moor up for over an hour. Finally with the assistance of a friendly Turk who was brave enough to jump on their boat to assist and yell instructions at them, the 5th attempt finally worked… some would say they didn’t really know what they were doing…😉😉😉. After that, we went in search of the Port Police, which ended up being a route march up some serious inclines to a building with stunning views over the whole coastal area, and to do some exploring!

As Greek Mythology has it, Arion, the lyric poet of 625BC, who was saved from drowning by a music-loving dolphin was born here, presumably his spirit survives as the town has the feel of an artist’s retreat more than a tourist one, with a maze of cobbled streets and passages winding in and out of the medieval fortifications Many of stone and timber houses have small timber balconies overlooking the cliffs to the bay.

Having walked over half way to the top to get to the Port Police, it seemed a waste to not continue to the top to visit the castle…..hmmm…

Still we could wander around the outside of it, soaking up the stunning views!

We then wandered back to the boat, checking out the restaurants around the tiny harbour

and relax on board for a bit. We also got chatting to our Austrian neighbours, Franky, Andrea & Martina on board Calisto. After a much needed shower, we headed off again, just in time to watch the most amazing sunset.

We followed this by a wonderfully fresh Red Snapper, salad and vino, with Chantal wandering off to get some night shots of the castle…before coffee on board and some sleep.

The following morning we bid farewell to our new friends on Calisto and headed over the top of the island and to the capital, Mytilini, arriving mid afternoon.

The Approaches to Mytilini

As we needed to do some work on the boat which required the assistance of a carpenter and stable conditions, we headed to the Marina rather than the Port. The marina was wonderfully peaceful, the staff superbly helpful, although we soon discovered it was in the arse end of town! Still, as you all know, we enjoy walking.

Mytilini Marina

We spent the afternoon, sorting out a carpenter, David going in search of the Port police, without any joy and me catching up on the blog photos. We then checked out where the local supermarket was for some provisioning & grabbing a not so healthy pizza to take back to the boat for supper….

The following morning was very industrious for us for a change, with the carpenter coming and doing his thing, 2 sets of washing done, (there were washing machines in the shower blocks, we are being really spoilt this summer, so far… fingers crossed it continues), all before the heavens threatened to open, then walked back into town, again in search of the Port Police ……

We then headed back to the boat to do our other jobs…

And then it was Sunday…. by now you may being asking what of the dinghy scenario… well without mentioning names for obvious reasons, we left Mytilini early in the morning, without our poorly dinghy behind, and had a wonderful sail to “other” shores, where we switched off our instruments, lowered our Greek courtesy flag, hoisted the Q Transit flag, and held our clandestine meeting over lunch, and then sailed back to Mytilini again with our new acquisition safely secure on our davits. We owe a big thank you to our new “friends!”

Introducing our new dinghy!

Then as one good deed deserves another, we gave our ever so loyal Zodiac to our young marinello, obviously explaining its issue, to watch his face absolutely light up, not once, but twice, after we had found its cover and popped it over to him after.. We truly hope he can fix it and get some enjoyment out of it.

The following morning I set about naming our dinghy with our spare name, minus the T/T (tender to), claimed by the sea, then, having decided to spend the last night in the hitherto empty main port, we left our safe haven and motored into the port. Hmmm… perhaps we should have checked, as no sooner had we rounded the corner, did we realise that it was now chocker, with boats moored alongside, and a few rafted up to boot. We therefore turned tail, and headed back to the marina to walk into town to take some photos without the grey skies and have a spot of dinner!

Finally, on the 12th July we set sail again, having agreed to meet up with the guys from Calisto who had found a wonderful Thermal Spa at the head of the smaller almost landlocked bay, the Gulf of Geras. It was a wonderful, if not feisty sail down to the south east tip and along the bottom, with the katabatics sometimes producing gusts of 32 knots. We thought that was challenging, until we saw the entrance to the Gulf . This was a 3 mile narrow and at times very shallow channel, which at that moment in time with a head wind of 24+ knots…. so we opted to put the sails away and motor through. (BTW, these photos were taken on the back back through, without the white horses)

It was absolutely worth the effort though and we will let the photos do the talking!

Having totally relaxed with a hour floating in the hot thermal pool followed by a facial all for the price of 26 euros…we then discovered a little taverna 200 yards up the coast, so having first put Franky’s towing skills to the test (he had an engine and we hadn’t put ours on yet), which proved almost non-existent, we then put David’s rowing skills to the test again!

The following morning, after a wonderful still and peaceful night on anchor, we woke to some sculling around us…

We then bid our friends goodbye to set sail to the bottom of the Gulf, with 20 knots pushing us along, to anchor off, ready to set sail to the tiny island of Oinoussos, off Chios!

It wasn’t quite as straight forward as it sounds however, having first negotiated a tanker in that same channel, yikes

and then gusting 30 knots through the night whilst at anchor… still we coped, albeit with very little sleep and at 7 in the morning, we said our goodbyes to Lesvos.

14th July 2022