The Islet of Dhiaporos, or as we kept calling it, Dopiaza!!

by Chantal & David · September 11, 2021

On the 29th August we sailed across to the island of Dhiaporos on the North East Coast of Sinthonia. This is a tiny heavily indented island, a Sailor’s paradise for finding protected bays from the winds and the swell, and is best described by aerial images, funnily enough poached from the internet!

But note, those beautiful turquoise waters are definitely indicative of areas with reefs or way too shallow for Seclusion to reach!

Our first stop was to the little town of Panayia, as we were desperately in need of water and provisions. The town harbour was full of fishing and tourist boats so we headed across to the east side where there were some pontoons for us visiting yachts, not realising that whilst there was road access to them, there were certainly no shops and so a dinghy ride was in order to get to the town itself! Had we realised before paying our 20 euros for the night, we would have just filled up with water and anchored off the town, given the state of our poor little dinghy!

The Pontoon Arrangement, the town is the spec in the distance on the right hand side!

So having settled in, we showered, changed (not sure why as we fully expected to have wet bums by the time we arrived at the town), we pumped up and jumped in the dinghy, to go exploring, suss out the shops for tomorrow and grab a bite to eat at one of the local tavernas!

It was the last weekend of the Greek Holidays and the atmosphere was great with lots of people watching to be done and some fabulous fish to eat. Then, a little pickled, we tried not to fall into, or out of, the dinghy and made our way back to Seaclusion. This was however just before we realised that the “shops” were in fact one single mini market that just about sold water! Hmmm, a problem for the morning!

Panayia

So the following morning, we awoke to work out where we could get some food, the boat was seriously devoid of the stuff. There was absolutely nowhere in walking distance and so knew we had to resort to a taxi… but after calling 3 with no such luck as they had been working all night, we finally found one that completely fleeced us there and back, making our provisioning a little, well a lot more expensive than normal! It was only when we got back to the boat, packed everything away that David suddenly panicked, where was his iPhone????? Having searched the boat to no avail, we called it for it to be answered by the taxi driver, who was now miles away and could not be back until 4ish pm. So our sail around Dhiaporos had to wait until then, and yes, guess what, we got fleeced again, when he brought the phone back! Hey ho, such is life at times, clouds with a silver lining and all that, at least David got his phone back!!

So a few hours later than planned, we set sail again, for all of 4NM to our first stop, Ormos Kriftos, and having weaved our way through the channel, it was glorious, practically totally enclosed and only one other boat for company. We had a wonderfully peaceful evening, eating dinner on board with, of course, some vino and playing cards.

Ormos Kriftos

Not having much time in this glorious spot (because our forecast showed the meltimi coming), we left our wonderfully peaceful spot in search of another, and found this one, no idea what it is called, but the water was crystal clear and again we were the only yacht there!

It was however just a lunchtime spot, too many reefs around it for a unworried night, so after a few hours, we motored off around the corner in search for a night time spot! And we were not disappointed, even though we were not on our own, there were more importantly NO jelly fish! Finally we got to go swimming!!! The paddle board got its turn too… the whole area being so blissfully calm, we were able to paddle board out of our little bay to explore the neighbouring ones too… my arms did ache a bit an hour later mind you!

Ormos Koumaroudhes

Sadly, with time against us, we departed this area on the 1st September heading back to Sykias, on the south east tip of Sinthonia, ready to cross over to Mount Athos and hopefully sail down the east coast, gazing at the other Monasteries of the area!

It started out as a great sail, and then the winds gradually dropped until we gave up and put the motor on, and thank god we did, as within 15 minutes of arriving and dropping our pick off the beach, the sky got blacker and blacker until the heavens opened and brought a 40 knot + squall with it! As we hid from the worst of it, we did have our fingers & toes crossed that our anchor held, grateful that it was an offshore wind, so if we did drag we had time to react, albeit whilst getting thoroughly drenched! Phew, we stayed dry, miraculously, but the pictures show it all!

The orange shows Seaclusion’s movement around her anchor during the 30 minute storm!

An hour later, you would not have known it had happened, the clouds were gone, the blue skies were back and the sea was as calm as glass, so not wishing to loose one of what could be the last opportunities to paddle board for a while, I (Chantal) jumped on it, as the sun started to set as I went to the other side of the very long beach to check out the tiny town of Sykia …. I didn’t quite make it, the sun was setting quicker than expected, or I took longer than expected, (I wonder which is correct, hahaha), and these little fellers were all round me so I bottled it and headed back to the safety of Seaclusion!

We would like to say we had a peaceful night, but, even though we moved to another anchorage on the opposite side to get away from the swell that was working its way into the bay after the sun had set, we failed, and it could be said we had our 2nd ”rolly polly” night of the trip, seriously on dodgy ground now!

Suffice to say, we set off to Mount Athos earlier than expected the following morning and had a great sail across to the tip. We knew the winds were set to die so were hopeful we would be able to see the East Coast Monasteries as well!

These 2 were however the extent of it because a) the winds didn’t die, they in fact got stronger, and b) we had a horrible 2 metre swell travelling east to west. Travelling down the east coast would have been horribly uncomfortable so we made the decision to sail across to the island of Thassos. We have however pilfered a few images from the internet so we all can see what we missed!

54 NMs and 9 hours later, we arrived at Limenaria, grateful to see the long sea wall. Our pilot book which is a little outdated we have to admit, stated that work was in progress, and so, as is the Greek way, it was touch and go whether it had been.. had it not, it would not have been a place to stay whilst the Meltemi did her thing. Suffice to say the sun was shining on us and we grabbed a nice secure alongside mooring on the new quay, which would be our home for the next few days if the forecasts were to be believed!

The Approach to Limenaria, South West Thassos

2nd September