After the wind subsided it was time to get back North so we set off towards Serifos. It was a bit of a hot slog motor sailing, as the morning southerly that was predicted didn’t eventuate. There was a strong NW due later on, so we decided the best protection was going to be on the next island of Kithnos.
If you are sailors and you’ve spent some time reading cruising guides, you are aware that the authors report all the possible problems in the anchorages. We have yet to read a glowing report such as ” excellent all-round shelter, great holding on a sandy bottom without likelihood of fouling, cleanest water anywhere, great fishing, no charter boats for miles..” The anchorage that we headed to in the bay of Stefanos, included the following; “Good shelter from the Meltemi, gusts off the high land at the entrance. Care should be taken of the reef lying 100m SE of headland separating the 2 bays. Anchor near the head of the bay and take a line to shore to a rock. The bottom is sand and weed, bad holding in places”.* Excerp taken from Rod and Lucinda Heikell’s Greek Water Pilot* ..and this was the good option.
When we arrived in the (smaller – than-it- looked- on- the- chart) bay, there was a light NW and we were able to anchor in 24 feet in a patch of sand, as we were the first boat there. (We did not see the rocks ashore to tie to). There wasn’t the normal swing room that we liked and were just under 4:1 chain length to anchor depth. The bay was very picturesque, and a little boat came around handing out flyers for one of the 2 Tavernas ashore, offering locally grown farm fare, fresh fish and the first wine on the house. Gradually, other boats arrived and anchored around us, doing the best they could with the space. We hopped in the dinghy after waiting to see everyone was settled and the boats weren’t going to swing into each other, and spent a very pleasant evening ashore.
The next day several other boats arrived and crowded in around us. There were a couple of power boats here for the day and 3 other sailboats, one of which had not calculated swing room. The conditions were very calm and the boats frequently pointed in different directions, some getting very close (15 feet) at times before drifting off again. While it was calm we took advantage and went for a snorkle off a point outside of the bay, in good clear water. Ashore here, there were tailings from iron ore mining, and gaping crevices where the ore had been extracted. Once we were back in the anchorage, we swam over a wreck that was in 10 feet of water, which had small schools of fish swimming through it.
About 3.30 pm, we started to notice clouds moving in, which usually means wind will increase, so we stowed the dinghy and put away the sun shades incase wind gusts occurred and we needed to depart quickly. It was a good thing we did because thats exactly what happened. The 2 power boats that had rafted up swung dangerously close to our stern so we pulled in some chain so they could lift their anchor which was now under our boat. Once they were off, we had to tell the sailboat that had anchored in front of us to move up, so we could collect our anchor which was under their stern. (Identified by our trip line bouy so people could see where our anchor was when they were anchoring and avoid covering our anchor..). It took some skillfull helming (Todd), to keep us away from the rocks on one side, boats on starboard, stern, and forward of us with the wind gusting. It was a pain in the bum to have to move actually, as we were the first boat there. We knew we wouldn’t sleep if we stayed though, so we headed to the other bay, carefully avoiding that reef. There looked to be 2 good bays to provide shelter, and surprisingly only 1 big power boat stern tied to shore. Alas, this was the “bad holding” zone, and after 5 tries to get a secure anchoring spot, we gave up and headed back to the far side of the original bay. This was deep and weedy, and the 2 x we dropped the anchor it just dragged across the weed and didn’t set. It was now 2 hours from dusk so we headed south around the point and found a bay to ourselves with good protection from the wind, and a big patch of sand between the weed patches. (It gets hard to see the sandy patches from the weed as you lose daylight, another reason we like to get to our anchorages earlier in the day when possible). It was a good choice, as we had all the swing room we needed, and had a restful nights sleep, whew!