Trip Report #11-2002:  To the Sporades

Filed from Chios, Greece

38  18N    25  55E

October 13, 2002

Photo:  Fishing boat in Skiros, Greece

Yassos, family and friends:

    After our summer in the Black Sea, we were looking forward to sailing in the Northern Sporades in Greece with our friends, Freda and John Sheldon.  We said good-bye to Istanbul and to our friends from Ghost Boat, Vicky, Rick and Alec, and set off for Greece. 

Photo:  Rick, Alec and Vicky Rosenberg aboard Ghost Boat

    On our way through the Dardenelles, we stopped at Canakkule specifically to see the war memorials and museum on the Gallipoli peninsula.  We signed up for a guided tour of the area, sponsored by the Anzac House, a very well-run youth hostel.  After watching a documentary film, "Fatal Shore", the prior evening, we boarded the ferry to the site of the Gallipoli campaign armed with some historical background. The tour group included many Australian and New Zealand young people whose relatives had fought and died here in 1915. On the hillside across from Canakkule is a picture of a soldier and a message: "Regard with reverence this place where so many young soldiers died".

Photo:  Lone Pine Cemetery at Gallipoli: Dedicated to the unknown soldiers

    We left the Dardenelles and were once again in the Aegean Sea and on our way to Limnos to check into Greece.  We stopped to anchor in Ormos Kondia, a large rural harbor on Limnos, with a few farms and herds of sheep grazing on the hillsides, but with little else to disturb the scenic beauty. The water was very clean here and ideal for swimming.  After a quiet night, we went in to Mirina, the port of entry on Limnos, to complete formalities.  Getting into Greece, including visas and a transit log, cost us $115. The harbor fee at Limnos was $9 for 3 nights. 

Photo:  Ormos Kondia on the Greek island of Limnos

    The northern Sporades, which lie 40 miles south of the Khalkidiki, refers to a group of islands "strewn" in a pattern that curves from the southern end of the Trikeri peninsula north of Evia, out to the northeast to the tiny, barren island of Psathoura, and to the southeast to Skiros, the largest of the Sporades.  They are lovely   islands, forested with green trees, pine and hardwood, with beautiful anchorages and beaches lining their shores, and with crystal clear, azure and emerald-colored water. They are also very fertile islands, where olives, figs, almonds, plums, pears and citrus fruits grow in abundance.  Although there is some recently found evidence of Minoan civilization here, there are really very few archeological sites to visit.

    As we approached the Sporades, we stopped to anchor at the island of Pelagos, which is now a nature reserve.  The island is not inhabited, although there is one elderly monk and a caretaker still living in a monastery high on the hill, sharing the island with sheep, goats, cattle and horses.  Pelagos is home to approximately 50 of the remaining 500 Monk Seals in the Mediterranean.  We looked for them, but on the day that we were there, it was raining buckets and they were most likely tucked in somewhere comfortable.

Photo:  In the rain at Pelagos, Greece

Photo:  After the rain on Pelagos

    After taking a leisurely tour around the Sporades to acquaint ourselves with places we might go with John & Freda, we sailed to the most western island of Skiathos to await their arrival.  They were flying in to Athens and taking a bus from there to Ayios Constandinos where they would stay overnight and recover.  The following day, they boarded the ferry for Skiathos. The ferry and hydrofoil system of transportation throughout the Greek Islands is efficient and affordable.  It's so convenient for meeting visitors and for getting them back to their departure point.

Photo:  Town and harbor on Skiathos

Photo:  John & Freda arriving in Skiathos (Freda will hate this picture of her hair!)

Photo:  Freda and John on Starboard Home in Scopelos

Photo:  Street scene on Scopelos, Greece

Photo:  John & Freda on Scopelos

    From Skiathos we sailed in light wind to the island of Scopelos and tied alongside the quay in the small fishing and beach harbor of Agnonda.  We saw our first live octopus swimming up the wall here and watched a group of fisherman deal with a vicious-looking eel that they were planning to eat.  They assured us that it was good to eat, but difficult to get ready for the pan.  It looked like a Moray eel to us.

Photo:  John & Freda check out the marine life at Agnonda

    We continued on to the town of Scopelos and tied alongside to the quay.  We rented a car and toured the island, making our way to the town of Glossa, built into the hillside, with whitewashed, red tile-roofed homes of stone very close to each other, and with steep, narrow, winding lanes knitting the village together.

Photo:  John, Freda and Peg negotiate the streets in Glossa

    In Glossa, we stopped for lunch at Agnontes, a restaurant that had been highly recommended to us.  The view was spectacular, and the food was good, but unexceptional.  They did have excellent courgette fritters as starters and an excellent almond pie (which turned out to be a cake) for dessert. At the restaurant, we met Nicholas Nahmias, president of Air Sud, a travel and tourism firm in Paris, and author of a book on the Greek Islands, written for French tourists.  He is a delightful person and has been traveling and sailing in the Greek Islands for 28 years.  He came to Starboard Home that evening for a visit with us and gave us lots of good tips, including useful information for John and Freda as they tour the Peloponnese.

Photo:  John, Freda, Peg & Tom at Agnontes in Glossa

Photo taken by Nicolas Nahmias

    We next motorsailed to the island of Alonnisos.  The old capital, on a hill overlooking the southern tip of the island, is now being restored and repopulated after being severely damaged in an earthquake in 1965.  We drove up there, walked through this charming town and stopped for a drink in a cafe looking out to the west and the setting sun.  

Photo:  Street Scene in the chora on Alonnisos

    We then had dinner at the Paraport Restaurant and ordered the Seafood Risotto, a specialty of the house.  Freda was a little taken aback (to say the least) when she noticed quite a few tentacles in her dish.  The risotto was excellent, with very good flavor and consistency, but we had not realized that the seafood would be mostly squid.  John and Freda gamely ate some of it, but the cats in the restaurant were well-fed that night.  Again, however, the view from the restaurant was beautiful, the wine was good, and the company was terrific.  This was our last night together before they left the next day to return to Athens and continue the rest of their vacation exploring the mainland of Greece.

Photo: The Sheldons & the Maynards at Paraport Restaurant, on Alonnisos

    Our visit with John & Freda went by all too fast and it was sad to see them leave on the hydrofoil.  We waved good-bye and went back to the boat, let loose our lines and headed for a nearby anchorage to plan our trip back to Turkey and to start thinking about putting the boat away for the winter.

                        Yassos,

                        Peg & Tom

                        aboard s/v Starboard Home

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