Beyond the Ionian on Morning Calm

Part 1

As a lot of you know for a period during high season, I am rarely to be seen in Vilho, some have suggested that I am on holiday and in a way I am, but not how you think. I am on holiday but somebody else’s… As captain of Morning Calm, our 65ft charter yacht, which starts and finishes in different areas around Greece. A luxury holiday, the hostess and I are at our client’s behest, so we may be in the Ionian, the Cyclades, the Peloponnese or in fact any sailing area in Greece. This year as a topic for my annual musings, I thought I would paint a picture of my time onboard during a 2-week cruise in the Cyclades. (The names of the guests and hostess have been changed).

The guests flew into Athens and joined the boat just south of Lavrion on the Attica peninsula. My story begins as we await their arrival. Our previous drop off had been in Mykonos, 5 days earlier, so we had plenty of time to prepare body and boat.
No matter how often I do this even, as with this trip our guests are familiar with the boat having completed an Ionian trip previously, I still have butterflies in the moments before arrival.

Days of cleaning and repairs fresh in mind, brilliant white crew shirt, itching slightly under my left ear and the ever-present sheen of perspiration, pretty much everywhere, I still feel that little fission of nerves. Then it’s all meet and greet “you’ve lost weight” I had, “how was the flight, was the transfer easy”? The familiarity puts us all at ease.

Olympic Marine, where we had been berthed for a couple of days had really looked after us, with a superb alongside berth, making embarkation a breeze. All too often we are bundling bags atop one another in the tender and ferrying guests from a meeting point. Stepping aboard and down below to air conditioning is very welcome indeed.

It was approaching 4pm by the time Maya the hostess had helped everyone move into their cabins and got all stowed, no mean feat as we had almost our full complement of guests, five in total. David & Julie had the master cabin, Fred & Paula in the forward suite and Jean in the Pulman cabin.

While all of that was ongoing, together with the ever-helpful marina staff, I got us underway.

Morning Calm is equipped with a lifting keel which we had to raise to get into our berth, dropping is easy, press a button and through the magic of hydraulics we are back to our nearly 4 metre draught again. Once clear of the Marina we unrolled the huge reaching genoa (again push button) killed the engine, enjoying the 7 knots provided by a strong northerly breeze, Maya served a late lunch with ice cold ‘fizzy pink’ as I set a course for the southern end of Makronisoi, the long thin island shadowing the mainland coast opposite Lavrion.

Jean asked why there was so little development on the island, as everywhere else you looked, the white villas of the fortunate lined the coast. Hesitantly, it seemed a somber subject for the beginning of such a happy adventure, I recounted the little I knew of its history. Whilst a one-time place of refuge, for Helen of Troy fame. Its more recent past was more unsettling. During the civil war in Greece, that followed on from WW2, communists or the left leaning, or those of a suspicious nature were rounded up and relocated to Makronisoi. In the years that followed, those incarcerated there lived in tents whilst undergoing re-education, failure to learn resulted very often in an unpleasant end. In 2020 a monument was erected in tribute to the Greeks who had endured and very often died there. Now it is an historical site, with only a handful of inhabitants living on this ‘dark isle.’ (The ironically named ‘Happy Day’ is a 1976 movie adaption by Pantelis Voulgaris dramatising some of the history, it’s viewable on YouTube – but it is heavy going).

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From the southern tip of Makronisoi, we shaped a course WNW which brought our helpful following wind onto the port bow. Late in the afternoon and early in the trip, there was no need for boisterous sailing, there was also the second bottle of fizz to protect!

By un-rolling the self-tacking jib before trying to furl the big genoa, we create some protection, avoiding unseemly flogging of the big sail, so smoothly this works that unless you are looking forward, the sail change is unnoticeable. We kept our speed under this rig by adding a few meager engine revs, with the flat jib dampening the inevitable rolling, which accompanies motoring bare handed.

Fred, a font of knowledge concerning all things historical, mused aloud that the wreck of the Britannic lay hereabouts. Sister ship to the Titanic and Olympic, she was the last built of the White Star Line’s great ships and was no more blessed, than her siblings. Completed just before the Great War, she was requisitioned for use as a hospital ship. It was while on passage from Southampton to Lemnos that she struck a mine on the 21st November 1916. She sank 50 minutes later, of the 1060 souls onboard, only 30 perished, the survivors making it to the lifeboats or local craft. Incidentally the Olympic was sold for scrap in 1935 being no longer economical to operate due to the effects of the Great Depression. Due, no doubt to these two events in history being so close to us geographically, the subjects kept us all busy, either in thought or speech ,that we hardly noticed the natural harbour of Coressia on Kea Island, was just under our lee bow and preparations were to be made for arrival.

Under the shelter of the pretty lighthouse marking the northern arm of the entrance, we rolled the jib away and planned our berth for the evening. I already knew the gang wanted a run ashore, so a table had to be booked and a dinghy landing place to be found. I favour long lining in this type of harbour, where depths are over 20 metres and the shallower anchorage area is inevitably crowded.

Our anchor is controlled from the helm, so an effortless enterprise to drop whilst slowly motoring astern. Twenty metres or so from the rocks, Maya who I swear to this day is part fish, will plop off the bathing platform with the end of a floating line and quickly have us secured to a rock or in this case, a helpfully placed cannon.

There are three key aspects to this operation going smoothly. Always try to have the wind blowing against your direction of prop walk. Keep your shoreline in a bucket not coiled and of course enlist a human fish as part of the crew.

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Kea is a sleepy little place, with two exceptions. First is when the ferry is due, then it’s full on Picadilly circus, or when there is a wedding in one of the waterfront tavernas, in which case RIP van Winkle would have trouble sleeping. Should time allow or weather dictate, a trip to the hilltop Capital of the island Ioulis is worth-while, if only to sit with a coffee and watch the kids play football. I’m sure the downhill of the boys I saw will be a world class keeper, whereas the vertically uphill guy was on his phone.

As I often mention the wind in this narrative, I better explain a little about the general weather patterns in the Aegean. The famous Meltemi which is caused by the squeeze between high pressure over Greece and low pressure in the Middle East, blows most strongly from mid-June to mid-September. Strongest in the North Central Aegean, it can certainly pack a punch anywhere in the islands. Whilst it must be respected, with attention to forecasts, it will also provide fabulous sailing and fast passage making.

The beauty of the islands is the ability to be flexible with your cruise planning and to use the given wind direction to your advantage. In our case the long- range forecast was showing strong predominantly Northerly winds for 5 days with a 2-day period of variable becoming strong southerly, more on this later.

Our destination today was Kithnos, specifically an anchorage created by the Isthmus at Kolona. In truth it is actually 3 anchorages either side of the spit, which provides 2 beaches and the east bay. My favourite is the east bay, the taverna is cuter, quieter and there is a little hole in the cliff where I can go stern to with long lines. I love our 55kg Rocna dearly and trust it implicitly, however given the choice, I would rather put our ‘bum’ to the wind and tie onto Greece, as it’s been in roughly the same place for millen…milenea… a very long time!

Before we arrived, we had some yachting to do, with a stop also planned to have a barbequed fresh fish lunch. Maya whilst ever stoic and adaptable, is definitely happier when there is no tilting during the whole lunch thing.

It was blowing hard form the north, with a big loppy swell bouncing off the corner of Kea. I decided to set the big genoa and the generator. Soon the genoa was giving us 8-9 knots bolt upright with dry decks and the generator was pitching in with full batteries and 100 litres per hour of fresh water.

The first 10 miles flew by as we slid along the coast of Kea. New holiday lets perched improbably on the blue gray hillsides, make use of ancient terraces to coax a little greenery into the landscape.

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Aerial,Drone,Photo,Of,Picturesque,Chapel,Of,Agios,Loukas,And

Rounding the lighthouse of Cape Tamelos, we rolled away the genoa and motored into the lee of the southern shore, Lee would generally mean shelter, however in this case, it means a period of calm followed by a blast of katabatic wind sometimes double the mean wind speed on the exposed side of the island.

Fred, as was his want, was musing about the end of light housekeeping as a trade, with David offering a more pragmatic view on the financial sustainability. I was thinking about the gales and ships this particular, illuminating household had witnessed since its construction in 1893.

We lunched and swam in a shallow cove all by ourselves, happily avoiding the clutter of charter cats in the adjacent bay. Julie and Jean reasonably suggested a siesta to allow lunch to settle, so it was going on for 4pm by the time we made sail and fast reached over to Kythnos Island.

We were treated to a close-up view of the 88 metre ‘Dyna Rigged’ Maltese Falcon, she had her yards trimmed fore and aft and sat serenely at anchor despite gusts in the low 30’s.

After parking in my preferred spot, the crew swam and read before sundowners and a trip ashore for dinner. As she had a night off from cooking Maya volunteered to be taxi driver, leaving me to get on with my Captain duties, YouTube mostly. Whilst the guests are ashore it’s easy to assume that the hostess and I ‘party likes it’s 1999’, however a simple meal, chat about menus, provisioning or what’s upcoming in the next few days is the reality.

Merihas, about a mile to the south is the main port on the island, it has a small marina, however the general feel is of a ferry port because fundamentally that is what it is. Although we were not stopping there on this trip, Merihas is perfect for jumping on the bus or getting a taxi to Dryopida, which is a true Cycladic gem of a hilltop village.

Wind was still blowing hard from the Northwest as we departed next morning with the island protecting us, we had a fast flat-water sail under genoa again. The conditions allowed us to stand close inshore, inspecting the little coves and settlements we passed.

The plan for today was to stop in Block Bay on Serifos, for a BBQ burger lunch then onto Vathi – Yes, there are lots of Vathi’s in Greece – the literal translation is Deep. If you shout to a fisherman on the quayside “pose Vathia” he will likely respond “dio/tria metra”, of course, if he shouts “ecosse to kila” he is talking about the price of fish!

Block Bay – eloquently named by myself – has a place in my must visit list, mainly because of its unsuitability as an anchorage for a yacht of our size. My first visit on Morning Calm was like most great things, totally accidental. That time, I had the boat’s owners on board, and we were looking for a quick swim and lunch stop. On the electronic chart it fit the bill, so I nosed in and dropped anchor in 5 metres with the strong Meltemi holding us in the centre of the inlet. What I hadn’t allowed for, was the Meltemi’s habit of changing direction by 90 degrees, yet maintaining all of its considerable force. A very quick and able crew, the family have grown up holidaying on the boat, presented a close encounter with the hard bits on our port side, a veritable cat’s cradle of shorelines allowed our interrupted lunch to continue and I resolved never to make the same mistake again.

Yet here I was, with our wonderful yet agility restricted guests and Maya, if the descriptor be allowed, a slip of a girl, heading into the same spot in the same conditions. The difference was I now had local knowledge. Whilst snorkeling during our previous visit, the eldest of the kids aboard had discovered treasure in the form of a concrete block with a central ring directly under where we had moored, hence Block Bay. Equipped now with knowledge and Maya, part fish, I made our approach to this delightful spot with nonchalance. I had the block marked on the chart plotter, so easy to find. Maya slid off the bathing platform, towing a think line and quick as a flash had it through the eye on the block and back to the boat, a collaboration between human and fish has rarely been so successful.

Block Bay is really a lovely spot, the narrow neck at the entrance opens to a little bay the size of a football pitch, two beaches, great snorkeling and the near guarantee that 5 charter cats won’t be popping in for lunch, make it one that I shall keep in the local knowledge list.

Of the 40 miles planned today, we had already covered 20 by lunch time, in the afternoon we set full main and genoa reaching between 8-10 knots in true Champagne sailing conditions. It was with no small disappointment that we arrived at the entrance to Vathi a little faster than expected. David wished for another 10 miles, Fred 5 miles and Jean a gin & tonic.

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Vathi is a smallish Omega shaped bay with a whitewashed village on the left, a discrete hotel in the centre and some Fishermans cottages on the right. The area is verdant by Aegean standards and the sandy beach frames the valley perfectly. Visiting yachts tend to congregate on the village side, I choose to long line off the cliff opposite – it keeps us out of the swell, which occasionally makes its way into the bay and it’s a bit more private. Although only 8m deep we ran out 70m of chain, then used our 50m shorelines and rock straps to secure Morning Calm for the night.

The gang headed ashore and spent the evening walking barefoot along the sandy moonlight beach, supper under the stars in a beachfront taverna and pottering amongst the gift shops. Maya again ran the taxi service (she really enjoys driving the tender and is very safe and conscientious.

Back on board we chatted over nightcaps and one by one headed to bed, a really enjoyable day ending in such a picturesque way.

Then it all turned to shit / chocolate…

To be Continued…

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