Greece Limnos Island Aegean 18th August 2010 Time flies when your having fun/relaxing. We have seen more cruising boats in the last 2 weeks than we have seen in the last 3months! So as you can guess life has been a little more social. We have been to several anchorages around Limnos including the harbour at Myrina where we cleared into Greece painlessly. We did the usual shopping laundry and checking out the old stones, learnt a few greek greetings and generally enjoyed Myrina. It is the main harbour and ferry terminal for the island, with large ferries coming and going at all hours but the anchorage was very comfortable with a place to tie the dinghy against concrete steps in the middle of town. It is of the beaten tourist track and is very laid back.
We did the walk up the castle which covers a larger area than it appears from the sea level. There are deer grazing amongst the trees and the view over the north and south bays is excellent, we watched the sunset from the top before coming back down, sitting in a waterside taverna sipping a cold drink.
We then headed back round to Ormos Kondia on the southern side of the island spending a few days anchored from the strong wind. At one time there was an english, american, nzealand and us (Australian) anchored there. We walked to the small town of Kondia where there was a delightful art gallery, original windmills, and stone houses - a very interesting village to walk around, a bakery, couple of mini markets and tavernas make up the commercial side, it was well worth the 3km walk. The anchorage was at Diapori and a walk up the rise to the NE is rewarded with a view of Moudros Bay - our next anchorage.
Moudros Bay is where the allied forces collected in WW1 to prepare for the invasion of Turkey. There are monuments and cemetries scattered around the island, one of which is dedicated to the hospitals and nursing staff stationed there from Australia, Canada and UK. We are now tied up at the town quay sheltered from northerlies with power and water, the temperatures have soared to 32c+ so have dug at the fan from the bowels of the boat! Regular hosing down on the dock keeps us sane! There is a large section of the community that have very close ties with Australia mostly Melbourne and many of them on there evening strolls come down to the quay and call out greetings, because of the heat of the day this is done late in the eveing anywhere from 930 to 1130pm. Last night there was a street theatre group performing on the large ships dock seating provided we think by the council, it was very well attended with people from all over the island it seems, campervans appeared, small boats, some yachts and a large power boat, it was a well attended show. The troupe were on stilts juggling, dancing, skipping and general cavorting ending with fireworks and smoke it was enjoyble and lasted for about one and a half hours.
Tomorrow we may take the bus to Blenheim Cove before moving to another anchorage - there are strong winds forecast for the weeken and we don't want to be on the concete dock when that happens.
We didn't take the bus but stayed another night before moving to the west side of the bay back on anchor near the stone marker, here we did a walk to Blenheim Bay (Neas Koutali) there was a preserved wetland area, but we didn't see any birds only mad yachties go out in the midday sun! The pictures of the old houses were where the original village used to be, there is a small square and some tavernas, small holdings, some of the houses have been renovated, it is right on the edge of the wetlands. It took one hour to walk from the anchorage to the village.

Lesvos Island Aegean 25th August 2010We sailed the 53nm from Limnos with only 1.5hrs motoring in the middle of the day when the wind died then picked up again from the NE the wind died at 5pm and we anchored under the castle at 530pm a good anchorage in these conditions offering shelter from North and NE. Sigri was a small village, one church, one bakery, two general stores and a few tavernas but did not find any fresh produce so suspect as with other villages the vegie van comes on certain mornings and we missed it. The following day we set off for Kalloni Gulf and the village of Apotheke, the entrance was well beaconed, there was some strong current when we entered at 5pm but on leaving no evidence of it, we stayed a couple of nights the only yacht in the anchorage but did not find the people very friendly.

Lesvos Island Aegean 28th August 2010On the way from Kalloni Gulf to Gera Gulf we stopped at Plomari, it was a motoring day and the town looked very inviting, there is a small harbour which had lots of room but we anchored outside the walls dinghied into the harbour did some shopping along the cobbled narrow streets and as it was a hot day the sea calm and blue we got back to the boat and went for a swim, we could see the bottom at 9mtrs. After the rivival we set off for the next gulf and anchored in the bay of Scala Lutron.
The bay of Scala Lutron was sheltered the bay to the SW was peaceful with only the sound of sheep and goat bells and the occasional cockerel, a small Church high up overlooked the village and the bay. In the village itself is a small fishing boat harbour (although the wall had crumbled a little) and a large fishing boat haul out area, a machine shop and a couple of tavernas, a museum and one small general store. There were major road works through the village and the bus to Mitilini only stopped at the end of the road (which was about 2mins walk). We did the 30min walk upwards to the village of Leutra, perched on the hillside, cobbled narrow streets, impressive church, quite a few shops, taverna and a bakery, also a garage on the main road inot the village. We enjoyed our stay here and took the bus to Mitilini which took about 30mins shopping was good and even had time to wander the narrow streets finding the artie end of town near the castle. It was a noisy busy place and we were glad to return to the peace of Scala Lutron.