Lesvos - Sígri

By the time that we came to leave Ayvalık, the wind had gone round to the northeast and increased, which was good for us as we planned to sail around Lesvos to Sígri, a small village on the west coast, a distance of about 45nm. In the shelter of Ayvalık Liman (‘The Lake’) we hoisted the mainsail with 2 reefs and when clear of the narrow and shallow entrance channel we unrolled most of the genoa and shot off like a scalded cat.

Departing  Ayvalık , the Ayvalık Kanali and passing Alibey to the north of the canal    

Off the north of Lesvos the wind dropped away, so we shook out the reefs but still had sufficient wind to continue sailing. Our pilot book says that the winds in the Müslim Kanali (the channel between northern Lesvos and the Turkish coast) are frequently much lighter than off the coastline to the west or in the channel to the east of Lesvos. Certainly that has been our experience on the 3 times that we have been through and some acquaintances of ours, motoring west in the absolute still of dawn, saw 3 rubber boatloads of illegal immigrants crossing this stretch of water – a much safer place to cross for those poor people than other well known Mediterranean crossing points. We saw a couple of yachts going in the opposite direction to us and also a Greek naval ship on patrol.

Northwest Lesvos looking more like lowland Scotland or Ireland when we went past    

Once we were past the shelter of Turkey, the wind and the seas picked up again so we dropped in a reef and roared off on a broad reach down Lesvos’ northwest coast. A little further on the wind came round more to the west so we poled out the genoa and ran goose-winged, surfing down the waves, for an hour before we had to gybe to make the middle entrance to Ormos Sigriou, around the south end of the island of Megalonisi.

In the relative shelter of the island and the headland to the north, the surface of Ormos Sigriou was flat and lowering the mainsail was easy but the wind still howled across it as we motored towards the anchorage. Under the lee of the castle, however, all was calm. There were 20 knots of wind where we had lowered the mainsail and just 5 knots in the anchorage; better still, unlike at many other anchorages we have been to, no fierce gusts whistled down periodically. The holding was good too, in clear water over sand.

We dinghied to a small quay and wandered into the village. It was peaceful and quiet with an old castle and a couple of churches. Above the castle entrance and on a plaque above a public tap, were inscriptions in Arabic script – reminders of the Ottoman Empire and a time before the 1923 population exchanges when Christians and Muslims lived together in villages and towns all around Greece and Turkey.

We stayed at anchor off Sigri for 6 nights, which allowed us to catch up on chores, blog entries and other admin, as well as read and generally enjoy our surroundings. We also changed the filters the watermaker and made new lashings for the fuel jerry cans on deck because the previous ones had been weakened by the UV light. That was a little tedious as it involved making up 30 soft eye splices, 6 siezings and 6 whippings and took most of a day to get right! On one day we hired a car and drove all around the island; it is surprisingly large and the roads, unsurprisingly, are generally small and winding with fierce hairpin bends and steep drops to the side of the mountain roads.

Our route to the island’s capital, Mitilini, took us close to several monasteries: one on the highest point of the island with a fabulous view.....

....another overlooked by the winding road through the hills and surrounded by no less than 21 tiny chapels!

The harbour at Mitilini is vast and reminded us rather of the harbours at Zákinthos and Kálimnos. We discovered that the marina there is now fully functional (run by Setur Marine) though our pilot book suggested that it was not operational. With staff there we were able to change an empty gas bottle and make sure that our paperwork was in order.

Mithimna or Mólivos

We extended our return journey with a detour to Mithimna or Mólivos on the northwest corner of Lesvos. We had considered stopping here but the outer harbour is said to have poor holding and when we visited there was no space anyway. The town is pretty, with stone-faced houses climbing up the steep hillside under the castle and great views along the coast.

Hidden away there are several small ancient sites, such as a Roman-era paved road and the remains of similar era houses and burial sites.

Mithimna or Mólivos

Behind the ‘main’ thoroughfare (a narrow cobbled road along the cliffside), the town climbs up in a maze of narrow alleys and courtyards. It would be easy to lose oneself for half a day or so here but we were more concerned about losing ourselves on the precipitous, winding roads back to Sígri so we did not stay long – something for another time.

Sígri

Our plan was to sail northwest to the island of Limnos when there was a change in the wind. However, despite spending nearly a week at anchor, the wind was still blowing strongly from the north, so we decided we’d leave the peace and traquillity of Sigri and instead head west towards the Northern Sporades.

Sígri, Greece