Patitíri

When we left Órmos Milia on the morning of Monday 8 June the wind and the seas had gone down dramatically. We had planned to anchor in Órmos Rousoumi just north of Alonnisos’ main harbour of Patitíri but the yacht that we had seen in there the previous day was still rolling around quite a lot and there didn’t seem to be much space for the 2 of us, particularly with half the inlet roped off for swimming. So we motored into the main harbour to have a look there.

There was one yacht alongside the outer wall of, what our almanac said, had been the hydrofoil berth but which was no longer on use. We had a closer look and saw large signs saying that the berth was used by the ‘Flying Dolphins’ so we judged, correctly it turned out, that the hydrofoil would be in at some point, and at about 6pm it and a Fast Cat appeared and berthed there overnight.

First mooring location. (L to R) Reflections of Hayling, Konstantinos, Blue Velvet    

In the end, we went stern to on a quay on the other side of the ‘Flying Dolphins’ berth, sandwiched between a local tripper boat, ‘Konstantinos’, and a large motor yacht. Having moored up we were glad to be there, rather than alongside elsewhere for 2 reasons: Firstly, despite the seas outside having reduced greatly, there was still quite a large surge in the harbour and BV rocked and rolled up and down an awful lot. Had we been alongside, we have no doubt that her topsides would have been damaged against the stone walls. As it was, getting ashore via the passarelle was an interesting tightrope act. At one point Nicky considered inflating the dinghy and using that to get ashore but the harbour walls are high and we could see no obvious nearby ladder to get up them. The second reason for being grateful for choosing this mooring spot was that on the local boat next to us was what appeared to be a mechanic, though it turned out to be the boat’s owner in his old engineer’s coveralls. He knew exactly where to buy a 110Ah 12V starting battery and he even drove me up to the garage (in the middle of nowhere), negotiated with the owner and brought me back again. He wouldn’t take any money for his petrol or even a few beers for his trouble; just extremely kind and generous in helping us out. By 1130 we had our new engine start battery fitted and were wondering how to dispose of the old one [Ed: and yes, the tightrope walk each way with the batteries was very ‘interesting’!].

We stayed for a full 3 days at Patitíri. Juliet and David Fosh in ‘Reflections of Hayling’, who we had previously seen from a distance at Samos and Kyra Panagia, arrived shortly after us and it was lovely to meet them properly. We had drinks on board both yachts and discovered that they had taken part in the Cruising Association’s Millennium Rally to St Petersburg with Nicky’s parents – what a small world! They have spent the intervening time sailing around the world, so we were given lots of tops tips and encouragement; we ‘must do the Pacific’!

Inshore of our second mooring

Our second day in port was earmarked as a day for chores, primarily laundry. We hadn’t found a laundry ashore so we did most of it on board, though Juliet very kindly put our bedding through the small washing machine that they have on board. During this frenzy of activity, a flotilla lead yacht appeared, followed a little later by 6 other yachts. The shape of the harbour meant that the yachts had to lay across our anchor chain, which was fine as we did not expect to leave the next day. However, once everyone was in, the Port Police told us that we could not stay in our berth as it was, technically, part of the commercial quay, and that we would have to move by lunchtime the next day. The lead skipper informed his flotilla and we were assured that we would be able to up anchor by about 1100 on Wednesday 10 Jun. However, when we came to move (somewhat later than planned but directly after the flotilla left) we discovered that a third, independent yacht that we had been told had laid short of our anchor had actually laid right across our chain. From the surface we could do little and when we asked the one person on board the yacht to give some slack in the chain, he said that he couldn’t as everyone else was away until 1300 and he had no keys for the boat. Happily, David, an experienced snorkeller and diver, offered us a way out and he snorkelled down, dug our anchor out of the sand and tied on a long line to allow us to haul it back to BV under the offending chain. It’s a trick we had not seen before but one we shall remember and may have a quick practice at when we are next anchored in shallow water in a quiet bay.

Thanks to David’s help we were now only a little behind our planned timeline as we moored up where we had been directed by the Port Police and then high-tailed it up to the Hòra (the Old Town) where we had planned to have lunch. The views across to the other islands of the N Sporades and to Evia are spectacular and the Old Town itself is very picturesque.

As on many of the Greek islands, the Hòra was the capital of the island (high on the island it was clear of the sea with a good view of approaching pirates to give the populace time to escape if required) until earthquakes and government policy caused the high towns to be abandonned for port villages. In recent years the deserted houses have been bought up as second homes, restaurants and tourist shops. It is certainly very attractive but Patitíri is the ‘working’ town.

We had a lovely lunch in a balconied restaurant with a stupendous view. The food was fresh and delicious and we could easily have stayed all day but we wanted to explore a little more and then take the footpath down the hill back to the port.

View from the Naval Restaurant

We wandered all around the village and out to a promentory beyond the old windmills. There was very little wind either on the top or out at sea and all the yachts that we could see were motoring; spending an extra day on the island had been a good move.

The Hòra – seen from the wrong path

After a bit of a false start (though we had a wonderful view back up of the Hòra) we found the top of the footpath that had been described to us by Konstantinos’ owner, the gentleman who had helped us to get a new battery.

We had a lovely walk downhill, enjoying the scenery and also the wildlife. This butterfly that we saw was enormous – its wingspan was probably about 12cm.

Patitíri turned out to be a really pleasant place to stop. A lot of that has to do with the nice people we met here but the town, and particularly the Hòra, have charm. It is certainly on our list of potential ‘return to’ locations when we have vistors staying next month. We’ll just need to keep an eye on the wind direction to try to avoid the rolling we experienced when we first moored here.

Patitíri, Greece