Sailing to Skíros

Our plan for an early (ish) start on 8 July worked well. We lifted our anchour in Órmos Loutro at 7am and fifteen minutes later the engine went off and we were sailing east with all sails set in a 10 knot wind which was due to increase. Nicky had been studying the weather, looking for a good northerly wind to get us to Skíros, and had seen that Wednesday should work for us; it was certainly looking promising.

Approaching Nísos Skíros

We did have an hour from 10 am when the wind dropped right off so we had to motorsail but aside from that we sailed all the way to Skíros and right up to the little passage of Stenón Valáxa. We were heading for the port of Linariá in the middle of the southwestern side of the island. To the west, the port is guarded by the long thin island of Nísis Valáxa. At its northerly end is the 100 metre wide passage of Stenón Valáxa which shoals to about 3.5 metres.

Stenón Valáxa

Approaching Linariá

We were sailing along nicely being but the wind was a little variable as it was funnelled around the mountains to our north. Predictably, just as we started to go through Stenón Valáxa, the wind veered to directly on our nose. It would have been nice to have glided through under sail but we’d expected the wind change and the engine was already ticking over ‘just in case’. Right behind us was a German yacht, Acapulco, who was also heading for Linariá. We motored in formation towards the port stowing sails and making ready for our arrival and mooring procedures.

Acapulco mooring next to us at Linariá

As we arrived at the entrance to the harbour we were met by George, the harbour manager, who rushed up to us in his RiB. He told us that the harbour was full but that he could fit us in just outside the harbour on some new fore-aft mooring buoys. It was not clear exactly where he wanted us to be but we followed him and did as instructed so that he could pass a line to our bow from a buoy. He then went to start his standard manoeuvre of towing the stern of the visiting yacht through 180 degrees to put it closer to the shore where it could be attached to another buoy. With BV being heavier and having a much longer keel than a standard production yacht of our size this proved to be a slow process. George was clearly surprised at how hard it was to get BV moving but I guess his standard customers are the charter fleets. We helped as best we could using the prop walk and the odd buzz of the engine with the wheel hard over but it would have been slicker if we had known where he wanted us moored so that we could have manoeuvred there ourselves. Acapulco was next in line but having seen how we were moored they were able to reverse in to make things easier.

Our mooring just to the west of the Linariá harbour entrance

It was a nice mooring with beautiful clear water (yes, we did go for a swim straight away to cool off) with a low rocky cliff behind us which was floodlit at night. A café stepped down the cliff with its tables chairs and parasols laid out on balconies and we were serenaded by their jazz music for much of the day. Except, that is, when the ferry arrives in the early evening when ‘Mars – the bringer of war’ from Holst’s ‘The Planets Suite’ is played a top volume to welcome the passengers to the island. It is quite a spectacle because they also give the café customers sparklers to wave so the balconies come alive as they are waved around in the low dusky light.

Ashore Linariá has a nice atmosphere. White cuboid houses are stepped up the hill which is capped by a church and at the quayside there are some nice restaurants, a good bakery and several mini-markets. Most importantly for us was that George also runs a scooter hire business here. He could hardly contain his enthusiasm for his island and we were given excellent directions on where to visit. Skíros looked to be a great island to visit and so we were glad that we had taken advantage of the favourable wind to backtrack slightly the 54 miles to get here.

Skíros, Greece