Póros

Heading into Póros

We’d hatched a plan to move onto the town quay at Póros late morning on Saturday 8 August. There are 2 quays we could use at Póros and we decided we’d try our luck in the picturesque narrow channel between the town of Póros and Galatas on the mainland. As we arrived a motor yacht and a sailing yacht slowly left the quay so we held off, planning to bag one of their places. As the first became free we manoeuvred backwards towards it only to find a man from the motorboat next door waving us off. There seemed to be no reason why we could not take this mooring spot but to make sure that we didn’t he moved his yacht’s RiB across it. It turned out that he was reserving it for his friend in the motor yacht which had just left the quay further down. We moved along to the next empty space only to find that the guy in the boat next to it was stringing a mooring line right across it because of the crosswind. Fortunately, another yacht moved off the quay and we planned to moor there despite it being a tight gap and the neighbours having laid their anchors well off line.

When we got into the mooring one of the neighbours claimed we had dropped our anchor over his chain. Nicky pointed out that it was possible; we’d tried our best but it wasn’t easy because he had laid his anchor so far to windward across most of our lane. He was adamant that he had laid his anchor straight out and it was us that were at fault. Rather than get into an argument we moved off the quay again. On raising our anchor we found, funny old thing, that Nicky had dropped the hook exactly where it should be between the anchors of the yachts on either side. Pretty impressive given that there was only a gap of about 6 foot between them. Getting into the mooring the first time had been quite hard work because of the strong crosswind and limited manoeuvring space for a yacht like BV with a longer keel. Watching yachts putting extra lines on for the crosswind, we decided to give the quay up as ‘all too difficult’ and headed for an anchorage close by.

Views from the clocktower

This proved to be a good move; we were further away from the nightclub, we wouldn’t be worried about adjacent yachts being blown onto us, and there were no whinging neighbours! Póros was only a short dinghy ride away and once we had made that journey we were able to climb up to the top of the hill to see the view from the clock tower. The view looking down the channel between Póros and Galatas was particularly pretty. The walk up the hill fully justified the lovely ice-creams we indulged in.

Looking down the channel between Póros and Galatas

The rest of Póros has a definite charm. We wandered around in the afternoon siesta period and it seemed quite quiet but, of course, by night it would be very lively indeed and a justifiably popular weekend destination for Athenians.

We took advantage of the quiet period to enjoy a drink or two at one of the cafés whilst catching up with e-mails and the Blog.

Póros by night

Back on board BV we also found that from the anchorage we had a much better night-time view of the place than we would have had from the quay.

In the morning we went ashore again to get some fresh bread and discovered a very dangerous shop. This bakery was crammed with delicious looking savoury and sweet pastries. The selection of baklava and similar stickies was all too tempting and on top of all that they also sold icecream and wine. Why would you need to visit any other shops? However, in the end we felt that we were reasonably restrained. As well as our bread we scuttled away with bacon and egg rolls for breakfast using the excuse that ‘it was Sunday’.

Póros, Greece