The Akti Peninsula

After staying for 2 nights in Órmos Sikias we left at 0945 on Thursday 26 May to take a closer look at the Akti peninsula. Cut off from the modern world, the mediaeval monasteries have administrative autonomy. Rules dating back to 1060 prohibit women and children from the peninsula and we had to abide by a 500m exclusion zone around the peninsula for all vessels. This zone is extended to 1 mile if you have females on board, which of course we did. I did consider a theatrical beard and drawn-on moustache for Nicky to allow us in to the 500m mark but decided to play by the rules.

There was very little wind and so we spent the day motoring more than sailing. As we approached the southern tip of the peninsula we could see the seemingly inaccessible hermit cells clinging to the lower cliffs.

We turned northwards and started to work our way along the western side of the peninsula, with the hermit cells giving way to the monasteries and communities. Initially, they were as we had expected, orange tiled and high up on the mountainside. As we progressed they became more like castles. It was difficult to properly identify them and so some of the names below may not match the photos.

Ayíou Pavlou founded in the 11^th century (L). Dionysiou founded in 1375.

Gregoriou founded in 1375 (L). Simonpetra founded in 1257.

Xiropotamou (above, top picture) dates from the 10^th century. Moní Ayíou Panteleimonos (above, lower picture) won our award for the monastery painted in the most unusual colour scheme – in this case variations on turquoise and green. Founded in 1169 it once housed up to 1,500 Russian monks [Ed: the Russian connection was obvious in the ‘onion dome’ of the main building].

It then got a trickier again to identify the monasteries as there are more buildings than our book suggested. However, if I’ve got it right, Moní Konstamonitou (bottom L) was founded in the 11^th century, whilst Dhoheiariou (bottom R) and Xenofdos (top R) were founded in the 10^th century.

The quay at Ammouliani Village   

The route along the western side of the Akti Peninsula led us nicely up to a small collection of islands, the largest of which is Nisís Ammouliani. Initially, we took a look at the quay at Ammouliani village with a view to mooring there but it was full on the inside and we didn’t fancy mooring on the outside. There’s a suggested anchorage just to the northwest but we found that it was either very deep or, at the suggested anchoring depth, the shoaling was too extreme; if we had swung we’d most likely have run aground. And to top it off, there were submarine power and water cables. Not wishing to be responsible for cutting off the island’s power supply with our anchor we took a look at one of the smaller islands a couple of miles to the south, Nisís Dhrenia.

Anchored off the very picturesque Nisís Dhrenia   

Nisís Dhrenia is very picturesque. Here we had a much better anchorage just off the beach and the chain of small islands around us both provided some shelter and made it a very pretty place to stop.

Nisís Dhrenia, close to  Nisís Ammouliani, Greece