Pórto Koufó

When we awoke in the morning of Friday 3 June, the wind was already blowing reasonably hard from the northwest. We were riding quite comfortably lying parallel to the beach but the wind was beginning to kick up waves and, with a fair old fetch from the far side of the bay, potentially it wouldn’t be long before it became pretty uncomfortable. However, the wind was good for a passage down the remainder of the peninsula, although it would be a beat for a couple of miles up the other side to Pórto Koufó, so we took advantage of the weather and got the anchor up and went sailing. Though we didn’t need them both to start with, we put a couple of reefs in the main as we thought it would be far easier to do in the shelter of Órmos Sikias, rather than bouncing up and down in gusty winds off the headland as we turned to head north.

Ák Psevdhókavos   

Despite the reduced sailplan we made good speed down the coast with the wind building on the way. However, almost as soon as we altered course to start heading west around the headland (Ák Psevdhókavos), the wind started to drop and by the time we were out of any possible wind shadow there was no wind at all and we had to start the engine to get us the final couple of miles to the entrance of Porto Koufo – so much for needing the reefs!

Entrance to Pórto Koufó 

Pórto Koufó is described in our pilot book as ‘one of the most magnificent natural harbours in the Mediterranean’. The relatively narrow entrance is well hidden by the cliffs………..

……and once through it the landlocked bay opens up revealing a large sandy beach and a hotel complex on the eastern side…..

…… and a hamlet (Koufos) at the northern end. The bay is quite deep and steep sided so anchoring can be a bit tricky.

During WWII the bay was used as a U-boat base and the larger of the 2 piers off Koufos dates from that time (it looked to us very much like the smaller pier was of that vintage too). Now the larger pier (picture above with visiting yachts which arrived after us) is used by commercial vessels, primarily fishing boats, though we saw none during our stay. The smaller pier has relatively shoal water close to it and is the base for a number of charter yachts.

We elected to anchor in 9m off the piers, rather than risk an early morning wake-up call from an inbound fishing boat.

View south down Pórto Koufó. The entrance is behind the headland just to the right of our mast   

From our position at anchor we could see what looked to be a Chinook helicopter memorial. When we went ashore we took a closer look and, sure enough, it was. On 11 Sep 2004 a Chinook with 5 crew and 12 passengers on board crashed close to Koufos. The passengers, who included the Patriarch of Alexandria, the leader of the Orthodox Church in Egypt, were on their way to a formal visit on Mount Athos.

Having seen the memorial and wandered around the village, we decided to carry on up the road, both to get some exercise and to check out Koufos’ second ‘supermarket’.

Ancient Torone Byzantine fortifications   

The supermarket was not worth the walk but close by we saw signs to Ancient Torone and followed them off the main road. Unfortunately, the site was closed when we arrived and, judging by the amount of growth across the beaten footpaths, it’s likely that it had been closed for most of the year. So we contented ourselves with a picture of the Byzantine ruins.

Torone beach   

The gently shelving beach was busy and the bay fairly well protected from the southwest wind. Given the setting it’s no surprise that there’s an ancient castle on the headland.

And so, we strolled back to Koufos where we bought some provisions and discussed over dinner the plan for moving on up to Néa Marmais the next day.

Pórto Koufó, Greece