Nísos Glarópounda

Órmos Mirsini had been a great stop but we needed to get Charlotte further north so that, at the end of her holiday, she’d be able to get to Míkonos relatively economically in order to fly home. The wind was staying cheekily strong for beating north and so we resolved to set off early on 28 July to see where we could get to comfortably.

We left Órmos Mirsini at 0630 and straight away had 2 reefs in the main. With the staysail and a small handkerchief of genoa unrolled BV plugged on into the waves and we made good progress north albeit zig-zagging the whole way. We took a look at a bay on the south side of Naxos, Órmos Kalando, as an easy early stop but there was little there and the only good spot on the quay was already taken. Rather than try to squeeze into the already full anchorage we headed out again, hoisted the sails and set off west around the south side of Naxos island. The channel between the islands of Naxos and Páros had some significant waves and with the funnelling of the wind getting up to Naxos town would have been a real slog.

Nísos Glarópounda   

Our westerly tack was taking us directly towards Alikí on the south side of Páros. We knew it to be a safe bay to achor in but we felt that we had ‘done’ Alikí. Instead we headed for some small islands just to the south.

Anchoring off Nísos Glarópounda we had shelter from the waves and a beautiful spot to snorkel in with a fabulous turquoise sea. Underwater we saw hundreds of fish. Charlotte said that she felt like she was in the Bahamas.

Others thought the same and during our stay there were other yachts, several tripper boats and an army of kitesurfers who stopped by briefly to enjoy the anchorage.

By evening time, however, we had the place to ourselves again. A great anchorage and a weather forecast with slightly less wind; perfect except, perhaps, for having to set the alarm clock early again.

Nísos Glarópounda, Greece