Órmos Palaio

The forecast looked promising for the 40nm trip from Porto Heli to Monemvasía and, indeed, as we left the entrance to Porto Heli we had about 15 knots of northwesterly breeze across the deck; it all seemed set for a fast passage. However, having passed to the north of Nísos Spétsai the wind started to drop and to veer too, so that it came from further and further behind us. Poling out the genoa had little effect; it was time to think about flying the spinnaker.

[Ed: Reg in brightly coloured ‘man cave’?]    

The last time we had flown the spinnaker I had spotted a couple of small holes in it but, inevitably, we had forgotten to repair them directly after that passage. Now that we wanted to fly the spinnaker again, I needed to get going with the repair tape to ensure that the holes didn’t split into something more terminal. Hiding in a brightly coloured ‘man cave’ in the saloon I relatively quickly found the ‘small’ holes I had remembered and several more besides. With the holes at my level, rather than 7m above the deck, it’s quite amazing how big ‘small’ pin prick holes can actually be. It certainly was a good job jobbed as the saying goes!

Monemvasía ahead but our planned anchorage is to the right off the edge of the picture   

Inevitably, after all that work, the wind dropped further still and we ended up motoring for a couple of hours until it filled in again from directly astern at about 17 knots. We set the mainsail with the preventer and toyed with the idea of poling out the genoa. But, with only half an hour on that course before needing to gybe and then only another 15mins to go our planned anchorage for the night, it didn’t seem worth the hassle. So we buzzed along under main only enjoying the view and the easy life.

Outer approaches to Órmos Palaio   

We expected the harbour at Monemvasía to be pretty full late in the afternoon and also potentially uncomfortable with, by this time, a moderate northeasterly wind and the remains of a northeasterly swell bouncing in. Instead Nicky had seen a nice looking anchorage, Órmos Palaio, about 3nm north of the rock, which is sheltered from almost everything but southeasterly swells. In the now brisk wind we broad reached into the bay at some speed, dropped the main and motored up into the northeast corner. A shame the wind hadn’t strengthened earlier.

Órmos Palaio   

The anchorage doesn’t look much to speak of on the chart but behind its small protecting headland there was no swell and significantly less wind. We anchored outside the moorings in about 7m with a great view south to Monemvasía.

Amphitrite at anchor   

The view was improved further as, a little later in the evening, we were joined by a very attractive motor yacht, Amphitrite. It seemed that they too had decided that the swell off Monemvasía would disturb the evening too much – we saw them the following day anchored off the walled town after a rather earlier start than us.

Órmos Palaio, Greece