Órmos Aléxandhrou

After our lazy afternoon in Nisís Korakonisia, we upped anchor just before 5 pm and hoisted the sails for a gentle sail downwind back towards Porto Kheli. With the windier sail earlier in the day and now, in easier conditions, it was good to be able to confirm that the repair on the genoa was working perfectly and the proper sail shape was still there.

Approaching Órmos Aléxandhrou   

Having spent 2 nights in harbours, we wanted to find a nice anchorage for the night so that we had a mix of locations for Malcolm and Strev’s short stay with us. In the entrance to Porto Kheli we’d seen some pretty bays and were hoping to find space in one of them. With the prevailing wind, our preferred choice was Órmos Aléxandhrou on the left hand (north) side as you enter Porto Kheli. The AIS showed that the bay was already pretty busy with at least one large motor yacht moored there.

Motor yacht Drad   

But, as we worked our way into the bay, we discovered that there was still lots of space in the shallower water. We dropped our anchor in 7 metres just behind the 2 other sailing yachts anchored there and set about enjoying sundowners and preparing a meal.

Órmos Aléxandhrou   

Dinner was a chicken pasta dish with lots of tomatoes, ouzo and Feta; when in Rome Greece! It all went down very well, served with fried slices of aubergine, garlic bread, and lots of red wine. The only slight issue was telephone call saying that Strevs and Malcolm had to return to work earlier than expected.  An online check confirmed that there was an early morning ferry back to Athens which they could catch, so ‘stumps were drawn’ and we all turned in for the night.

The alarm clocks rang very early but we were grateful that we had anchored where we had because it was no more than a 15 minute trip in BV around to Porto Kheli to drop them at the ferry quay, right behind hydrofoil on which they hoped to depart at 0550hrs. A quick negotiation with the ticket office allowed them to exchange their tickets for this earlier ferry and, after some brief farewells, we left them to catch their transport back to Athens.

Strevs and Malcolm back at work   

It was still dark when we crept back into Órmos Aléxandhrou and anchored in exactly the same spot. After a lie-in, we spent most of the day relaxing in ‘lazy Sunday’ mode as it was, after all, Sunday. I finally got around to reading ‘The Guns of Navarone’, which I had dug out because we had sailed past Anthony Quinn Bay on the east coast of Rhodes, where the 1960s film had been shot.

Late on in the afternoon we saw that Strevs and Malcolm had got back to work as they made an approach to one of the nearby villas.

Large part of the saloon sole lifted for varnishing   

On Monday, however, we were much more industrious. After a 3 or 4 long sailing seasons, BV’s saloon sole had more than a few dents in the varnish and Nicky decided that it was the right time to attend to these. Lifting the ‘high traffic area’ floorboards is a bit of a task because the engine box needs to be removed as well as the galley foot pump and a locker door.

However, it all came apart without a problem and the removed boards were placed on deck for sanding. Even though we had lifted fewer than half of the floorboards they still seemed to take up lots of space.

This was particularly apparent when it came to finding space to lay them out down below so that they could be varnished. We stripped out the aft cabin and placed the larger boards there, with some of the smaller boards laid out in the saloon. All of the mattresses and cushions were crammed into our cabin so that there was room to move. Why all of the hassle of varnishing now? Well, primarily because the weather is perfect for it. It’s warm and the air is dry; far better than it is likely to be at the beginning of next season. If the weather stays fair, each coat of varnish should dry pretty quickly which means that Nicky should be able to get the subsequent coat on after the minimum drying time (4 hours). Ultimately, the varnishing should be completed in the least amount of time and, because the air is dry, the varnish should dry to a good strong finish more quickly than it would in the spring too.

Órmos Aléxandhrou   

With the prospect of 10 coats of varnish to be applied we knew that we could be in Órmos Aléxandhrou for several days. However, the bay is open to the southeast and in the afternoon the wind swung around to come from that direction. The other yachts moved to more sheltered spots leaving us on our own in the anchorage. A glance at the forecast showed that southeasterly winds were likely to be the trend for the next few days so we too decided to move on. Dancing across the exposed beams with the saloon sole up is not a game to be played in any sort of sea [Ed: more to the point, rolling around in a goodly swell whilst your freshly varnished sole boards are balanced precariously on tins is not going to earn you Brownie points from the varnish-monkey!] so we decided to move just a short distance up into Porto Kheli itself and re-anchor in the calm of the bay there.

Órmos Aléxandhrou, Greece