Please follow us to the police station!
38° 22′ 5.4588” N 26° 7′ 51.6216”
October 20th 2021<
In the skipper’s birthtown, Viborg, it was a standing joke among us children that the city’s best slot machine was the city’s police station. If you threw a stone in through a window, a policeman automatically came out of the gate.
This is also the case in Greece.
If you send a complaint to the Greek Ombudsman in Athens about an assault committed by the Greek Coast Guard on the island of Chios, a police officer will immediately stop by your boat and ask you to follow him to the police station.
The night before, we had emailed a complaint, that the crew of a vessel from the Greek Coast Guard had moved our sailboat without asking permission, having done so in such a lax way, that the moving has drawn marks on the side of our boat from rusty metal rings and old car tires and finally that they have fastened the boat in a way so sloppy, that it is sure to get additional damages. When we arrive – alerted by other sailors – we are furiously rejected. “This is Hellenic Police. Police business.” Their business is that they have laid their boat longship behind ours, and their power cable is too short to reach the power stand.
At the police station, a classic game with “bad cop” and “good cop” takes place.
The first two police officers go hard on us: “Why were you not in your boat, when a storm warning was issued?” The storm warning was valid from late in the evening, while the episode took place in the afternoon in sun and quiet weather. “It is the coast guard’s fixed place in case of storm warnings“, they continue. It is said nowhere on signs, and the harbor master has been at our boat to receive payment for space and electricity. “You must understand that when you complain about us, we also have to open a complaint against you.” No, we do not understand that.
Then another officer comes in. The good one. “Do you want coffee,” he asks and tells us that he is a fan of Danish football, Michael Laudrup and Peter Schmeicel. The mood eases.
Then comes the very head of the region’s Port Police in stiff and ironed, chalk-white uniform with two rows of medals on the shirt chest. He regrets our meeting with his people the previous day. Uses the word sorry. Still, he thinks our complaint is unfair. The crew we complain about are heroes. They rescue sick children from remote islands, and they have rescued thousands of refugees in small boats. “Why have you complained to Athens? Do you not know what such a case will mean of ministerial involvement and lots of negative attention? Why create an image of Chios as a bad place? We need tourists.”
We say that we have full respect for that kind of heroic effort. But even heroes need to behave properly in the meeting with citizens like us.
We discuss the situation at Ronja for a few days. Skipper’s wife has a big and forgiving heart, where skippers are more like a tough nut. The big heart wins. We write to the ombudsman, cancel the complaint and sail further south towards new adventures.
The miracle on Psará
38° 32′ 33.0396” N 25° 33′ 48.996” E
October 16th 2021
Where is Manoli?
On the Greek island of Psará, it is agreed that the retired sailor, Manoli, will be the best at solving our engine problem. The message spreads faster than a Facebook post, word of mouth, from neighbor to neighbor, among the island’s 400 inhabitants: Find Manoli!
The island of Psara is described as the most remote island in Greece. It takes between six and nine hours to get to and from the island with a daily ferry depending on how many stops the ferry makes along the way. One-day tourists do not exist. We are two foreign sailboats in the harbor.
After a day of ten hours sailing in high waves and wind directly against us, we have had engine problems. During the last two hours of sailing, the engine loses speed again and again, and only with the help of sails at the closest possible angle do we reach port. Skipper’s wife’s heart beats so high, we can barely concentrate on holding the course.
There is no mechanic on the island. So we start the morning by asking a couple of fishermen and some local people at the harbor café: “Do you know anyone who can help us with an engine problem?” And then things moves fast. During the day, we constantly bump into people who say, “Well, it’s you with the filter problem. You must find Manoli. ”
The next morning, Manoli is standing on the dock with his younger friend Andrea, and they throw themselves over the engine, open fuel filters, turn off fuel pipes to see if there is free flow, listen to the engine at various revs, discuss loudly in Greek and ask questions to us about the quality of our diesel, about the height of the diesel in the tank, and whether we have been out in raw weather.
After two hours, they make the diagnosis: Some filth has settled on a small filter in the booster, because we have been sailing in raw weather with low level in the diesel tank. Some dirt at the bottom of the tank has swirled up and is now sitting in the booster filter.
Fill up the tank, sail to the larger island, Chios, have a mechanic disassemble the booster and insert a new filter. We nod and ask how much we owe. “Nothing,” they both say. “We did not solve your problem”.
Maybe they did anyway. As we next day sail the 40 nautical miles to Chios town in high seas, we have no problems with the engine.
Small harbor with a huge format
38° 50′ 17.3472” N 24° 33′ 12.6972” E
October 11th 2021
Have you tried to call at Linaria on the Greek island of Skyros? You should try.
Every evening at 20.30 a large ferry slides into its berth and announces with a roar from its ship’s horn, that it has arrived. Immediately afterwards, the tones of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, is heard with as loud a sound as the ferry, answered from shore from loudspeakers placed on a mountainside.
This is how it has sounded every night for 20 years. The ferry is honking, the city is welcoming. With pompous, loud music. Like it was a lunar landing directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The citizens of Skyros are proud of their ferry. “We bought it ourselves,” says one Greek. “We all pay for it. Without a daily connection to the mainland, our island cannot function.”
Linaria is a very small port with room for just 12 guest boats, but we feel more welcome than usual. The harbor master sails to meet us, attaches his rubber boat to our bow and drags us safely to the quay, where he gives us a Danish-language guide to the harbor, tells about the harbor’s book exchange scheme and about washing machine, dryer and “disco shower”, where you can listen to Greek pop music around the clock while showering in cold water.
A port does not have to be large to have format.
Think twice before you get married to a Greek man
39° 9′ 23.724” N 23° 52′ 58.9836” E October 9th 2021 Jerk, noise and violent tilting. Our good ship, Ronja, is tearing at its moorings, while a wind from the northeast blows strong swells into the port of Alonissos. We do not get an eye closed all night. The next morning we move on. This port has too little shelter, when the wind is in the northeast. Too bad. Alonissos seems like a charming island with beautiful nature and a declared goal of becoming Greece’s greenest island. We manage to visit a Danish couple, Mona and Jørgen, who live on Alonissos and have done so for 15 years. Jørgen builds viking ships, fishing boats, merchant ships, warships and entire landscapes from materials, he finds along the beach. Equipped with saws and surgical knives, he creates one masterpiece after another. Impressively beautiful, they hang on the terrace and on every single wall and shelf in their small villa. Under the beds are a few hundred more works. Mona and Jørgen make up half of the permanent Danes on Alonissos. The other two are women. Both divorced. Mona’s conclusion: “Be careful with Greek men. They can be good as boyfriends. But think twice before you marry them, because then you will have their entire Greek family with you. ”
New toys onboard S/Y Ronja
39° 56′ 44.6424” N 23° 42′ 15.372” E
October 5th 2021
Land ahead! The good ship Ronja is on the move again. This time we follow a route through the Aegean Sea from Thessaloniki in the north to Leros in the south with detours to the Chalkidiki Peninsula, the islands of Alonissos, Skyros, Psará, Chios and many others. In Thessaloniki, we have replaced our 24-year-old and no longer completely sane navigation system with a brand new Raymarine Axiom – this is how toys and safety can go beautifully hand in hand. At the same time, we have had a diver down to scrub Ronja’s bottom free of the worst vegetation after a completely unusually hot summer. We are ready for new adventures.
Beaches of Halkidiki
40° 2′ 16.6956” N 23° 21′ 40.8996” E
17th July 2021
The Haldiki area is proud of its many fine beaches, particularly the ones on the three peninsulas, Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos. If you follow the recommendations of e.g. TripAdvisor, you will find many of the best. However, places with many reviews typically also has many guests visiting. Here is instead a one-family based comparison of all beach from Sani to Siviri – because we tried them all.
Sani beach
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The Sani area is very luxurious, with five star hotel resorts. The resorts own some parts of the beach, and unless you live there, you are unlikely to be permitted rent beach chairs. However, not all of Sani beach is hotel owned: for example the middle part close to the pirate themed bar, where external visitors also can get a beach chair. Regardless of location, the sand is of the same fine white quality all along, with virtually no rocks or pebbles. Together with Siviri, Sani is the place with most visitors, even when considering the longer length of the beach – it can still feel somewhat crowded. An advantage particular to this beach is that it is the only place where one can rent small sailing dingies.
Simantra Beach
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Simantra Beach is a part of the resort of the same name, but their beach chairs only occupy half of the long beach. Besides, they seem welcoming to external visitors. I don’t think they’ve had many visitors during the pandemic. We didn’t use the beach chairs, since our main goal was to rent a paddle-boat with water slide. They cost 15€ per hour, like at Sani beach. An advantage particular to this beach, which is also called Golden Beach, is the small turtle-pond, where dozens of small turtles lives. The kids really love to watch those.
Chelona beach
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The smallest beach, halfway between Sani and Siviri. As the only of these five locations, there is no hotel in the area behind the beach. The only facility is a small wooden beach bar named Χελώνα Beach Bar. They serve excellent slush-ice drinks and light lunch. I think this beach is the most charming, probably because it’s the one with the least amount of visitors. Also, I like that it is the only place open to serve water to early morning joggers. That’s because the bartenders sleep behind the bar in sleeping bags at night, and if they are anyway awake in the morning they are happy to chat. I think the people who works there really like the place and are proud of it.
Elani
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A small beach that is completely filled out with beach chairs from the local resort of the same name. As with Simantra Beach, however, they seem welcoming to external visitors. Probably the pandemic has also limited their number of guests. If you go here, pay attention to the complex beach chair numbering system and pick one that is not labelled as either “hotel” or “reserved”. There are two hotel-owned restaurants by the beach, we ate on the one on the small green hill north of the beach. They didn’t have any other customers, likely because of the big “entry forbidden” sign at their entrance (which we only saw on the way out).
Siviri
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Crowding-freedom ⭐
The long beach by Siviri town. Siviri is a charming vacation town, with many very good restaurants, which we enjoyed many evenings. They were always welcoming, no bookings necessary (unlike Sani) and they had nice service and delicious fish. Some younger members of the family felt we could have spent more money on the local Tivoli attractions (1-euro bouncing cars) and others preferred larger prawns. Charming, nonetheless. Also worth a special mention is the local SCUBA diving center, Seavery, offering proficient and safe service. Our 9 year old crew member tried her first dive here. So all in all the facilities of Siviri are topnotch. The beach itself we didn’t use so much, however. It seems awfully crowded and rarely did we spot a vacant rental beach chair, let alone a place that was not swamped with other beach goers. Also the water seemed a bit murky, which the local dive center biologist attributed to algae bloom due to exceptionally high water temperatures.
Transport
All five beaches can be reached by boat or car, the three middle ones however require some fairly rough driving. Drive carefully, particularly on the steep gravel roads. Additionally all beaches are reachable from their neighbors along coastal walking paths. The paths are strenuous, but spectacular. Don’t bring strollers or wheel chairs if you attempt these routes, but do enjoy the great views from the high cliffs. And if you like to run – it’s also great for that.
Kids are the best crew members
40° 34′ 31.476” N 22° 56′ 52.656” E
27th June 2021
Nellie is the first mate. Julian is a ship’s boy. They have sailed with Ronja every year of their lives and thus have nine and two years of seniority as visitors. They sweep the decks with high spirits, they live with us on the long voyages, and they spread a great atmosphere on board. Our two grandchildren arrive with their father in Aretsou Thessaloniki Marina. That’s the plan, we’ll be together for ten days. Jubii.
After a trip on the sea, the salt must be washed away
The father announces that he will have to work a lot for the first five days, and he leaves for a hotel in Thessaloniki, where he can write and hold online meetings. “Have fun with the kids!”.
Wonderful.
We always get closer to the kids when the parents are not with us, so we immediately set course for the Halkidiki Peninsula, eight hours sailing from Thessaloniki. Here we have chosen a completely superb beach. Clean, white sand. The clearest water and not a rock.
The place is called Sani and turns out to be very expensive with architect-designed hotel clusters and 26 top restaurants, where a Greek salad costs 22 euros compared with 6-7 euros in “normal” Greece, and where hotel guests are driven around the area with silent electric golf cars .
The place is ridiculously preoccupied with putting guests into different groupings, each having access to their selected parts of the delights. It feels a bit tasteless. But the beach and the water are amazing. And if you want to have fun with your grandchildren, then there is nothing like a beach full of play equipment.
We’ll be here a full week. A wonderful week where the children’s father catches up with us along the way and participates in the fun, while he still looks after meetings and deadlines at his job. After a wonderful week we sail back to Thessaloniki, where Ronja will spend the warmest summer months alone.
John Dillermand? Is he saying that about a Greek squid?
The fountain of youth
39° 5′ 13.812” N 23° 44′ 41.82” E
27th June 2021
It was in 1978 or thereabouts, back when we figuratively lived on love and spring water for an entire week on a beach on the island of Skopelos. Back then, the spring water trickled out of a rock crevice and let us fill our pots and mugs. Now we are here – after 43 years and a few days of detective work. A lot has changed, we dare say. The deserted beach has sunbeds, parasols, a shower and a beach bar selling drinks and spring water in imported plastic bottles. The source of our youth? We search every meter of the rock wall and only higher up on the mountain do we find it. It is still trickling, but it is laid in pipes, built into a wall and no longer looks like something that is part of anyone’s adventure. For us, however, it is still the source of youth. The memory of an adventure.
The breath of history
37° 35′ 53.3070” N 23° 4′ 29.717” E
15th october 2020
The city of Epidaurus on the Peloponnese is steeped in history. Since 400 years before the birth of Christ, people have made the pilgrimage to experience music and drama in the famous amphitheater and to be healed in the temple of Askeplio, which was the ancient version of a a health clinic. It’s a huge experience to see it. Both the amphitheater and the archeological excavations of temples and health hotels.
The amphitheater is remarkably well preserved, but also the small museum with the best of the excavated busts, tools and pillars is worth a visit. We are lucky it’s corona time. The world thinks that Greece too has been put down by the corona, so we have most of it to ourselves, and you can without hesitation stand up on the stage of the amphitheater and sing a song for your family, who is sitting on the 55th row and clapping gratefully, because the sound conditions are absolutely unique. While the song may not be spectacular itself, when song by yourself, it is at least remarkably loud, as if you are singing through a megaphone. The ancient Greeks really knew something about architecture and engineering
The port we are in is called Palaia Epidhaurus. Here Greeks sit from morning to evening on the pier and fish for squid, small fishing dinghies sail out early in the morning, and only a few yachtsmen find their way into the harbor.
It is strange to look at restaurants that have been built to accommodate maybe 100 guests at a time and now there are just four guests sitting. The season is coming to an end, and on top of this, the corona has knocked down the number of visitors to a quarter of normal. Only six out of ten hotels in Greece have reopened after the first wave of the corona, and these hotels have an average occupancy rate of just 30 percent.
Happiness is to moor in the middle of nowhere
37° 19′ 39.1500” N 23° 9′ 5.4480” E
5th october
Can you get tired of going to a restaurant? Yes, indeed. Some of our best meals are those that we get mooring in the middle of nature, close to scenic banks, far from the city lights and the traditional but also in the long run trivial Greek cuisine.
Right now we are mooring in a small bay off Porto Kheli. Our closest neighbors are two or three herons that have annexed a small island south of our anchorage. Otherwise there is no life as far as the eye can see. Only nature. Secret beaches and wooded hills. We swim out and see if our anchor has stuck properly. We enjoy the sunset and prepare a simple but tasty meal.
We had actually turned our bow to Porto Kheli, which is also part of the marketing package “The Greek Riviera”. But here they are even further from living up to that status. It is a Riviera under construction. A large marina has been built, but a guard sends us away. “This is private property”. Back is a city quay. It’s not inviting.
So back to nature, the swims and the simple meals. We chose one place. But there are plenty of opportunities in the area.
We would like to moor this way a lot more, but when we have been hoding back a bit, it is because we still do not have full confidence in Ronja’s energy supply after the 14 months of shutdown alone on land. The fridge puts out occasionally. The battery level drops, we feel insecure, whether the anchor winch and starter motor will obey. We must have seen it all through when Ronja is going ashore for the winter in Almira Shipyard, a little north of Corinth.