Travels with S/Y Thetis


Thetis only

2009: Excursion in Samos

This web page contains the logs of a 3 day sailing excursion that I and my wife took with S/Y Thetis in the Eastern part of Samos, Greece. The exursion originated and ended in the Samos Marina.

The logs are illustrated with maps and photographs. They also include links to other related web sites.

Route in E Samos
Excursion in Samos

Tuesday July 7, 2009, Day 1

Alice an I slept in Thetis last night. We had invited Andrew and Karin from S/Y Cresswell Jenny to Kalami for ouzo and to watch the sunset. We then all went to dinner at the Kotopoula in Vathi and then drove to the marina.

When we got up this morning we prepared Thetis for departure: we put up the tent, the sprayhood, and the bimini. A week ago I had brought Despina, our cleaning lady, and while she gave Thetis a thorough cleaning, inside and out, I filled the water tanks. So now everything was set to go. Before departing we briefly docked at the fueling dock and re-filled the tank and 2 jerry cans with Diesel fuel, all together 94 L (97 €).

We departed from the marina at 0955 and headed E to the Mycale Channel. The wind was 10-15 knots ENE, once again this summer a headwind, and we had to motor. After 10.5 M we arrived at the little bight under Zoodochos Pigi [37° 46.3' N 27° 03.3' E] at 1150. We anchored in 6 m depth with 35 m of chain but the wind was constantly changing direction and it was gusty.

We had lunch and swam but by 2 PM we were drifting uncomfortably close to the rocks. Although the mountain here is very steep, we were practically touching the rocks although we had at least 4.5 m under our keel. At 1455 we raised the anchor and moved to nearby Mikri Lakka [37° 45.5' N 27° 01.6' E] 1.8 M away. We arrived at 1520 and anchored in 5 m over a sandy patch letting out 40 m of chain. There were no other boats here.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening swimming and reading under the tent. I am currently reading, on the Kindle, The Cruise of Thetis a nice novel set at 1868 the time of the Cuban uprising from Spain. For dinner we made pork cutlets and served them with a potato salad that we had brought from Kalami.

Around 9 PM we were rewarded with the rise of an enormous red full moon rising from the Anatolian mountains. This was the purpose of this excursion and the reason why we were strategically anchored in Mikri Lakka.

Wednesday July 8, 2009 Day 2

It was a lazy morning. We put up the tent and raised the anchor at 1010. We motored 1.8 M back to to our bight under Zoodochos Pigi [37° 46.3' N 27° 03.3' E] where we anchored at 1030. This time we dropped the anchor in 15 m depth with 40  m chain good enough to hold us and to accommodate the usual wild swings and to keep us away from the rocks.

We swam, had lunch, read etc. until 1605 when we departed heading back to Mikri Lakka [37° 45.5' N 27° 01.6' E]. We anchored in 8 m depth with 45 m of chain at 1640.

We spent another pleasant night. For dinner we had pasta with fresh tomato sauce which we had made in Kalami with our own tomatoes. The moonrise was lovely although later then yesterdayʼs. There were gusts.

Ouzo Time
Alice

Aliki

Vasilis

Vasilis

We departed Mikri Lakka at 0730 after putting up the tent. The wind was 5-10 knots from the ENE. We motored 9.7 M back to the marina [37° 41.4' N 26° 57.4' E] arriving at 0850. I had called them ahead on VHF channel 9 but as we were entering the marina we were told that another boat was occupying our C11 berth and we were to wait until another boat vacated C7. It took almost for ¾ of an hour until we were finally moored.

Andrew and Karin from S/Y Cresswell Jenny were getting ready to leave. They will be flying back to the UK tomorrow.

It was a nice excursion.