Late summer 2020, Sophie and I were sojourning in my hometown, Chalkida, capital city of Evia, Greece’s second-largest island. A mellow evening, I received an unexpected call from my old pal, Dimosthenis. To my excitement, he let me know that he was granted permission by his father to borrow his sailboat, and he suggested that we join him and his girlfriend, Angelika, on a week-long sailing trip in the Gulf of Evia. Nothing else was needed; I warmed to the idea straight away. In the next couple of days, we checked the weather forecast, prepared the boat, packed our stuff, went shopping, and spent a night in the boat, docked in Chalkida’s Vourkari Marina. Early next morning, we put to sea. Our first destination: Marmari village on the southern end of Evia Island.
It was a beautiful, sunny morning… only utterly calm. The entire gulf resembled a gigantic bathtub in stillness. We traveled by motor for some 4-5 hours until we reached Aliveri town, where we changed course to the south. A brisk east wind then blew from the Aegean Sea over the trunk of Evia. It was time to open sails. But that did not prove as simple a proceeding as it should be. We found the in-must main stuck. Employing crude clout, and shedding buckets of sweat, Dimosthenis managed to force it out in the end; only that it came with two holes. He hastily pulled it down and patched it on the spot with some tape. But when we tried to haul it again, the wind, which had grown pretty potent by then, rendered that impossible. The mainsail was out for the day. We unfurled the genoa alone, and letting the motor to assist at low revs, we sailed on a reach. Late afternoon, we arrived in the port of Marmari.
As soon as we were properly docked, we left the boat and entered the trunk of a van together with two locals. We were headed for a sunset dip and drink at Megali Ammos Beach, situated 2 km south of the village. This beach is a popular kitesurfing spot, owing to the famed winds that lash it. By the time of our arrival, the numerous surfers were having their last runs for the day, before the sun drops. We enjoyed looking at their freedom-inspiring flying over the bay’s turbulent waters. Darkness fell, the beach bar closed, we headed back to the boat for tea and a good sleep.
We spent the next two days in Marmari, doing not much, but chilling on the boat and the village’s beautiful beaches, having strolls around, drinking and playing music, and, very importantly, offending our stomachs with devouring the enormous food quantities we had supplied the boat with. Oh, and – I almost forgot – we fixed the main and had it ready for action.
On departure day, having planned to leave by 7 am the latest, we were out before 10. The wind was absent for the first hour or so it took us to come out of the bay and turn north, back through the gulf. There we caught some initial north gusts, which were soon blowing at a good 15-20 knots (lacking a functioning anemometer to tell precisely). The motor was off, all three sails unfurled, and the vessel was quietly gliding towards new latitudes. The wind coming straight from our destination, we had to meander a good deal and spend most of the day in the sea. Some 6-7 tacks later, at last, we entered the bay of Almyropotamos.
Receiving this privileged bit of information from Dimosthenis’s father (also during this trip referred to as the office), we spotted a fixed mooring buoy off the shore of Agios Dimitrios village, at the northmost end of the bay. The orange buoy is located at approx. 38.2799, 24.1391. We moored, had a dip, rested a bit, and dropped the dinghy in the water. Already dark, we took a trip to Panagia, the bay’s principal village, for a stroll and a drink.
We also spent the entire next day on the same spot rather uneventfully, save for a short hiking trip. Sophie and I passed on land in the morning and climbed to the mountain ridge for some stunning views of the bay and Argyros valley and Dystos Lake on the other side. A bit too hot for trekking, but it was worth it.
Shortly before noon on the next way, we set off again on our way back to Chalkida. Utter calm prevailed for most of the day, so we traveled exclusively by motor. Only in the late afternoon, being situated between Eretria and Oropos cities, did the wind finally blow again from the east. Engine off, sails up, and we sailed a broad reach the last leg of the trip, reaching up to 7.2 knots of speed. Shortly before sunset, we were berthed where we had set off from a week earlier.
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