Leaving Lesbos 12th September

It's been a lovely few days around the bays and coves of southern Lesbos - back to clear water, swimming and exploring. You do see some strange sights in unexpected places - looking up the hill in an isolated cove, we spied this WWII tank, clearly visible to us, but camouflaged from the road - see pic! We came to Plomarion, a 19th C town with cobbled steep streets and Turkish-style houses with wooden balconies. The smell of pine and chestnut is all pervasive down here. It was very gusty as we approached with the wind sideways on to the quay and not a soul around to take lines. The quay was quite high too so leaping off upwards across a gap with a warp is a bit of a challenge. With only two people on board, one on the anchor, one driving, need a third to leap. So R on anchor, W driving, R racing back to drive as W leaps, secure one warp with W now stuck on shore, R races forward to tighten up on anchor to keep us off quay. We made it, but will admit to a little scrape of gelcoat on the stern of the boat - poor boat. R is repairing as I write.

One way and another, we have spent a lot of time on Lesbos. It is large, verdant and very beautiful. It has also been a salutary experience and an education, to have been here in the thick of a humanitarian crisis and refugee migration, the like of which I have not seen in my lifetime, and which we suspect is only the tip of an iceberg. Currently 25,000 on a little island. So far there is a huge amount of goodwill. As numbers increase, delays happen, disease hits, rubbish mounts and autumn rains come, flashpoints will occur and we fear the tensions on all sides will erupt. We hope not… The Greek authorities have finally provided more people and run marathon 24 hour non-stop registration sessions. A couple of extra large ferries have been co-opted to speed up the onward passage to Athens and beyond. But the numbers are increasing all the time.

It is now time to go, and we wish the island well. We had a good forecast for Saturday, so after a visit to the bakery and an inspect of the local fishing boat's wares, we set off. Forecasts are only forecasts after all. We started out with a F1 easterly (motoring) that slowly improved to a F3 then 4 SE. Sailed (slowly) until lunchtime. On the nose and died, back to an hour's motoring. Then it picked up once more and continued to round the clock SW to W, to end up with a NW F7 so that we had a rollicking last few hours with a building sea and impressive speeds (8.5 knots) - surfing down to Chios. Now back in the little very sheltered non-marina of Chios marina with its view of windmills - all is calm in here; over the breakwater, the seas are still frothing and the wind howling. It is due to calm down later - for now we can visit the town, put on another layer of gelcoat repair and plan next moves. Maybe Samos.

P.S. The "hurricane" experienced in Mytilini apparently recorded wind speeds of 87 knots! Yikes.
P.P.S. Hugh W, if you are reading this, don't laugh, I know 8.5 knots is pathetic compared with what your designs achieve!