Macedonia, Mount Athos and Monasteries 2nd -10th July, 2015

We had a good crossing from Limnos to Khalkidhiki - 60nm, sailing fast for the first half, then the wind died and the engine had to go on. This is Macedonia, northern Greece with its own personality, terrain and weather. We are as far north here as Porto in Portugal, when we were coming down to the Med 7 years ago!

We aimed for the middle finger or peninsula, Sithonia, as it seemed more interesting than the far western one, Kassandra (quite built up and low-lying), and the far eastern one, Akti (or Mount Athos) is a restricted holy site. We spent a few wonderful, hot days exploring this area - it is green and wooded, hilly, fertile and with fjord-like inlets. There is not much habitation, just a few fishing villages and small resorts catering mainly for local Greeks, Bulgarians and other eastern Europeans. All the foreign boats we saw were either Bulgarian or Turkish - we are out on a limb here!

The distances are fairly large, the fingers are 20 odd miles apart at their tips, about 20 miles long and of varying widths top and bottom. Planning a trip to Mount Athos was a bit of a challenge, as it meant a day of a minimum of 45-50 miles and more like 60 at most.

Mount Athos has been a Holy Mountain for over 10 centuries - some of the early monasteries were built in about 970AD with more springing up in the 11th and 12th centuries with later renovations and re-buildings. The mountain is 2030 metres high, the peninsula in an autonomous republic ruled by the 1700 monks who live in its 20 monasteries. It is geographically and politically Greek, but fiscally and judicially separate - and now a UNESCO heritage site. The Orthodox monks come not only from Greece, but from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and others; but become automatically Greek citizens upon being allowed to enter an Order. About 17 of the monasteries can be seen from the west and east coasts. There are excursion boats that extract vast sums from the tourists and whizz down giving them a quick glimpse of 4 or 5 of them.

Rules: No landing on the peninsula. Boats must keep at least 500 meters off . The pilot book says yachts must keep 1 mile off (due to women on board?)! No women at all - it is only in more "recent" times that even female animals have been allowed (presumably for breeding and milk & cheese production) - not so back in the year 1060. Non-Orthodox Pilgrims (men only of course) can apply for a permit to visit for a stay of 4 nights in a monastery - only 10 permits a day are granted and they can take time to come through.

There are two types of monastic community: Coenobite (communal, members dress alike, share tasks and live from common, pooled resources) and Idiorrhythmic (members live apart and fend for themselves, providing their own clothing, food, etc.). Then there are the Anchorites (hermits who live alone in inaccessible little huts, Sarabaites (hermitages of 2 or 3 monks (they looked quite posh!) and Gyrovakes (vagabond monks). There did also seem to be monastic little "village" or hamlet communities.

So to our visit: we crossed from Sithonia peninsula to anchor off the little island of Ammouliani, a couple of miles off the top of the Akti Peninsula. This allowed a fairly early start next day - a bit of sailing in a non-forecast NE F5, then motoring as the wind died. We got in fairly close (within ½ nm, keeping an eye open for patrol boats warning us off) and tried to identify the various monasteries from our book as we went past. They were all different, from the rich colours of the Russian Orthodox Agiou Panteleimonos to the stark Simonopetra with its corbelling overhanging fresh air from its perch on the cliffs. We managed to see the 9 visible on the western side, the hermitages at the toe and the largest monastery Grand Lavra from a distance on the eastern side. We had the seas mostly to ourselves, it was slightly hazy and the whole mountain had a slightly other-worldly air.

Having got to the bottom, it was decision time. We had already done about 25 miles. It was another 30 up the other side, 20-ish to go back to the middle finger, or 35 to go NE, out of Macedonia, to the island of Thassos in the Region of Thrace. That was our preferred option depending on conditions.

We were cautious rounding the bottom, with a double-reefed main. The tip has a fearsome reputation for the winds that come howling down off Mount Athos and the wicked seas that get kicked up by contrary currents in even relatively mild conditions. We had super calm conditions as we started to round the bottom. But about 1 mile from the end, we suddenly had gusty conditions and lumpy seas with waves that were short and steep causing slamming. There was a 4th option - go southeast and head back to Limnos, a long and tiring prospect but with the wind. We decided this was a temporary phenomenon and pressed on. True enough, all again calmed down - first motoring in blazing heat and then being able to sail for the next few hours. Again, unforecast, about an hour from Thassos, the wind picked up again, we reefed the genoa as well as the main and saw blackness off to our left. A hot, dry squall hit, giving us a steady F7 (35kn). In these waters it is the sea state that stops you dead, it can go from a glassy calm to mega boiling in minutes. We were now a bit tired after 9-10 hours, we weren't sure which of the bays we had identified on Thassos would give us best protection given the unscheduled wind direction, but aimed for our preferred option. We saw fishing vessels on our AIS heading for the same place, so decided they locals must know. We reached the funny little resort and harbour of Liminaria - the little harbour was no good for us (shallow, littered with mooring chain and bits on the sea bed and full of small boats), so we anchored off the beach. We couldn't benefit from the harbour breakwaters, but the squall passed, the wind died completely and apart from residual rolliness, it was at least safe and secure. Hooray.

We felt we had had an adventurous day and something very special, to see Mount Athos in a way very few people have the opportunity to witness.