The Mamma Mia Islands: Skopelos and Skiathos

After the CA get together we returned to Loutraki on Skopelos so we could do some sightseeing.  Up the steep hillside from Loutraki harbour is the picturesque village of Glossa.  We worked up quite a red face climbing the steep path up the mountain and stumbled into Agnanti Restaurant where they immediately handed us a glass of cold water and then proceeded to wine and dine us.  This restaurant is a fantastic place with delicious food and the best of views.  After dinner on our walk back to Loutraki, we were treated to a stunning sunset over the Evia channel. 

View from Agnanti Restuarant

Sunset from Skopelos over the Evia Channel

The next day we did the short hop to the nearby island of Skiathos.  There is a great anchorage right off the main town under the fight path of the airport.  In our several days there we watched the charter flights come in, building in number from two a day to about eight.  The tourist season has definitely begun.  Skiathos has lots of sandy beaches (a rarity for the Aegean) and as such has become a Mecca for packaged beach holidays.  The town, although quite pretty, is full of touristy souvenir shops and restaurants offering full English breakfast in addition to classic Greek cuisine.  

Songster at anchor in Skiathos Town

The back streets of Skiathos

View of Skiathos Town from the hills

A bit of a tacking issue and flukey winds on this short hop

The main claim to fame for Skiathos and Skopelos these days seems to be that they were the setting for the film Mamma Mia.  The outdoor cinema in Skiathos shows the film three nights a week and on maps of the islands the specific sites from the film are marked. Boats and buses will take you around to the various locations on Mamma Mia tours (Glossa is the village where the hotel in the movie was located).  We watched the movie on the boat to see what all the fuss was about.  Although quite fun in many ways it did not portray Greece as more than some pretty setting.  We thought it could have been so much better if the local Greeks actually had some speaking roles and were more to the story than just a quaint background and a chorus to the singing and dancing of the Anglo main characters. 

 

The homes of Glossa village

The next morning gazing out from the cockpit I noticed that a nearby Kiwi boat was having some trouble pulling up their anchor.  An old rusty fisherman’s anchor and fishing net had gotten tangled around their anchor chain and they could not free it.  We decided to lend a hand and went over with our dinghy.  After a bit of head scratching it was decided to lower the anchor into our dinghy where we could untangle the mess. With lots of old towels draped over the dinghy the Kiwis slowly lowered the anchor into the dinghy.  This loosened the chain enough that we could cut away the fishing net and untangle the chain from around the cross bars.  The flukes of the anchor had rusted into razor sharp edges and both Bob and I were sliced up.  So muddy and bleeding we lifted the vile, rusty anchor onto the back of the Kiwis’ boat and while waving goodbye and their thanks they took the anchor to deep water to dump it where it would not cause any problems.  We never even got their names!

These old anchors look pristine compared to the one we untangled

 

Another day we hired a scooter to tour the island.  The roads were quite rough and a quad bike or car would have been a better form of transport.  Many of the beaches are only accessible on sandy tracks.  We made it to the north of the island where there are the ruins of the 14^th Century Kastro.  This fortified town was occupied from 1453 to 1830 when the threat of pirates had lessened enough so that the population could move to the coast into what is now Skiathos Town.  As with so many of the islands the Kastro was ruled by a succession of powers; first the Byzantines, then the Venetians and finally the Ottomans until Greek independence in the 19^th Century.  The views were magnificent.

The Kastro with the main gate on the far hill

The old mosque

Frescos in the church

Of course with any island excursion the ubiquitous goats

We spent a few more days on Skiathos.  We had a side trip to a pleasant anchorage of Koukounaries, occupied by visiting swans, including an Australian black swan.  Then back to Skiathos Town anchorage to wait out some nasty weather where it bucketed down and the poor dinghy filled with water.  Finally it was time to move on.

 

 

 

Poor dinghy filled with water from a heavy rain

The day of my birthday looked like the best winds for our next passage.  We had planned to sail to Skantzouria, a small uninhabited island halfway between Skopelos and Skyros.  The winds were quite fresh and we were scooting along at 5-6 knots with just the mizzen and a handkerchief of a genoa out.  Then the outhaul on the mizzen broke.  We pulled down the sail.  We could have continued on just the genoa but the seas were getting very choppy and we though discretion the better part of valour and turned into the small anchorage of Stafilos on the southern side of Skopelos.  

 

There we fixed the outhaul on the mizzen.  It turned out to be a fairly straightforward job – take down the boom, drill out some rivets, take out the blocks, whip the outhaul line back in place with a new pin on the block, then put it all back together.  It only took an hour or two.  It was a very nice location to do boat repairs and not too bad of a way to spend my birthday.

The anchorage at Stafilos

After a rocky rolly night with the swell coming into the anchorage we woke up to a Hellenic Navy warship at the mouth of the bay.  It was a Roussen-class fast attack craft complete with Exocet missiles – all a bit imposing first thing in the morning at a quiet little anchorage. Such is life on the high seas!

The P69 Krystallidis (Κρυσταλλίδης) of the Hellenic Navy in the early morning sun