Mani, Limeni Bay to Yithion via Porto Kayio

Yithion is a large town right up in the hilt between the two peninsulas. A place similar in size as Kalamatta with power water and important supplies, but described in the ‘Book’ as nicer than Kalamatta. 

Porto Kayio is a safe haven that breaks the 45 mile journey from Limeni to Yithion in half.

The sail to Porto Kayio involved rounding the bottom of the long peninsular, so two different directions in a 25 mile sail. SE to start in a 15knot SW wind on the starboard beam which heralded the Gennaker (big sail otherwise known as a ‘Screamer’ that extends from the bow to three quarters of the way to the stern). It is lightweight and beautiful when full and if sailing in the right direction will shade the entire boat.

Now the new name for the Mediterranean is the 'Motor'terranean because within 30 minutes the ‘screamer’ was back in the bag, motors on in nil wind….. again.

Difficult to capture on an IPhone but this is up the mast
between the Gennaker above and Main below

An hour later we rounded the point, headed east for a short while and then as we turned NE toward Porto Kayio the SW wind began to lift and out came the Gennaker once more. This was a fun ride as we rounded the point with two other yachts that we’d steadily reeled in under motor. Once we rounded all sails went up and the catamaran did its thang!

We expected the bay to be free of other yachts as we were now a long way from touristville and we’d seen so few boats in the past few days. On arrival in the bay we were surprised to see seven yachts at anchor with two more behind us. It is a large bay, so no matter, in fact it was good to see them. In this part of the world there are no flotillas or bare boat charters, just like minded ‘live aboard’ owners with time on their hands. The ‘book’ warns of a rocky bottom here making anchoring quite difficult and therefore entertaining for the already comfortably anchored audience.

Four times we dropped anchor, reversed, dragged, stopped, retrieved, moved, dropped anchor…. As a couple of Kiwi’s in a dingy came by to take the piss!

They’d had the same problem and have since become good friends in this and subsequent anchorages.

Just one night here, a good meal in a very friendly taverna (one of Sally’s pick for ‘Tripadvisor’) and a longish wait in the morning for the veggie truck to arrive from the hills overflowing with fresh, organic, inexpensive produce.

A photograph of Adda, the restaurateur for Tripadvisor who suddenly became very self conscious and asked Sally to wait while she went inside She popped out looking pretty much the same as when she went in?

At 1:00pm weighed anchor and headed for Yithion due north to the hilt.