Logbook: Chalkidiki – Skiathos

For our latest sailing adventure we were fortunate to do a 10-day oneway charter from Chalkidiki • Sithonia peninsula to Skiathos, just before the regular yacht charter season, during the last weeks of April.


Since this would be the maiden offshore voyage for our 2 year old daughter, plus we had a pregnant lady on board we thought that it would be wise to leave out Thasos – previous route, see dashed lines below – certainly leave out Lemnos and sail more or less directly south into the National Marine Park of Alonissos.

Overview map sailing vacations Northern Sporades
Overview with start + end at Thessaloniki Airport.
  • Taxi from Thessaloniki to Chalkidiki
  • Sailing Chalkidiki – Kyra Panagia – Alonissos – Skopelos – Skiathos
  • Ferry from Skiathos to Volos
  • Taxi from Volos to Thessaloniki.
  • The dashed lines show the previous route 14 days cruise • no child.
  • Ideally the flight home would have been from Skiathos (or even Volos),
    except these smaller airports only offer useful flights during the summer season.

Day 1   Taxi Thessaloniki – Sithonia

After a surprisingly relaxed flight – with the toddler still in good spirits – we landed at the Airport of Thessaloniki.
The next step was a 1½ hour drive with a taxi to Nea Marmaras that turned out to be a lovely small village just north of Porto Carras “marina”.
In this rather horrid port we would, the following morning, board our lovely sailing yacht “Irene”: a twin rudder Bavaria 46 from 2021. The 4-cabin lay-out meant that there would also be a playroom for a certain little girl. At an extra fee of €100 we got a kids safety netting installed around the stanchions and guard rail – although they forgot the crucial aft section.

During the taxi ride we admired the countless olive groves in these famously verdant valleys. Another constant were the incinerated orchards and trees, scorched by forest fires that plague Greece during the increasingly desiccated summers.

After checking in at the apartment “EVDOKIA” we had dinner at “Ta Kymata” (Kyma κύμα means “wave“, Kymata is plural) on the waterfront of Neos Marmaras port. Martijn immediately took advantage of the local olive oil expertise and bought a 10 lt metal vat from the waitress.

With such as small group this time, just 2 couples and a young toddler, there was relatively a lot to organize for each of us. Martijn and Robbert took care of the whole dry part of this trip: the apartments in Volos and Neos Marmaras, the ferry crossing, the two long taxi journeys, the flights, restaurants, etc.
Rozemarijn had by far the most important task: being pregnant, and Diederik skippered the yacht safely between anchorages and ports finding the best beaches and wildlife.

During manoeuvres Robbert and Martijn handled the dinghy, fenders and stern anchor, while Rozemarijn managed the bow. The little one and the skipper remained at the helm.

Day 2   Porto Carras – Porto Koufo

The superfriendly lady of EVDOKIA’S | COMFORT APARTMENTS ✉ refused to call us a taxi, and insisted bringing us and our bulky sailing bags in her own car to Porto Carras. This marina turned out to be a faded glory offering berths to quite a few super yachts next to a dated 1970's conference center and resort.

The handover of our sailing yacht was confusing and very time consuming despite that we were the only ones: the port was nearly completely depopulated.

The yacht owner kindly called ahead to a port official in Porto Koufo to reserve us a berth alongside the fishing pier. Finally, at 13:40 we were able to cast off.

The little one got secured in her Besto Turn Safe 150N Life Jacket as a southerly 16 knots permitted us to hoist the sails directly outside the marina. We started beating to windward along the coast in the direction of Sithonia's south cape Ampelos and were regaled by dolphins within the first hour of our cruise!

Despite being guaranteed that the tanks were filled to the brim, we discovered that one fresh water tank was totally empty with no good options to replenish in the week ahead.

Route map of the Chalkidiki sailing Northern Sporades
First stretch of our route – sailing around the Sithonia promontory of Chalkidi, with gorgeous views of Mount Athos.

Astonishingly, Mount Athos is so immense that the summit could be seen in the Toronaic Gulf over the low mountains of the Sithonia peninsula.

We did a leisurely 6.5 knots on average and at 15:15 we saw the protective cliffs giving way to the bay and port of Porto Koufo.
Once inside this natural harbour it took nearly half an hour to motor to our berth at the very north side along the fishing pier. We moored behind a French privately owned sailing yacht.

At 2 o'clock in the morning we were woken by a shouting fisherman (or monger) who assaultively told us to leave since there was a fleet of fishing trawlers due in 10 minutes, a surprise since our charter company promised us that this wouldn't happen.
The French couple pretended not to be on board, ignoring all the intimidatory remarks.
As often is the case it turned out that the trawlers can raft up, and we didn't need to leave our berth, yet the ensuing noise of unloading fish and deliveries of bait and fuel kept us awake for several hours.

In the morning all was suddenly serene again, and we do hope that we hadn't been a huge hindrance to the fishermen.

The local mini-market proved to be well stocked and aside from the usual provisions we bought a stupendous amount of water bottles: this meant some serious powerlifting to get all the water to the yacht.

The weather forecast was 6 – 18 knots around cape Psevdokavos; the cape directly east of cape Ampelos. The French couple were also heading for the Singitic Gulf / Mount Athos Gulf on the other side of the Sithonia finger, but they weren't happy with the weather forecast. We on the other hand thought it would be safe and comfortable enough and decided to leave the Toronaic Gulf / Kassandra Gulf behind.

Day 3   Porto Koufo – Sikia

In the secluded Koufo bay the wind was just 3 knots south, hard to imagine that winds in the Mount Athos Gulf could be so much stronger.

At 11:30 we were already rounding cape Psevdokavos, with NE 22 knots against and higher waves to match these conditions. Mount Athos was difficult to discern in the nebulous vapour.

Soon afterwards there was vomit – our baby girl was the first casualty, and Rozemarijn followed suit. “Why are the waves so high and angry” asked the little one, or was it my imagination, regardless the skipper (me) felt deeply remorseful.
Fortunately, Robbert and Martijn were truely effective seafarers, Rozemarijn the perfect super mum, so we battled on until we had Kalamitsi abeam at 12:36, progress was slow…

The crashing waves around the treacherous Chinoi and Skepes rocks and reefs were easily spotted, and we gave them a wide berth. Another close encounter of a pod of dolphins helped us forget our “mal de mer”, as we entered the wide Sykias bay.

When we arrived at the extended pier of Sykia aka Pigadáki at 14:00 we found zero sailing yachts docked or at anchor. In fact, we hadn't seen any other yacht at all since leaving Koufo.

Since the wind dropped – as forecast – to a NE 1 Bft, barely 4 knots, I decided not to try the rope-infested inside of this mini port, instead parked temporarily alongside on the outside of the pier: a lee shore and therefore always a bad idea.
A closer inspection of the inside revealed even more prop-fouling-hazards with abandoned fixed moorings, buoys, floating lines everywhere. Furthermore, it was sad to see that the best 3 – 4 stern-to berths where obstructed by a single daytripper boat that seemingly had been left to rot there.
The greatest disappointment was however the still unfinished toilet building, and the nonactivated water taps. The building was nearly finished but already in disrepair.

Eagleray–2 warned that the tip of the pier had chains extending from it, making it an unsuitable spot, certainly with a twin rudder sailing yacht. But at close inspection these chains were pointing more downwards than outwards, so – hooray – we went alongside on the tip, the pier was just wide enough to accomodate a 46 ft yacht.

The last time we visited Sykia we went stern-to at the tip, and since we were more or less at the same spot (ignoring the extension) we decided to eat at the same taverna as well: “5 steps in the sand” where from the terrace we had stunning views across the bay and our solitarily sailing yacht. After a delightful dinner the boys had a sweet stroll to Prassou beach which offered a clear view over the Gulf and Athos.