39:57.51N 23:54.81E

Thursday 1st July

We left Limnos at first light and had a fabulous sail over to mainland Greece to an anchorage called Porto Koufo on the southern tip of the Sinthonia Peninsular.  A small fishing harbour with quite a deep anchorage approached through a narrow gap between spectacular cliffs it was almost an inland lake.  First yacht we saw at anchor was Wizard, first thing we heard was Bob shouting ‘Gin and tonic in twenty minutes’.  After an early start and a long day this was music to our ears; especially as he then brought his dingy over to collect us and the G&T lead into Singapore noodles and squid for supper.

We were followed into the bay by a Neilson charter boat which, rather alarmingly, ran straight at the beach and only stopped when it’s bows were over the sand.  This should not be possible without grounding the bottom of the keel long before the bows get anywhere near the beach.    The crew then stepped off the front and on to the sand.  Then another Neilson charter boat came in and did exactly the same thing right next to the first one.  Then nine more did the same thing.  They could have had lifting keels but an unlikely complication for flotilla boats.  We had to go and look.  The beach – that seemed to be a fairly gentle slope actually dropped very steeply just under the water line. 

It was quite a weird sight .......

Made all the more weird by what they did with their anchors.  Wrapping it round a park bench or putting it into a shrub is not the usual Royal Yachting Association approved method.