Apologies for my tardiness. I’ve been enjoying having Nicki a/k/a the Admiral on the boat so the blog has slipped a bit in priority. We started sailing slowly, exploring with a few nice places on Lesbos’ South Coast. The Meltimi period had been replaced by a period of light Southerlies and Westerlies - just like the Admiral likes it! After a night at anchor in the fjord called “Ormos Yera,” the first harbor we put into was Plomarion, a nice little town with a few tourists and a shitty harbor. Even with little wind, there is always some swell in the harbor and when we arrived, there were only two steadfast French cruisers in an otherwise deserted large harbor. Even the guy from the harbor police was asking me about the swell and volunteered that few boats come here because of the bad harbor. Well, at 4 am in the morning the swell had gotten much worse and the two French boats, one of them an older Amel, departed. I just pulled Kincsem a bit further from the Quai and turned back in. The reward was a very nice shopping run in the morning sunshine. In these more remote islands, shopping is often a challenge. Many “markets” or “supermarkets” don’t have any fresh vegetables or fruit so the hunt is on for the vegetable guy …. Buying lunch meats is also a challenge - we’re always looking for Italian packaged stuff which we prefer over the local fare. On the other hand, all manner of goat or sheep’s cheese is easy to get and usually quite good. But don’t ask for camembert …..

After Plomarion, we motored 20 miles West to Ormos Apoteka, a deserted place with a safe anchorage and two open tavernas. Not sure we picked the right one for dinner …..

So now we are in Sigri on the SW corner of Lesbos. There is no harbor but a couple of anchorages - one protected against Northerlies and the other one protected against Southerlies. Looks like the Meltimi is coming back so we’re in the anchorage protected from the Northerlies. Sigri has the “Remezzo,” one of the few restaurants recommended by our Rod Heikell cruising guide and we had to sample it of course. Now the World Cup has started and we watched the first Germany game at Remezzo. The innkeeper tried to hide it but it was obvious everyone in the place was more than happy to see the Mexicans win 1:0 over the (former) World Champions. I guess they don’t love the Germans here ……

Sigri also has the small, but very well done “Petrified Forest Museum.” The Western part of Lesbos has a large number of petrified trees which were formed over many millennia after the trees were buried in volcanic ash. The museum did a nice job explaining the process and had some fascinating pieces on display.