Sailing from Skiathos to Kavalliani, on the inside of Evia island, the second largest island in Greece.

When we left Skiathos we had two choises; we could sail on the outside of Evia, and on the inside, between Evia and the mainland. The weatherforcast said it would be windy so we made the choise to sail on the inside. We had good wind from Skiathos to Ormos Vathikelou, and we anchored there for the night. Watch the video to see how amazing the sail was!

Ormos Vathikelou

Ormos Vathikelou is a large bay with only some houses, maybe it is only holiday houses. We anchored in front of the beach and it was so quiet! It was nice to take the paddleboard ashore in the morning. We saw on google maps that maybe it was possible to do a hike along the shoreline so we wanted to try this in the morning while the temperature is okay.

The beach was nice but it was weed couple of meters from shore.

Not many people on the beach in the morning, only some locals.

Two other sailboats further into the bay, and also a boat on the bottom…

Someone is working hard…

In the beginning it was a nice trail through an oliveground.

With a nice view of the bay.

But right after this we had to turn, because it was no trail anymore.

Instead we walked through the oliveground up the hill, we saw it could be a possible trail…

It was okay to walk there, but you never know if you have to turn. But finally we reached the main road, so even if it was on asfalt we took that road back to the beach. Then I could run for a while.

We went back to the boat and sailed out of the bay to some small beautiful islands just some NM away. Unfortunately I don`t have any photos from there, but have a look at the video below to see us paddling around theese small island. I wanted to do more paddling in the morning so we could film with our drone, but 15 minuts after we woke up the wind picked up an it was too much waves..

Atalontonisi

So we sailed further on to the next island, Atalontonisi. It is a bigger island and they said there are some deers there, but we couldn`t see any. We saw some pheasant though. It was nice to paddling between the main island and the small one, and around the small one.

It was quiet to stay here for a night.

And we could film with our drone. Here is a film from this island, and also from the other island I wrote about further up in this post. Don`t miss the huge jellyfish!

Chalkida/Chalkis

The next day it was another wind direction so we sailed to the other side of the island and anchored one night there, before we sailed further south against Chalkis. It was sad to see the wildfire just north of Chalkis. It was two wildfires at the same time, and it was also a big one close to Athens. We thought we maybe should have a stop to avoid the smoke.

But we saw that the wind direction was good (for us) so we sailed to Chalkis.

But… it was raining ash… On the top of our bimini it was a lot of ash…

Astor went to the ticket office to pay for mooring and the bridge opening.

When we arrived in Chalkis we first moored on the right side (from north) but after talking to the ticket office we had to move to the other side, because a big yacht was coming in.

But it was also okay to moor on the other side, and we went out for dinner. We had to be stand by on VHF after 21.00 in case of opening the bridge.

It was also some other boats waiting.

It is a lot of restaurants along the dock so it was easy to find somewhere to eat. Actually we went to the same restaurants as last time we were here, almost two years ago. You can see the brigde over there.

I had a plan to go up to the hill on the other side the next day, but plans are to be change…

The sun went down and we were still waiting for the bridge to be open. It`s hard when you don`t know when it will be opened, only that it will be between 22.00 and 04.00…

You have to be waiting in the boat.

But finally, right after midnight they called us on the VHF to tell us to be ready.

Here is a video from the bridge opening:

I had a plan to stay in Chalkis for a couple of days to explore the town and maybe do some shopping. The next morning we took the dinghy ashore to go to the grocery store. We went to this beach were we asked if we could put our dinghy. It is also very convient to take the train from here to Athens, and we had to cross the railway to go to the grocery store.

After shopping we sailed to the next bay, because our friend told us there would be a huge market that day, perfect! It was another bridge but this one is high enough for us to pass.

Unfortunately we waited too long to go to the market, so when I came there it was finished.. It was not good holding in this bay so we decided to sail further south. So no exploring of Chalkis 🙁

Erethria

We had heard about Erethria and that was a perfect distance for the day. And the bay was beautiful and quiet.

Many boats were anchoring already but it was still enough space for us.

We anchored close to the beach, so we had a swim from the boat. It was so nice.

Many restaurants along the beach, and a nice beach.

In the evening we wanted to go ashore to explore a little bit.

It was almost sunset but still many people along the beach.

Maybe the nicest place so far on this journey? A lawn where you can relaxe or play ball!

There is a small island at the end of the beach with a small harbour.

We walked there to see this amazing sunset!

We didn`t walk around the island this evening, because it became dark and we headed back to the boat. We are not sure if this is an old windmill, or if it is a house just build like this…

Next morning we went out early to explore the island Pezonisi. Like many other places this is abandoned. Its called “the islands of dreams”, and the golden age was in the end of the 70`s.

A hotell with 52 rooms and 46 bungalows was build. It was also area with tennis, miniature golf, volleyball and table tennis, together with a restaurant, a beachbar and parking for 300 cars.

Until 2008 it was nice, but then they found some economic crime from the owner and he left the place, and everything was abandoned.

This could be an really amazing place, it is sad to see what they have done with the place.

But it is a lot of nice paintings though!

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There is some nice beaches on the south side so it is a nice place to go for a picnique and a swim.

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And a small tiny church.

A ferry sailed to the mainland two times pr hour, but it didn`t made any swell for us.

After walking around the island we decided to sail further south. It was so nice and quiet inside the bay, but outside it was windy and waves!

Kavalliani

Kavalliani was our next stop. This is another abandoned place. A strange place with a lot of roads with asphalt, and streetslights (with no electrisity…) They had a plan once to build up a resort here, but it stopped as many other places. But it is really nice to come to a place like this, you can walk 6 km around the island without seeing any other people. So we had a run/walk in the evening.

I thought it would be flat around the island, but it was uphill and downhill, some places pritty steep (to be a road).

At the southernmost part there was some houses, also abandoned, like this car…

On the south side.

When we came back to the harbour it was almost sunset. This harbour is like a swimmingpool with a million of small fish. It was nice to have a swim here after the run/walk.

It was many roads to explore!

The next day we were ready for another hike. It was some windy days so we didn`t want to sail anywhere.

Now we went to the other direction and up in the hill.

It was a couple of houses up in the hill, but also abandoned.

It was not a road everywhere, but we found a place to walk through.

I had only sunglasses with me so we had to go back to the boat before sunset.

The island seen from the boat after we left.

A strange tracking, but it was a nice walk!

The next day it was time to leave this island and sail to Karystos. It was a lot of wind this day as well, so it was nice when we arrived in Karystos!

The conclusion of sailing between Evia and the mainland; it is not nice! Well, it is a lot of nice places, but the wind can go fro 0 to 40 knots in a second! Next time we ran into a winefestival in Karystos and sailed further south to Lavrion.