Taking Shelter in Simi

23 January 2024 – Panormitis, Simi, Greece

We eventually managed to extricate ourselves from Sitia, and even though it was a great sailing day we were sad to say goodbye, especially to Areti and our other new friends. Still, the trip to the island of Kasos was beautiful; we put up the spinnaker and I sat on deck and read. The port is quite small and we ended up putting out the anchor and Med mooring against the quay, with the anchor chain spanning the entire length of the harbour.

The town was amazing. There were only a few brightly coloured houses clustered around the water’s edge and nestled in between high, jagged mountains. We wanted to stay there longer but there was a strong north wind forecasted to be coming in the next few days and we had to head to somewhere protected. We might come back to Kasos later, though.

Chalki, another island, was about a day’s sail away. The harbour is pretty sketchy because it is open to the sea and small but also quite deep, so we had to put out a lot of scope on the anchor chain. This meant that Festina Lente’s stern was close to shore and if the waves picked up, there was a risk of us getting sucked into the wall behind us. We were prepared to leave early in the morning if that was the case, but after getting rocked to sleep we woke to find that the waves had lessened. Jonas caught three squid, which he and my mom made into calamari for dinner.

The town there is also super nice and a bit bigger than Kasos. The church has a giant pebble mosaic in its courtyard like a carpet. We again wanted to stay there longer but had to leave the next morning to get ahead of the north wind.

We settled on anchoring in Panormitis on the island of Simi for the blow because it has a well-protected bay and a lot of the wind is broken by the Turkish mainland, which is only ten miles away. We heard Turkish on the radio and could see its mountains in the distance. I barely even noticed that it was supposed to be super windy because it was calm in the anchorage.

There is nothing really here except for a large monastery in honour of Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Simi. I was a bit confused because there is a beautiful stone spire belonging to the monastery but the buildings surrounding it look more like they belong to a hotel or resort. Apparently, pilgrims are lodged when they come here on the feast day for Archangel Michael in November and the monastery can house up to five hundred people. Traditionally, those who wish to have their prayers answered leave offerings of model ships and brooms.

Aside from the monastery, there are what look to be a few abandoned military installations as well as some goats. The scenery continues to be amazing, with mountains dotted with olive and pine trees all around. It is very peaceful and quiet here; we have mainly been relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Relaxing on Simi

Sitia

Festina Lente