Walk/Swim/Sail One Hundred and Twenty-Three – Spetse via Hydra to Poros

Woke up early and was looking forward to illustrating Spetse again at dawn but Robin wanted us to set off very early so that we could stop off at Hydra (another beautiful but overcrowded harbour) en-route to Poros.

Hydra was very tiny with huge ferries coming in and out of the small harbour entrance. Yachts were moored up three out bow to stern. We luckily found a small space near the entrance of the harbour at the end of the stone jetty. The lead boat was moored up there – so we hurriedly deflated the dinghy that we’d temporarily stowed on top of the bimini shade (a definite beer fine offense!). However the valve burst out and Flo jumped into the busy harbour straight away to retrieve it. Fantastic reflexes girl! The lead boat were leaving but as they passed they warned us that an even bigger ferry was due in at about lunchtime.

We had a walk around the town. I visited a beautiful pharmacy with all the old wooden shop fittings with enamel labels on every drawer and big blue bottles at inside the cupboards. Donkeys were tied up at the quay ready to transport everything from supplies for shops to building materials, through the narrow streets. We had coffee and ice creams and I drew. We then thought we’d better set off.

Lots of huge ferries had been in and out of the harbour so we thought we’d probably missed the worst. We manoeuvered the boat beautifully out of the harbour and were just about to raise the sails in the harbour entrance, when Xavier couldn’t resist the temptation to throw Fluffy the bear overboard. We did bear overboard drill as the holiday would have been unbearable without Fluffy, only to turn round and see a humongously huge ferry bearing down on us. We quickly nipped into the small gap on their port side and waved at the Captain who was shouting a traditional Greek welcome to us from the bridge.

We anchored at Monastery bay on Poros for a swim before we came into the harbour. We had been giving the older children rides in a ringo (a doughnut shaped inflatable) trailing from the back of the boat and Xavier was desperate to have a go, so we thought that this was a place that we could let him try. He was fearless and shrieking with joy at the fun of the experience, while we all stood at the back of the boat ready to rescue him if he fell out. He was furious when we eventually brought him back in.

I’d like to tell you that I walked up the hills to get this view of Poros, but we caught a taxi to a hotel with a swimming pool to enjoy some water without salt and to see the view.

Click on the pictures if you’d like to see them larger. More pictures from this day on will be on my other blog.