We were stuck in Chalkida for a week – with the meltemi not easing up. Aghios Stefanos was calm and protected, but nothing there to do and nothing to see. We couldn’t wait to get going again and were watching the weather situation closely.
We decided to leave the following Tuesday 3rd October, with no specific destination in mind but with more opportunities on the Southern side of Evvia. We didn’t leave until 13h30 and just wanted to make a few hours hop further down. It was cold and it was clear the Autumn had set in now – but the sun was out so not a bad start.
Very soon however things changed again – we had heavy seas for the last few hours with wind on the nose and a lot of spray. It was clear we had left a day earlier than we should have done for the forecast but wanted to make a head-start and just battle through the last couple of hours which we expected. We are trying to grab all the weather windows as we’re really running late to get back to Preveza at this rate!
We decided to head for the small harbour of Boufalos – Ed had been there with the dinghy earlier in the summer to drop rubbish when we were at anchor in Ormos Sikias, which was just around the corner. It had been very busy then but by now we expected it to be empty – which it was. The harbour is pretty small and it’s a pretty little village. Unfortunately, the whole town was shut down and none of the restaurants or shops were open at all. We had taken the opportunity to go on land and were looking forward to a restaurant meal, but ended up scratching a meal together back in our own galley.
Despite being deserted, we decided to take a day of rest – the next stage is going to be a big jump towards Athens.