Ayvalik Archipelago

The forecast was for W3 - a gentle reach. But we’re hard on the wind with two rolls in the genoa beating into a NW5 wondering if we’ll make the approach into Ayvalik without being blown onto a lee shore.

This is serious - we've got the chart out!

After a salty three hours we ease off the wind and relax, entering the narrow channel into the sheltered water of Ayvalik ‘lake’ to drop the sails inside.

We’ve just spent a sociable few days with our Swiss friends Mike and Corinne on Cleophea and Agios Nikolaos friends Mike and Annie on Kandeed who are sailing in company with them.  We’ve gone our separate ways again now - they to Halkidiki and us to Ayvalik. We wish them fair winds and good sailing. 

What could be better - dinner with friends

The large enclosed lake at Ayvalik and the offlying islands form an attractive archipelago that promises sheltered cruising and a variety of secure anchorages. It is the furthest north we’re going this season. When the wind goes northerly again we’ll start heading back south.

With no sign of the southerlies abating we anchor in a little bay off Camlik Koyu. The mussel beds marked on the chart have gone, leaving a pleasant inlet with all-round shelter. At the head of the bay lies a holiday village and two small hotels. A scattering of blue beach umbrellas line the narrow beach which this early in the season has very few holidaymakers. The place is ideal to stay while waiting for a favourable wind. Ashore there’s most of what we need - a small kiosk selling fresh bread and other staples, toilets and an outside shower, walking trails that meander over wooded hills that surround us.

A calm day in the Ayvalik archipelago

 While it’s still calm one morning we climb a steep conical hill known as the Devil’s Table from local folklore which tells of devils meeting here to drink and make merry. At the top there’s not even an empty beer can to be seen, but we enjoy a good view of all the bays and islands that make up the archipelago.

Devil's Table hill from the anchorage