Agia Marina for a change

Aeginitissa Bay is lovely. It’s familiar and convenient until the wind decides to blow from the north or northwest. After a few tranquil days in our favourite spot, you guessed it, the weather forecast predicted uncomfortable winds from the north, again.

Considering a bolt hole or more sheltered spot, Methana and Perdika are both great but the idea of somewhere different appealed. The decision was made to head for Agia Marina, a resort town on the north-eastern coast of Aegina, on Wednesday 27th August 2025.

This is a place that we have visited (by road) many times but never in high summer.  Agia Marina in the off season is pretty dispiriting. In common with much of Greece, nearly all the businesses along the two main streets close, apart from a small supermarket. The beaches are empty and it feels like a ghost town. The only restaurant that is reliably open is Kiriakakis, which overlooks the bay. It’s worth visiting Agia Marina just for their moussaka.

If you eat here in winter a lot of kitties will want to be your friend. One lunchtime in November 2022 we counted 26 cats milling around our table.

Sadly we couldn’t feed them all. I don’t recommend this place if you’re allergic to or frightened of cats. If you aren’t, there’s a collection box nearby to fund feeding and neutering the island’s many stray cats

BUT….this time was totally different.

First of all the approach.  Places look very different when you arrive by water, not just in Greece.

By road, the chances are your first impression will be of the scruffy bits at the edges of the place. For example, approaching Maldon, near where we live in Essex, all you see from your car is new build housing and Costa coffee shops. Similar in Agia Marina but minus the Costas, more’s the pity. Approach Maldon along the river and it oozes old world charm.

Arriving in Agia Marina by boat is stunning. The town is built on creamy white limestone cliffs.  The bay is wide and sweeping. The slopes above are green with trees and shrubs. The water was clear, warm and calm in shades of electric turquoise and navy.

I hadn’t been particularly excited about coming here but it was so lovely it would have knocked my socks off if I hadn’t been barefoot already.

When we arrived we had the bay to ourselves. A paradox of entering an empty bay for the first time is that you don't have any guidelines as to where the best spots are. If other boats are there you can get an idea from them, but as the first one to arrive you have to do the recce yourself.

We could have gone into the marina but then there would have been the whole ‘waiting for someone to crash into us’ routine which frankly I can live without.  

When you anchor people generally keep a reasonable distance from you. Maybe you need a little bit more sailing experience to anchor with confidence and this teaches you better seamanship in general? Whatever, it’s definitely much more relaxing to be ‘on the hook’.

A big plus for me is that there’s no wobbly passerelle to negotiate when you get on and off the boat. OK so you have to use the tender (small motorboat) to get to land but I don't find it at all scary here (unlike when we had to negotiate the same thing on the River Crouch in October with the wind against the tide ebbing furiously towards the North Sea).

We anchored in Agia Marina around midday, had a swim, had a sandwich and took it easy for the afternoon. By early evening a few boats had arrived, mostly monohull sailboats that looked like they were privately owned rather than the ubiquitous chartered catamarans.  It was very peaceful.

We swam again, dressed and got into the tender to go and get some giros for dinner.

Agia Marina has a big, recently built marina quay. We’ve been watching its progress for the last couple of years. First we saw the concrete pontoons being laid. A few months later and the wiring for the electricity supply was poking out of the concrete. On the next visit it looked exactly the same.  We visited in the winter, much of the concrete had been excavated, it looked as though the work hadn’t been done properly and was having to be rectified. Last time we came, in March I think, the electricity still hadn’t been connected. We were curious to know whether the work would ever be completed. Now we would find out.

The quay has an area for parking tenders. A short stainless steel ladder is fixed to the wall so it’s easy to climb up to the quayside. Another tender was tied up and had been blown the across the ladder but it was simple to push it aside. Some people have complained that the ladder was awkward or inadequate but they obviously aren't as fit as Igor and me!

It was great to finally stretch my legs after being on Libra since yesterday morning. We wandered along the main street and bought our giros.

Igor had read about a Mexican restaurant in town, which turned out to be right opposite the giros place.  We decided to check it out tomorrow.

A short walk down a narrow sloping street led to a beach with a couple of handy rocks by the water’s edge for seats. A sign boasting about the water quality had fallen over.

The beach was narrow but stretched all around this side of the bay. There were still people in the water despite the setting sun but it wasn’t crowded. The sand was pale, the whole place was lovely in the fading sunlight. 

We ate our giros and knocked back a can of beer each. By the time we finished it was practically dark.

It was a short walk back to the quayside. A little shop selling souvenirs was open with an interesting selection of items. Talk about sacred and profane.

Once on the quay we went for a wander to see if the work on the new marina was finished. Pleased to report that it is, the power and water supplies were connected and seemed to be working. Lots of boats were tied up, some smaller, many larger.

We had a good look around. I noticed that the quay wall was quite a bit higher than the deck level of most of the boats which meant that the passerelles were at a fairly alarming angle going down to their boats. Very happy not to be dealing with that!

When we reached the tender some other people were trying to get to theirs which was tied up next to ours. A woman in the group was English and said we should leave first (After you. No, after you. No, I insist after you!). As soon as we were out of the way it was straightforward for them to get into their boat and set off.

We had a very quiet night at anchor as we had hoped. I sat outside on deck working on this blog for a while, enjoying the warm breeze without the blistering sun.

The bumpy swell of the waves died out completely overnight so we slept like babies, the gentle rocking of the waves our cradle.

We decided to try the Mexican restaurant for lunch next day so once again took the tender to the quay. It was around 1.30pm. We had a chore, to drop our rubbish into the bins on the quay, then walked to the restaurant only to be told it didn’t open until 2.30 pm today. We plumped (no pun intended) for more giros and ate them inside the restaurant area of the place we bought them from yesterday. It was cool and breezy and the food was served very quickly.

Giros are a perfect meal for when you want something tasty, comforting, quick, cheap and not too big. Meat, bread, tsatsiki, tomatoes and chips, perfect. Maybe not a good idea to eat them every day but hey ho I’m on holiday lol.

After lunch we wandered back to the boat. We were going to walk along the shoreline but the sun was relentless so we went back to the boat. I had a nap, the heat was knocking me out.

Over the course of the day the bay had filled up. Lots and lots of boats, large, small, power, sailing, catamarans and monohulls. By the evening there were more than 40 but the bay was big enough and everyone was sufficiently courteous and skilful that there were no confrontations or arguments about crossing chains, bumps etc. Anchoring was definitely a good move.

We decided to eat dinner early so we could get back to the boat before it got dark. A swell had built up on the sea so Libra rose and fell as we clambered into our tender, but once in it we felt safe and steady.  

Bounce, bounce, bounce all the way to shore, then climb up the ladder and onto dry land. We’ve been on Libra so much the ground continues to move for us even though it’s still for everyone else.

We walked straight to the Mexican restaurant, which was open though we were the only customers. We ordered fajitas.

When we get fajitas at the Mexican restaurants back home they usually comprise a platter of sizzling meat slices, onions and peppers served with a generous portion of soft tortillas, salsa, guacamole and sour cream.

This place gave us a good serving of chicken, hot but no sizzles, with a few strands of peppers and onions. A serving bowl held 6 small tortillas between the two of us. The waiter presented us with two bowls of sauce, one dull green and one dark red, and warned us that they were very strong and spicy. There was also some shredded (very fresh) lettuce. No guacamole, no salsa, no cream.

I tried the green sauce. Didn’t really taste of anything. Tried the red one. Hottish, sort of tingly hot not burning hot, smoky flavoured. The chicken was pretty good but the bread ran out before we were halfway through the meat. A bit of a disappointment. I should have got moussaka from the restaurant up the road with all the cats.

We finished our dinner and walked back to the harbour as the sun went down. The water was still bouncy but it didn't put people off making the journey from the anchorage into town.

Boats continued to arrive and anchor but no drama. Another peaceful night.

Next day the weather forecast was that the wind would change direction so it was back to Aeginitissa Bay. We set off around midday. All the coves and anchorages which had been empty when we sailed here had boats in them now.

The superyachts were out in force. I have a habit of Googling those which look interesting. One, Life Saga, apparently belongs to a Russian oligarch who made his money in coal.

Another one we saw, Kalinga, belongs to a ‘collector of boats’, don’t give Igor ideas lol.

It was older, built in about 1980, with classic lines. There’s a very similar boat moored in Burnham, though it’s smaller, and it usually has a couple of very well looked after huskies lounging on deck. Much cuter than billionaires.

The wind picked up towards the end of our sail and from near Perdika we flew along at 7-8 kts. Too soon we were in Aeginitissa Bay so we carried on another couple of kms to Marathonas and anchored so I could hop ashore and buy provisions.

Once this was done it was back to our happy place, listening to the music from the restaurants nearby drifting over the evening air. Good to be back, we’ll be staying until the winds change again and then we’ll see where they blow us next.

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