Chios Marina (unfinished marina), Chios Town, Greece
Route to town spring shown in orange
Not to be used for navigation
DESCRIPTION
The large harbour in Chios is described in Heikel as being unsuitable for cruising yachts, so we tied up in the unfinished marina a couple of miles north of town. If you choose this free option you should probably rent a car. The rental agencies in Chios Town will deliver a car to you and pick it up from the marina at no extra cost if you request.MOORING
The marina contains a number of finger piers, but during our stay all the cruising yachts side-tied on the inner wall of the breakwater in company with a couple of rusting ferry boats. Some of the mooring points are pretty rough so have your chafe gear handy. The marina is open to the south and would get choppy in a strong southerly (which is fairly uncommon in the summer).ASHORE
The area surrounding the marina is built up and contains several shops, including quite a good supermarket a few hundred yards south of the marina. To get to town however is quite a walk and we rented a small car for our explorations of Chios, which we were able to park on the breakwater next to our boat.FACILITIES ASHORE
WIFI: We were not able to pick up any unsecured wifi signals in the marina. There are several cheap internet cafes in Chios Town one block back from the harbourfront. Several of the harbourfront bars and Goodies fast food restaurant provide complimentary wifi to customers.UTILITIES: The marina has no facilities. There is no electricity or water in the marina. For your water needs we heard that a water tanker will deliver to the marina but were not able to find any way of contacting him. Possibly the harbormaster in Chios Town could have helped us here. Our solution, since we had transport, was to make a number of trips to the free town spring, where we filled up with lovely pure mountain spring water. The town spring is up the hill to the west of Chios town (turn west at the second BP station and just follow the road up the hill to the Monastery. 50 yards past the Monastery on the left (South) is the plentiful town spring. Be prepared to wait your turn with the many townspeople who still use this spring for their daily drinking water. The hardware store that you pass on the right, shortly before getting to the BP intersection, will sell you water containers at a very reasonable price.
GROCERY STORES: A good supermarket (Spar I think) on the road into Chios Town a few hundred yards south of the marina just past the hospital.