2015-07-10 We have been here in Kavala since Monday. For would-be boaters that are considering visiting in the June-Oct period, the inner harbor is occupied by yacht club members and charter boats and the corner seems to be reserved for.

The daily fishing boats that go out at night and come in the next morning. As you enter, with the inner harbor dead ahead, there is a quay wall on the west side facing south that has in some places steps coming down from the wall.

These spots are usually reserved for Kalava people who cannot get a place in the inner harbor. This quay is way over two meters high above the water line so the steps are all but a necessity. Med moor is the only way possible to moor to this wall.

There is ONE shore power pod every 150 feet or so and then there are no more. On each pod is one power outlet (16 amp) that you feed a 50 euro cent coin in one at a time to get 2-3 Kw of electricity. Water is the same way.

There are two outlets, and the same coin gets you 10 minutes of water. As this wall runs west, there are no shore power pods and no steps. There is also a wall pointing south as one comes in that has no services what so ever.

So, with the high wall, the poor electrical and water supplies, the sparsity of said supplies……… this place is NOT friendly to yachters. The man that runs the port, Gregory did say that there are plans to put in floating docks but given the monetary crisis, one should not hold one’s breath.

(BTW, plan to arrive at THIS port M-F, 0800-1500. Outside those hours, the Port Authority people on duty will advise you to wait until the Port Control office opens on the next business day.)
If one needs shelter from a storm, on the far west side of the harbor is a storm anchorage that has good holding.

With the arrival of two to three ferries a day, I think anchoring anywhere in the vicinity of the inner/outer harbor is just not in the cards. One could ride out a storm anchored there, but I think you would be told to move if you wanted to anchor for a few days and see the city.

Gregory goes OUT of his way to accommodate you if you plan to spend some time here. He got us metered electrical and water supply and told us that the spot we are in is “owned” by someone but that person has yet to put his boat in the water.

We may have to move. Gregory did say that we PROBABLY could take one of the fishing boat spots in the inner harbor, but then he retracted that saying we just might piss them off. He implied that they use the spots without paying but I am not 100% sure.

We tried to moor in the inner harbor and were consistently, and quite dramatically waived off, even though on the VHF, we were told to moor there. Kavala itself: Well, the view of the old city to the east of the inner harbor, behind a quite substantial fortified wall.

With a reasonably restored castle/fort protecting the old city from marauders is IMPRESSIVE! Walking that area takes one breath away, literally and figuratively. The city’s tourist office is quite helpful and answers all one’s questions.

Up from them is a food shopping area, consisting of a huge supermarket on the first floor and above it, a fresh fruit, vegetable, meat chicken cheese etc market that is open 6 days a week.

First, we have ever seen this and it seems to have reasonable prices with good to great quality. Dining out prices APPEAR to be higher than Alexandroupolis.