Mansell Reef

Mansell Reef sits on the open, outer western face of Thirasia, fully exposed to the open Aegean. The bulk of Thirasia island rises immediately to the east and shields the entire eastern arc - NE through E to SE is blocked by the island - so no swell or wind-sea reaches the wall from those sectors. The exposed window is the west: the SW, WSW, W and WNW sectors are wide open to the Aegean, with NW, NNW, N and SSW also largely open. The dominant hazard is the summer Meltemi, which drives N-NW wind-sea straight down the exposed western side of the island and builds the surface chop and along-shore current that force this site to be called off. Being a deep wall it feels little true groundswell in calm spells, but any sustained W-NW wind quickly makes the outer face undiveable.