Telemachos' voyage to Pylos

When the sun set and all the streets became dark, she pulled the ship into sea and launched it with all the equipment well-benched ships carry on board.
She moored the ship at the end of the harbour and the sturdy men gathered around it; and the goddess encouraged each one separately.

Some say that Athena moors the ship at the end of the harbour to hide it from the suitors in the city, but as Homer writes, all the streets became dark, so the ship couldn't be seen anyway. Athena must have had another reason to moor the ship there.

In order to gain information about his father, Telemachos is planning a trip to Pylos to see Nestor. The goddess Athena helps Telemachos to arrange his trip:

Athena sent them a favourable wind, a zephyr, a strong wind from the (north-)west, rustling over the wine-coloured sea. Telemachos urged his crew on and ordered them to fasten the stays; and they obeyed his command. They lifted up the fir wood mast and they placed it into the masthole and fastened it with the frontstays. Then they hoisted the white sail with plaited oxhide straps.

This description clearly indicates there was no need to first row the ship offshore, which indicates the city harbour faces either south or east. Athena moors the ship at the end of the harbour specifically to catch the zephyr from the (north-)west, which in turn indicates the end of the harbour has to be located north-west, as Pylos lies in a south-easterly direction. This leaves two options, either the harbour faces south and its end faces west or the harbour faces east and its end faces north, as shown in my two expertly drawn examples.

Modern Pylos

Ancient Pylos?

Ithaca

Yellow: orientation of the city harbour

Odyssey Book 2.8 Samuel Butler