Cruising donkeys

Cruising donkeys

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Samos by car
October 13, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
So we hired a car to do what we thought would be a full tour of Samos, we were mistaken the roads were very winding and in some places scary narrow so journeys took a lot longer than expected. We were lucky we were out of season so never met anything coming the other way! We hired the car 17:00 Friday eve and drove along the main road towards Samos Town, the same one we had ridden, but stopped at the Lidl and did a fairly major shop stocking up on essentials like toilet roll and beer? On Saturday morning we west headed along the coast past the airport and to Ireon, famous mostly for Hera’s Temple and its sandy beach but as overcast and nearly desserted it was a bit depressing. From here we traveled inland past Sarakinis Tower. Then we started uphill first to Pagondas then around and around the headland to Spatharei. We picked up a local lady just after the tower and took her to Pagondas she was very grateful we think, lots of ‘Efaresto’s’ it would have been a serious walk. Just before Spatharei is where the road went from 2lanes with central line to just about 1 car wide it stayed like that till Pyrgos where we had a walk around a nearly deserted town, we scrumpped some grapes outside the shell of an old church, walls but no roof, that had a little chapel in it, and saw lots of cats. From here we headed inland and road got narrow again and across towards Karlovassi but we stopped off in Platanos, in the middle of the wine district, for coffee and to admire the amazing view we also saw the ancient laundry here before winding our way down to the port at Karlovassi for, by then a late lunch. Service was a little slow so over 1 1/4 later but having eaten a lovely meal and fed some cats, we were on our way again, east this time back towards Samos town we had hoped to stop for ice cream in Kokkari but no time, then across the island back to Pythagorio. We had hired the car for the day which means 24hours, and managed to return it with 10 mins to spare. Samos is one of the greenest Greek islands we have seen it’s water is from springs that originate in Turkey, but the reservoir levels are low for this time of year so the locals are hoping for rain soon.Read more
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Samos, Pithagorio
October 12, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Well the trip North was a bit unpleasant fortunately we were headed straight into it so only nodding dog action no swaying side to side, I was still very pleased to see the harbour. We anchored off the beach for a couple of nights before moving onto the Town quay, we moved because we had booked on to a tour of the Eupalinus’ tunnel at 8:30 in the morning the only time slot available and we needed to ride there. Pithagorio is yet another lovely town it is touristy and in season is probably unbearable but now it’s quiet lots of locals still around but businesses are cleaning and tidying prior to closing for the winter. We have been active since we arrived riding to Samos town, only because iPad lied and told us it was a 5mile ride it was actually 14.5km and most of it was up on the way there. Samos Town is not attractive but we were able to buy a new float switch for the shower pump and a loaf of GF bread for John. On the way back we walked up through the winding alleys of Vathi the old town of Samos which was a lot more attractive but steep before a fairly easy ride down to Pithagorio. We have also visited the Castle, Church and ruins here in Pithagorio as well as riding to the remains of Hera’s Temple to the West, not much to see there although in its day largest temple in Greece apparently.
Today after our walk along the famous tunnel photos on next post, we decided rather than just walk back along the tunnel we would first try to walk to the spring source, fail, and then take the land route around back to the tunnel entrance. We achieved this but had to walk through a front yard of a fortunately empty home. We also decided we had to visit the stone tower but did we use the official route no we decided to find our own so a number of scratches and scrapes later we made it to the tower.Read more
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Pithagorio, Eupalinus' Tunnel
October 12, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
The Tunnel is impressive it’s just over a kilometre long and was built in 6th century BC to bring water to the ancient town from the spring source near the north entrance to the tunnel through the hill using clay pipes to reservoirs and fountains in the ancient town near the southern entrance. It was hewn out of the limestone from both ends simultaneously and there is only a small diversion internally where the two groups met. It was in use for 1100 years and only abandoned when pipes became to calcified to use.
Tomorrow we are going site seeing to see other ruins on the island and no doubt some more churches!Read more
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Lipsoi and Agathonisi
October 9, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
So we spent an extra day at Leipsoi and did a longish walk which had some great views and we saw lots of goats and churches, we then headed north but not to Arki as originally planned we ended up going North east to Agathonisi for a night. When we arrived mid afternoon we didn’t expect anyone else to turn up subsequently another 6 boats arrived the little harbour anchorage looked busy but it was very picturesque. We took a walk up the hill to the Chora (name for a town up a hill) but there were only homes and churches no tavernas, mini marts etc so we walked back down again and ate at the harbour taverna. There was no menu, George the owner gave us three starter choices and three main choices we both selected octopus in vinegar then goat stew, it was delicious.Read more
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Lipsoi
October 6, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
Us again, we had a long but pleasant cruise from Kos up the East coast of Kalymnos to Leros where we anchored off Alinda (where the allied cemetery was that we visited before). That evening Steven and Susan came to see us, they had the Nauticat anchored alongside us. Bizarrely they recognised Take Five, they had almost bought her a year before John did but after shaking hands on the deal the seller changed his mind. They had a mooch and you could tell Steven was still really taken with her, he even commented about all the Greek fishermen who had made a detour to come past the boat so they could get a better look. John did tell Steven that for £150,000 Take Five was for sale and they know where we will be for the winter so you never know.
The next morning we headed out of the bay only to notice a fishing boat waving at us. We then noticed some floating rope that we were about to pass over, about 200m marked with only a large round bobber at mid point. We passed over it OK in neutral then realised that this floating rope was attached to a net with little floats that was running across the bay, we then saw the other piece of floating rope, well the bobber, off the other side!! So to get out of the bay we had to cross the floating rope again and then keep close into a reef on the side of the bay until we were clear of the net. Surely that can’t be legal, I expect some of the other yachts might have caught it, as unusually we were first up and out that morning.
But anyway we headed up to Lipsoi only 9 miles but winds were getting up and waves were building. Our anchorage here off Katsadia beach is pretty and yesterday we wandered into town Lipsi, for a look around, everywhere is white with blue trim, and there are lots of churches here as well. We had our most delicious Greek meal so far here at Manolis, apparently the building is Greek ‘listed’ and has played significant part in Lipsois history.
Someone told us that if a Greek person builds a church the government has to supply it with water, so lots of people build churches before their homes so water is already put in. Don’t know if that’s true.
We have been here a few days now as there is another blow but should be headed a short way north to Arki tomorrow before going to Samos. That’s probably as far north as we will go before returning SW towards the Greek mainland obviously it directly but via lots of shorter trips.Read more
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Kos
October 2, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
So second time lucky, when we arrived at the Old Harbour and moored up under the Venetian Castle the Marinaro asked us what took so long, as we had booked they were tracking us on AIS, we explained that actually trip was faster than normal as we used foresail and had a following wind for most of journey. First day here we walked to Marina and had a shower, then we did the shopping but no Gluten free bread to be found so I will do some baking in the morning, our days are so exciting! Now have new yeast as 2 previous attempts were disasters the dough didn’t rise at all.
Today earlyish I went for a run along beach to the North and ended up in military prohibited 🚫 zone, I explained to the armed sentries that there were no signs on the beach 🤭. Then after breakfast we rode to the thermal beach, hot air bubbling up and hot water running in had made a section of the beach into a thermal pool, problem was that you couldn’t actually get that close to hot spring as water scaldingly hot. In the photo John gave it a go and nearly scalded his feet, you can see most people are over to the left where the sea water reduces the temperature so it’s just hot! There were also a couple of goats on the beach wandering across towels and looking for food. This afternoon we mooched through the old town following one of the self guided walks to see some of the historic sites that you can see in the photographs. Unfortunately some of the more impressive sites have been damaged by quakes some old some newer the last photo shows the damage to the quay. The minaret of the Mosque is held up with scaffolding and the Mosque is closed as dangerous.Read more
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Kalymnos
September 30, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Hello again both we and the boat are fine. From Symi we headed to Kos hoping to go in the old harbour but it was full so we motored on to Pserimos and this time round we stayed overnight in the small harbour. There were no other yachts when we arrived so we went alongside leaving space on the wall behind us, later 2 other yachts did arrive one decided to anchor outside of the shelter of the harbour mole. No idea why, they must have had a very bumpy night. The other guys went stern to on the ferry mole, so all good. We had a chat with one of the taverna owners about island life on Pserimos in winter. After end of October only about 20 people stay full time on the island everyone else decamps back to Kalymnos for the winter. This year there will be a few extra people as the local hotelier is renovating a couple of houses. One of the tavernas also stays open to provide coffee and a place for people to meet. So it’s a bit like Herm really.
After our night on Pserimos we phoned Kos and booked 2 nights there but as they had no room for the current night and the following days weather was rubbish, high winds and rain ( the medicane, we later learned), so we booked for Monday and Tuesday night so will be headed there tomorrow morning. So we have spent two days in Kalymnos, the sponge diving capital of Greece. We just mooched around town and the harbour visiting some of the numerous churches and wandering along the maze like alleys on the Saturday. We saw the church of St Nicholas, the patron saint of the sponge divers, that had been funded by the sponges caught on the last dive of the season over many years. In the courtyard of the church was a wonderful miniature dive boat. In the outer harbour there were loads of dead boats, we think they might have been migrant ones, they take up a lovely sheltered corner unfortunately. Up the hillside to the west of the town was another church and cemetery with incredible views. Today we did part of the Italian Way, this is what the path between Kalymnos town called Pothia and the village of Vathi is called as it was built by the Italians in the first half of the 20th century as no overland route existed. It is paved in part and goat 🐐 track in others and also fairly steep. We only did part as weren’t able to find out if there were any buses on a Sunday to or from Vathi, so we walked from Pothia where the harbour is up and over until we could see Vathi in the valley beneath us and mainland Turkey just, the views along the way were stunning.Read more
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Turkish coastline
September 28, 2018 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 25 °C
On our trip from Symi we travelled along the coast of Turkey mostly to avoid the tide but also a bit because we could then use our Turkish flag. It was largely uninhabited but there were some stunning bays and interesting rock formations. It’s a shame that the bureaucracy and associated costs have made it too difficult to visit Turkey 🇹🇷 this trip as Rob and Ros Platt say it has some beautiful cruising areas and the cost of living is much lower than the Dodecanese islands of Greece.Read more
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Symi
September 25, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We are as the post name suggests now in Symi yet again the forecast determined our choice of destination and from the looks of the harbour today it has also affected a lot of other boats choices too. Our departure from Nisiros went smoothly but prior to leaving we noticed some little black pellets and nibbled fruit, it looked like we had picked up a house guest with a squeak. John managed to buy some ‘mouse glue’, there were no traps. So after cleaning everywhere and putting all food in tubs we left Nisiros and that night after a pleasant cruise not far off the Turkish coast we set out our glue trap with chocolate and plum at its centre, no joy, but no more evidence of boat guests either. I have now also checked all the cupboards and draws that contain clothes towels bedding etc and no nests so maybe the guest didn’t stay. We forgot today but will buy a trap tomorrow in Symi town.
We took the dinghy in today using the motor as it’s quite a distance from the anchorage we are in into town and after walking up to the top of the town to look at the alternative anchorage of Pethi and the churches and chapels in the ruined castle grounds we started back down the winding steps and paths, when John said ‘it can’t be but that looks like an Aquastar’. So back into town and along the water front and what do we see but a Guernsey registered Aquastar owner Rob Platts! So we had a drink and a chat, it was lovely to catch up with Rob and Ros whom we had last seen at the 10 year MS memorial of the London to Paris row.
After the anchorage to the north of Syria town we took the boat around to Pethi for a night or two where I did a nice long swim.Read more
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Nisiros by quad
September 22, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
We arrived nice and early in Nisiros and as we had enjoyed the quad biking in Leros and because buses only ran between three points on the island we hired another quad bike. This meant we could go to Mandraki harbour where the main town was and trip boats from Kos docked as well as to Eborios a small village on the north side of the caldera where there was the tiniest sauna ever and incredible views North of Giali and Kos. We then travelled towards the centre but visited Nikia another village on the south east edge of the caldera before we headed down into the Caldera itself and the two smaller but still steaming craters. We took the unpaved and rather bumpy road south from the crater and westwards around the island to the PaleoCastro ‘old castle’ for the sunset 🌅 before returning to the boat in Palon.Read more
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Giali
September 21, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We enjoyed our time in Leros but more high winds were forecast so after taking receipt of our repaired foresail and getting winched up the mast to release the leech line. This is the rope that gets attached to the top of the foresail that because it’s a furling foresail stays at the top usually but comes down when you pull the sail down to store it. We reattached the foresail and headed off, on the recommendation of Sarah and Dennis and because of the wind direction, we headed south travelling down the east coast of Kalymnos and went to the island of Pserimos and the harbour where we lunched, not as pretty as we had expected but there were a lot of people there. We had hoped to anchor here for the night but way too much swell and we couldn’t moor Med style until later when all the trip boats had left the island so instead we anchored off the south coast with a line ashore just us and the local goats, lovely. In the harbour yachts had anchored in the space indicated in the local pilot book only to be almost run over when the large black and yellow trip boats went stern too on the East mole. Next day we skirted the east and south east coast of Kos and anchored on the south coast of Giali, a small island where they mine the local sand from the cliffs, not exactly picturesque but an interesting and sheltered anchorage only 3miles North of our destination.Read more
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Quad biking around Leros
September 18, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Since we had a day to wait until our foresail was ready we hired a quad bike for a day and took a whistle stop drive around. We went first to the Castle near Plantanos passing a row of windmills that had been converted into holiday lets they looked lovely. The Castle was built by the Knights of St John on the site of older temples and had commanding views of all the island bays. Then down into Agia Marina for a coffee before visiting the British war cemetery. This is, per the museum curator at the Castle, where Ginger Baker’s (from the band Cream) Dad is buried. We then drove North to the airport and beyond to the boatyards at Partheni and to Blefouti where we tried to find the vineyards and failed probably for the best as John was driving and unless the wine is sweet I wouldn’t like it. My palette is not cultured yet. The airport is tiny with one runway that only takes prop planes and ends at the sea. We then headed to Gourna bay for lunch where I tried Mussels Saganaki, that means in a tomato garlic and feta sauce, very Greek and very nice John had Pork steak beautifully cooked and huge. We don’t understand why pork is so cheap when we haven’t seen a single pig. After lunch we decided to tackle one of the many peaks on the island and chose the one in the South West up from Xirocampos, it was a heck of a drive on a gravel road the engine on the bike it was only a 150 struggled on some of the inclines, but the views at the top were awesome, we even found a German looking bunker. The trip down was even slower than on the way up, and we were impressed with the local goats road sense, as we approached they got off the road and when we had passed got back on. We then went back up the island to Panteli for an ice cream 🍦 before popping in for some shopping before returning the bike. After we dropped off the bike we met Sandra and Dennis for a drink, this is a couple who lived in Beaucette for 4 years in early 2000. They have been sailing for 18 years on and off, stopping and working when necessary. We chatted about Guernsey 🇬🇬 and also their travels.Read more
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Koufonisia
September 14, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
On our from Naxos SE towards the Dodecanese we passed Koufonisia it looked beautiful but a bit small to spend the next week on and the Pilot book said the bay experienced severe gusts during the Meltemi, so onwards we headed. Admittedly the Pilot book also said that it wasn’t possible to take the channel between the islands that we had just taken to reach the Koufonisia harbour but hey you can’t be right all the time and our Greek chart was quite sure there was plenty of water and space. Sadly once we cleared this island the sea got a lot choppier and the wind picked up so I spent the next 8hours lying on the floor😓 feeling very sorry for myself. We arrived at Levitha, our anchorage, at 9pm in the dark and tried to find a mooring bouy, we gave up and anchored leaving again early to come here to Leros. Levitha also looked good but almost deserted we could hear goats and apparently there was 1taverna, that was who had put in the mooring bouys. Perhaps we will be able to go back for a couple of nights but a week would be too long. Again the journey started well but deteriorated to me lying on the floor feeling queasy🤢 and then just before we arrived the jib catch, at the top, it might be called the leach, broke. We managed to furl the sail roughly to get into the large natural harbour at Lakki on Leros and anchored up. This was Saturday the sail guy is going to come and have a look 👀 tomorrow to let us know the cost of repair, we will also get the sacrificial edge, the UV bit, replaced as it is almost completely gone. We have also replaced the Greek courtesy flag with a new one. Photo of map will help with next post from our quad biking day.Read more
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Naxos Town
September 12, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Here are some photos of the Town
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Santorini photos
September 11, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
While in Santorini we didn’t have a lot of time but we saw Thira the main town and walked down to the old harbour passing all the donkeys, I suggested to John we could walk back up but ‘no way’ was the response so we used the cable car, funicular to get back up, without our overnight bag I might have given it a go but would definitely have been dripping at the top.Read more
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Santorini Thira
September 11, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Well it was a lot more blowy on Sunday when we woke in Aliki but the trip along the south coast of Paros went well as sheltered, as did the east coast section but then we had to cross to Naxos, not so nice! We got there OK but there were a few bangs as the bow landed, on arrival we radioed as per pilot book instructions no answer Umm so after waiting for a few condor sized ferries to unload and load we headed around and into Marina to get what we thought was a brusque brush off from the harbour master ‘ you haven’t called why not no place no to anchorage place and call after 6pm?’ Oh dear not looking so good, we had looked for email and phone number but nothing on internet or in our books. We sat in the bumpy anchorage spot considering options, ferry and hotel non refundable this close to departure but if the harbour master didn’t find a spot 6pm was late to try to reach somewhere more sheltered. We decided to risk waiting, fortunately when John called at 6 pm there was a spot not a great one but better than the anchorage and he would find a better space in the morning, thank goodness looked like Santorini trip was on.
After we tied up with 7 ropes we decided to go and have a well earned drink, while doing this another yacht came in and moored up alongside us, we popped back to make sure everything OK, move dingy so they could get round etc. In the morning they bought us pain au chocolate as a thank you, much appreciated by me!
The harbour master came around 9:15 and we negotiated another mooring and managed to move without to much bother, alongside boat also moved as a super yacht was due to arrive and go where we were. So another mammoth rope tieing session and John was happy, we secured boat and headed to ferry ⛴.
Santorini is three quarters of a caldera, the rim of an old volcano with steep sides on the west, sloping gently to the sea on the east it is touristy a bit like Mykonos but not as ‘in your face’ and the views are stunning. I will put photos here and on next post with little or no writing as can only have 6 per post.Read more
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Paros south Aliki
September 8, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
We were just looking for somewhere to go for a night before returning North to the Marina at Naxos town, to secure boat in Marina, as we had booked a ferry to Santorini for Monday, like I mentioned the next Meltemi is due beginning of the week and is forecast for gusts 35+ and as the forecast has until now been approx 10 knots less than our wind speed indicator has shown we decided not to risk heading south ourselves as the return North would have been horrendous. Aliki was surprisingly pleasant and sheltered from the afternoon breeze, in the evening we took dinghy to tiny harbour when we went ashore. This is first place we have seen octopi 🐙 hung up outside restaurants and also large cray fish in tanks.Read more
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Schinousa
September 7, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
From Mykonos we headed south to Paros for a night and then through the strait between Paros and Naxos stopping for lunch at south of Naxos then down to Schinousa. We had hoped to be able to get to Thira aka Santorini before the next Meltemi, due Monday but this isn’t going to be possible. Our anchorage in Paros was in the North near Noussa Marina, in Ormos Igouna I thought I had taken photos but apparently not sorry, it was yet another beautiful place. Turquoise water and white sand and some Mega yachts the largest was we think 180ft, we had thought the ones already there were large but this one dwarfed them all! The lunch stop was also nice see photo but the wind direction changed and it wasn’t very sheltered so we headed to Schinousa and it’s little port we anchored with line ashore as quay was full with 2large ribs alongside. We walked up to the Chora, which what the hill top towns are called, for tea and stunning views as well as a delicious meal before we walked the illuminated pedestrian route back down, completed recently with EU money. While here we met an Australian couple with a brown labradoodle called Scooter, he was a lot smaller than the mad one back in Guernsey but looked very similar, photo poor don’t think iPad has a flash. If anyone knows different please let me know where to find it!Read more
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Mykonos Town
September 4, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Hello so from Delos we headed to South Bay on Mykonos, the bay was as the pilot book had promised very busy with a lot of permanent moorings but we found room to sneak in, there was music from the shore but fortunately it wasn’t loud even in the night. We spent most of the afternoon watching a charter boat with Lithuanians on board wander around the bay first they were stern too on a mooring bouy, then bow to on another one, then drifting out of the bay with the four crew swimming rapidly after it, they caught it before it hit anything thankfully and then spent an hour try to tie up properly to a mooring we think they dragged the first one so went to another and tied up and immediately launched the dinghy and off they went! Apart from being the Mediterranean’s answer to Ibiza Mykonos is famous for the number of churches it has. It is rumoured that every family on the island has their own private church, they usually have red roofs, resulting in over 400 island wide.
The next day we spent 25 mins waiting for the bus to Mykonos Town and just as we gave up the bus arrived. On the 20 min journey I counted 24 churches. The Town was as expected, busy with throngs of tourists following people with brollies in the air. It was also expensive E3 for a Nescafé frappe! We saw the famous windmills and lots of other idyllic shots of white washed homes with blue shutters and if you headed a little up hill in the town suddenly the tourists disappeared.Read more
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Ancient Delos
September 4, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
Fortunately the wind had died by this morning so we motored around to Delos and anchored up so we could visit the ruins of Ancient Delos, they, the archaeologists and government, have partially restored the buildings and roads in some places so you get a really good feel for what life was like B.C. Delos was the site of both temples and towns so ordinary life as well as displays of grandeur. It is incredible what they could do 2000+ years ago with the big water reservoirs under each house and the water flows under the floor for fresh and not so fresh water. The views from the top of the hill, yes I made John climb it too, were beautiful you could see different islands in each direction and the turquoise water around the island itself were stunning we could see where we had been the night before, to the West, and Mýkonos Town to the North East.Read more
Cruising donkeys You can just see on the left side the bay we were anchored in the night before
9/4/18Reply
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Nisos Rineia
September 3, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
Well I am definitely fed up of the Meltemi, we knew it would be windier here in the Cyclades than it had been in the Ionian or the Peloponnes but really! We seem to get 3 OK days and then 5-6 days of howling Northerly winds with gusts regularly up around the mid 30’s, not so good. But enough whinging at least over here it is still sunny and warm, bathers all day warm.
Before leaving Syros we had another bus ride to Hermoupolis this time taking along the south and east coasts of the island. We managed to post off our tax returns, in Greece posting seems less hassle than receiving but we will have to wait and see if they get to a Guernsey 🇬🇬. We left Finikas on Syros on I think it was Friday 31st planning on coming to this island but the bay on the south but seas were very rough and it was a lot windier than forecast so we stopped off at Ormos Vari on the south of Syros for a night before heading East on Saturday seas were still unforgiving and wind from NW so to ease some of the rolling we headed to the northern end of this island then surfed down the western coast to here Ormos Ornos it’s beautiful with white sand, very few people, only a few farmers live on the island. Farming what we have no idea we have seen a few sheep and the land is split into fields but they are very stoned. We have visited a little church, we have seen three so far but figure there must be a couple more to the South. We have done some snorkelling and although there is very little seaweed or coral there are quite a few fish 🐠 all small ish but here is the first place I have seen groupers, and there is a greater variety of wrasse as well. The other rather bizarre thing that happened today was a bird flying into the boat, it was a little smaller than a thrush with light and dark brown feathers, it was odd because into the boat! but also because we have seen hardly any birds in the southern Mediterranean except seagulls and not even very many of those.
Over the narrow isthmus (100m) that separates north from south you can see ancient Délos and the temples I took some photos but we are bit far away but it was still so windy I thought we might not actually get there to see them properly. We have now relaxed and are ready we think for Mýkonos, but it might be a bit full on but at least it’s not the weekend. We will take a tourist boat to Délos and do some restocking, John keeps eating the food we buy! That reminds on our second trip to Hermoupolis we bought him a GF loaf so he is happy again and off the granola.
We have been trying to make a plan/route for going through the Cyclades but there are lots of islands, as the name suggests, in a circle and with this wind we kind of need to go SE if possible.
We do now have an overwintering location, we will be in Levkas Marina which is in Levkas Town on Levkas island in the Ionian. It is a very sheltered location and is almost in town so easy for shopping chandlers pubs etc and only a couple of hours sailing from a large inland water that we can visit either before or after our stay if weather not playing ball. But not great for flights out of season so we are unlikely to be able to make it home for Christmas🎄 it’s only 4 months away! We have booked a spot from 15 December until 15 March so if anyone does want to visit just let us know when to expect you.😁
Congratulations to James and Laura on the arrival of Sophia yesterday 🤱Read more
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Syros - Hermoupolis
August 28, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
Today we woke to cloud cover, the first we have experienced for ages, so decided we could risk some sightseeing and headed by bus to Hermoupolis, the island’s main town. The bus took a fairly circuitous route and we have now seen most of the west coast of Syros and can confirm that there are some lovely rental apartments and boutique hotels. Hermoupolis was bigger than I had expected with a large dry dock, various ferry docks a town quay and a couple of marinas. We mooched around the old town and climbed the hill to one of the many churches ⛪, we also looked at quite a few others before managing to buy some GF bread for Johns breaker tomorrow. For the last couple of days he has had to have a GF granola cereal, for him that’s a big step 😉.Read more
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Finikas on Syros
August 28, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
Hello again
Well the trip from Lavrion passed without incident, we went from the bay, where we left the boat and did some more supermarket shopping, to Olympic Marina to fill up with fuel and water then headed south east around the bottom of Nisos Makronisos. This island is long and thin with very little vegetation, we did see goats and the remains of properties but none seemed to be inhabited. We arrived at Nisos Kea and anchored with quite a few others in Ormos Pisses which our pilot book incorrectly told us would provide shelter from the Southerly swell. There was a lot of new development on the island but unlike the concrete cubes and villas on the mainland coast this was much more sympathetic with a lot of it being stone clad and blending well. Wehad an enjoyable afternoon dipping in and out of the water and settled for the night. Unfortunately by 0500, the swell was getting really uncomfortable, not quite at the point where we were rolling out of bed but things we had left on the draining board were falling over so we were up before the sun ☀️ and heading south down the coast of Kea and then South East to Nisos Kythnos and we anchored up in the first bay we came to on the east side of the island being Ormos Loutra sheltered from the south by Ag Ioannis headland, we were there by 0800. It was a lovely location, a couple of houses on the valley sides, one in the bay and of course the obligatory church/chapel on the headland. Again more sympathetic developments. We spent a full 24hours here swimming and snorkelling (there were actually a few different sorts of fish to see) before moving on to our current location Finikas on Nisos Syros. Syros is the capital of the Cyclades Islands and Finikas is a natural harbour on the West coast with good protection from the Meltemi, and this time the pilot book was right.Read more
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Ormos Thoriko 1Nm north of Lavrion AGAIN
August 24, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
Hello again
We have had an uninspiring week or so, as you know we headed north to avoid the forecasted higher winds but then they didn’t arrive, it would appear, until we headed south again anyway. Wind speed reader said gusts around 35-40mph. Our trip from Eretria to....... well we ended up at Nea Spira still on Evia but further south than the place we stopped at on the way up but not as pretty, more touristy with lots of high rise apartments. From there we had hoped to get as far as Lavrio on the mainland for fuel water and provisions but it was very choppy, we were surfing down the waves at 6.3knots with only 1400 revs, that didn’t mean much to me but John was impressed, it wasn’t very splashy but was tiring for John to keep us straight on the waves so we ended up at Porto Rafti a little further north than hoped and again touristy but not foreign tourists Greeks. The trouble with these places is that they are close to Athens so have become commuter suburbs/ weekend homes.
We eventually reached Lavrion today Friday only to be told that they were full because it is a charter company base and they do changeovers at the weekend, bugger!🤬 as Lavrion is commercial there were some pretty big ships waiting around to go in below is a photo of the largest. No other pictures as scenery not great or even when it was we were moving around too much for we to take any in focus pictures.sorry!
So we are holed up in the same little bay that we used on our way north, it is quiet even though next to a power station! There is also a beach bar/taverna and we had our cheapest meal so far Eur15 salad, kebabs and drinks. Still deciding what to do next.🤔
But to recap the journey to Nea Spira nearly didn’t happen. On our way south we stopped for lunch at somewhere called Ormos Tigani just an almost deserted bay, that on the charts looked like it would be sheltered from the meltemi, the afternoon NE wind, it wasn’t so we decided to just stop for lunch and a look around before continuing. We anchored up and reversed on the anchor to check it was holding as gusts around 30mph, all OK. 👍After lunch we rowed ashore for a look at the church and what appeared to be a caravan behind it, we were interested because we couldn’t see any approach road. Church was cute but locked up but you could still see through the windows and some people had left offerings of oil for the lamps and candles on doorstep and yes it was a now disused caravan on a levelled slab but we still couldn’t figure out how on earth they got it there! Perhaps helicopter 😉
We then returned to the beach for a mooch along the shore there was lots of detritus and we thought maybe we would find something to scavenge, it was only on our way back towards the dinghy that we realised the boat wasn’t where we had left it ...... it was drifting backwards along the shore towards the rocks at the edge of the bay uh oh John rowed rapidly back to boat and we prepared for the off. It was even windier than when we had arrived. In the slight panic I forgot to take photos! On the next leg to Spira we had another unscheduled delay when we had to turn back for the screen cover for the external plotter which had be carried by a gust overboard. I was able to practice my man overboard pointing constantly and giving captain directions then as the better swimmer jumping in and diving for the sinking cover.
Yesterday’s journey was only punctuated by the dinghy flipping multiple times, sadly we didn’t realise until the evening when we wanted to go ashore, that on one of the times the aluminium seat had come out. Even if we had realised at the time it would, I imagine, have sunk so quickly we would have lost it anyway.☹️Read more
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Eretria
August 21, 2018 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
We have spent a lovely few days here on Evia the second largest Greek island, it is NE of Athens, we ran this way to escape some heavy winds but they moved north as well but all OK. We stopped at Panagia a bit further south for a night before getting here, it’s an enclosed bay but surrounded by relatively low lying land so not affected by the Meltemi, the strong afternoon wind, as much. We are headed south again tomorrow to fuel and water up before the Cyclades Islands, I have been reading Dave Cs Facebook posts as he has just spent a holiday there so have some ideas which to visit but any other thoughts gratefully received. On the list so far, in no particular order Paros, Santorini, Kynthos, Delois.
While here we visited the local ruins there were quiet a few a theatre, temple, gymnasium, and village but they are just stones amongst weeds though you can’t help but be impressed with what they built in BC. On Sunday night we ate out and visited a taverna that we had walked past previously as John had seen the spit roast. Well it looked like there were two spits of lamb ( whole ones) and then others for chicken and pork pieces.
The town is reached by ferry from the mainland, with push me pull yous, roll on roll off ferries that you drive on one end and off the other they are driven in both directions so don’t need to turn around.Read more
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Ormos Thoriko 1Nm North of Laviron
August 16, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
It’s been a while sorry, but not much to report. After our day trip we spent 2more nights in Port Cheli waiting for winds to ease, we did more supermarket shopping and bought a copy of the Daily Mail exciting eh! then continued around the Peloponnese coast. We spent a night in Ermioni a smallish town built in a small sheltered bay within a much larger bay. The town had grown and was now on both sides of an undeveloped headland. The next night we were in Poros Town on Poros island still in the Peloponnese but now on north coast opposite Athens. It was much busier but the channel between the island and mainland was long so lots of space to anchor. Here we got our Transit log stamped again by the this time friendly Port Police who wanted to know why we didn’t have the original crew list I explained that the port police in Port Cheli had insisted that they had to have it and received a very Gaelic shrug in response. I had prepared another one that John as captain had signed and we had a copy of the original so it was all OK. We also liked Poros and had thought to perhaps spend another night there mooching the winding streets of the town perched on the hill but more wind is approaching so thought we should head for pastures new while we could/before it arrived. Poros has a beautiful clock tower and sea front, which yes was busy with people having coffee shopping and eating but was also felt relaxed and easygoing. Then a night in the south of Aigina island before crossing to here on the mainland. I think I have already said but we decided to visit Athens and a couple of other places on our way back north when things might be cooler and less busy. We ended up trying a couple of bays on south of Aigina before deciding on Ormos Klima because the first choice which which was 2 bays further east had a lot of swell, the next one coming back west seemed OK, there was a beach bar/cafe and initially this played nice easy listening music but around 5pm we noticed cars leaving and motorbikes and scooters arriving coupled with an increase in volume and a change in genre to club/garage music 🎶Time to go! One more bay east, literally just around the headland and no noise a couple of houses, well villas really, one of them even had a sparkling purple helicopter in the garden I was going to take a photograph in the morning but it left before we did. We watched 3 other boats making a hash of going stern to on the rocks on the side of the bay, they all got there eventually but were not sure why they didn’t just anchor, who knows. We were settled and in the water snorkelling and they were still looking for the best place tie up.
We did have a bit of an Oops 😬 moment today when as we were coming in to anchor for lunch I heard a very loud CRUNCH/BANG and dashed topside, where John calmly said ‘don’t worry just a rock’. Apparently he couldn’t really see the plotter/depth sounder as sun was reflecting off it so merrily steered us over an obstruction! After anchoring we went to inspect the damage, luckily we are just missing a bit of anti foul there’s no real damage. The good news news is that while snorkelling I came across a bit of chain, this isn’t unusual but normally the chain is attached to a bobber as a permanent albeit summer mooring. However at one end of the chain I found a Danforth anchor and at the other nothing! So we scavenged and now have anchor and about 40m of 6mm galvanised chain sat on our dive platform, no idea what we will do with it it’s too small for us!
Here are some photos for those of you who can’t be bothered with the words.Read more
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