Overnight to the Cyclades (Porto Kagio - Milos)

 

26th Aug 2020 (Porto Kagio - Milos)

Hadn’t written one of these for a few days, and as I have some time on my hands (on an overnight passage to Milos), thought I’d catch up on our travels. 

We’d spent a few days in the bay at Porto Kagio, distinctive small stone maniote tower houses dot the surrounding hills. The bay was a quite swelly at night, some way beyond ‘rock a bye baby’, which made for some interrupted nights. There we enjoyed a nice dinner on the beach: tzatziki, ‘small fishes’ (what we’d call whitebait) and octopus marinated in vinegar - all very nice. The friendly staff there also offered to buy us some bread when the delivery arrived the following morning, there being no baker in the village. Sure enough, a call of ‘Reechard!’ from the beach the following morning had me rowing over to pick up two fresh loaves. The evening before we left, we'd seen a strange reddish/brown sunset, sadly having seen a few of these in our time, knew it to be a bushfire somewhere local and not a ‘sailors delight’ per the saying. Sure enough, as we departed the next morning for Elifanisis on the next finger of the Peloponnese, a large plume of smoke could be seen rising from the hillside just up the coast. We've subsequently learnt that they’ve had quite a nasty blaze going, with 17 fire engines in attendance, and a number of villages under threat. Another outcome, was a dusting of ash over the boat. 

The passage across to Elifanisis was a game of two halves: initially a few hours of blissful engine off, sails up ‘oh what a life’. This was followed by a significant increase in wind on the nose and sufficient swell and chop to be splashing over the bow and into our faces as the bow slammed up and down in the rising sea. This went on for some time, and as our destination was directly where the wind was coming from, we had little choice but to grin (...actually grimace) and bear it. Arrived safe and sound eventually late afternoon in the long sweeping sandy bay at Elifanisis. The white sandy bottom and sunny sky give the water the most beautiful turquoise hue. After some initial issues with setting the anchor, ( it got caught under a rock), we set in the soft sand, and were both ready to flop into our bed at just gone 8pm. Not quite as rolly as our previous anchorage, we still had enough swell to disturb us a few times in the night, so come morning we relocated just round the corner to the other side of a sandy spit that bisects the bay. 

We seem to have run out, or been cutoff from, our on board wifi providor (Wind), so a tender ride to shore was needed to check weather and find out what the issue was. Having found a suitable cafe behind the beach, we had a frustrating hour trying to work out quite why nothing seemed to work. Back on board, me with a flat phone battery, Chez with a headache, she eventually (..and miraculously) discovered the fix to our problems was to push a reset button on the back of the dongle - surprising quite how dependent we are on the internet, especially as we head round the bottom of the Peloponnese, where the weather can be fierce and changeable at times. I’m really not doing any justice to the bay at Elefanisis, the long sandy beach is well populated with tourists, and umbrellas, and at the end of  the sandy spit  I mentioned there’s a rocky outcrop with a mixture of scrub and dune - as I said to Chez (and was mocked for) it had an ‘other worldly’ look to it. I made a couple of jaunts to visit and explore, and thoroughly enjoyed strolling around and clambering up the rocks. Bizarrely, given how many people were on the beach I had the place to myself. 

Left there this morning, heading around the last finger of the Peloponnese, and North along the East coast. The plan being to get as far North as possible to hopefully give our trip across to Milos more favourable wind to sail across the long Easterly passage. 

We had a mixed bag of a  journey, in light wind, making it to one of our previous favourite spots of Monemvasia. Other than a few more boats than last time, not much has changed. We were helped in to the quay by two nice English guys who had themselves just arrived. Once settled, I headed into town to pick up some provisions and chat to Charlie while Chez filled our water tanks with the free (...and known good) water on the quay. Was funny to hear the delighted squeals of some other English people who were seeing the local turtle for the first time. Once the tanks were full, we then used the hose to wash away the crusted salt that we’d picked up bearing into the wind on our way to Elefanisis. After a short 2 hour stop, we slipped the ropes and were away again. 

Did I mention Chez, who is not the greatest of sleepers at the best of times, didn’t sleep a wink last night. She managed to get a few naps in as we continued up the coast, in light wind, I had both sails out, but to little effect. By dusk we made it to another of our previous haunts: Kyparissia - that I’d painted a watercolour of - which unusually actually turned out OK. Once anchored, just off the beach in roughly the same spot as we’d been before. After swimming to check the anchor, I performed my usual ineffectual attempt at fishing having seen two good sized silver and black 'I don’t know what’s' circling the boat. Popped the rod away after half and hour and went below to make some ratatouille for dinner. An extremely tired Chez headed for the bed, to get a few hours before we begin our trip to Milos at midnight. 

At 11:30 we both get up, and prep the boat for departure - unlike our previous night sails, there’s no moon tonight, so with head torches on, we upped anchor and headed away from the lights of the town. 

...and three hours in, of an estimated 15 hours, is where I write this. Highlights so far: dolphins ...well that’s possibly not right, but something about that size spent 1/2 hour jumping and making blowing noises about 5m away from the sides of the boat. By the time we’re able to shine a torch , there’s only foam left. The shallow water alarm also went off, this has been a signal previously that they’re dancing around underneath the the boat. It’s strange to know they’re there, and not be able to see them. 

The only other thing to note so far, is that we’re passing a lit up cruise liner that seems to have been stationary here since the last time we passed this way back in June. Checking our AIS, the ship is called ‘Celebrity Infinity’ - and suspect with the threat of Covid (and the usual Legionaries disease) that she may be lounging in that same spot for some months to come. 

Just finish up by saying that Milos - is home to the ‘Venus de Milos’ who was  dug up on the island by a farmer in 1820.  I will be keeping my eyes peeled over the coming days to see if I can find her arms.