SERENITY NOW

  27th Sept 2020 (Santorini) We’ve just spent a few days exploring the ‘delights’ of Santorini, and thought it would be worthwhile capturing some of the detail before it fades from memory. The island itself has very limited safe anchorage options for sailors, so we instead opted to pay for a mooring buoy on a neighbouring island and get the ferry across.  Leaving the boat tied to a buoy out side ‘Captain John’s’ ... a quayside restaurant, currently manned by a gaggle of surly young men who give off a shifty up to no good air - this may just be that they’re tired and it’s late in the season, or that the day is overcast and threatening rain, either way, we didn’t get a very good or welcoming feeling from them - you’d think they could crack a smile charging €25 for the use of a mooring buoy out of season. Oh well.  Securely locked the boat, and jumped on the quaint little cream and blue wooden ferry that scoots us across to Santorini for a much more reasonable €1. Optin...

  22nd Sept 2020 (Paros - Ios) Woke to the alarm - happily now an unfamiliar occurrence..  We’re leaving our on and off home for the last few weeks of Paroikia on Paros and want an early start. We’re hoping to get water from the quay before the harbour master arrives and charges us for it. It’s a fairly long sail today (about 6 or 7 hours) down to Ios, our overnight stop off on the way to Santorini which is Martin and Debs departure point. The Med mooring went wellish... it’s surprising that adding more people into the mix, however helpful they are, doesn’t necessarily make for easier docking.  Quickly filled our rapidly depleted tanks with good fresh water, while Martin jogged to the bakers and back to pick up some nice raisin and walnut bread rings for breakfast.  Headed away from the quay just after 8, and straight into choppy seas, the entrance to Paroikia being tricky at the best of times. Turning South we headed through the passage between Antiparos and Paros...

  16th Sept 2020 (Naxos) Awoke early as the sun came up, our plan today is to leave the bay we’ve over-nighted in on the South of Naxos and beat North to Naxos town.. we have some strong strong winds forecast in the coming week and would like to get to Naoussa (across from Naxos town on Paros) as our bolthole for when the cyclone is due to hit. Martin and Debs are with us, and probably not experiencing the holiday they’d expected, but possibly one that will give them a few memories and stories to head home with. Our trip North, was, as expected a rolly affair. Big waves (~3m) and gusty winds made it hard going, bucket loads of salty spray thrown in our faces. Thankfully the angle of the wind allowed us to at least have a bit of main little sail out to help us along. Waves and wind crescendoed as we neared the anchorage, with Chez by now feeling a little peaky - (thankfully the guests seem to be fairing well on the seasick front).  The anchorage is relatively small, but h...

  14th Sept 2020 (Paros) After a windy week awaiting the arrival of Martin and Debbie, yesterday the day finally arrived. Met them at the ferry quay with smiles and hugs all round - masks on, but social distancing be damned.  Strolled the short walk back to the tender, with me delayed a little by a diving cormorant chasing fish in the clear water of the quayside - fascinating to see... but apparently this is not the ideal time for this delightful display to occur as the others walked on disinterested. We hopped into the tender, Debbie, a larger lady, and unused to the floor shifting under he feet, found herself bridged between the dock and the boat. She was rapidly stretched as the tender pushed away from land, but happily with some frantic grabbing, some tenacious holding on and random shouting all round (“Don’t do that Debs!” was my contribution) she was soon safe, without having taken her first swim. Once secure we all giggled it away.  Onto the boat, we gave th...

  5th Sept 2020 (Paros) We’re currently cowering on anchor on the island of Paros, next to the far from unpleasant town of Parikia (see pre-blow pic). Why cowering?  The Meltemi wind that funnels down from Istanbul has apparently not finished for the season, and is having a last blow or two to show us yachties who’s boss.  The anchorage has about 30 to 40 boats in - well packed, and in the last 24 hours we’ve seen a couple of these boat’s anchors drag.. most notably the boat directly to windward (in front) of us last night at 3am..  No bellowing required from me, as he managed to reset his hook quite quickly, more by luck than judgement I suspect. To give an idea of what being on the boat during a Meltemi blow feels like, imagine you lived in a very small house that usually rocks you gently to sleep... well now imagine that same house violently shaking, screaming and groaning at you all night and threatening to kill you if you step outside. At the same time, ran...

  4th Sept 2020 (Paros) Last time I wrote, we were en-route overnight to the island of Milos. What a little gem that turned out to be. Whitewashed Cycladic walls and the occasional blue dome of church. We anchored outside the town quay within rowing distance of the shore, and made a couple of trips over to explore.  On one occasion we took the bus up to Plaka - a town in the hills, with a steep but rewarding climb to a ‘kastro’ at its peak. The kastro wasn’t particularly striking, but the 360 degree views of the island below made the walk worthwhile. We’d planned to bus up, and then walk back down (about 4km), but passing the bus stop on the way back down, the bus was there.. so we took advantage and hopped on.  We needed to top up our diesel tank while we were in Milos, so made an appointment with ‘Nikos’ to bring his tanker to the dock. We tied up stern to, and after a short while (and 2 phone calls, and 2 sets of locals telling us we couldn’t moor there) Nikos arrive...