Category: 2019 Europe Spring

Here is a complete map of our Greek sailing tour.

 

We had a somewhat rolly night (not as bad as our first night in Sounion). At about 1:00 last night a ferry must have come through because the boat really started rocking.  A wine bottle that fell off the shelf and landed on a glass that was on the counter.  It broke the glass and made an awful crash.  Rick and I immediately woke up.  I cleaned it up and Rick went up top to make sure the anchor hadn’t slipped. Luckily it didn’t.

We had a leisurely morning.  Mike, Kay, Rick, and I went into town to catch a bus to go to the Temple of Aphaea.   Terry and Joanne stayed with the boat because the wind is very shifty in the anchorage.  Built in 480 BC, the temple celebrates a local deity of pre-Hellenic Times.  It is considered one of the great Hellenic temples, along with Athen’s Acropolis and Sounion’s Temple of Poseidon.  It was very hot so we didn’t stay too long.  Here are some pictures of the temple and the views from the temple.

We waited for the bus to take us back to Agai Marina where the boat was. We returned to the boat and had lunch before pulling the anchor and heading back to the marina in Athens.  We motored the whole way.

We got to the marina in about 2 hours.  Back to the huge boats of the marina.

We backed into the mooring and then the charter company came on the boat to inspect it.  All was good.  We relaxed and packed for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening we had leftover spaghetti for dinner along with a beautiful sunset.

And of course one last game of dominoes!

Another transit day.  Rick, Mike, Kay and I were up early preparing the boat to leave.  We were pulling up the anchor by 7.  Today we are headed to Aegina which makes for a short sail back to the base tomorrow.

We motored the whole way and it was uneventful.  The wind was low and the seas were calm.  Rick made spaghetti sauce when we were motoring because we had food to use up.

We anchored at Agia Marina on Aegina which is close to the Temple of Aphaia.  We couldn’t see the temple from the anchorage.

Rick and I went into town to get a few supplies.  The town looked like it had seen better days.  Mostly tacky souvenir shops with no one in them.

We came back to the boat, just relaxed, and played dominoes.  It was quite hot so we hung below with the AC on.  We ate Rick’s spaghetti sauce which was delicious.  We had a beautiful sunset that night.

We started out day by going over to the dock to get fuel and tying up along side it. It was a little nerve wracking because the water wasn’t very deep next to the quay but luckily it was deep enough.  We called the diesel truck and then had to wait about 45 minutes for him.  We got our fuel and got on our way.

We motored for about 6 hours to Apokrisi on Kithnos. 

The little wind that was blowing was right on our nose so we didn’t bother to put up a sail.  The waters were fairly calm so it was an easy ride. 

Mike, Terry, and Rick entertained us with music, signing, and dancing along the way.  Luckily the autopilot was steering the boat.

This was the anchorage outside the harbor.  we decided there were too many boat so we pulled in further and were rewarded with a beautiful little bay.  

It took us several tries to get the anchor stuck but eventually we got it.  After anchoring Terry and Mike went swimming.

We went to dinner on shore at a restaurant with a lovely view.  We played dominoes and I won one game.

Rick and I dinghied into town for breakfast this morning. We had our breakfast and then did a little shopping.  We found a chandlery and bought a hammer to replace the one we’d dropped overboard.  We bought some groceries and some breakfast pastries for our boat mates.  We returned to the boat and Terry, Joanne, Mike, and Kay enjoyed their breakfast.  After everyone ate we readied the boat to leave and pulled the anchor.  When we were in Arachova (near Delphi, about a month ago) a restaurant owner told us that we should go to the Kleftiko Caves on Milos.  He showed us pictures and it looked amazing so that’s where we decided to go.  Our cruising guide has no information about Kleftiko so we are operating in the dark.  We motored to Kleftiko based on where google maps said it is.  We passed interesting rock formations and cliffs.  Eventually we arrived at the caves.  We didn’t have a chart that told us the depth so we motored in VERY slowly and found a spot to anchor.

Kleftiko is a very isolated spot because there are no roads to the bay so it can only be accessed by boat.  It was used by pirates as a shelter and a base.

The bay was absolutely beautiful with amazing rock formations and caves.  The guys swam and then we took turns taking the dinghy out to explore because we always wanted to have someone on the boat in case the wind shifted and we swung around to a nearby rock.  We needn’t have worried because the boat was fine.

Mike and Kay almost didn’t make it back to the boat during their dinghy turn.  We thought the dinghy had run out of gas, but actually the safety cord on the motor had become dislodged.  Luckily they figured out the problem and made it back safely.

Here are pictures from our ride around the bay. Sorry for so many pictures but it was really amazing.

After everyone had a change to explore we pulled the anchor and headed back.  We motored most of the way. The waves had built during the day and the boat rolled a lot on the way back.  We returned to the same bay on Milos we anchored in last night.  It was a very calm bay and we had all slept well so we decided to try it again.  We didn’t get on the hook until 6.

That evening we went into town for dinner.  Nearby there were kids playing in the square.  I haven’t mentioned it but we often see kids playing in the square nearby our restaurants.  They seem to stay up later than we did at their age.  It seems like a great place to grow up!

After dinner we returned to the boat for a round of dominoes.  I came in last in both games.

Today was essentially a transit day.  We motored from Santorini to Milos, about 60 miles and  10 hours away. 

We were going directly into the wind so we couldn’t put a sail up.  Luckily we didn’t have a lot of wind so it made for a pretty easy journey.  Everyone except Rick got a nap and we all made good progress on our books. Here are pictures from our trip.

 

After several tries and one dropped boat hook, which was recovered by a neighbor, we got anchored.  Here are pictures of the harbor.

That evening we went to a restaurant which served typical Milos food.  I had piglet cooked in parchment.  It was very good. We had ice cream for dessert.

We were up early, preparing to leave.  We lashed the dinghy down, wound the shore power cords, removed and coiled our extra ropes, etc.  We were off.  Joanne brought up the anchor and the swivel on the anchor was kinked so it wouldn’t fit through the anchor channel.  It got stuck in the anchor channel as we tried to pull it up.  Terry crawled out onto the bow sprit and hit it with a hammer and it released but not before he hit his foot with the hammer by mistake (he also dropped the hammer into the water). Then we used the snubber hook to lift the anchor onto the deck and manually unkink it.  Next problem . . .  it was coming up upside down. So we took turned it around with the boat hook.  Long story short, it took us about 20 minutes to get the anchor up.  But then we were on our way to Santorini.  We motored most of the way.

Santorini was a round volcanic island until about 21,000 years ago when it erupted and the center of the island collapsed.  It erupted again in 1630 BC and it blew out at least 4 times the amount ejected by the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa.  Today there are five islands that were part of the original island.

We sailed through the caldera created by these explosions (see map below). 

It was very cool to see Santorini’s cliffs which are striped as a result of 2 million years of volcanic activity.  Here are some pictures of us taking pictures.

Here are the pictures.

 

We planned to anchor on the southern end of the island.  As we were rounding the end of the island we saw dozens of catamarans.  We thought it was going to be difficult to find a spot to anchor.  We checked out the first anchorage but Rick didn’t like it because it had a rocky bottom and the anchor might get stuck.  So we proceeded to the second anchorage called Akrotiri and it was better so we anchored (although the boat is really rocking as I write this so I’m not sure it is much better).

We had lunch on board and then prepared to go into town.  Terry decided he’d stay with the boat. We dinghed ashore and discovered that there was a bus to Fira, the main town.

In town we followed some of Rick Steves’ walking tour.  The town was full of shops, many of them jewelry stores, and frankly it was pretty touristy but the views were magnificent.  Here are some pictures.

It was very hot and we were in the sun most of the time.  After we finished the tour we stopped in a restaurant to have a cold drink and admire the views.  We decided it was too hot to go to Oia, another town at the far end of the island, so we caught the bus back to Akrotiri harbor and then dinghied back to the boat. Here are pictures of the harbor and the moon that night.  

We feel lucky that we made it to Santorini because it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, given the lack of a proper anchorage and exposure to wind and waves.