Category: Greece Sailing

We started out the day with a “boat meeting.”  We know the winds are going to pick up again on Friday and Saturday so we need to find a safe harbor to “hide” from the Meltemi.  We would like to be on an island that has a ferry to Santorini.  Our current plan was to stay on Paros in a different harbor and hopefully take the ferry to Santorini on Saturday, but after checking the ferry schedule that wasn’t going to work so we are back to figuring out our plan.

After our “meeting” we went into town.  We split up and Rick and I went had breakfast, walked around, and did some grocery shopping.  We visited Church of Panaya of Ekatontapiliani,  literally the church with 100 doors which is a historic Byzantine church complex. The origin of the church’s name is obscure, as it does not have one hundred doors, or gates. The church dates to 326 BC. Its oldest features likely predate the adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire in 391. The church was purportedly founded by the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (ruled 306–337), Saint Helen, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land when she stopped to worship at a chapel on the island. Later Justinian is credited for initiating construction on the site as well.  Here are pictures from our town tour including a picture of the income ferry with hordes of people.

We went back to the boat and prepared to leave.  There wasn’t much wind and the seas were calm so we didn’t put the dinghy on the deck and we left the motor on the dinghy.  

We weren’t far out of the harbor and decided that the motor could fall off the dinghy so we stopped and moved the motor to its position on the back of the boat. Like I said, we were lucky that the seas were calm.

We motored to Naoussa which is one option for riding out the storm.  We toured the harbor which had several huge yachts, one had a lot of toys, a couple of relatively small sailboats, jet skis, kayaks, a slide, etc. but decided not to stay there. 

We continued on and anchored at Golden Beach on Paros which is a beautiful beach with a couple of resorts. 

We were the only boat in the harbor.  Terry, Mike, Kay, and Rick went swimming while Joanne and I guarded the boat.  😉

That evening we talked some more about our route but no decision was made.  I think we are going to have trouble fitting in all the places we want to go.

We dinghied to shore and had to beach the dinghy so it was a “wet landing.”  We had a nice dinner, followed by a game of spades.

Here are some pictures of Golden Beach.

The wind continued to howl all night but by morning it seemed like the gusts were getting further and further apart.  We had planned to leave at 7:30 but it was too windy so we all relaxed and waited for the wind to die down.  Rick and I walked to the bakery and got breakfast.  By 10:00 the wind had quieted a little more and we got ready to leave.  This involved lashing the dinghy to the deck, disconnecting the shore power, topping off our water tanks, and securing the swim platform and the gangplank.

We released the rear lines and started motoring forward as Joanne raised the anchor.  Terry and I were positioned to fend off neighboring boats but it wasn’t necessary.  It was a very easy departure.  We were off the hook (sailor talk for raising our anchor) by 10:40.  We had an easy motor/sail to Parikia, Paros.

Paros is a ferry hub and one of its main claims to fame is it white marble which was used for the Venus de Milo and Napoleon’s tomb.

We pulled into the harbor at about 3 and were anchored by 3:30.  We enjoyed some cheese and crackers on deck in this calm anchorage.  The meltemi is sleeping for the moment but is expected to rear its ugly head again on Friday.

We napped or read our books for the rest of the afternoon.  That evening we went into the town of Parikia, the main town on Paros, for dinner.  We had a nice dinner in a small square under a huge tree.   Here are pictures from the boat and from our walk to the restaurant.

And then back to the boat for dominoes.

Last night it was super windy.  I woke up several times to the howling wind.  The boat was being pushed around by the wind as much as it good be considering our mooring.  Rick got up at least once to check that everything was ok.

I woke up to the smell of bacon, Kay was making bacon.  Yum! 😋 We had a big delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast.

After breakfast we applied for an international drivers license for Rick so that we could rent a car.  While we were waiting for the license to come through Rick and I swabbed the boat. The license came through and we went across the street to the car rental agency.  Just Rick and I were touring the island.  Terry, Joanne, Mike, and Kay had decided to stay in town and explore. We got a little Fiat Panda and off we went.  Here is a map of our route.

Along the way we saw dovecotes which I didn’t know what they were.  They were places for pigeons to nest because the islanders wanted to use the pigeon dung as fertilizer.  In the past they ate the pigeons too but no longer.

As we traveled up and over the mountains in the center of the island the wind got even stronger.  At one point I wanted to get out of the car to take a picture and the wind was so strong that I couldn’t open the car door without Rick’s help.  Rick thought it was somewhere around 45 knots of wind.

We had lunch in a beautiful bay on the northeast side of the island. 

Here are some other pictures of our tour.

The car company gave us explicit directions that we needed to fill up the car before bringing it back.  We stopped at a gas station which was on a hill just before town and watched the attendant filled the tank, however when we started up the car it wasn’t showing as full.  We told them about it at the car rental office and they told us it wasn’t full because we were on a hill when filling, who knew a hill would make such a difference.

We got back to the boat around 6. Since we had a big lunch we weren’t hungry for dinner so we stayed at the boat while the rest went to dinner.  

Here is a movie that I took in an effort to show how windy it was.

We were all up and ready to go by 9:00 (everyone except Rick who had been to Mykonos before and stayed behind to rest his knee).  We walked over to the ferry to Mykonos.  We purchased tickets yesterday so we didn’t have to worry about that.  The ferry was a little late but eventually it arrived.  It was fancier than other ferries I have been on. 

The ride to Mykonos was only 20 minutes.  We got off the ferry in Mykonos and the dock was full of very fancy cars, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, etc. waiting to board another ferry.  It is a car show circuit, next stop Thessaloniki.  The owners were acting like teenagers and were reving the engines.

In Mykonos the ferries arrive at the new port but the interesting part of Mykonos is in the old port.  We just missed the “sea bus”to the old port so we decided to walk.  Rick Steves said it was just a “25 minute dreary walk”.  What he forgot to mention is that there was no sidewalk.  I can concur that it was a dreary walk.  Anyway we finally made it to town.  It was hot and very windy.  Our first stop was to get something to drink but we decided to eat too.

After some sustenance we started Rick Steves’ walking tour.  The tour took about 2 1/2 hours and took us to all the highlights.  Here are some pictures.

After we finished the tour (in very hot and windy conditions) we decided that we were ready to return to Tinos.  We got the sea bus back to the new port (we weren’t doing that walk again).  We purchased the tickets to the ferry and had to wait for about a half an hour for the ferry.  The ride back was fine and we walked back to our boat.

I showered, washed out some clothes and changed our sheets before relaxing.  Meanwhile Rick and Terry further secured the boat.  The meltemi, the strong winds that blow through the Aegean Sea, is supposed to intensify tonight so we are good and secure now.

In my opinion Pyrgos on Tinos, where we went yesterday, was nicer and more authentic than Mykinos.  While we had walked through some nice  neighborhoods, I found Mykonos to be pretty touristy.  Luckily there were no cruise ships moored in Mykonos today so I’m sure that improved the experience.

We went out for dinner at a restaurant just across the street from the pier and had a quiet evening.  The winds were blowing pretty hard we went to bed!

This morning we debated what we would do with the day.  Rick was planning to stay on the boat because his knee is swollen and still hurting.  We decided we would be too rushed to go to Mykonos today but Mike and I went to the ferry office and bought tickets for tomorrow.  We also asked about getting a ferry to Delos, maybe for Monday. I wanted to go to Pyrgos here on Tinos.  It’s a town that specializes in marble crafts and is supposed to be very picturesque.

I went over and did a little more research on renting a car to drive to Pyrgos.  It turns out that we would need an international drivers license (even though Rick and I have rented cars twice in Greece on this trip and he doesn’t have an international drivers license) in order to rent a car. I went across the street to the owner of the gelato shop who seems very helpful to everyone moored along the quay and asked him how much it would cost to get a taxi to take us to Pyrgos. He told me we should take the bus.  So Mike, Kay, and I took the 11:00 bus to Pyrgos.  It was very easy and Pyrgos was a really charming town.  It looked like what I expect Santorini to look like.  We walked to the Museum of Marble Crafts which described how they “mine” the marble and how they carve it.  It was very interesting.  Then we walked back into Pyrgos and had a lite lunch in a picturesque town square. Afterward we wandered around for about an hour, taking pictures.  Many of the houses had decorative marble inserts.  Also the views from the town were beautiful.

We took the 3:00 bus back to town.  It had to drop us off at the ferry terminal because there is a road race through town.  We relaxed back on the boat.  One of our boat neighbors came over for a drink.  Then the race started not more than 10 ft from our boat. They worked their way through small children, a little older children, etc. until finally the adults raced.  It was a really party.  They had a DJ playing loud music and lots of people lining the race course.  Another one of our boat neighbors was running in the race.  We were right in the thick of it.

After the road race, Joanne and Terry went out for dinner.  The rest of us felt like staying on the boat for dinner.  After dinner the music and the partying continued and it was topped off by fireworks. 

Finally they quieted down at around 10:15 just in time for sleep. 

We had decide to leave Andros early.  Rick was up really early, like 5 am.  I woke up about 6:30 because he was lashing the dinghy to the deck over our cabin (normally we tow the dinghy but because of rough seas here in the Mediterranean, everyone lashes it to the deck.) We started pulling up the anchor by 6:45.  It was going smoothly until we got to the end.  The windless, the motor that pulls the anchor up, was really straining and the chain attached to the anchor wasn’t moving.  There was a huge chain, probably 3” in diameter, lying on the bottom.  The anchor was hooked under the chain.  We were in about 17ft of water and luckily the water was clear enough that we could see the anchor fluke stuck under the chain.  The windless was no match for the chain.  We spent awhile letting the anchor chain out and pulling it in and trying to swing the boat around.  Eventually we got it lose (still not sure how we managed that) and we were on our way.  Next stop the main town on the island of Tinos, the island right next to Andros.  The town is also called Tinos.  Our trip took about 4 hours, part of the time we sailed and part of the time we motored.  

We planned to moor on the quay.  In the Mediterranean, boats moor with their stern to the quay and the bow, or nose pointed out.  Lines hold the stern of the boat to the quay and the anchor holds it forward, ensuring the boat doesn’t float back into the cement quay.  It’s called a Mediterranean mooring.  It is a tricky maneuver and it was our first time doing this so Rick was a little nervous.  We motored around to scope out the situation.  A guy on the land who helps boats moor for a tip saw us and came to our aid.  It went pretty smoothly and our first Mediterranean mooring was behind us.

 

We got situated, attached to shore power and refilled our water tank.  Then we relaxed a little before having a late lunch on the boat.  In the afternoon some of us walked up to the main Tinos church, our Lady of Tinos.  It is a cute town with lots of little shops, many of which had 6 ft tall candles which you could buy and lite in the church.  We didn’t buy any candles.  There was carpet along the street so people crawl up to the church.  We saw women crawling up the stairs to the church.  The church complex is built around a miraculous icon which according to tradition was found after the Virgin appeared to the nun Pelagia and revealed to her the place where the icon was buried. The icon is widely believed to be the source of numerous miracles.  Here are some pictures.

On the way back we investigated ferries to Mykonos and renting a car to go around the island.  Options for tomorrow.

We returned to the boat to learn that Rick had hurt his knee getting onto the boat.  We also learned that the meltemi, a very strong wind that blows in the Aegean Sea in the summer, is beginning tomorrow and will be blowing until Tuesday, so we are staying put.  In addition to being concerned that it would be rough sailing we are concerned that we would go to harbor and there won’t be room for us because no one wants to brave the meltemi.

After several of our crew members took a shower we went to the supermarket.  We topped off our supplies.

Then we returned to the boat, put away the groceries, picked up the rest of our crew and went to dinner.  We had seen a gyros restaurant on the way to the church.  I think we had enough of big dinners and wanted something more casual.  We had a great dinner with too much food, we brought about a 1/3 of it back to the boat.  This evening no dominoes.  Some of us played a little uno.

Unfortunately that evening we learn that our friend, Otto Tatar, died.  Rest In Peace Otto, we love you.  💕😢😘🙏

We had another very calm night at our anchor in Karthion on Andros.  Joanne had read about a monastery on Andros so we decided we would visit it.  We dinghed into town and went to a taverna, figuring there we could get help with a taxi.  The owner came out to take our order and said he had a fresh batch of lemonade and apple pie.  We all had a lemonade and shared some pie.  The lemonade was great and I didn’t have any pie but everyone else said it was very good.  We asked him about a taxi.  His English wasn’t too good so we used google translate which worked great.  He got two taxis for us because they didn’t have one big enough for the six of us.  In return for calling the taxi he wanted us to come back for lunch but we said we would be back for dinner.  He even said we could pay for our lemonades and pie when we came back (I think he wanted to make sure we would come back).

We had a taxi driver who spoke some English and gave us a tour as she drove.  Andros is the second largest island in the Cyclades and is home to about 9,000 people.  It is a quiet island and many families go there for vacation and to walk the many trails.

After about a 25 minute ride, we arrived at the Monastery of Panachrantos which was built in the 10th century by the Byzantine emperor Nikiforos Fokas, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire between 963 and 969. The Byzantine emperor waged a war on Crete and legend has it that two monks on Andros prayed for his victory in exchange for financial help. After the emperor had won the war he fulfilled his promise and built the monastery.  The monastery is located 750 meters up a mountain and has terrific views.  Here are some pictures of the monastery.

Our taxi drivers waited for us and then brought us back down the mountain back to the town.  We tried to walk out to a church that we could see from the boat but it had a fence around it and we couldn’t find a way in.  

We returned to the boat.  I took a nap.  Mike and Terry swam to shore.  It was a leisurely afternoon.

Around 5:30 we returned to the island to explore before dinner.  We walked around the town which pretty much consisted of three streets paralleling the water and several cross streets.  Here are some pictures.

We had a very nice dinner at the taverna.  We returned to the boat for our nightly game of dominoes.

We had a calm night and everyone slept pretty well.  Rick made breakfast, pork hash, with the leftovers, and eggs.  After a hardy breakfast we got ready to leave.  We decided to go to Tinos.  We pulled the anchor and were off.

There wasn’t much wind.  We put the sails up but we couldn’t keep the jib filled so we took it down and motored a good portion of the way.  Eventually the wind built up but it was coming from the wrong direction so we had to change plans and decided to go to Andros.  We pulled into the beautiful harbor of Korthion and anchored.

We had a late lunch and then relaxed for the afternoon.  I finished my book, The Mountain Between Us (which I liked).  We had decided to have dinner on board.  We had some food that needed to be eaten.  Rick spent the afternoon cooking. 

Over cocktail hour we made a plan for the next several days.

We had an excellent dinner.  After clean up we had our usual game of dominoes.

We decided to explore this morning.  We went back into the little area where we had dinner and Rick, Kay, Mike, and I walked into town while Terry and Joanne took headed in in the dinghy.  We had some beautiful views during our short walk, maybe 20 minutes.  Here are some pictures.

We arrived in the town and checked out the thermal springs which were quite hot. 

We wandered around the town a little, it was quite small.  They had a good grocery store so we got a few items and then dinghied back to the boat.  

It took us a while to get unmoored.  We had to take the dinghy to the shore, untie the rope, bring it back to the boat and then get the dinghy onto the deck all before pulling up the anchor.   We headed out and we knew we were either going to Andros, Tinos, or Syros (if you look these islands up they might be spelled slightly different since they are be translated from Greek letters to Roman letters). We couldn’t sail because we were headed directly into the wind.  We ended up at Kini beach on Syros. 

We were the first boat into the bay but by the time we went to bed there were 6 boats in the harbor.

We relaxed in the afternoon, watching the other boats anchor.  Actually we were protecting our boat from other skippers who didn’t know what they were doing and were attempting to anchor too close to us.

That evening we went took the dinghy into the town and had very nice dinner.  Here are some pictures.  

Of course dominoes that night.

No one slept well last night and everyone was late to rise.  The crew considered mutiny, but we decided we would give our captain a second chance.

After breakfast we lowered the dinghy because we wanted to go explore the Temple of Poseidon.  In the Cyclades the sailboats don’t tow their dinghy like in other places we’ve been, rather the dinghy is lashed to the deck.  So this was our first opportunity to lower the dinghy.  Luckily there is a halyard which we can attached to the dinghy to raise it up using a power winch.  We performed the task easily.  We all loaded into the dinghy which is quite small and rated for just 4 people (we all had our life jackets on just in case.  It was fine and we didn’t wear life jackets after that.)

Our cruising guide didn’t tell us where to go ashore and there wasn’t a dinghy dock.  We decided to beach the dinghy next to one of the resorts.  We had a little trouble finding the trail up to the temple but after asking at the resort we were on our way.   It was about a 10 minute walk.

The temple was built the same year as the Parthenon.  Sixteen of the Doric columns remain.  There wasn’t a lot to explore up there but the views were impressive.  Here are some pictures.

We returned to the boat.  Here are pictures of the boat from the dinghy.

We had lunch on the boat.  After lunch Rick and Joanne consider the winds and identified a good place for us to go that would be protected.  They decided that we should go to the town of Loutra on Kithnos. 

We had great wind and we sailed most of the way. We got the boat up to 9 kts which is the hull speed of the boat.  Here’s a picture of lighthouse along the way.

We pulled into a beautiful, calm harbor of Loutra. 

It was a little tricky mooring—we dropped the anchor and then we had to lower the dinghy and use it to take a line from the back of our boat to the shore.  The cruising guide said there would be rings that we could tie up to but the one we found was no longer attached to the ground so we ended up tying off to a rock. 

Once we were situated we relaxed a little before going in to the town for dinner. 

We had a nice dinner and then returned to the boat for dominoes.  We had a very calm and restful sleep!