Kathryn & Rick's Blog

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!

 

Happy Birthday Dad! 🎂🎈🎁🥳

We had a good night on pier.  We had a little breakfast and were off.  Rick is always a little nervous when we first leave and this time was no different.  The boats were packed in tight but we were able to get away without any problems.

We were headed to Cape Sounion which is on the mainland and the site of the Temple of Poseidon. 

We put up the main and the jib and were making good time.  We arrived at Sounion and we anchored the boat with the Temple looming over us.  We had a late lunch on the boat.  There were two resorts. The bay had quite a few boats anchored, including one huge yacht.  People from the resort were swimming around the boats.

As it got later in the afternoon the wind and waves picked up.  We were rolling quite a bit but it was too late to move.  We decided we didn’t feel like going ashore to eat so Rick and crew cooked pork chops, potatoes, broccoli, and a salad.  We had quite a feast.  That evening we play dominoes.

Then we went to bed and we were really rolling.  The dishes and glasses were clanking.  It was really unpleasant.  I took a Tylenol PM and eventually got to sleep.  Rick was up a lot making sure that our anchor wasn’t dragging.

We are off to the boat today.  We had arranged a car to pick us up at 11.  Unfortunately the driver had trouble finding us, but eventually we connected.  We arrived at the boat to learn that they were still cleaning it from the last charter so we couldn’t  get on yet. 

Kay and I watched our suitcases while Rick and the rest of the crew took care of paperwork.  Next we went to provision while Joanne stayed with our stuff.  Shopping was somewhat chaotic because it was a small space and we didn’t know where anything was.  Eventually we figured it out and ended up with lots of food. 

Unfortunately the boat was still not ready when we got back.  We were able to put the food in the cockpit, under the bimini, so the food didn’t get too warm. After about a half an hour they finished cleaning and we were able to get on to put everything away and unpacked.  The cabins are quiet small but the common area is pretty big.  Here are some pictures of the boat as well as Mike and Kay and a Terry and Joanne.

We waited for awhile and eventually someone came to “check us in.” This is when someone from the charter company shows us the intricacies of the boat. Also a skipper from the charter company came by and talked about potential itineraries.  Finally there was an issue with the gps so the base manager had to come to fix it.  We had considered leaving in the afternoon but it was much too late by the time we were ready to go.

None of us felt like going out to eat so we had food delivered.  It was surprisingly good.  After cleaning up we played dominoes.

Rick and I slept well, considering how narrow our bed is.