LIFE: Part 2

It was really nice to go home in the Summer. For the last 3 years we always went home in the Winter. Winter is nice too, because you get to enjoy the ski hills, but I was just so excited to be back and admire the truly beautiful place we live in. I am talking about BC of course.

The beautiful mountains, the luscious landscapes and gardens in full bloom, not to mention the friendly people. Ohhh and they all speak English….it feels strange the first few days after you arrive from a foreigner country, but it’s a treat!

We do enjoy all of our travels but we feel blessed to come home to a wonderful place.

Ahhh but let me talk about the highlights of my trip:

My 2 grandsons running up the ramp at the airport to greet me with big smiles and big hugs, that was precious!

My 2 daughters and 2 grandsons picked me up in Vancouver airport and we enjoyed a couple 0f days there before our scenic trip to Kelowna.

My sweethearts, Tiago and Jonah

My other sweethearts, Allisen and Jessica. My daughters and I had a fun night out at the Chinese fair in Vancouver that is held every Friday night through the Summer.

 

We had a lot fun at the Chinese Market, besides the yummy Chinese food that I was craving we enjoyed some octopus right off the grill. So much seafood to choose from. Funny that we even have better prices on seafood in Canada than through out the Med. Fish and seafood here are very expensive. No wonder! there are barely any fish in these waters.

As far as Chinese food goes, you can only find it in large touristic cities, but we enjoy the local foods everywhere we go.

 

Upon arriving in Kelowna I enjoyed many family get togethers, bbques and pool parties.

We had some family that came over all the way from Portugal for the upcoming wedding in Edmonton Alberta.

 

My sister Elisa from Portugal and 2 cousins from Kelowna

 

Aunt  and uncle and cousins

 

Enjoyed the walks through Mission Creek park just across our house. My sister, her husband and son

 

Night outings for coffee and walks along our beautiful Okanagan Lake. Myself and 2 sisters, one from Portugal and one from Kelowna

 

Party time!     Go, Tiago go!  So cute.  Downtown Kelowna with blasting music

 

Backyard fun. Mixed grill.

 

Backyard fun and brotherly love…..adorable

 

Bubbles bubbles on my nose….bubbles bubbles on my toes!!!!!

 

Let’s cool off.

Ahhhh for many of you foreigners that ask how cold it is in Canada: we do have a nice hot summer (30 – 35 deg C), Lakes and beaches to enjoy especially in our area. It’s amazing how everyone only knows Canada for being cold. We do have Winters (av. -5 deg on the ski hill), in which we enjoy the many activities you can do as well.

 

 

We have a new development in Kelowna. The Okanagan Mountain park, with water fall and lagoon, many suspension bridges and breathtaking views. They haven’t had their official Grand Opening yet, so at the moment it’s all free to enjoy.

 

The Park is complete with water fall and lagoon, a cave cellar, many suspension bridges, theatre with breathtaking views.  It should also be fun in the winter with the snow.

 

 

fun balloons at the farmer’s market

Ohhhh Jonah. He is way too cute!

Tiago giving Jonah a push…..What big brother he is!

My daughter Jessica and I

Fun and more fun…..loved every minute of it. I cherished every moment of my 18 days in Canada.

To all my friends in Kelowna I apologize. I did not visit with anyone. As you can see I was busy with the children and family and lots of family, being a tourist in my own town and a long trip to Edmonton. Coming up!

 

Before we headed to Edmonton for the Big Fat Portuguese Wedding we had to make the flower girls baskets. The baskets with a story to tell…

I will try to make the long story shorter, I tried to buy them them in Europe.   I told the bride, my niece, I would make them, I enjoy doing crafts and I would love to do that for her wedding. Or perhaps I would find something nice on my travels. After realizing how difficult it was here to gather the supplies, I knew to start shopping for them made instead. Adventure to follow:

While in Sicily, on one occasion I took a 30 minute bus trip inland to a bigger town just to look for the baskets.

The girl in the Marina spoke good English and gave me some addresses where to start looking: bridal shops.

I went to bridal shops they told me they don’t supply them and sent me to wedding accessories a few block away.

When  I got to the accessories, it only included decorations, candy and many trinkets you can make to give to your guests. The shop in broken English told me to go to bridal shops and I told them been there and done that!

After a hot and sweaty day with no success I picked up a few items at the grocery store (you can’t ever go home empty handed) and picked up the bus to return home. Noel asked me to pick up some electrical wire I could get at the hardware store. I asked the bus driver to leave me there and not too happy, he made a quick stop for me. It was an Industrial area about 10 km from the Marina where we had the boat .

Ahhhh the crazy siesta hours. The hardware store was closed! Some of their big stores don’t close during the day, but they are so inconsistent  that it always leaves one guessing.

The problem here was that the store was closed for the next 2 hours and the next bus was not coming for the next 2 hours either, leaving me stuck in a Industrial area. No shopping around there to kill time and nothing open anyways!

HMMMM….rearrange my pack sack. Throw in my purse (out of sight) re-arrange some money in different pockets too. I stopped on the side of the road for maybe a taxi passing by. Nothing.

Lots of traffic. I have never hitch hiked before in my life, it’s totally out of my comfort zone, but I didn’t feel like waiting around in a scorching afternoon heat.  I was so embarrassed, but put my thump up just for a few seconds. I put my hand down again and kept walking till I got the courage again to put my thumb up.

Ahhhh a minute later, hand and thumb up ……someone stopped!

Driver only. I took a look and said “English???” He said Yes. (that was a good start).

One quick look at him and I decided that it would take him a long time to get out of his seat, as the steering wheel carved into his beer belly.

Turns out, he was a nice guy. We spoke during the short trip and he dropped me off right by my boat. He was going to spend a few days in his Summer home in the sea side town near the marina.

What an adventure! I still laugh about it. First time for everything.

Well I was not totally discouraged from basket hunting. This time we had moved on …to Greece

In Greece they told me that they don’t sell such items as flower girls baskets, because it’s usually a gift to the bride from the bridal boutique where she buys her dress, and maybe a special order????

Very strange. At that point I gave up and decided to make it all in Kelowna where it is sure easier to get what I needed.

But time??? Kelowna will be so busy with family and children???

Well, while at the Chandler in Greece  buying some stuff for the boat (as usual)  I took a look at this roll of nylon line, just off-white in color, like the bride likes, shiny, hmmm, that would be perfect for crochet….with baskets still on my mind.

Bought it. Came home with it, I was so excited, in  couple of hours Noel wouldn’t believe what happened to that string!  2 baskets done, no pattern needed, no matter what crochet stitch you used they still stay upright. Perfect.

Will decorate in Kelowna because there my sister had the right color purple to match the bridal party. It saved me time in Kelowna. It was also fun to decorate with my beautiful sister who came from Portugal for the wedding.

 

Baskets done!!!!

Let’s go to Edmonton now.

 

Ooops, not yet. We still had to make alterations on a suit for a handsome young man…..

 

Tiago’s pants  and Jacket needed alterations so our ring bearer could look good up the isle. ( Our 3 and half  year old  called himself, Prince at the wedding)

 

 

Now we sett off on a long 900 km drive to Edmonton, Alberta, where the wedding is to take place.

 

Beautiful Canadian rocky mountains

 

 

 

Near Banff

 

Banff

Although was a long trip but very much enjoyed. We had a nice stop in Banff for lunch and also it was a farmer’s market going on that day as well, so it was a nice walk to stretch our legs!

 

Our next stop: Edmonton bellow

We arrived a couple days before the wedding, so we did some site-seeing. The Zoo was one of the choices one afternoon, especially among the young ones

We did see quite a variety of animals, birds, reptiles, etc. but I had not seen a giraffe in many years, so it was my favorite. They had 3 or 4 there.  Zoo is not our favourite place to visit the animals, but……

 

Let’s go party

We have a wedding to attend!

The hall, DJ, open bar and food are ready!!!!

 

Dressing up!

Son in law with Jonah, sister, daughter and nephew. Looking good!

I got my first shot of the boys leaving the house.

Don’t they look handsome?? The most handsome is Tiago of course, so proud to be with the big boys.

 

Run to the limousine…..

Ahhhhh……made it on time!

 

 

Here comes the Bride

with my brother and sister in law. They looked beautiful

 

 

The beautiful couple.

 

and the other beautiful couple…. oops, Tiago lost the other flower girl, who decided to stay behind and socialize. So cute, they did such a great job!

 

Picture perfect….

Siblings. Four out of seven. The other 3 from Portugal and France were unable to attend.

My beauties and I. The audience is uncle John cousin Michael and cousin Miguel.

 

Yummy food, drinks, beautiful decor and people, and great company!

Let the party begin…

Leave it to the Portuguese ladies to start the Dance!!!! Way to go!

Great times with great people.

We were sad to see the family reunion come to an end.

The next day some of us were together at my brother’s house . With an open and well stocked bar the party was not over yet! Cousins, so much fun.

 

I finish my blog with a picture (of an older picture)  of my Mom and her siblings.

My aunt Lou, first left on back row and my Mom, third from left on back row, were unable to attend. Thinking of you.

 

And now at last…the Captain is calling! Put the main sail down, we are dropping anchor in Cleopatra’s beach in the Turkish Riviera. It’s looking very busy around here. Popular place!

We have done some great sailing along the coast. Just left Bodrum 2 days ago.

Will update you on the Turkish Riviera soon. The scenery has changed and it’s a lot more green in this area, but also very busy still with tourists and Gulets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the time the concern is that the anchor doesn’t stay where you put it.

Sometimes it is the other way around.

We were all set to leave from Asin Limani. It was very calm, so we had the mainsail up already. The engines were checked. The instruments were on. It was time to hoist the anchor.

So we did. Up came about 10m of chain and then it all ground to a halt. We tried moving the boat around this way and that to see if we could free it off, but it wasn’t happening. We were clearly snagged on something down there, and it wasn’t about to let us go.

What do do?

The depth was 6m, and the water was very murky – only about 1m of visibility. We couldn’t see a thing.

In such a situation you have two options:

1) tie a buoy to the anchor chain, and then untie the anchor chain from the boat, leaving the anchor behind for, hopefully, future retrieval. That is why you carry spare anchors. Or,

2) find a scuba diver who can dive down there and try to sort it out.

Fortunately we have our trusty HookahMax!

So, down came the main. And out came HookahMax. It is a 5hp honda compressor to which we can attach two 100ft air hoses. The compressor stays on the boat, the air hoses go in the water, and the diver goes on the end of the hoses where there is a mouthpiece and regulator.

The big advantages to it are:

1) it is cheaper than buying all the scuba gear – bottles, BCU, and full 150bar compressor. And you don’t have to keep getting the bottles filled.

2) bottom time is unlimited. In shallow water, ie less than 10m, you can pretty much stay underwater forever without risking the bends when you surface. But a normal diving bottle gives you only about 45 min of air. For a recreational dive that is usually plenty. But if you are trying to get a job done, you might want more.

3) it is less cumbersome. No big bottle on your bag, which you then have to compensate for with your BCU. Instead you just wear the same as for snorkelling, plus a couple of weights.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages:

1) The main one is that it is only one source of air for both people. If it fails, for example it runs out of gasoline, then both of you run out of air at the same time. No chance for buddy breathing. But provided you are shallower than 10m you can do an emergency assent without much risk. Any deaper than than and you would definitely want to take a pony bottle with you to provide an emergency air supply to get you back to the top.

2) if you are diving away from the boat, you have to put the compressor in the dinghy and then tow that around with you as you swim. Not a big deal really.

Anyway, all geared up with the HookahMax, I descended down the chain to see what was up.

Well, ‘see’ is the wrong word. Couldn’t see a thing, especially when I kicked up the mud at the bottom.

But I could feel that the chain was somehow underneath what felt like a big pipe. The pipe went one way and then seemed to divide into two. I couldn’t find the end.

In the other direction was a huge jagged lump of metal. No idea what it all was. Possibly some ancient anchor.

Meanwhile, while I am down in the depths, some fisherman comes around the boat and sells Ceu a big fish, which also happened to have its own supper inside its stomach! We had both for supper that evening but, sad to say, despite the exorbitant price it was pretty bland in taste.  We find both to be commonly true – the seafood here is really expensive, and most of it doesn’t taste of much. Come to that, it is also hard to find fresh vegetables, although tomatoes are plentiful, as are fruit.

Anyway, back to me down in the depths…

Fortunately it was flat calm, so the boat was not being pulled by the wind. That gave me some slack to work with and by digging under the lump of metal into the soft mud I was able to loop the chain around the end and free it off underneath.

We were in business again.

I came up and rinsed off. We hoisted the main again, and this time we really did set off.

We had a great sail, close-hauled in 25kts of wind, westward to YaliKavak, where we squeezed into an anchorage between some gin palaces and other yachts.

Current Location: Asin Limani, Turkey
Current Position: 37°16.71'N, 27°35.55'E
Distance sailed since last post: 93 nautical miles

After nearly a month at anchor in Teos Limani while Josh came over and learnt to windsurf, and Ceu went to the Big Fat Portuguese Wedding in Edmonton, it was good to get under sail again.

In a nice following breeze we headed south for a brief visit to Samos again. There we managed to stock up on cheap beer and the last two cans of ginger ale in the supermarket. Last time we were here we cleared them out of their last 15 cans. That stuff is SO hard to find.

While at anchor outside Pythagorion we had another brief anchor dragging episode. Fortunately the neighbouring yacht from Tenerife shouted to us and we quickly fixed the situation. But I can’t believe how much trouble we have had with anchoring this year – and that despite our heavy new Rocna.

Anyway, from Samos we sailed south in brisk winds with just the jib up, and rounded to corner to anchor nice and securely in some sand at Cukuruk (37 21.0806 N  027 12.5150 E). The land is low, and the wind sweeps across it, so it is kind of desolated. But it was a peaceful stop.

From there we went a bit farther around the corner to Altinkum. There is a big marina there. And a noisy town.

We didn’t stay.

We then went farther south into Gulluk Korfezi (Gulluk Bay) looking for a nice place to stop.

At first we aimed for Shiero Bay (37 14.7813 N 027 32.3703 E).  This sounded nice in the cruiserwiki guide.

To get there we had to dodge countless huge fish farms. And between two of them we sailed through a large oil slick. At least one can say one thing for sure: pouring oil over troubled waters does indeed calm them down, as you can even see from the photo.

 

The landscape around us was rolling hills covered with brush, small pine trees, and olive groves. It was not particularly pretty, and looked a bit like the Greek Cyclades islands.

And all the huge holiday village developments did not help. At all.

Well, when we got to Shiero Bay we were unimpressed with the huge, I mean HUGE, white hotel dominating the hills. So we sailed on another couple of miles to Asin Limani.

This is a tiny bay with a small town quay to which one can med moor. However, just the other side of the ancient Iassis ruins is a larger bay in which we anchored. We then kayaked ashore to the ruins and walked through the olive groves and around to the little town. Cute.

But the water is murky, and the scenery not that impressive, so tomorrow we shall move on westward to the ‘Turkish Riviera’ to see all the mega yachts.

Current Location: Foca, Turkey
Current Position: 38°40.35'N, 26°45.17'E
Distance sailed since last post: 54 nautical miles

Last night we did our first ever anchor watch. Those Crazy Winds had got us again.

It started when we left the Greek island of Oinoussa to sail north east to Foca, Turkey. The forecast was for 14kts of wind from the north, so we had a beat out from the island, then a single tack to cross the top of the Karaburun peninsula, and then a broad reach to Foca.

At least that is what the forecast said.

It started off well. And then we had a nice lift on Port tack which took us straight out of the channel, and allowed us to make the Karaburun peninsula without tacking.

And then it disappeared. Gone. No wind.

So it was back to the trusy ol’ motor, as we completed the last 14 miles to Foca.

About a 5 miles out from our destination the wind picked up again, and we could sail once more.

Then, just as we arrived, the wind turned onto our nose and increased to 20kts.

We went to anchor at the north east corner of the bay, in about 4 meters depth, with dirt and weed on the bottom. That water was rather cloudy, so we couldn’t see the bottom well. We seemed to hook in well, and had a pleasant evening a night.

At about 6am as dawn was breaking, we heard the halyards slapping against the mast. Odd. that happens only when the wind is across the boat, not on the nose, as when we are at anchor. Then a few minutes later we started feeling some wave action. We got up to see what was going on, only to find us a quarter of a mile off the beach. The wind had picked up to gale force. Where was that on the forecast?

We had dragged.

Fortunately it was daylight. So we hoisted up our 40 meters of chain dangling below us, and went to find another place to anchor.

That didn’t go so well. Couldn’t find good holding. So we moved next to an Italian boat, who seemed to have survived the night, and told us to go there.

Once again we were firmly anchored. The wind had settled again, and we had a pleasant day.

In the evening the wind again picked up. This time with gusts up to 39kts, blowing offshore. We put on the anchor alarm, but we held firm. Until 10pm. We had just gone to bed and heard a scraping noise coming for our chain. A moment later the alarm went off. Once again, we were dragging.

We started the engine to stop the movement, and then debated what to do. There were several options:

1) we could try and re-anchor locally, but clearly the holding was poor around here.
2) we could try to find and pick up some of the mooring balls we had spotted the day before. But despite the full moon, it was dark, and the balls would not be easy to spot.
3) we could head offshore, maybe back to Oinoussa, which was downwind and so an easy sail with just the jib. But it was, literally, blowing a gale. And we weren’t too enthusiastic about a night sail.

While debating all this, we noticed that our anchor had caught again, and was holding us firm, despite those big gusts. So, we decided on a new tactic: just stay were we were and stay up for an anchor watch. Ceu would wait up the first part of the night while I got to sleep, and then we would switch over. Not much to do on anchor watch, since we had the anchor alarm as well. More a matter of one person being reasonably awake so the other could sleep, instead of both people worrying in bed and not sleeping. Except that I couldn’t sleep as I was thinking through all the alternative strategies – such as putting out a second anchor and so on – while the wind was howling through the rigging.

Well, at about 1am the wind started to die down, and by 1:30 all was calm and peaceful. So Ceu came to bed, and we had an uneventful rest of the night.

The next day we went ashore for some shopping and then decided we had had enough of Foca. We headed off in a very pleasant light wind (the forecast was for 16kts) and sailed north to a beautiful anchorage in Bedemli Liman. Sandy bottom. Well sheltered. And still calm winds. Hopefully it will stay calm through the night, too!

Over the next week we will cruise a bit further north, and then head back down south to Sigacik. We are trying to find a good place to stop so that Ceu can get to Izmir airport. Foca was on the list but failed the test. Hopefully Sigacik will work out better. We will let you know!

Current Location: Ephesus, Turkey
Current Position: 37°51.09'N, 27°27.76'E

Upon arrival in Kussadaci, Turkey, we were welcomed by a dinghy and e 2 marineros to guide us to our birth in the Marina, followed by another 2, to help with the lines. There I was ready to take the lines, gloves on this time, (before i knew the lines that lay in the water are usually full of barnacles and they rip right through your hands) Their lines were very clean too.

Wow! What a treat, they come right onboard and do it all for you and they were very friendly.
I guess good service is included when you pay $100+ a night, with no choice of course, because it’s a port of entry and no anchorages around the area.

 

 

Arriving Kussadaci. It just looked so different to us seeing all the high rises and big populated city. It had been along time since city life. Very touristic city. Lots of shopping, crazy with traffic and pedestrians.

A walk along the waterfront. Marina just ahead.

What’s new? New country, new internet connection and a long and sweaty walking town looking for a Vodaphone store. Half of the time you get instructions wrong, their 1 km turns out to be 2 or maybe 3 (they don’t judge walking distances very well, because they always drive) and if you forget to take your Passport with you, well…. you will have to go back again because this silly law of not being able to buy a internet stick is really inconvenient. And on the way there don’t bother asking for directions, this is not Greece. English is not as popular in Turkey.

Downtown, Kussadaci

and a busy round about

 

 

Welcome to city of Ephesus

Oops! Did I say No more ruins?

True. No more ruins after these ones. But they are so interesting!

And Noel says my pictures are the same as the pictures you can get on their site. Oh really? (I must be taking good photos then, even if he’s rushing me!) Well having my own photos and seeing ourselves walking through this amazing place, is not the same as what I can find on the net, so i keep taking more……

 

The ancient city of Ephesus was first Greek and later a Roman city. In the Roman times population was over 200.000.

They have done a great job preserving a lot of the buildings. It was complete with stadiums, gymnasium, theaters, Halls, fountains, many temples, churches, castle, brothel, bath houses and latrines.

The city held many historical events, even had visits from Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

The picture above shows the beautiful 400m long marbled and lit up street, with advanced technology sewage system underneath, taking you down to the famous Celsus library that was built in 115. Celsus’ tomb is in the back. Along the side of the street one can see still the stalls where the stores were.

 

Fountain. It had 2 floors and a large pool in front of it.

 

The latrine. Judging from the small size of the Latrine one could never guess the huge population of this city. It’s quite funny. There are about only forty of them. They are around this large square room and they occupy the 3 sides, on the one side is the big entrance. It no wonder this place was very busy at all times and popular with gossip!!!! Not like you could see anything with those big cloaks on, and a good seat cover too! Lol

And who said anything about a bidet? look at the photo bellow

 

Bellow is a beautiful building, Temple of Hadrian along Curetes street. It was built in 117-138

 

 

 

Celsus Library and the many tourists. We were glad we went in the morning, it wasn’t too bad, but there was a big line up already to buy tickets. They say they get up to 10,000 visitors per day during high season, but everyone was surprised about line ups to buy tickets and the lack of speedy process to get in.

The sun was beating and the shade in their faces but I still wanted a picture a bit closer. I had read that the statues in the front facade, (4)from Roman Period, are the 4 females of personal virtues : Wisdom, Character, Judgement and Experience.

 

Above is the market square, near the port.

This street above also equipped with lights, extends from the grand theatre all the way down to the ancient port and it believed that on this street, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra walked together. Just as we were passing by this little performance was starting. Short performance of about 10 minutes with dancers and gladiators.

 

The grand theater

Ephesus is also home to this very Religious site and visited by 3 recent Popes. The House of the Virgin Mary.

It said that when Jesus was being crucified he asked St. John to look after his Mother. St John brought her here and that’s where she spent her last years.

Above is the house of the Virgin Mary. It is situated in a beautiful park with manicured grass, flowers and shade trees.

Not allowed to take photos inside, but the photo below shows what it looks like. It is small, but very cute with a nice altar and statue.

A walk through the paths and down a few steps takes you to the fountains with the blessed water.

After the fountains you follow the gardens towards the exit. The wall along is covered with the millions of notes left to the Virgin Mary by the pilgrims.

This visit took me back to Fatima in my home country.

 

We enjoyed seeing the storks up close.

 

 

The largest Temple of Artemis, the most ancient goddess in Anatolia, and also one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was also here in Ephesus. Not much is left though

Behind the Temple is the Basilica of St John. Following his death they built a basilica over his grave up in the hill in the 5th century. It has gone many changes and restorations since and is now a archaeological park.

This took us to the end of our tour in Ephesus. I hope you didn’t get too bored!

 

As we moved along the west coast, this was our first anchorage away from the marina. When the tourist boats left late in the afternoon we swam to this cave where they were anchored, as we approached we saw all these neat bubbles coming up to the surface, turned out this area has a lot of thermal springs so inside the caves you could find some nice and warm water, but only to make you feel more cold as you get into the cold waters of this area. The water was a bit warmer here, about 24 degrees, but just around the corner, 5 miles away it was only 21, and that’s how it is around here. The water is not warm, but refreshing because the air is very hot.

 

In the evening and the next morning the bay was very quiet, we were the only ones there again….and Noel enjoyed some windsurfing.

This coast has many bays and coves and nice clear waters.We are in Karaabdullah Koyu.
Above is a holiday village gated community. Many Turkish peoples have summer houses in the area to escape the busy city life.

We took a long walk through it look for some supermarket, but did not find one.

 

On to the next village where we found the friendly donkey. I hope the owner was not having a long siesta while he waits in this heat. Ahhh, no siestas in Turkey! Just when we were finally getting used to the opening and closing of the shops in Greece, we get to start all over again. Sometimes I have to ask myself if we are in Turkey or Greece. We cross over often. We also have to remember to change the flag, otherwise…….not sure we would be welcomed in both of these countries.

Peppers drying.

 

We finally arrived at a big town and lots of supermarkets. The town is Shiftlick. We have been having fun pronouncing these names, this one we call it chick flick.

We sat around in a little square enjoying some baklava and watching the big yacht race going from Cesme down the coast. It was very windy, even from afar you can see how much the boats are healing. Catamaran not included.

 

The next day we ventured a bit further but this time by bus, to Cesme. They have a beautiful new Marina there very upscale shopping and restaurants.

 

The Marina was very full mostly with local yachts.

Back home for a nice sunset!!!!!

The coast is mainly populated with holiday villages and Resorts

 

 

The siren rocks, the tourist boats destination.They extend for about a mile up the coast just north of Eski Foca.

A group of islets with many caves and little coves with beautiful clear waters. The rocks are supposed to look like seals.

 

 

After visiting Lesvos island for a night we sailed down the coast to Chios, Greece where we tied up in a free unfinished marina. Met a few English, German, Spanish and Italian boats there. Popular place. Great place to visit and shopping for everything.

Noel and I wanted to buy cooking gas. This time we wanted to buy the Greek bottles so we can have them filled or exchanged easily. We were very lucky to find a place and was also able to fill our American bottle. The man at the store was super helpful and when we told him we were getting a taxi he offered to deliver them on his way home. We find that Greece is much easier to get things done because many many people speak English.

We were now happy with lots of propane and left to Sigacik where it will be close enough for me to take taxi to airport in Izmir.

Back in Turkey – Sigacik

Nice sail here. We anchored just outside Teos marina.

We had a choppy ride to the marina. It’s windy here most of the time.We tied up the dinghy and went ashore to explore and find out about taxis and car rentals. Gotta get to the airport somehow……Its all organized thanks to the Marina staff who speak English.

People are friendly around here. Yesterday we had an older Turkish couple swim to our boat from the beach and say “Welcome here.” I asked if they were from here and she said: home here. We all kept on smiling, we couldn’t understand each other any further. That was cute.

A couple of weeks ago I had 2 young boys swim over and all they could say in English was Hello. They sounded very tired so I pointed to them they could sit in the stern and rest a minute. Their plan was to ask me if they could jump off the bow of the boat, I said no,no, sorry. They even had pontoons all along the beach for the young to dive from! Silly kids, but at least they asked and were friendly.

Today, just a few minutes ago as I’m typing away I heard some yelling. sounded very close to the boat. I looked outside and saw one guy, afloat, moving and saying Help, Help me. I called Noel out with me immediately, but almost not believing he actually needed help, just for safety. He swam over a few more feet to the stern and wouldn’t even hold on to it till I told him to, because he sounded almost out of breath.

The poor guy was soo tired. I put the ladder down and told him it was ok to sit on the boat. You could tell he was very polite. I brought out some water for him and he was trying to talk and having to stop to catch his breath. He told me his English was not very good, and apologized and thanked us so many times over and telling us we were great people. He wanted Noel and I to go for supper at his place. He is from Izmir and is staying in this holiday village with some friends that own it for a week. I told him we were busy tonight but perhaps tomorrow for a drink. He rested for about 10 minutes and he realized his friends were waving from the beach. At this time Noel is long gone back to his computer and it’s a Do Not Disturb when he’s programming.

The friends started to swim over to pick him up. I was still in my little bikini so I put on my wrap around. He told me not to worry, his friends are very nice and they are swimming here just to pick him up! He was worried that I was worried. Too funny.

As he left, one can see he does not swim very well. One of his friends spoke very good English and told me he went to college in Texas. Again before he left he wanted to make sure I understood his English and left us with phone number, for us to contact him tomorrow. He was so happy and thankful. Imagine this bunch of young Turkish guys cooking dinner for us, old foreigners. Should we accept the invitation??? Stay tuned!

Too funny. Never is a dull moment around here!

 

We took the bus to the bazaar in Seferihisar, 15 minutes away from Sigacik

We love this system of small buses. They are very economic and run every few minutes.

Their famous Turkish Bazaar, was huge. Although I was thinking there would be more clothing, shoes and such, it was mostly fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Only one stand of fish and no meat! Clothes were of very poor quality and of course, souvenirs. We stopped at a cheese stand and pointed to what we wanted, the first one turned out to be butter after he cut it and we saw the texture, so we thought: butter, why not??? the rest of the cheeses all look the same and taste the same. We bought some fetta look a like but is not as tasty. We miss the french cheeses!

So many olives,and we couldn’t believe how fresh everything was and so neatly stacked…..

 

 

We bused back with full back packs, and home in time for a drink and a beautiful sunset at life part2 in Sigacik.

We were anchored just outside the marina, it wasn’t an ideal spot for windsurfing. So we sailed 4 nm down the coast in bare poles and 20kts of wind into a nice big bay , very pretty with some holiday village above and surrounded by sandy beaches.

But now we want to go ashore and it’s all beaches or rocky shore. Where do we leave our dinghy and make sure it’s still there when we come back????It makes it difficult to find a place to tie up and lock it, and most of the time they don’t even allow you to take the dinghy ashore. We take off slowly along the shoreline finally far and away we found a little fishing harbour and we tied up.

Ahhh but now, does the bus make it here?? Is this just another dirt road or is it a main road???? Ahh it’s a main road,there a bus coming! It stops and picks us up, only 2 other people were in it. We asked him if he was going to Sigacik he said Ok. In the next 5 minutes he stops at a beach and one person gets out, maybe a life guard. Waits a couple of minutes and turns around, but this time in the wrong direction we wanted to go. We spent 30 minutes just going around the same area, around the beaches, as we started to laugh..we could still see our home near by us. We asked again if going to our destination and he said Yes, Change. At this time we don’t even know the name of the town we are in.

Ok, we had to “change” somewhere. We kept going on the bus almost an hour in the wrong direction the sun getting hotter, wondering how it was possible when we know we were so close to that town we had left 2 days ago and along the coast was only 3 or 4 miles???!!! More than an hour later we arrive in Seferihisar where we went to the bazaar. Ahhh now we know where we are!! This is where we had to change bus to go to Sigacik and in 15 minutes we were there. What an adventure, never a dull moment! We thought it was pretty funny, and we got a tour of some other towns that otherwise we wouldn’t see.

Later we googled the area. There is a river here near us and although we are very close to where we wanted to go, there are no roads, so the bus does this big loop, goes inland first, to Seferihisar and then around to the seaside town of Sigacik.

We were trying to get to the country fair in town. It took us awhile to get there, but we had all day!! Except maybe the fair would be over in the afternoon and not allow us enough time.

The long ride was worth it. We enjoyed the fair very much.

The locals were out with their homemade goodies, through the narrow streets inside the fortress.

Lots of crafts, fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of food.

We finally tried the stuffed zucchini flowers. We kept walking through and picking up something different from each table into our lunch box. After picking up some drinks we sat in a bench along the waterfront outside the castle walls and indulged……

We finally tried the stuffed zucchini flowers. They are stuffed with rice and spices I didn’t recognize, but very tasty. The stuffed grape leaves were really good too.The pastries were filled with spinach and cheese or aubergine . Did not see anything stuffed with meat. Meat is actually very expensive here.

 

This is Teos Liman, where we have been the last few days. I will leave Life part2 here to Noel and Josh. Big bay surrounded by holiday villages and beaches all around. They will have fun sailing around this area. I have prepared the guest room for Josh and tomorrow is laundry day and finish packing my suitcase.

 

 

 

 

 

Current Location: Kusadasi, Turkey
Current Position: 37°52.24'N, 27°15.7'E
Distance sailed since last post: 18 nautical miles

Well, we have had some fun through the Greek islands and will update you on those as soon as we can.

But, right now, we are on our way to Kusadasi, Turkey, from where we will be making our way north to get to Izmir in time for Ceu to fly out, and Josh to fly in.

We are sailing along in a pleasant 19kt breeze with a full main, and a storm jib!  Just as we set out today we noticed a problem with the luff of the jib. Not wanting to risk another tear, we rolled it up and put up our tiny storm jib. Well, better than nothing, and we found out that the storm jib needs some adjustments to make it easier to put up.

Will keep you all posted 🙂

Current Location: Pythagorio, Samos, Greece
Current Position: 37°41.35'N, 26°56.94'E
Distance sailed since last post: 82 nautical miles

Welcome to Patmos

Patmos is not a big island, but it is one of the best known. It was here St. John had his vision and wrote the apocalypse, and this is why Patmos is sometimes called “The Jerusalem of the Aegean”.

Arriving in Patmos. No…not on this cruise ship!

Noel and I walked from our anchorage into town Skala, and then up to the Monastery.

The Island includes one of the UNESCO world heritage monuments.
The Monastery of St. John and the traditional village of Chora, that was built in the Middle Ages and the Cave of the Apocalypse were the main reasons that Patmos is well known.

Inside the Monastery. Only this one photo, the battery died. lol

The Chora was very nice with all the windy narrow cobbled streets and many cafes restaurants and vendors, unfortunately selling way too many religious items.

This wind mill has been restored, and they let us in upstairs to see it in action. It was also the first time we have seen one with at least a bit of sails up! The crazy winds are always Up!!! Even the windmills have to reef all the time!

And of course we visited the cave of the Apocalypse. The Cave of Revelation is up the hill between Chora and Skala

There is a crack in the roof where Jesus appeared to him and John dictated his vision to his disciple Prochorus. The cave is not that big, at first when you walk in it looks like a chapel, but then you see the cave and they showed where St John stood and wrote the book and also where he slept. The chapel was added right next to the cave and it’s down about 60 steep stairs. We were not allowed to take pictures there…

but we got some great views of the island. It was also a long walk. We were not moored or anchored in the harbour, there was no space for us, we were about 4km away. So we walked about 12 km that day.

Our anchorage by day

 

Our anchorage by night. It was a nice spot, but it was our second choice, as this one was a bit further from town, Skala.

We were busy providing some entertainment at the previous beach: we were playing the anchor game.

We arrived in a beautiful bay only one boat there, and we had plenty of space.

After cruising around with me at the bow looking for that non existent patch of sandy bottom (we found that out later) we decided to drop anchor. Well, it didn’t hold, the light patch turned out to be very hard sand, from what I could see the rest was all weed. Another boat shows up from behind and decides to anchor as well. By this time we are left with less space to play with.

We move along and Noel is yelling above the wind from the helm to drop it right there. I am trying!

I turned to him and pointed with the remote from the windless pressing on the down button and no action. The DOWN button decided to quit on me! So the tough and mighty decided to lift the chain by hand from the locker and just drop it, with success, but not without a bruise on her hand.

At this time the boat that arrived after us is yelling in a foreign language that we were too close to his anchor. Hello…we were here first, my anchor didn’t drop fast enough and the wind is blowing at over 20kts.

We threw down our big fortress and still would not hold. We were about to leave to the next cove, along the coast , no big deal. But we had a visitor swimming from the beach. When he saw me handling the big fortress he decided to come and help. What a gentleman!

He came aboard and said he was an experienced skipper from England in holidays there. We gave it one more try. He saw we were doing everything right. There was nothing to be done differently. He thought we had charted a nice boat but didn’t have much experience. He apologized for being “so presumptuous”.

We thanked him and he dove off pretty quick from our port bow as we turned around and went to anchor in front of this quiet beach. Funny that behind us the other boat was re-anchoring too, as soon as we left!

We were happy to be holding in the new place on the first try. Let’s have a swim and a nice drink.

After that Noel fixed the remote, one of the wires had broken, and I got to clean up the messy foredeck.

The mess I was left with…..

 

 

We stopped in this nice little village in Lipsi island

Small, but charming

 

 

We anchored in this beautiful bay, with a church that was always closed and nobody around. Just 2 minutes dinghy ride from the village, it was so peaceful, only the bells from a few goats around.

From this anchorage we hiked up these hills. There are only goat trails, or maybe rabbit trails. We did see a rabbit jumping ahead of us and then this skeleton on the picture bellow.
It was quite funny because we kept on being trapped by these walls, some of them even had thorny twigs on them and we had to do some climbing over and trying no to get in trouble from the owners. This must be to divide the properties and keep the goats in.

Left the animals in the mountains to die???

 

As we keep sailing, working our way towards Turkey, we made a night stop in this cute very small place on Arki island. Home to 47 inhabitants. With 2 beautiful bays to anchor, and very few boats around. There are still many many places around one can visit that are not crowded, even in busy season.

 

 

We have now arrived in Samos. North of Patmos in the eastern Aegean sea.

Everyone stops here and waits for that good weather window to take you right into Turkey. Only 1.5 km separates Turkey and the island of Samos.

Plus, how can you not stop in Samos??? We anchored here in the town of Pythagorio. Free anchorage just outside the harbour, you dinghy into town in less than a minute. The water is clean and you can swim around your boat, or swim to town right into the beach across!

Nice town, touristic, but not too much. Shopping streets, supermarkets, nice waterfront and great food. Noel even found his favorite: Ginger ale in one of the supermarkets. We cleaned out their shelf and they couldn’t get more for us. It is very hard to find around here.

We tied up our dinghy here many times. We were at anchor right behind here. The statue in honor of Pythagoras, the philosopher, astronomer, mathematician. His most famous accomplishment is the Pythagorian theorem. He was born here in Samos around 569BC.

 

We stayed in the lovely island of Samos for 5 days. Rented a car and toured the island on one day. This Monastery was easy to find, as soon as left town we caught up with this full tourist bus that soon came to a stop at this site. Turned out to be Megali Penagia Monastery. Beautiful setting, nice church and big and colorful courtyards.

The Monastery was established by 2 monks in 1586.

 

We took some detours up the steep hills into the cute villages. This one overlooking the sea, with all the grapes reminded me of home, the Okanagan.

They call Samos the green island.

After sailing along the Cyclades, where the landscape is very dry and barren, it was sure a nice change of scenery. Luscious green hills everywhere filled with cypress, grapes, pines and olive groves.

The water drains down the middle of roads indicate that sometimes they get some rain! Not in the summer though 🙂

Many beaches throughout, here the south coast is more popular with Greek tourists. The north coast is more famous for their big organized beaches full of sun beds, bars, restaurants and backed by big tourist resorts. The island has 45 beaches, one can always find some that are quiet and more secluded.

Another village where our waiter awaits! Yes, the orthodox priest. He insisted for us to take a table, but we wanted to tour around town first.

We ended up having our lunch here in this cute patio where Mama and son took care of a very full patio, ordering each other around in a smooth manner, not a word of English (and no harassment on the street). We enjoyed our meal overlooking the green hills and the sea in the distance. I had the rabbit on the menu and Noel had the calamari.

One of many cute and typical houses through the village while walking the narrow streets. Greeks sure love their white steps. We do too!

 

We again were following a tourist bus up and around the hills. They stopped. Well, it must a popular place! We stopped too!

We visited a traditional ceramic place and it was interesting to see the Pythagora’s cup in the make! (story bellow)

 

Another drive through a dirt road took us to the famous Pythagoras’ cave.

It is up in a beautiful valley with some steep cliffs and there’s a little cafe where we enjoyed some cold drinks after a good sweat.

Many steep steps later up the mountain we are about to arrive at the cave. We didn’t know it was so far up! On the way down I decided to count the steps. There were 333.
We figured that day we walked up and down well over 1000 stairs, including all the villages we visited in the hills.

The cave is said to be where Pythagora took refuge from the Polycrates. Due to some politics he banished from the island. The cave has a big hall and a few small ones around

We took a walk in the wild side and walked up to Potami waterfalls. It was a beautiful and cool walk along a little river through this enchanting little forest.

At the end of this little lake is the fall, but we actually didn’t get to swim to it, because we took too many detours and time was moving on…….

If we had the time we would have gone and do another 100 plus stairs to get to this restaurant by the falls, instead we have the picture. It was taken from the other side from another hill where Noel is scrambling up.

We enjoyed our stay in Samos and we will most likely visit again on the way back from Turkey.

As we leave the harbour there were many other boat going as well. Turkey, here we come!

We put up our main sail in a nice breeze. The jib next. Within very few minutes we realized there was something wrong with it. Turns out the jib furler sections had separated – exactly as they had done last year in Ragusa. Fortunately we caught it before it did any real damage.

We rolled up the jib and thought no big deal, good wind and a short passage across to Kusadassi. Will fix it when we get there. But we decided we could use some practice putting up our storm jib that luckily we have never used.

We put it up and once all is well and we sit down, we look around and see all these boats sailing the same course but: one boat had full sails on. Another boat had 1 reef in. Another one had 2 reefs in, and there we are with a storm jib up. What did we know they didn’t??

Nothing beats a good laugh!!!

We had a great sail into Turkey. People were lining up at the Marina office and the lady behind the counter was surprised that it was getting so busy. We told her that there many other boats coming in, she was about to get busier.

She scratched her head, rolled her eyes and started to speak Turkish to her co-workers.

Within a few minutes more sailors come in and we got to meet up with some of the people we had met previously in Samos.

Love the sailors community.

 

We spent less than 30 hours in our port of entry in Kusadassi, Turkey. Just enough time to do all the check in procedures. The next day together with another couple from the US we rented a taxi to go see Ephesis. See Turkey’s next post soon.

After our tour in Kusadassi we sailed just a few miles up the west coast and anchored in a nice beach area, where we had a nice peaceful night and a great swim. It’s always nice to get away from the Marina.

 

Few days later we crossed over to this little Greek town of Mandraki, in the island of Oinoussa below

This is the island from which all the billionaire Greek shipping magnates originally came.

We tied up to the town quay, just in across from a little private island island, gorgeous spot. We walked around the island for a couple of hours

Enjoyed some nice views and amazingly we still find nice quiet beaches with no one around. We met a boat with Australian flag, Pete took our lines when we arrived. In the evening they joined us for gyros and beer in a Greek taverna.

Greece! We just can’t get away from here!

 

Current Location: Dilos, Cyclades, Greece
Current Position: 37°23.41'N, 25°15.76'E
Distance sailed since last post: 3 nautical miles

Welcome to Mikonos, the island of Paradise!

The most cosmopolitan destination in Greece, known for it’s long sandy beaches, clear waters and brilliant sunshine.And shopping…..ahhhh, the jewlery!!!

Upon arrival in Mikonos we parked ourselves in a beautiful spot right in front of Ornos beach bellow, about 3km south of downtown.  Nice sandy bottom, good holding. It was such good holding that one morning we were ready to sail to Delos and we couldn’t actually get out of there. Noel took a snorkel and realized that we had a large grapel wrapped around our anchor. Someone came by in a dinghy to let us know there was a diver available, it happens there all the time. Noel sent him away and we Did It! with a trip line and many manouvers, 1 hour later we were out of there. It was a very busy area with many mooring balls and chains, anchors, yachts and fishing boats. We went and anchored just a bit further out and planed Delos for the next day.

A few days later we were nicely anchored in another Island of Fourni and we got to help another boat next to us who had the same problem, except they had the grapell all the way up wrapped around their anchor just bellow their bow. Noel ran across with the dinghy and help them release it. (at least this time we were not the ones providing the entertainment!) We call it the anchor game.

Mikonos water front and the famous windmills. We were fortunate to have a driver and guide to show us around the island. We met up with a Vancouver couple that own a house in Mikonos and spend Summers there. Jon and Lucy also cooked us dinner twice and we watched a pretty sunset from their place. We had previously met them in the Caribbean 3 years ago, while sailing there.

Waterfront Mikonos. Little Venice.

If you want to take photos and enjoy the scenery is best during the day when everyone is gone to the beach parties or still asleep recuperating from the night before!! (unless a cruise ship just arrived!)

Mikonos has a very chic ambiance. Beautiful upscale hotels and honeymoon suites and infinity pools all over the hills with magnificent views.

Hundreds of jewelery stores everywhere, off beat galleries, beachwear and designer clothing, it’s all there. We were there 3 times, including 1 evening. We enjoyed the food, the art and the beauty along the turquoise waters. Ahhh, we also  enjoyed a beer for 6 Euros and 5.50 for a little cappuccino. What a shock to the system (and the wallet) we were used to pay 2 Euros a beer and 1.30 for the cappuccino in Italy. We really enjoyed our time there though.

This place is known for the outrageous nightlife as well. From bars, discos, gay bars and gay beaches, honeymooners, surfers, incognito rock stars and their yachts, everyone stops here, even if is just for one day. The excellent facilities for conferences and meetings, its no wonder is such a busy place.

The island is bare, just like most of the Cyclades. In the Spring  though it does have one of the richest floras in the Aegean with it’s hills covered with wildflowers.

He was sure walking fast. Did he want to be in my photo Again????

Walking through little Venice and around to get to the windmills

 

The labyrinth of tiny streets and alleyways.

Every street you want  to stop and take photos. This is all in the waterfront

Love the streets. We walked there 3 times and were still finding new places and things to see. It was a total maze. Noel says: we’re lost. I say: lost???  in a beautiful place with a beautiful man….Nah!

 

 

During the tour of the island Jon took us to this beautiful hotel bar overlooking Mikonos. Magnificent views, although was quite hazy for photos.

Besides the great views, there were also some beautiful , exquisite pieces of art around the pool area and foyer from a local artist.

A lovely sculpture of a Minotaur – human body, bovine head. With a mirror positioned so we can see the head.

 

We passed some beautiful beaches of Mikonos. We stopped and checked out this windsurfing beach. Didn’t do any, though.

 

And of course we must always visit at least 1 Church in every place. Don’t we always want to know what’s hiding inside the blue or red roofs????There  are some amazing churches!  (And they are not all the same, Noel!!!) He keeps saying that, but yet many times he is still amazed over and over!

There are so many churches everywhere though.  We read there are 365. As we sailed in you can see little chapels all over the hills.  Jon told us if you build a church in your property you get a tax break.

 

 

Sailing through history

Welcome to Delos.

After our failed attempt to leave Mykonos yesterday, we had another attempt to go there with Jon and Kaley today. Since Jon works Vancouver hours from home, we didn’t get away until lunch time, which meant that, after our sail around the corner to Delos, we didn’t arrive there until 2pm.

The problem is that the park closes at 3pm.

I suggested to the security woman that it was an awfully early closing time, but she informed me in no uncertain time that 3pm is the time at which every archeological site everywhere in the world closes. Hmm.

So we had one hour in which to tour one of the largest archeological sites in the world. But at least we had Jon with us. He had been here several times, and had also had a private tour with one of the archeologists that Lucy knows. So he was able to give us the guided tour!

As it happens, we saw pretty much all of it in our whistle stop 1hour tour, except for the Museum. We did try to get there, but it was ten to three, and that woman was keeping her beady eyes on us to make sure we were actually at the exit gate by 3pm.

 

We keep saying we will not bother to see more ruins, we have seen so many. But then, when I see this one for example still has a lot of the walls and erected beautiful marbled doorways and windowsills and tiles. People from all over the world come to Mikonos for this historical site. I read the history and I am just fascinated each time. So we keep going and each time I am amazed.

Only the Tour boats are allowed in the Quay. We are anchored just a bit far down. No one is allowed in the waters at all anywhere around day or night. They have very high security around the sacred city.

It is said that this city had 30,000 inhabitants in it’s day. Only a small part of it has been excavated. One can see ruins all through out the island, besides this site.

There was a tour guide here with a group. Ah, they were from the beautiful yacht that was anchored near us. Not only that, they were speaking Portuguese! Viva o Brasil! (and Portugal of course!)

Terrace of the lions

These lions are one of the highlights of Delos. And they look spectacular. But, in fact, they are made of glassfibre! The real ones are in the museum for protection! Across from the lions is the sacred lake where Apollo was born. Apollo is the God of light.

 

There are certainly some beautiful mosaics here.

The theatre. In some parts of the theatre you can see how they had beautiful marbled seats

There are Temples of many Gods. Apollo and twin sister Artemis, Temple of Hera, Sanctuary, caves, theatres and gymnasiums , baths,etc etc. In this sacred city no one was allowed to be born or to die. So the dying and the women ready to give birth were take to the next island of Rineia

Apparently this deserted island of Rineia is basically  a necropolis.

Both islands are deserted. In Rineia and around Delos there are a few small beaches and many of the locals do day trips there to escape the craziness of Mikonos. We enjoyed yet more ruins!!!

We even have seen more since then! Stay tuned for Ephesus in Turkey.

 

 

Current Location: Ormos Ornos, Mykonos, Greece
Current Position: 37°25.28'N, 25°19.45'E
Distance sailed since last post: 66 nautical miles

Crazy, Crazy Wind. What do you do?

I  am increasingly convinced that the wind has a malevolent streak to it. Either that or it is just a prankster. Consider the evidence:

From Korkoni we motored early in the morning in a flat calm to cross the gulf in order to visit the Diros Caves.

The forecast was for the wind to pick up from the North. From the caves we motored south to the end of the second ‘finger’  of the Peloponese. The wind never showed up.

However, we had our eyes on the forecast for a crossing to Milos, the first of the islands in the Aegean Cyclades (pronounced, by the Greeks,  as Kick-LAH-dez, not sick-le-DEEZ). So we decided to keep motoring across the next gulf to the third finger.

It stayed a flat calm.

We anchored in beautiful Elfonosis bay, where there was a nice beach, blue water, but poor 3G signal.

The next morning we noticed that there was no due on the decks (a sign of impending Meltemi) and, sure enough, by lunch time the wind was a steady 20kts offshore. We were nicely sheltered in flat water. But the 3G sucked.

The forecast said this wind would continue for 4 days. So we figured we would move around the corner and upwind about 5 miles to the beach town of Neapolis, in the hope of better internet.

We set off in said 20kts of wind. 5 miles sort of upwind? How hard could that be?

20 minutes later we had 40kts gusting to 46kts, with waves crashing over us likely billy-oh. And that was with a beach just 5 miles upwind of us!

Well, we finally made is and anchored in sand for a quiet night.

The wind continued to howl – day and night – for 4 solid days. But we did have good 3G.

Finally the forecast called for the wind to drop. We should have a nice broad reach across to Milos, some 70 nautical miles away.

So, early on Saturday, we departed. In flat calm of course. Here is how it went:

6:01 departed. no wind. motoring.

07:30 As we were rounding Maleas point (notorious for vicious gusts), the wind picked up to 18kts. Engines off. Full sail up. SOG (speed over ground) 6kts, but in the wrong direction – 30 degrees below our course to Milos, as the wind was close hauled.

The wind kept heading us, so we tacked. Now heading north. Wind dropping.

10:00 wind gone. Start motors. Decide to change destination to nearby Monemvasia instead of motoring to Milos

10:30 Decide to go to Milos after all

14:40 Wind now 20-22 kts. SOG 7+ kt. Put in one reef. Still close hauled an almost on our course.

15:12 Wind dropped and headed us. Took out reef.  A 35 deg wind shift (against us, of course).

Over the next 5 hours we had 4 changes in wind – reef in when it went up to 25+kts, and reef out when it went down to 14kts. Wind shifts of at least 20 deg each time. Yet no clouds in the sky. That was 8 changes of sail. We had to keep the sails at maximum effect if we were to arrive before sunset.

21:01 Exactly 15 hours later we anchor in the South of Milos, just as the sun sets.

Then, the next day, after a pleasant visit to the cliffs and caves of Kliftiko bay we started the 7 mile beat up the side of the island.

Every 20 min the wind veered about 15  degrees. After 2 hours later we had covered just 2 miles (despite our SOG of about 6kts) and endured a total of 60deg windshift – against us – before the wind finally died  completely and we had to motor again.

From MIlos we again had to motor to Serifo and from there to Syros – despite forecasts of nice southerly 7-10kt winds that should have taken us there nicely.

This morning we had a forecast for the Northerlies to set in by lunchtime – which would make a great crossing to Mykonos. The wind is forecast to last 3 days.

So we set of in the morning with a pleasant NW  breeze.  We set off early as we had heard that when the Meltemi sets in, it gets strong. Remembering Elfonisos, we thought we would get a head start on ti.

Half an hour later, just after we put up the spinnaker, the wind disappeared.

But we were patient. We knew the wind would fill in at lunctime, so we drifted along at 1kt in vaguely the right direction.

At 16:14 the wind arrived! Woo Hoo! 20kts of wind (but from NE not NW but hey!) and we were doing 7 kts.

16:30 Wind dropped.

17:00 Wind died. Still 8 miles to go in a 25 mile trip. Drifting at 0.5 kts waiting for that forecast wind. Average speed so far?  About 2 kts.

17:25 Gave up. Motors on. Wind, such as it is (2-3 kt), now from Starboard (ie South)?

18:00 Now we have 25 kts from Port. 3 miles to go, then we have to harden up 45 deg.

18:30 Wind now 29kts, close-hauled, trying to make it to Ormos Ornos, but eventually we decide it is time to take in the sales and motor the last mile.

As you know, the Aegean is notorious for its strong Northerly Meltemi winds.  So you tell me? Prankster or just malevolent?

Current Location: Kleftiko Bay, Milos, Greece
Current Position: 36°39.1'N, 24°20.22'E
Distance sailed since last post: 128 nautical miles

We are now rounding off Cap Malea, on the way to Milos. Cap Malea is notorious for very gusty winds ( maybe that’s why they have all these religious monuments along the Cap.)

 

Here we are rounding off Cap Malea with Captain busy watching the very busy sea traffic  with the many ships to and from Athens. But winds are good.

 

Our first anchorage in Milos was in this nice cove in the south end of the island, near some Caves we wanted to visit and we saw from afar upon arriving the night before.

We got up, had breakfast and a nice leisure morning. We motored around the corner to Kleftiko beach. We were surprised to see how busy it was already with some yatchs and many local turist boats.

Noel and I had so much fun kyaking around in and out of caves through narrow passages and arches. Wow it was better than we expected, or any picture we had seen. It was just like an amazing water park. Swimming,  Kyak , snorkling, although it was not much to see, it was still fun  especially in the narrow passages.

 

                       The Caves in Kleftiko beach were once the hide out for the Pirates

We really loved it here! After all the activities there we were hungry. We sat down and enjoyed a  nice nicoise salad chez Life part2.

 

The rest of the afternoon consisted of burning up the calories….we had the wind against us to get to the other side of the island , not far, small island but the wind was up and it took a lot of tacks and a lot of winching. It’s good for practicing!!!

 

This is Milos as you come up and around the south west corner. The Hora, old Plaka in the hill top

 

We are now anchoring in the island of Milos, in the capital town of Adhamos and I look around as my anchor sets in the beautiful sandy bottom and I noticed the waving from the next boat. Ahhhh, the Canadian flag right next to us. That was a nice surprise! Catamaran from Vancouver Island.  We met Larraine and Rodney.  Noel and I are so sure we have seen that boat somewhere. They told us they bought their catamaran about the same time at the same place we did in the Caribbean, and sailed there the first year. They also crossed the Atlantic the same year as us.We are so sure we saw them sailing around in the Caribbean in their Sierra Hotel, Lagoon . Small world!

The next day the four of us took a short bus trip up to the old Plaka up in the hill.

The next day the four of us took a short bus trip up to the old Plaka. Looking down to where we had sailed the day before.

 

Again…the beautiful narrow streets vendors and Tavernas. Such a cute town and so picturesque.

 

 

You can see our boat is on the left side somewhere. The bay in Adhamas.

 

  After a nice day in the town we had dinner in a nice Taverna along the waterfront. While waiting for the food we watched the fool moon coming into full view from the mountains ahead. Another beautiful day in Paradise.

 

And the next day is back to work!

The day of the “crazy winds” we had some damage to our jib. Not an easy task. We had to take it down and shove it into the cockpit in a hurry before the next wind gust that comes and may take the sail away and us with it!!!   But a seamstress with a view, I can handle that!!!

The Peleponese and more so the Cyclades islands are very barren. Rocky and dry. The villages are very cute but we have noticed that after you visit a couple of them, they all look the same. White houses with blue windows and shutters, and the roofs of Churches blue or red.  Some more charming than others, or maybe more touristic and busy and some very peaceful and barely any traffic. We just enjoy every experience.

Like for example: a few days ago we moored in this nice peaceful bay with a small beach and only a couple Tavernas ashore. The water there is very deep, so one of the Tavernas put out a couple of mooring balls, and in return you must have at least 1 meal there.

We go ashore and are immediately greeted at the pier by this cute lady. All she could say was eat fish, fresh. She took us inside. It was not ” a la carte, it was ” a la kitchen” as she pointed the food out including the catch of the day from her husband the fisherman, and on top of the stove a spinach dish, beans and a Greek salad.

We chose 1 of serving of all the dishes and we picked Calamari for the fish. We enjoyed it all. It was great…we sat in the beach front, as it got a bit dark out she turned on the string of lights stranded in the trees along the beach and we enjoyed the rest of the wine listening to the waves and the crickets. No one around, only the waitress talking on her cell phone and it was all Greek to us

 

We set off on a little hike to the town of Fourni. Below is the view of the bay and the restaurant

200 stairs later, up the hill we arrived at this  beautiful windmill that has been turned into a bar . From there you have magnificent views.

It was all down hill from there…to the charming Village of Fourni, bellow

 

 

Next it will be the island of Mikonos. Did you know they even have a little Venice there? Stay tuned.