Well we are back in Naxos again waiting for a friend to arrive off the ferry in the early hours of the morning.
For the last two weeks we have been lazing around in a couple of secluded and out of the way anchorages hiding from civilisation and the Meltemi (strong wind from the North that lasts for 3, 6, or 9 days) As you may have seen on the news with all the fires around Athens, Greece has been having a heatwave over the last few weeks with temperatures the hottest for 100 years, and boy has it been HOT!
When we left Naxos we sailed to Paros the next Island and found a small bay at the north of a much larger bay where we stayed for a few days. The bay was ideal as well sheltered with beautiful, clear water and not many other boats.
From there we went north to Mikonos island and as there was a possibility of some higher winds found a bay in the south of the island. This proved to be a big disappointment as the cruising guide is obviously out of date. Instead of finding a relatively untouched bay with a small Taverna we found a developed resort. Apartment complexes had gone up with more being built, four large Tavernas, that turned out to be extremely expensive and at night the prerequisite loud Karaoke. As you can gather we were not impressed and as the wind did not arrive we moved on after only one night to our next anchorage that proved to be the exact opposite.
We sailed the short distance to the small island of Rinia which is inhabited by only a couple of shepherds and fishermen. The bay was fantastic and totally unspoilt and whilst during the day it gets visited by several other boats most nights there was only us or one other. The other good thing was that it was sheltered and the holding good and this proved to be very necessary. Right on cue on the 1st July the first of the seasons Meltemi started to blow and kept it up for three days.
When at anchor Tiamat has a tendency to sail around its anchor and can get side on which has on occasions led to the anchor breaking out in very heavy gusts. The nautical term for this behaviour is ‘Horsing About’ would you believe! Well we have had a small ‘Riding Sail’ made which fits on the backstay and the end of the boom and we hoped this would act in a similar way to a Mizzen sail and stabilise the boat. Well this seemed as a good a time as any to try it out so before the wind started to blow we rigged the sail and waited to see what would happen. It was a great success, Tiamat no longer moves around but sits very stable, not only is it safer it’s much more comfortable. We kept the sail up for the whole time we were there which included a whole day of 35+ knot winds.
We loved this bay so even after the Meltemi stopped we stayed and in the end spent seven nights there.
And that brings us back to Naxos where we have reprovisioned the boat, topped up with fuel and water and now sitting waiting for Peter to arrive. It doesn’t look as though we will be able to get away tomorrow unfortunately as another Meltemi started this morning we will have to see. The plan for the next week is to work our way further north through the islands and then west towards the mainland where the winds should be less. We will see.
We will post another update when we get internet access again which should be in about a week.
Thanks for all the mails, its great to get them and to keep up with what’s happening.
Take care
Duncan & Kim.
For the last two weeks we have been lazing around in a couple of secluded and out of the way anchorages hiding from civilisation and the Meltemi (strong wind from the North that lasts for 3, 6, or 9 days) As you may have seen on the news with all the fires around Athens, Greece has been having a heatwave over the last few weeks with temperatures the hottest for 100 years, and boy has it been HOT!
When we left Naxos we sailed to Paros the next Island and found a small bay at the north of a much larger bay where we stayed for a few days. The bay was ideal as well sheltered with beautiful, clear water and not many other boats.
From there we went north to Mikonos island and as there was a possibility of some higher winds found a bay in the south of the island. This proved to be a big disappointment as the cruising guide is obviously out of date. Instead of finding a relatively untouched bay with a small Taverna we found a developed resort. Apartment complexes had gone up with more being built, four large Tavernas, that turned out to be extremely expensive and at night the prerequisite loud Karaoke. As you can gather we were not impressed and as the wind did not arrive we moved on after only one night to our next anchorage that proved to be the exact opposite.
We sailed the short distance to the small island of Rinia which is inhabited by only a couple of shepherds and fishermen. The bay was fantastic and totally unspoilt and whilst during the day it gets visited by several other boats most nights there was only us or one other. The other good thing was that it was sheltered and the holding good and this proved to be very necessary. Right on cue on the 1st July the first of the seasons Meltemi started to blow and kept it up for three days.
When at anchor Tiamat has a tendency to sail around its anchor and can get side on which has on occasions led to the anchor breaking out in very heavy gusts. The nautical term for this behaviour is ‘Horsing About’ would you believe! Well we have had a small ‘Riding Sail’ made which fits on the backstay and the end of the boom and we hoped this would act in a similar way to a Mizzen sail and stabilise the boat. Well this seemed as a good a time as any to try it out so before the wind started to blow we rigged the sail and waited to see what would happen. It was a great success, Tiamat no longer moves around but sits very stable, not only is it safer it’s much more comfortable. We kept the sail up for the whole time we were there which included a whole day of 35+ knot winds.
We loved this bay so even after the Meltemi stopped we stayed and in the end spent seven nights there.
And that brings us back to Naxos where we have reprovisioned the boat, topped up with fuel and water and now sitting waiting for Peter to arrive. It doesn’t look as though we will be able to get away tomorrow unfortunately as another Meltemi started this morning we will have to see. The plan for the next week is to work our way further north through the islands and then west towards the mainland where the winds should be less. We will see.
We will post another update when we get internet access again which should be in about a week.
Thanks for all the mails, its great to get them and to keep up with what’s happening.
Take care
Duncan & Kim.
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