We left Finike and a lot of new friends behind (for the time being) with the plan of hightailing it to Kos and a rendezvous with our new rudder which has now arrived in Kos. It’s 200 – 300 miles from Finike, so this was going to be a multi-day trip – Kastellorizou, Rhodes, Symi and then Kos.

Kastellorizou

The small island of Kastellorizou is just a stone’s throw from Kas, Turkey. It turned out to be a 35 mile long, slow (must have lots of hull fouling) and boring motorboat ride, but arrival back in Greece was splendid! What a very pretty little town – and an easy place to deal with the paperwork of getting back into Greece.

We spent two nights anchored in Kastellorizou but left early (05:30 – still dark!) for the long 75 mile trip to Rhodes. We intentionally picked a light wind day to ease strain on the rudder and were expecting another long motorboat ride so it was a bonus when the wind came up and by 08:30 we were sailing at 7 knots!

The wind was up and down quite a lot, so we got to play with the spinnaker some, motorsailed some and sailed with the white sails too, managing to keep the speed up and arrived outside Rhodes by 16:30. I contacted George the harbormaster who immediately suggested we not come in as he was expecting significant wind from a direction which would make the harbor difficult! This was unexpected! With no other viable options, we decided to press on to Symi – another 25 miles – aiming for a very protected looking anchorage at Panormitis.

Symi

We sailed for as long as we could, but ended up motoring in order to keep our speed up. We rounded the south west corner of Simi in the dark and managed our way into the very narrow entrance in what would have been pitch black if it wasn’t for the monstrously illuminated monastery! The anchor went down at 20:41 – one of our latest arrival times. It had been a long long day!

The following day we did nothing!

Since there’s not much here at Panormitis other than a large monastery, we decided to move around to the east coast – which would have better protection from coming westerly winds. We had a nice sail into Pedi where we were the only boat at anchor.

Pedi is delightful – but pretty much closed in the pre-season. The town of Symi is just over the hill and though a bus is available to take us between Pedi and Symi, we only managed to catch it once – but the walk was interesting – up and down back steps through the towns.

We departed Simi with a light forecast – which turned out to be wrong and we were sailing upwind towards Rhodes with reefed main and jib! As we approached the coast of Rhodes – a good deal west of our planned berth at Mandraki harbor – the sky got threatening and then a major thunderstorm started. We almost managed to out-run it – but as we made the final turn into Mandraki it overtook and drenched us!

We managed to get into the harbor without any problems and George had us tie alongside close to the harbor entrance – we were in Rhodes!

We’re still in Rhodes and have a car booked for a couple of days exploring… next chapter…

Road Trip

While we still had our rental car from the airport, we took another road trip to see some broken down buildings or historic note (ruins!)… First off on our day trip was Myra Antika Kenti:

From Myra, we headed north east to the ruins at Arykanda. The route there was circuitous – and involved a nice bit of rally-ready track – which I thoroughly enjoyed, Laurie not so much!

Our final trip in the car took us to Antalya (where we’d return said vehicle) and gave us an opportunity to visit the fantastic Amphitheater at Aspendos – still in use to this day.

Istanbul

We took a flight to Istanbul for a long weekend – during which the weather wasn’t particularly cooperative! However, we got to experience a wonderfully vibrant spot – even in early February!

The Grand Bazaar was interesting – but a little disappointing in that most of the items for sale seemed to be cheap knock-offs and mass produced rubbish. The building itself was very interesting – masses of avenues with all manner of vendors – and teeming with people.

We also went to the Spice Bazaar – but that was similar in that nearly every vendor had the same stuff!

Out and about in the streets was cold but fun, learning the tram system and finding all sorts of interesting spots…

And we took a river cruise up the Bosphorous…

The highlight of our trip to Istanbul – for me at least – was our visit to the Basilica Cistern. An amazing testament to ancient engineering – how many gallons stored here???

Van Trip

Our next door neighbor in the marina – Ken, organized a bus trip to go visit the local site at Olympus along with several other cruisers. It was a lovely day with interesting ruins followed by a visit to the eternal flame – and ending with a great lunch!

Our final week or two in Turkey was spent getting the boat ready for the coming season – including washing all the sails and making repairs…

We had originally planned to not overwinter anywhere at all, but keep roving around as people do in the Caribbean – but changed our minds because it would mean moving the boat around at inconvenient times according to where the wind was blowing and more importantly, we wouldn’t have any social interaction. Finike was known to have a very active cruising community – and so it does…

Yoga/Fitness and arts and crafts 2 or 3 times per week for Laurie, Bridge twice a week for Bill, plus Happy Hour on Fridays at the local pub and a Barbecue every Sunday! There were probably 30 liveaboard boats here most of the winter – so it was a great place for some much needed social interaction.

Finike itself is not a tourist destination (though they’re making efforts to change that) – so it has more of an authentic Turkey feel to it. The Turks are amazingly friendly people, but the difficulty in a place like Finike is that few speak any English – but we all seem to get by just fine. The view of the snow capped mountains surrounding Finike is stunning.

What was frustrating is that we came here expecting to be able to fix the rudder and get some other maintenance done while that was being taken care of. The rudder is made by Outbound in China (I just couldn’t get comfortable with buying one made in Turkey) and has to be shipped. Importing things into Turkey is nigh on impossible and the local shipping agent couldn’t tell me how much the duty would be (depends on what the customs guys think) or how long it would take. The engineering supervisor at Finike indicated that sometimes duty was waved, sometimes it was significantly more than the item being imported! In the end we decided to have the rudder shipped to Greece and will look to sail back to Kos in the Spring and install it there. Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding the rudder issue hung over us all winter causing stress all round. Making matters worse, the rudder’s eventual arrival in Athens a couple of weeks ago then met another problem, which we were fortunately able to solve by switching forwarding agent’s mid shipment. What a hassle! Hopefully it’ll get to Kos before Toodle-oo!

Christmas

We took a two week trip off the boat to head back to the US for Christmas, giving Laurie a chance to catch up with family and friends and me a chance to load up on boat goodies! Once again we returned with loads of boat stuff!

Road Trip

When we got back from the US, we rented a car for 3 weeks at the airport – $8 per day! – and so took advantage and enjoyed a road trip… Turkey is a much bigger country than either of us realized so we could only scratch the surface – but we had a fascinating trip to Cappadocia in central Turkey.

We were amazed at the things we would see in and around Cappadocia – I had never imagined such places even existed…

Ancient communities living in elaborate cave dwellings

Strange rocks and erosion patterns yielding ‘Fairy Chimneys’.

Underground cities

Cappadocia is noted for excellent balloon rides with hundreds being launched simultaneously (during the busy season) – so we booked… unfortunately, despite booking three days consecutively, the weather gods prevented any launchings while we were there – bummer!

On our 2 day drive back to the boat we encountered snow. Heavy snow. Everything was fine and dandy until it wasn’t and we lost all traction and like everyone else, couldn’t get up a moderate incline. We turned around and went back the wrong way down the motorway and chose another route home.

We hit snow again! This time it all happened in slow motion – I could see two trucks trying to pass and ending up nearly completely blocking the road – but we managed to keep going – until we didn’t! Then I kicked Laurie out to push and she was helped by a couple of guys who must have been stunned to see a woman pushing! We managed to crest the top of the hill and once Laurie had recovered her breath, continued on – fortunately not encountering any more problems. Made for an interesting trip!

Of course, no trip to Turkey could be complete without buying (and haggling) for a rug!

Winds were light for our sail to Datça in Turkey. We tried the spinnaker briefly but in the end we motored most of the 35miles, arriving to anchor in the harbour outside the marina. Our first visit to Asia aboard Toodle-oo! and our first Muslim country – and we arrived on Friday afternoon…

Before we’d even checked in, a coast guard vessel came alongside – which looked rather ominous – but in the end they were keen to get us to lower the Q Flag and raise the Turkish courtesy flag as the following day was Turkey Day – celebrating the formation of Turkey. Then they proceeded to take staged photos of us – for their own publicity! All very friendly!

Fortunately, our check-in agent wasn’t too worried about prayer time and managed to get us checked in without any problems.

We wandered Datça and the following morning watched the Turkey Day celebrations – with lots of flag waving and formation dancing. Everyone was very up beat – and we were thankful that we could actually sit and enjoy a beer without repurcusion!

We moved on from Datça by way of a couple of very nice and quiet anchorages, the second having a ruined Citadel and a small family run restaurant that we tried. Food was excellent – wine, not so much!

We were ready to deploy shore lines from Toodle-oo! To enable us to anchor safely in deeper water, keep the boat facing any swell and limit the space we were taking up – but in the end found no need as the anchorages were large and empty and the depth not so terrible.

We arrived in Marmaris which is a large tourist spot and has a big marina that used to sport a very lively liveaboard community. No longer the case as I think prices there have sky-rocketed. Marmaris is somewhat renowned for it selection of chandleries – there are blocks and blocks of very good chandleries! It’s a boater’s dream (nightmare?) – and I managed to take advantage, getting some rather difficult to find items…

The anchorage at Marmaris isn’t so nice – very bouncy and open, so after a couple of nights and some weather approaching, we moved across the bay to another anchorage with better protection. I was about to drop the anchor when Laurie asked if I really wanted to drop it on top of the wreck shown on the chart… No I didn’t! So we moved off and found a better spot.

Unfortunately, a superyacht came in and decided to drop anchor where we’d moved from – and when the wind and rain came howling through that night, the superyacht dragged and was heading straight for us! Fortunately their crew was alert and dealt with the situation – but it took them 45 minutes to retrieve a fouled anchor. I felt for them. We managed to survive the storm which had winds to 40 knots and included a severe 180 degree wind shift.

We carried on East along the south coast of Turkey which doesn’t have many places to stop – but we found a neat little anchorage sandwiched between the island of Baba Adasi and the mainland. The following couple of days we made our way to Kalkan (great sail!) and then motored on to Kas.

We’d hoped to meet up with Rockhopper in Kas, but they were away in the UK…

Our last trip of the year took us through narrow channels between Turkey and a couple of Greek islands you could easily swim to and then on to an idyllic group of superbly sheltered anchorages at Keckova.

Our source of anchorage information, the app ‘Navily’ heralded the Sicak Koyu anchorage as having a restaurant with the best meatballs and chips – so that was where we settled for the first of several days at Kekova. Dinner was interesting – the only items on the menu were Tomato salad, meatballs, beer, stale bread and finally chips. Served in that order! No matter, we had a good evening, sharing a table with a young Aussie couple who were hiking and camping the Lycian Way – she spoke Turkish which made things easier!

In the morning we dinghied back to the restaurant and went for a walk to find the Lycian ruins (and underwater city) taking a packed lunch with us. All fascinating stuff and after the non-strenuous walk we found ourselves back at the restaurant from some well deserved beer!

The following day we moved the short distance to Kale Koy which sports an interesting castle and old port below – so we hiked over and up.

We enjoyed a couple more of the well protected Kekova anchorages and then made our way to our winter home, Finike where we’ll stay for 4 months and hopefully get the rudder attended to. Finike is know for a very active winter cruising community – which we were looking forward to.

This is a long one – sorry…

We took advantage of the winds and set off from Sifnos after a quick breakfast with Steve and Sue. They’d be getting a ferry back to Athens later in the day.

Paros

Our destination was Naousa in the north of Paros where we’d be able to wait out some high southerly winds with decent shelter. The 37 mile trip was a mix of everything with a bit of motoring, some Code Zero and some Spinnaker. For a while we gained a hitchhiker – a swallow decided the free ride was a good one! We arrived early evening to a large bay and decided to anchor quite a way from the marina in order to take advantage of the better shelter.

We relaxed while the wind blew through, then the following day took a bus to the capital Parikas where we got a few provisions. On the way back across the anchorage we stopped at ‘Plan B’ a US flagged catamaran with Alex aboard, who invited us on for a glass or two of wine. Plan B and Toodle-oo! will be berth buddies in Finike for the winter.

Strangely, Paros didn’t click for us (as evidenced by not a single photograph!) and the following morning we headed over to the adjacent island, Naxos.

Naxos

We had an anchorage Agios Georgios, to ourselves opposite a popular swimming beach with lots of beach tavernas adorned with chairs and umbrellas. We checked in with the Port Police and then found a car rental place and took a trip around the island.

We particularly liked the ‘Marble City’ Apeiranthos where we had a light lunch at a lovely street restaurant.

A really good butcher and grocery store was just 10 minutes from the dinghy dock, so we took full advantage as we knew we were going to be tucked up due to some Meltemi winds and therefore needed to get a move on to a southern anchorage to wait it out. We chose to head for Kalantos in the south which has a small anchorage, a very small harbor and two tavernas – one of which had an excellent reputation!

We arrived to find Kalantos bay empty, but anchoring was rather interesting as the depth was really restricted. We settled right in the middle of the bay – no doubt causing consternation among later arrivals, only one of which was also able to anchor with us within the bay!

We decided not to head to the taverna that night – but then the following morning found out that the taverna was closing for the season that same day – and would only be open for lunch! Ok, lunch it is! It was delicious and we were both glad we made it. Moreover, we’d met two new British friends Kathy and Mark, aboard Ubulukutu (took me a while to learn how to say that!) and they joined us for lunch. Excellent food and excellent company.

The following day we took advantage of the almost empty harbor to tie up next to Ubulukutu – and we got somewhat stuck there for the next five days as the wind howled. Fortunately we were able to socialize with Kathy and Mark in our full enclosure and we even rented the harbormaster’s car for a day to go travelling about, re-visiting the places we’d seen before.

We managed to get a couple of nice walks in too before the wind finally allowed us to continue on our way to…

Amorgos

We were now being hounded by the Meltemi – unusual for this time of year – and only got to spend a couple of days in Amorgos. A shame as it appears we would really enjoy this island – however, where we were anchored would have been untenable (lee shore) in the Meltemi.

We did get ashore for a couple of days prior to the winds – on the first, we had a lack-luster dinner at the ‘Corner Cafe’ but at least we enjoyed a sundowner at ‘The Moon Bar’ – the spot for watching the sun go down over the small fishing port.

On day two, we rented a car and headed up to the Chora and then walked to the famous monastery of Hozoviotissa – an impressive site that took quite an effort to get to… the chora at the top of the mountain, then we face a walk down a cliff face(!) to the entrance to the monastery and then up the next cliff face to the monastery itself. In the end I was a bit disappointed with the inside – since I’d walked there in dress code and was boiling! The construction however is very impressive…

Afterwards we headed north east to Aigialis – the northernmost bay where we had a very pleasant lunch. On the way we passed several very interesting looking anchorages and made a mental note to return to Amorgos if possible.

We enjoyed the Moon Bar so much we went back for another sundowner that evening – our last – for the time being – in Amorgos.

Levitha

Levitha lies about halfway between Amorgos and Kos and has a protected harbor, so we used it as a resting spot. Mark and Kathy had advised us that the only thing there was a bunch or moorings belonging to the only taverna on the tiny island and explained that the mooring fee is paid with the meal – which was apparently worth going for. So we went!

After a bit of a slow start, we had a very good sail across, finishing with a race against an Outremer catamaran ‘Curious,’ (which unsurprisingly we lost to!) and pulled into the mooring field behind them and tucked ourselves in among the other boats. In due course the taverna owner came by in his boat and we said we’d be coming for dinner…

Not wanting to be there too early, we planned a 7:00pm arrival – which involved clambering over a rough pathway – which was going to be lots of fun in the dark coming back. We were unfortunately the last to arrive along with the crew of Curious and were shown to our prepared table. The place was packed. The guys at the next table explained that the menu was not written but was Fish, Lamb or Goat. We ordered (and drank!) a liter of wine before he even came back and took our order – and by the time he did, the only thing on the menu was fish! I guess we’re having fish – along with another half liter.

The stumble back along the path was indeed interesting!

Kos

Another 35 mile sail, downwind saw us arrive in Kamari at the south western end of Kos. It was October 12th – well in time for Abigail & Greg’s arrival on the 21st! However, the early arrival meant I’d be able to go by bus into Kos town – at the opposite, north eastern end of the island(!!!) – to pick up my long lost computer finally! Can’t wait! So we took the bus up to Kos town, noting along the way that Kos is really not the prettiest island and unlike the other Greek islands, it is totally covered in trash. Once in Kos town, we walked the mile or so to the ACS Courier office, queued outside for nearly an hour, to be told that the package had been returned to the sender the previous day – even though ACS had said they’d hold the package until October 23rd! Tempers were held in check but disappointment wasn’t! An email back to ACS and a few more days wait…

For Abigail’s arrival, we decided to move to Kardamena – much closer to the airport – with an anchorage outside a free harbor. Initially we anchored to explore the nice little town and discovered a walk to an old castle on my ‘Komoot’ App. When we got to the ‘Trail Head’ we found that it was a paved path and sponsored by the EU to the tune of €14,577,000!!! What a diabolical waste of resources. It would have been so much nicer of a walk if it had simply been left natural.

On our second day there, we took a ride into the harbor on the dinghy and found that there was a spot available for us to med moor in the harbor – so we decided to do that – it would make getting on and off the boat so much easier.

Disaster Strikes!

I brought the boat in and was setting up to drop the anchor and reverse into the only available spot, between a large power boat and a sailboat. It’s important to put the anchor down right in front of the chosen berth to reduce the risk of fouling with another boat’s anchor. My first attempt was just slightly out of position, so I decided to just make a circle and try it again. I slowly motored around and suddenly we hit something – I felt a strong pull on the helm. The boat lurched and stopped, then carried on again – but unfortunately, in the process, the rudder had been bent and was now impinging on the hull, allowing only slight movement – between half starboard and full starboard!

What to do? We were in the middle of the harbor, fortunately no wind, unable to move in a straight line either forwards or backwards…

The Greek army (marines?) were on exercise and moving around in ribs within the harbor so might have provided help, but Laurie failed to attract their attention and was about to blow a signal whistle at them when I stopped her… Toodle-oo! was somewhat stationary at just about the right position for the vacant slip… I had Laurie drop the anchor and started the boat moving backwards. Even with starboard rudder applied, if you blast the engine in reverse, the boat will initially move to port. This is due to a phenomenon called prop-wash. As the boat moves backwards, the propwash is counteracted by the rudder, which brings us back to port… So, by juggling us between forward and back, light engine and heavy engine, I was actually able to bring Toodle-oo! pretty much straight back into the berth – without hitting the boats on either side! I was very thankful however to enlist the assistance of Andy on the large power boat next to us – in the end he manhandled us back into the slip.

As you might imagine, emotions were running. Questions abounded and answers evaded. Andy, who has been running his charter yacht from his berth in Kardamena for 22 years said he had never seen anyone hit anything where we did and could not understand it. I guess we just got lucky!

After several days of mucking about with it, I managed to lower the rudder into a new position about 15mm lower, so that it cleared the interference with the hull – ‘fortunate’ that I am familiar with the rudder construction since I bent it once before in Scotland! Steering was still heavy indicating the rudder shaft must be bent between the upper and lower bearings – but at least we could manage for the time being – at least while Abigail and Greg were with us and we’d probably also to able to get ourselves to our winter berth in Finike, Turkey, some 200 miles away, under our own steam.

Add Insult to Injury

We took a day trip by bus to Kos town to talk with the marina’s engineering manager about possible fixes they might be able to achieve – we also picked up the wayward computer!

On our return to the boat, Andy cautioned us to ‘check the boat!’ Another sailboat ‘Izanami’ had arrived alongside us. Hearing Andy’s warning, we took a look along the length of the boat but couldn’t see anything. The captain of Izanami came out and explained that while backing into the berth, he had lost control and ‘gently’ tapped Toodle-oo! I asked him to tell me where: “up by the shrouds.” We looked again, but could see no damage – the benefit of having a strong Blue Water boat… not so much…

Izanami left shortly afterwards – and only then did we realize that they had actually moved one of our fenders to cover new damage to the rub-rail along with some cracking to the fiberglass beneath it… What kind of complete asshole does that??? (It’s my blog – I can say that when it’s totally deserved!)

Abigail and Greg Arrive

I’m flattered that Abigail would choose to come visit us during her honeymoon – I just wonder what Greg made of it all!?

By the time they showed up, we were pretty calm and collected. I’d managed to pick up the wayward computer, jury rigged the rudder and dived on it with Andy out in the clear water of the anchorage – time to enjoy my daughter and her husband’s company.

There’s enough to do in Kardamena to keep them entertained for a day – which they managed to stretch to two. We were then going to sail to the nearby island of Nisyros which has a very distinctive volcanic crater but instead, elected to take the ferry and rent a car for the day. It was an interesting trip and we managed to time our visit to the crater perfectly, arriving just as all the tour buses were leaving to go see some other part of the island. We had the entire crater to ourselves!

Later, we found the natural sauna – right on the side of the road and hot as blazes! Then lunch was at a lovely little marina. The only thing we didn’t find was the monastery – another time perhaps!

The following day we sailed Toodle-oo! (well mostly motored but did get an hour or two with the spinnaker to satisfy Abigail!) up to Kos Town – Mandraki marina where we again med-moored. There’s rather more to do in Kos plus they mixed in a one day cruise over to Bodrum in Turkey for an interesting day out.

Before you know it, it’s time for them to head out on the final leg of their honeymoon – a couple of nights in Paris!

Checking Out of Greece

Laurie has the process down:

1. Go to Port Police, give them whatever they want (for the umpteenth time) and have them stamp our crew list.
2. Go to Passport Control have them stamp the crew list & Passports
3. Back to Port Police, show them passports and have them stamp the Transit log
4. To customs – no doubt show them everything that everyone else has already check six ways to heaven, give them the transit log and then we have to leave within 24 hours…

Well… we had a little issue. Port Police were happy – actually ecstatic that our transit log was so complete… but at passport control…

Normally, Brits (post Brexit) and Americans are only allowed to stay in Europe 90 days out of 180… We’ve actually been in Europe almost continually since we arrived in Spain in 2020 – other than a couple of side trips to the US and Mexico – BUT… I have / had Portuguese residency – which allowed us to stay in Portugal indefinitely. Then, Laurie got her Portuguese passport…

Every time we entered Europe, we checked in using our US passports. Passport Control could only see that we must have outstayed our welcome – by a lot! Laurie explained that she has a Portuguese passport and therefore can stay indefinitely – and since I’m her spouse, so can I. (Her Portuguese passport is in her maiden name which is why she wasn’t using it.) She showed them the EU regulation on her phone (which they -pretended?- to read)… No good. She needed a stamp into Europe – but her stamp was in the US passport… (What a load of baloney that is!) They threatened to hold our US passports – things were getting tense! Finally, when I revealed that I was a Portuguese resident – all was forgiven! Makes no sense whatsoever – but they stamped the passports and we’re good!

Back to Port Police – they saw the stamps and stamped the Transit Log. Customs wanted to see all the paperwork again – and make the 28th copy of everything – and then they sent us on our way!

We head to Turkey in the morning!

With our nomadic lifestyle, we maintain rather intermittent relationships with other family members… what with Covid and Australia having tight controls on people movement, it’s been a very long time since we last saw Steve and Sue – so we were really looking forward to catching up!

It’s always a trick to meet anyone visiting the boat. We can do a location or a time – being somewhere at some specific time takes planning! In mid September (12th) we were still in Ermioni on Greece’s mainland and Steve and Sue planned to meet us on the island of Serifos on the 17th. In October (21st), Abigail and Greg will meet us on the other side of the Aegean on the island of Kos… Lots of planning to do!

We left Ermioni early in the morning and had good wind for most of the 65 mile passage to Serifos. Unfortunately, the anchorage I wanted to stay at was a little crowded so we had to go to a back-up location which wasn’t up to much so we moved on to the main town of Livadi where we anchored for a few days. Livadi is where Steve and Sue were to arrive, so on a quiet day (no wind and an absence of charter boats!) we moved into the very small harbor and tied alongside to make boat access as easy as possible.

Bringing with them a much needed spinnaker and new windlass gypsy, Steve and Sue also brought with them a welcome break in the weather – the temperatures felt about 10F cooler – still very pleasant, but now we were thinking of a light sweater for the evenings. They had opted to stay in an Airbnb which worked out well for all and rented a scooter to take them back and forth up the hill to it.

We walked (ok, it’s not actually that much cooler) up to the Chora (we think that means capital as several islands have chora) – quite a steep walk in the midday sun – and had a fascinating meander around and through the narrow pathways and stairways that are so typical of Greece.

A car ride the following day allowed us to visit the whole island including a copper mine and a couple of nice beaches – plus scope out a possible destination to sail to on our last day in Serifos – during which, we managed to bring out our new, very green spinnaker which was a lot of fun! Very happy with the quality of the sail – by Sandford Sails in the UK.

The next day we sailed down to Sifnos – just 12NM away – and it appears Steve’s been hiding his helming talents – he’s a natural! We anchored in the main harbor of Kamares, close to Steve and Sue’s new Airbnb and wandered around the small town ferreting out the best watering hole. A morning bus ride took up to the main town, Apollonia followed by a super walk back to Kamares along the tops with stunning views of the bay, naturally concluded with a pint at the ‘Old Captain’s’ bar.

A car ride the next day allowed us to visit the whole island and a very nice sheltered bay was spotted at Vathi, just south of Kamares, so the following day we took a day sail down to Vathi to swim. Unfortunately a jack-hammer had started up rather spoiling the ambience – but at least Steve was able to perfect his sailing skills on the way home!

In the evening we attended the Greek Festival where there are small stands from many of the Greek Islands offering typical foods and drinks from the country. We were given small samples of all sorts of cheeses, spreads, deserts, wines and spirits, all within a lovely community atmosphere – it was a lot of fun!

Our last full day with Steve and Sue took us to a traditional Sifnos cooking class. Even Stephen participated! George at Narlis Farm has been doing these classes for a while – and cooks traditional Sifnos meals which included chick-pea coffee (interesting and not as bad as it sounds) for breakfast along with omelets, biscuits, sifnos cheeses, jams and honey. We then watched and participated in preparing lunch – which consisted of several plates – salad, vegetable plates, chick-peas and lentils and ended with slow cooked lamb. Desert was a Honey pie – a very sweet cheesecake like delicacy.

While lunch was cooking, George took us out to tour his farm, part of which is farmed without any irrigation. It hasn’t rained since March 6th and we were all amazed to see that he was able to grow Squash, Tomatoes and Melons, and when he offered taste tests, we were further amazed by the flavor.

It had been a great visit with Steve and Sue – and despite the time between visits, it was like we’d never been apart.

We decided to make bigger leaps while the gypsy was suspect, and besides which Stefan had been raving about Monemvasia – so that’s where we headed (52NM) using code zero, wing on wing with main/genoa and ending with 2 reefs in the main – a fun packed sail. It took a couple of tries to anchor due to the slow dropping pace of the windlass – by the time it landed on the bottom first time, we’d drifted off too far. So now I will have to semi-deploy the anchor (to about half depth) and have Laurie try to maintain position while I slowly pay out more rode…

We actually anchored just outside the marina at Gefira – a short walk to Monemvasia. Gefira is not that special, but friendly (as everywhere) and had a good supermarket and an excellent butcher – so who’s complaining.

In the morning we walked over to Monemvasia – and what a treat was in store. The town is completely walled in and all the ‘streets’ are narrow paths such that no vehicles can be used. This makes servicing the numerous B&B’s, hotels, restaurants and shops rather more than onerous – as everything has to be brought in on hand trucks. Even the hand trucks couldn’t get everywhere due to the numerous staircases! With the heat we’d been experiencing, those poor buggers were really suffering.

We walked around the main town – an interesting tour in an of itself – and then set off upwards to the castle – and beyond… Of course we picked about the hottest time of day – can’t be that bad, it’s September afterall – not! It was a hot walk up via the narrow ‘streets’ and stairways and arrival was through a doorway and passage – and into some very refreshing shade and cool! Within the castle is a well preserved church and a whole bunch of broken bits.

Well above the castle – another climb – we came upon the ruins of the very old citadel/acropolis – fascinating and a great view! (Turns out it was the site of the acropolis – not a column in sight!)

When we arrived back to the lower town, a late lunch was in order at a very nice little restaurant. We learned the consequences of the inaccessibility – prices were rather higher than in more normal towns and villages!

Unfortunately, we had to move on the following day as weather was approaching (Meltemi), so we

headed north towards Ermioni, but stopped short at an anchorage with good shelter to wait out the worst of the wind. We met up with Rob and Selma on catamaran Yip Yip, who we’d briefly seen in Monemvasia and had coffees with them before they headed out to Ermioni. We should have gone with them because that night we rocked and rolled all night in the Meltemi’s swell. Not a happy crew!

So off to Ermioni where we were to rendezvous with Mokendeist again. Unfortunately we picked the north anchorage which had lousy holding and was jam packed with charter boats that didn’t have much of a clue! The next day we switched to the much deeper anchorage on the south side of town, which was very pleasant and quiet. Ermioni is a great place to provision and Laurie was able to get an imaginative haircut – but no worries love, it’ll grow out eventually!

We had an interesting dinner experience with Stefan, Anne, Rob and Selma at a recommended restaurant… The clue should have been pretty obvious when he came to take our drinks order – and we learned that they were out of red wine… what restaurant ever runs completely out of wine? We decided to make do with beer – suck it up and learn a little more about our new friends. When the meals were ordered, we hit a similar issue – only about 20% of the items were available… oh well, make do! Just to top it all off, the biting insects were murderous – and when we went inside to pay, we found that they had a can of bug spray they could easily have loaned us! I suspect Laurie’s review wasn’t quite as complimentary as the reviews that had led us there in the first place!

Car Trip

We managed to rent a car in Ermioni to drive around the various “sites to see”) and to make a provisioning stop at Stefan and Anne’s favorite… Lidl

Our first stop was to Epidavros – a magnificent (and ancient) amphitheater, that unlike the rest of Greece’s relics, is not in pieces! In fact they still have events there – and I believe (could be just hype) that Pavarotti has performed there… Anyway, it’s spectacular! If you stand on the focal point right in the middle, you can speak normally and someone at the top of the theater can hear you! Neat those ancient Greeks!

We then moved on to a very old (and very broken) citadel…

Before we head to Lidl, a quick side trip to look at some caved-in caves… one of which they had built not one, but two chapels into the cliff face!

Next stop: Aegean Islands – and family arrives… stay tuned!

Another great castle greeted us in Methoni – it’s amazing how big these castles are!

We’re finding it to be really pretty hot still – mid 90’s – and the water is also quite warm – low 80’s.

A nice little breakaway to a small island south of Methoni called Sapientza gave us a very peaceful night and a nice walk up to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is a beautifully constructed building – but like so many is in complete disrepair. We were amazed that evening to see it emitting light as both Stefan and I were convinced it was completely dysfunctional.

Just before dusk I spotted a magnificent mountain goat with the biggest horns ever!

Our next stop was Foinikounta which is where we are to say goodbye to Anne and Stefan as they’re bored of having a broken fridge – and a new one has arrived, but 150 miles away! However, we made a trek to a local Olive Oil pressing facility for a demonstration – bloody place was closed!

Our next anchorage at Porto Cagio was around the bottom of the second ‘finger’ of the Peleponnisos and the run south was truly spectacular – as was the arrival into a dramatic anchorage…

…but I’d have enjoyed it more if the chain gypsy on our windlass didn’t break! The cast bronze gypsy simply split in half while laying out 60M of chain!

As is often the way, I dreamt gypsy’s that night and in the morning hatched (and accomplished!) a temporary fix – which would allow us the continue using it. However, our normal mode of operation when deploying the anchor is to loosen the clutch and let the anchor free-fall to the bottom – this is no longer possible as the clutch is jammed on hard – keeping the two halves of the thing together. Our windlass is VERY slow, so anchoring from here on in is going to be challenging – and I’ve no idea how we’ll manage to med-moor again. Fortunately, brother to the rescue! Steve will bring a new gypsy to us that we’ll have shipped from California – so we’ll only have to manage like this for about 3 weeks.

Next stop – Monemvasia – a really special location!

Ionian and North-Western Peleponnisos

Unlike many of our friends who first travelled up the sole of Italy’s boot to Brindisi before crossing to Greece, we opted to leave from the toe – Spropolo – and head directly for the Ionian Island of Zakinthos (though being Toodle-oo!, we made landfall in Kefallinia!) for a passage distance of 240+/-NM. We left at 6:00am on July 31st and arrived August 1st at 6pm. We’d had good sailing for the most part – but still ended up motoring about 25%.

Instead of going straight to Argostoli to check in we anchored off a beautiful little cove for a couple of days, being joined by friends Anne and Stefan on Mokendeist on the second day – a nice gentle way to introduce ourselves to Greece. The Ionian islands are much greener than we were expecting.

We officially entered Greece on August 3rd at Argostoli and managed to clear in successfully and without too much hassle as all the officials we had to meet were roughly in the same building complex. We received our all important Transit Log – which means that we have to check in – and out – of every port we enter. Once in, we began to explore a very different country indeed and were immediately welcomed by everyone – who for the most part spoke some degree of English. So different to our experience in Italy.

A couple of days in ‘the big smoke’ and we decided to move back to our arrival anchorage – and a couple of days later, began a slow trek south towards the Peleponnisos peninsular, stopping first at a crystal clear anchorage at Spartia on the south coast of Kefalonia. We’d left Mokendeist in Argostoli awaiting a fridge repair – but we also had an important appointment in Zakinthos for a scooter rental – having been unable to rent one in Argostoli. Unfortunately with no wind, we motored the entire way – and then faced Med-Mooring in the main port at Zakinthos. Fortunately with calm winds we managed successfully and without damage to boat or pride!

A couple of days later including 2 short sails we anchored up in Katakolon on Greece’s Peleponnisos peninsula which we would use as a base to visit – by train – the ancient site of Olympia where the first 1,000 Olympic games were held. Katakolon isn’t much to write home about – but with the train connection, it’s the obvious place to visit Olympia from – which even though it’s a World Heritage site, is not all that much to write home about either – it’s broken!

A long sail to Pylos followed – a marvelous little town with a large castle – and a smaller older castle across the bay. Both were very interesting to visit. While in Pylos, I took advantage of having a dive shop close by so was able to easily replenish my tank (which I exchanged for my old one) on a regular basis, spending 3 days to get Toodle-oo!’s bottom cleaned of all the growth. Thank you Anne for your assistance!

Another great castle awaits us further south in Methoni – but that’s for the next installment!

Stromboli

What we wanted was this:

After a slow sail, we arrived at Stromboli on the evening of July 24^th – 3 months too early! The ‘spectacular’ lava flows were not in evidence – just a little sparkler on the summit to assure everyone that yes, this is an active volcano. As I write this now, Stromboli is in full voice once again. Rats!

Following our evening of viewing, we made our way to the anchorage outside the town of Stromboli. We plan not to arrive at night – and here we are arriving in the pitch black. It was difficult to work out quite where to anchor but as it turned out in the light of day, we’d managed pretty darn well!

We took a walk around the town – narrow streets that could barely accommodate Tut-Tuts and if one came by you had to breathe in! The main church at the top of the hill was impressive in its airiness, though it has suffered some damage due to subsidence.

For dinner we ate at the best pizza joint we’ve ever been to – bar none! Da Giovanni. He has the normal selections and then I queried the waiter (his son) about a section of the menu I didn’t understand – which he explained were his father’s specials. Boy! Were they ever! Delicious!

Lipari

The following day we made our way 20 miles south to Lipari. There was no wind, so it was a power boat ride. We motored past the town of Lipari as the anchorages there don’t get rave reviews, so we went all the way to the south, then up the west coast a little way to a “good anchorage.” It was OK but there was not much there! We did catch a nice sunset and decided to stay a second night so that I could put some grease on the propeller and replace the anodes.

The next day we motored back to Lipari – which turns out to be a quaint little town, did some shopping, got a so-so pizza and then motored back to a spot we’d passed earlier and spent a delightful evening there!

Sicily

The following morning we set off for the Straits of Messina – which separate Italy from Sicily. There was no wind so it was a straight motor to an anchorage just north of the Strait. With zero protection we were concerned about getting swell and rolling all night, but fortunately it wasn’t an issue.

The following morning we set off – once again motoring – for the straits where we watched the Swordfish boats with their crazy gantries. Then made an expensive stop at the single pump fuel station – ouch!

Now that we’d replenished our fuel supply, the wind came up with a vengeance, so we stormed through the strait – and then it quit! We’d hoped to be able to head straight to Greece, but instead we made a stop at Spropolo – our only stop on Italy proper (and we didn’t get off)…

Tomorrow: 240 or so miles to Zakynthos, Greece.