Starting from Crete in early May, we plan to explore the Cyclades until the Meltemi kicks in. Then at the end of June we'll make our way close to Athens to leave the boat in August ready to Jet off to our daughter's wedding. We will return in September and, return to Crete - circumnavigating if the weather permits - returning to Agios Nikolaos for the winter.


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Saturday 22 June 2013

Slow route to Ios

L in going to learn to scuba dive in Ios and this seems like a good time to do it. The Summer winds haven't kicked in yet and the water is starting to warm up. We decided to circumnavigate Milos as some of the coastal scenery is spectacular and Argosea have not seen it. It lived up to expectations other than my internal compass failed miserably and I failed to recognise the spectacular anchorage of  Kleftiko and we went right past it!

We arrived at Manolonisi - a lovely little bay tucked underneath a small island. Warm(ish) clear water over gorgeous white sand. The wind was not the same direction as the slight swell so, really more for practice than anything, we decided to put out a kedge anchor. This involves letting out a lot more chain on the main anchor, backing up to the end of it, chucking in the kedge and then winding in the main anchor again so we're balanced between them. After a bit of discussion on what was the best way to organise chucking in, we figured it out and all went smoothly. We were very smug when we rolled around a lot less than any of the other boats. But...
What a nightmare the next day. The wind had strengthened and gone round to the side so both anchors were pulling hard sideways. So hard in fact that I couldn't pull in the kedge. We tried sterring the boat backwards over it but, apart from the danger of getting it round our prop, it is very difficult indeed to make the boat go where you want it with the bow anchor still attached. We couldn't let it go or the wind would have swung us onto the rocks. In the end we managed with a cats cradle of line around 4 separate winches. Took us over an hour to get the damned thing back on board!

And so off to Sifnos. Its only about 10 miles but was dead up wind. We beat until about half way when the wind died on us. Anne and Tony took a more southern route though and sailed virtually all the way. We planned to go to Faros which is a 3 headed bay on the South East tip of Sifnos. Unfortunately we were unable to get the anchor to stick anywhere in the East or North bays despite an hour of trying. We eventually managed to get the hook down in the West bay which ha slots of good clean sand - but there was enough of a swell to make it worth deploying Kay and Peter's "Flopper Stopper". Worked a treat. There is a lovely church in the bay which I took the opportunity to paint.

By 0700 today (Sunday) we were sailing with a lovely 10-15 knot wind behind us. With the Spinnaker up, we made well over 5 knots most of the way. Lovely! We dropped into Ios town to pick up water and milk and get our papers stamped and we're now anchored in a bay just south of there where we expect to stay for a week while L takes her PADI course.

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