The weather forecast was quiet good. There was a SW storm that was supposed to end on Thursday (a day after we landed in Kos), and from then on, nothing much.
It turned out that the weather is more difficult to predict this time of the year.
Kos for itself, turned out to be an interesting place with a lovely old port, an a lot of archeology from the days of Hippocrates.
So, sitting on the boat in Kos and reading some tour guides, we understood that the best place to see a Pascha celebration is in Patmos, an Island just North of us. So we decided to change plans and go North first. This turned out to be a great decision as we went up in a stong SE wind (23kts) and by that we gained enough upwind milage to start going West against the NW wind.
We stayed in Patmos for 3 days. Unfortunately, we had to see the midnight celebrations from the boat. Noga and Yasmin were too tired to make it till midnight in town. Anyway, the fireworks show was perfect to be seen from the boat.
The one thing that was annoying, is the earsplitting explosives.
One anecdote from Patmos: Going down from the monastery to town, we took a taxi. Once he realised we're from Israel, he put on a disk of Noa (Ahinoam Nini). It turned out that his wife, who's German, works for an organization in Athens that preserves Jewish heritage. He drove us through his house to meet his wife and kids. Such a thing could not have happened in the summer!
After Pascha, we stayed another day due to bad weather. Yes! The Meltem wind already started blowing (only force 5 at this time, but we didn't want to do a whole day's sail in 20+ knots of winds).
Next stop was supposed to be Mikonos. Or actually, Delos. We started sailing at around 8am, and quickly we found out that the wind is coming from Mikonos and it wouldn't be easy to get there before dark. The wind directed us to Maxos, so there we went.
In Naxos, the first time in Greece, while we were in a restaurant, celebrating the end of Passover, someone opened our gangway, walked on the deck all the way to our bedroom window, opened it (it wans't locked), and fortunately, something scared him off and he left before making it into the boat! We were lucky this time.
So the next morning, we left Naxos and headed to Delos. It was all nice and quiet before we got there and we were planning to go into the small harbor and visit ancient Delos. Once we approached Delos, the wind started to blow hard. According to the pilot, Delos, which is very small, gets dangerous with the strong North wind. So being prudent, we changed course and entered the adjacent port of Mikonos.
Yael, being in Mikons for the first time, loved the place. The city is beautiful and very well maintained. It's mostly shops and restaurants, but all in good taste. And the best part is that it was all just for us as there were very little tourists.
It also gave us the opportunity to visit old Delos the next day. We just took a tour boat (that fought the wind and waves for 45 minutes to cross the channel to Delos), and a wonderful English speaking guide. It was very interesting.
We could also see with our own eyes how small the bay in Delos is, and that there's no way for our 45' boat to get in there next to the tour boats. The only way is to anchor out and take a dinghy to the entrance. I think the pictures show it quiet well.
After checking the forecast carefully, we realised that the Meltem wind (North wind) is gathering strength towards the weekend, and the more West we go, the lighter the wind is and is coming more from the East which is good for us.
So we started to run fast. We left Mikonos at 4:30PM and put up some sails to let us run in 8+ knots to Ermoupolis, Siros. In Ermoupolis, we have our dear friend Charles, that waited for us in the port and helped us moor the boat.
The following day, again we waited for the afternoon hoping that the wind would go down (which never happened), to leave to Loutra, Kithnos. This time, we had a side wind, 20-23kts, and had a beautiful sail going there. Noga, at this point, got so used to sailing that she kept singing and laughing all the way. Yasmin just went to sleep and woke up when we got there.
Charles told us to make sure we go to the hot bath in Loutra. When we were there, with our coats, hats and gloves, we didn't think it would be possible to take off our clothes and go into a hot bath which is in the sea (it's a mixture of a hot spring and cold sea water). After asking a few people who returned from it, and absolutely recommened it, we decided to go.
I must tell you, this was the best experience we had all this trip. The water was so good that we could have stayed there forever. It's hard to describe the feeling of sitting in a hot natural bath, in a lovely bay, surrounded by sea water and stones, with cold wind blowing in your nose. It was divine! For all of us!
Next stop was Epidavros. Again, we originally planned to stop at Poros, but Epidavros was new to us so we decided to go there and visit the ancient theater of Epidavros. The theater is very impressive. The view, its size, the phenomenal acoustics, the way it was preserved, etc.
And now - the Corinth canal.
We've been here same time last year, but it's always exciting to go through the canal (maybe because it costs 220 Euros...). Anyway, past the canal, we tried to go into Corinth marina for the night. It's only 2 miles away from the canal and looks promising according to Rod Heikel.
So going in there was a nightmare! The whole marina including the approach is very shallow. Some rocks are maked as 1.9m (while we are 2.3m deep).
So with the West wind blowing, and shallow water, we could not find a place to tie our boat, so after spending maybe an hour there, we decided to go to the commercial port. It was a little more bumpy, but we had 8m depth, and after 9pm, the whole port for ourselves!!!
So, Galaxidi, here we come.
Another 35nm, (first time on engine), we were anchored in Galaxidi.
We know the place well, after spending Pascha there last year. We also know someone there that could keep an eye on our boat. When we got in, there was only one other yacht there (you can see it in the pictures). It belong to a British family that is going around the Mediterranean and will hopefully come to Israel soon on their boat.
We had 1.5 days left, to prepare the boat for her stay in Galaxidi. Noga and Yasmin were very helpul this time. They even helped me fold the huge jib!
Eventually, we took the 3 hour bus to Athens....
We have a lot of pictures this time. Many of them were taken by Noga and Yasmin:
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