Meltemi Madness & The Birthplace of Apollo
16th May 2023 - Bodrum
We’d sailed the 25nm from Knidos that morning and headed straight for the fuel dock at Milta Bodrum marina. Diesel was a fair bit cheaper in Türkiye than Greece so it was a good opportunity to top up the tanks before heading west. The office of the agent we would use to check out of the country was right there too, so we could hand over our boat papers for them to copy, ready for the check out process the following morning. Once done we motored out into the bay to find a spot to anchor. The wind was coming from the south east which was not ideal as we would be pushed to shore but we didn’t have much choice as we needed to be close to the customs dock in the morning. It was a large bay so we figured we would just put out a lot of chain and hope for the best. Unfortunately it was also quite full of boats so we motored around a bit trying to find a good spot. Eventually we settled in 8m of water with 40m of chain out. From the satellite images it looked like we were anchored in weed but it was too deep to tell. Anyway, it seemed to be holding fine and it was our last full day in Türkiye so of course we would be going to go look at some old sh*t. We didn’t have to go far. Towering over us was Bodrum castle, built in 1402 by the Knights of St John. A relatively new structure in Türkiye to be sure but interesting nonetheless. The Knights of St John, or Knights Hospitaller, were an ancient order whose headquarters were on the island of Rhodes. They needed another stronghold on the mainland to defend against the Ottoman empire. Apparently they “borrowed” stone from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World to built it. With the Castle of St Peter built, they renamed the area Petronium, now Bodrum. This would not be the last time we came across the old Knights of Rhodes as they were chased across Europe.
The castle was also home to the Museum of Underwater Archaeology which held the remains of shipwrecks from as early as the 5th century BC. The grounds were also home to an albino peacock which was a new one on me. In fact, as my googling revealed, it was not albino, rather leucistic, as it still had dark eyes rather than red or pink. Very rare.
After our tour around the castle we did the usual and had a drink by the harbour, looking out over the bay. Over a bottle of Efes beer we reminisced about our time in Türkiye, the places we’d been to and the people we had met, both local and international. We were excited to move on but also sad to say goodbye to what had felt like home for the past 7 months. We had our last Adana kebab and a glass of Raki at a quirky little restaurant called the Joy Art cafe. Soon we would be swapping the Raki for Ouzo. Same but different.
17th May 2023 - Bodrum, Turkiye - Vathis, Kalymnos, Greece (29.1 nautical miles)
The next day started early, ridiculously early in fact, as we were awoken at 2:45am to our anchor alarm going off. The wind had shifted and caused our anchor to drag. In the pitch black with 17kn winds and boats around us we had to reset the anchor twice before it would hold. Not filled with confidence we stayed on anchor watch until the morning. I guess it gave me something else to worry about rather than the Turkish authorities agreeing with my calculation of how many days we had been in the country on our tourist visa and how many on our residency visa. By 9:30am we would know whether the immense expense of pursuing the residency had been for nothing or not. And if any other sneaky fines had been thrown in, like anchoring in the wrong spot or not pumping out the poop on time.
At 9am we weighed anchor and made our way to the customs dock. The lovely people at Mono Yachting were waiting for us on the dock to take our lines. We stayed on the boat whilst they sorted out the majority of the paperwork. They then called us in to get our passports stamped with immigration. The moment of truth as the border officer scanned the passports….all done and we were on our way. Phew. My trusty Schengen (or 90 in 180 day) calculator had worked.
Waving bye to Türkiye, it wasn’t long before we were lowering the Turkish courtesy flag and raising the Greek one. We had around 18kn from the SW so tacked our way out of Bodrum, round the corner along the channel between the island of Kos and the Turkish mainland, and across towards Kalymnos.
Leaving one immigration drama behind we were about to enter another one. We were back in the dreaded Schengen zone, the bane of any non-EU sailor in the Med. We had to get all the way across the Mediterranean and down to Gran Canaria (also part of the Schengen zone) for October, then have two weeks to spare there during the ARC activities, before leaving on the 19th November…all in a cumulative 90 days. It simply wasn’t going to work so our plan was to leave it as long as we could before checking in to Greece. If they signed us on to the crew list instead of our passports, which some Greek islands had done, well then we were golden. But it they didn’t, then we’d have to take some drastic measures. We therefore opted to avoid large ports of entry on our trip across the Aegean. Our first stop was the island of Kalymnos, on the eastern side by a small village called Vathis. We’d seen other YouTube sailors anchor here and, whilst pretty tricky, we thought we’d give it a go. It wasn’t ideal that it was blowing 18kn as Vathis lies at the end of a very narrow canyon. There is a dock on one side and a sheer cliff on the other. In order to Med moor to the dock we would need to drop our anchor within 5m of the canyon wall and reverse back to the dock. Luckily as we entered the canyon, the wind did drop. It wasn’t obvious that there was space for us but as we approached we saw an enormous Lagoon 620 (62ft), against the dock. If they could fit, so could we. Just as we were lining ourselves up a guy with a sponge hat came out onto the dock and told us he would tell us when to drop the hook. Yes, a sponge hat, more on that later. He had been directing the boats all afternoon and knew where all the anchors were laid so when we were lined up with where he told us to drop, we dropped. We came in next to the large cat and George, the guy with the sponge hat took our lines. The depth gauge was only reading 1.2m under the keel. I asked George whether we had enough depth where we were at. He waved me off and told me he knows the dock and knows what can and can’t go where. Fair enough!George had a little kiosk on the dockside, selling…you guessed it, sponges, and shells etc. Quite the character.
Once settled we got to chatting to Umberto, the skipper on the Lagoon 620, SV Mahanga. Rockhopper looked pretty small next to her but we were getting decent shielding from the gusts that were coming down through the canyon.
We were in Greece! A mere 10nm from the Turkish mainland and the feeling of the place could not have been more different. The blue and white buildings and fishing boats, the sleepy town with the colourful restaurants and food choices. We couldn’t wait for our first Greek salad, saganaki and a carafe of wine. Fish dishes had been surprisingly expensive in Türkiye so we were looking forward to some fresh fish too.
Walking into town we spotted something that caused my anxiety to jump up a notch. A bloody port authority office! So much for sneaking in. Luckily it was shut so we sauntered on by. We thought we’d walk up to the opposite side of the canyon and get some photos of Rockhopper tucked into the valley. On the way we heard some English accents so got chatting to some people who had emigrated to this little island when they had retired. We wondered how they had even heard of it.
Our first Greek dinner out was exactly what we had hoped for. Delicious! And not nearly as expensive as Türkiye had been. From the days exertions I was pretty tired but Carl fancied heading for another drink. There was live music playing at a bar at the end of the dock so he headed over there. As soon as he walked in Umberto saw that he was on his own and invited him to sit with his family and the owners of the Lagoon 620, a Dutch couple called Carla and Robin. Umberto, who had an American accent and looked a bit like Adam Sandler, had an extremely fit looking wife and two young kids. They lived onboard the cat full time and would take Carla and Robin wherever they wanted to go when they flew out to spend time on their boat. Whilst Carl was chatting to them the band called up Carla to come and sing with them. It turns out that Carla Stoop is a fantastic jazz singer with two albums recorded.
18th May 2023 - Vathis, Kalymnos - Pantelli Moorings, Leros (17.6 nautical miles)
We had contemplated staying two days in Vathis but the wind was due to pick up the following day and we didn’t fancy getting out of that canyon with a large crosswind. The next morning, we watched as Mahanga left first. Instantly as our wind shield left we felt the 14kn gusts coming down the valley. It was our turn next. I dropped the stern lines as Carl dragged us up on the anchor. Unfortunately we were a bit slow in moving our boat forward of the boat next to us so when the gust came in our starboard aft quarter was pushed into the neighbouring boat. The rudder got caught on their anchor chain and they had to lower it to get us off. A bit embarrassing and thankfully they were helpful but in the end nobody died and no harm was done. We were also thankful that when we raised our anchor we didn’t pick up our neighbours too. Discussing it later on we realised we should have just motored forward, cleared the bow of the boat next to us then dragged up the chain. Lesson learnt.
Anyway, we motored for a couple of hours north to clear the island of Kalymnos and then sailed with full main and jib in 18kn of wind from the west towards Leros. We had booked a mooring ball just off Panteli Beach. A guy came out to assist us onto the ball. He had placed us between two monohulls and since we all swing differently, we came extremely close to our nearest neighbour.
After a wander round the town and a drink ashore we decided to eat onboard - pork chops for dinner. Tasty! It was a wonderfully peaceful night with a gorgeous view of Leros Castle and the three windmills lit up on the surrounding cliffs.
19th May 2023 - Pantelli Moorings, Leros - Ormiskos Vourkalos, Levitha (30 nautical miles)
We had 30nm to do to get to the island of Levitha. The Mediterranean has many named winds and the northerly that blows across the Aegean in the summer is called the Meltemi. It can be crazy strong where one has to seek shelter for days. Or, it can be a steady decent strength wind on the beam as you traverse across the island chain. Being able to sail with consistent winds is not really a Med thing. The old adage, ‘the wind in the Med is either too strong, not enough or in the wrong direction’ is sadly, more often than not, the truth. But we were lucky, today was going to be a good day. The wind was due to be over 20kn from the NW. We just had to get to the protected mooring field before they were full and unfortunately they were first come first served. If we missed out there were perhaps a few places to anchor on the island but it was quite deep and rocky so not ideal. So we slipped the lines from the ball at 7am the next morning, raising the main with one reef in and motored out of the bay. After we rounded the southern point of Leros we were met with the predicted 20kn of breeze. We flew out across the Aegean, achieving 9.8kn boat speed at one point. It was a fantastic sail apart from the 1.75m of confused swell which made for a bumpy ride.
Levitha is a tiny little island with a single family living on it. They maintain the mooring field and ask €9 per night to stay on it. They also offer dinner at their house with a few local things on the menu. It all sounded charming so we were keen to get in. As soon as we came into the lee of the island on the south side the wind thankfully dropped off a bit. We could see other boats heading in and some behind us making a beeline for it so we quickly dropped the sails and motored in to the little bay in the hopes of finding a free ball. The mooring field had space for about 10 boats and we were in luck, there were a few free. They seemed quite close together so we opted for one on the edge of the field. The problem was the wind was funnelling through hills making it a little tricky to pick up the ball. Once secured we were only about 10m away from the rocky shore. If line snapped we would have no time to do anything about it. It was still gusting up to 20kn pushing us towards the rocks so we drew straws for who would have to jump in to dive on the ball. The water was reasonably deep and not that warm yet. I lost. I could not see all the way down to the sea bed but what I could see looked sturdy enough. Not ideal at all but we had little choice at this point. Nobody on Navily had reported any breakages and they were used to getting this northerly strong wind. Once back on board we did the usual anchor beer and watched as SV Mahanga came into view. They asked whether the balls were good which we could sort of confirm but judging by their positioning there was no way a boat that size would be able to fit on it. They hovered around a bit then opted to anchor just outside the mooring area. The basin was deep so we could see they were getting long lines ready to tie to shore. The problem was the wind would be blowing them onto the shore so it really didn’t seem like a good idea. We watched them have a go (whilst trying not to watch them too obviously of course) and sure enough they got themselves tied down. Within about half an hour they started to drag and so retrieved their lines and motored further away to find another spot to anchor. They must not have been happy with anywhere because 20 minutes later we saw them leave the island. Always the problem with a bigger boat. We were glad we arrived when we did too as several more boats were coming in. From our chairs on the deck we watched this couple on a Sunsail boat try one mooring, then have a go at another. The wind continued to gust strongly and the boats nearby them were just watching. We opted to hop in the dinghy and see if we could help. As we approached you could tell that the woman on the bow was exhausted. As we took the line from her to thread through the mooring I could see that her hand was bleeding. Once we got them secure her husband on the helm shouted out to us “Thank you! Want an Aperol??” Lovely gesture but they looked like they needed a moment to regroup so we politely declined.
As we came past the last mooring available we saw that it did not have a pennant on it so would be really difficult to pick up. Another boat had approached it and saw this so was preparing to lower their dinghy. We offered to help since we were already in the water which they gratefully accepted. As we headed back to our boat we could hear a few cheers from the other boats for our efforts. You never know when you’ll have an opportunity to be a hero!
Thankfully the wind calmed down that evening and shifted a bit to the west which moved our stern a bit further away from the rock. We took the dinghy to the dock to walk up to the house for dinner. There was a little trail through the bush with a few little sheep and goats munching on the scrub around us. It was so quiet. When we got up the ‘restaurant’ there were a few tables set out on the veranda and a few people from the anchorage were already there. We got a cheer from a few of them when we came to sit down. In true British style we embarrassingly gave a little wave and sat down. A blackboard in the corner told us that there was lamb or goat on the menu. I would not be looking any of those cute little animals in the eye on the way back down to the boat. In fairness the goat curry was delicious!
20th May 2023 - Ormiskos Vourkalos, Levitha - Nikouria Beach, Amorgos (34.4 nautical miles)
Once again it was an early start. We had 34nm to do so we slipped the lines at 7:15am and motored out of our little sanctuary on Levitha. In the lee of the island we again raised the mainsail with 1 reef, ready for another 20kn day. As it turned out, when we came out from the island it was around 15kn but we had 1.5m of swell, right on the beam so left the reef in. We were making decent progress, the boat was balanced and we were racing a Lagoon 400 called Emma. She came pretty close to us so we snapped a few pictures in the hope to get the guys number to perhaps send them to him.
Our destination was the southern side of a little island called Nikouria, just off a bigger island called Amorgos. The town in Amorgos was supposed to be great but we wanted to use the wind that we had to get some westing in and we had a plan to put the boat into a marina in Mykonos later on so we opted for a quiet anchorage and a meal onboard that night. We gingerly passed through a shallow gap between the islands and motored up to the anchorage. It looked like a large sandy bay with only a few boats there. Unfortunately the sea bed was hard sand and it took three goes to set the anchor. We were in 9m and had plenty of space around us so put out 50m of chain. It was a peaceful night so perfect for a bbq off the back.
21st May 2023 - Nikouria Beach, Amorgos - Agias Annas Bay, Naxos (48.9 nautical miles)
Once again, up at 7am, and off again. Our destination was Naxos as it would be a short hop to Mykonos from there. We tried to get into a marina for the night as there were not many protected anchorages on the western side of the island that had protection from the north. Naxos is a major port so another worry was that the Greek coast guard would stop by and ask to see our transit log and passport which we still hadn’t sorted. My nerves were starting to get the better of me and we (mainly me really) thought it was time to check in. It was still feasible that we could have sailed here directly from Bodrum. Much further and it would have been an obvious lie. My brain was already coming up with ‘If they ask this, then say that’ scenarios.
We tried a few marinas but all were fully booked so that put an end to the check in and we were in a race to get to an decent anchorage. We started off motoring but soon raised the sails and cut across towards Naxos. Boat traffic seemed to be increasing as more charter fleets did the rounds. We weaved our way through the lower smaller islands south of Naxos, trying to avoid sailors who clearly had no idea of the col regs and who had right of way, on our way to Agias Annas Bay. If we tucked in close enough to the rocky beach we might be able to get some shelter from the Meltemi. On our approach we saw a few boats there but there seemed to be room so we relaxed a bit. I just happened to look behind us and saw five cats racing towards the anchorage. That was it, drop the sails, both engines on, go!!
We found a spot we were comfortable with and dropped the hook in 6.5m, again putting out a lot of chain as the wind was still quite strong. Since it had been and usually is a northerly wind we could have dropped the anchor much closer to the beach and got a lovely spot but our experience of the Med had us planning for every eventuality and we still wanted to have adequate swing room, just in case. Not so was the mentality of the charter skippers. They got right on up there and had a whale of a time. It really is different when you own the boat.
22nd May 2023 - Agias Annas Bay, Naxos - Tourlos Marina/Port, Mykonos (26.2 nautical miles)
We had secured a marina spot at Tourlos Port so wanted to get in as early as possible and enjoy our two days on Mykonos. We had last been there in a couple of years before on our way back to the UK from living in Abu Dhabi. It was the time of Covid and the UK’s silly mandatory two week quarantine hotels if you’d come from a red zone country. Even though we were tested every week at work and prior to our flight, and post flight, it would not matter. So, to get round this, we decided to make a stop at an amber country, namely Greece, for two weeks on our way back home. That would allow us to quarantine at home for two weeks. All perfectly legal before you ask. We could have a holiday in Greece for the cost of quarantining in a Holiday Grim at Heathrow.
Anyhoo, I digress, June 2021 was the last time that we were in Mykonos and on that occasion we had arrived by ferry. This time, on our own boat. Before we went to the marina we had to make a pitstop. The old town has an area called Little Venice which has restaurants and bars with wooden balconies built out over the water. We had sat at one of those bars and looked out over the anchorage with a Lagoon 42 in it at the time. Today, we were going to be that Lagoon 42!
Of course, the Greenwood luck dictated a grey and cloudy day. Still, we did it. We anchored in front of the old town with us taking pictures of the shore and the shore taking pictures of us. We had arrived at 11:25am and we could only claim our spot in the marina after 12:30pm so we had an hour to kill. Of course as we sat there, the 4kn of breeze steadily built so we’d have to attempt to dock the boat in a 20kn crosswind. We only hoped that there was sufficient shelter in the port to block a bit of it. Dodging big ferries coming in and out we made our way in and identified where we would tie up. Luckily it did die down a bit and there was a large enough gap to squeeze us in. Even so, the marinero wanted us next to the boat on the upwind side which was really difficult to achieve with the crosswind constantly pushing you to the downwind boat. After a lot of line rangling and heaving we were tied down, front and back.
It was time. I had researched where we could get it done. Where the port authority was, where the immigration was and where the customs building was. It was 1pm so we had time to get it done. Loaded with freshly printed crew lists (complete with our Rockhopper logo stamped and embossed) we nervously made our way to the port. Whilst we were waiting to be seen we met another cruiser there who had sailed the very first Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), which we would be doing in November, and he’d won it! Larry Pollock had won the race on his trimaran called SV Running Cloud. We’d seen the trimaran early that day sailing in 10kn as we had motored past.
Eventually it was our turn and a guy waved us forward. He looked pretty confused after we explained what we needed to do and asked why we didn’t check in at an island closer to Türkiye. This was one of my pre-prepared Q&As! Anyway, after a bit of back and forth, not knowing whether it was working or not, he shook his head and wandered off with our crew list and registration documents. He eventually came back with the originals and several photocopies and sent us on our way to immigration. We were to go to immigration, then customs, then back to the port authority. With Phase 1 complete, we hightailed it off to immigration, conscious of the time and, after struggling to find the building, eventually saw a police officer. Again, with confusion, we were ushered in to his office. I’m guessing not many people check into the country half way across the Aegean. He asked whether we were professional skippers to which we responded that we weren’t and he said ‘so you need a stamp’. Our hearts sunk. We had only bought ourselves two extra weeks out of Schengen. We glumly handed over our passports. He took photocopies, (what do they do with all this paperwork?!) Typed our details into ‘the system’, then reached for the stamp. The stamp hovered over the passport then came down on the crew list instead! Woohoo! Trying not to jump for glee we thanked the man and looked to get the water taxi over to the customs office. It was now 4:15pm. By the time we got there the office was shut for the day. The saga would continue tomorrow. It was time for a celebratory beer and a wander through the whitewashed walled narrow streets of the old town.
23rd May
Bright and early we set off for the customs office. Eventually finding the door to the office, inbetween two restaurants, we were met by a flamboyantly dressed man who explained that he had never done a transit log before. We settled in to a couple of chairs, watching the morning disappear whilst he made a few calls. When he was eventually done he explained that we were allowed six months in Greece and that we had to report our departure and arrival in each port on the transit log. Back across the bay in the water taxi we were again at the port authority to hand over our new transit log for them to stamp us in. There were some more shenanigans as the customs guy had not done it right but I shall bore you no longer with the tale. Suffice it to say, we we legal, and NOT clocking up Schengen time. I make a point of documenting this as it was monumental. This had unlocked the whole of the Med for us. We now had plenty of time to carry out our plans with no worry about time constraints. It was a huge relief and duly celebrated.
24th May
With the boat safely tucked up we opted to hire a car for the day and explore the island. On our previous visit we had hired a quad bike which sounded great at the time but turned out to be hot, dusty, sweaty and not as much fun as I thought. A little Toyota Aygo was vastly preferable.
25th May 2023 - Tourlos Marina/Port, Mykonos - Agios Kyriaki, Rineia (nr Delos) (6.14 nautical miles)
After two days of touristy heaven - cocktails, sunset dinners and live music, it was time to do some ‘old sh*t’ again. Less than 10nm from Mykonos town was the island of Delos, a UNESCO World heritage site. It is one of the most important mythological, historical and archeological sites in all of Greece. A holy sanctuary and the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, complete with sacred harbour. Unfortunately said sacred harbour was reserved mainly for tourist boats these days and, even though there was a small anchorage nestled between the island and the neighbouring smaller island of Megalos Rematiaris, the holding was iffy so we opted to take Rockhopper over to a neighbouring island called Rineia, which had a great anchorage in crystal clear water, and dinghy across.
It was only a 6nm sail across so no need for the usual 7am start. Also, as we were wedged in the marina with all the tour cats we decided to wait for them to go before we set off. By 9am we were good to go and slipped the lines. We motored south west for about 30mins before flinging out the jib for a lazy downwind sail across at 3kn SOG. By 10:35am we were anchored in beautiful bright blue water in 4m at Agios Kyriaki.
After waiting an hour or so to make sure we were set and all good it was time to hop into the dinghy to do the couple of mile trip across to Delos. It was choppy in places but not too bad. The sun was out so we would soon dry out. Whilst SV Rockhopper might have been denied access to the sacred harbour dock, Rocky was small enough to tie up in a corner. We locked her up and fell in behind the queue to buy our tickets for the site.
At first glance the island is pretty barren with plenty of foundations of ancient structures but not much in the way of larger structures. Occasionally you would find a few columns that had been restored to their full height but not too many. Our luck was flourishing as we picked the one day that the museum on the island was closed. Still, the site was huge, the scenery beautiful in a deserted quiet way and, as the tourist boats spent about an hour there then left, we had a chunk of time with the site relatively deserted. It was only when you started to wander round that you saw the magnitude of the place, the beautifully restored mosaics, the amphitheatre, the streets, temples and statues. We climbed the numerous stone steps to the top of Mount Cynthus, the highest point of the island, and looked out over the ancient ruins and back towards Mykonos. There was only one other couple on the mountain with us. We are so lucky to experience these places on our own time.
By the time we got back to the boat it was close to sunset so we decided to take the dinghy to shore and walk around the the other side of the island to watch the sun set with a G&T. As all romantic plans tend to go we stumbled upon a seagull nesting site and had to dodge an angry mumma who kept on swooping and eventually made us retreat. Caught the sunset though from a safe distance. It was due to be a very early start the following morning so after dinner we opted for an early night.
26th May 2023 - Agios Kyriaki, Rineia (nr Delos) - Adamantas, Milos (70.9 nautical miles)
The Meltemi wind had been our friend for the past month, helping us cross the Aegean under sail. Up until this point, anyway. We had a few more days before she would turn a bit nasty and we’d have to seek shelter to wait out a stronger, +30kn blow. We chose to hunker down in the large bay of Adamantas on the island of Milos. The holding was supposed to be good and there would be plenty of space to put out a chunk of chain. Since it was a 70nm sail from Rineia we weighed anchor at 3am. It was pitch black and there was a tricky rocky outcrop to avoid on the way out of the bay but luckily we had our track on the chart plotter from when we came in. Once clear we raised the main and jib and motor sailed around the top of the island. Some old salty sea dog we had met along the way had warned us ‘NEVER GIVE UP YOUR NORTH!’ Roughly translated, in the Aegean if you wanted to bounce up and down the islands you get to explore a lot but every time you head south, expect to find a difficult and uncomfortable sail back up north. Very rarely does the Meltemi relent. That’s why we had typically sailed across the island chain. This time we would be heading south-west to our last island stop before the mainland. So as we came round the top of the island we copped 23kn on the beam before turning downwind towards Milos. With just the main and jib we were achieving 6.8kn as the sun came up. Our boat speed slowed down a little as we had to sail goose-wing (main on one side and jib on the other as the wind was dead downwind). As the day wore on the wind continued to die and by 2pm we dropped the sails, and unfurled the Code 0 which kept our speed up to 5.2kn.
Milos is a high-sided volcanic island shaped a bit like a bowl with a narrowish opening to the NNW which opens out into a large bay at the centre. The anchorage off the main town of Adamantas provides great protection from a northerly blow, or at least that is what we hoped. Coming through the channel we still had the code 0 up as the cliff side provided some protection so the wind wasn’t too strong for the code 0 as it turned more onto the beam. We did get a chance to admire the brightly coloured fishing huts along the shore. Unfortunately as we came out into the bay and left the shelter of the cliff side behind, predictably the wind picked up and we had to quickly furl the code 0. After a great deal of flapping we motored into the bay and picked our spot in 7.7m of water with plenty of room around us. We put out 53m of chain - more than 6:1 scope, that should do.
The bay was lined with bars and restaurants so that evening we dinghied across, tied up to a tree on the shore and went for dinner. The wind was due to pick up the following day so we assumed that we would be on the boat for the day. And that we were. 25+kn winds blew throughout the day and into the next but our trusty Rocna anchor held us firm.
28th May 2023
By Sunday the wind had settled to a steady 18kn. As the boat had sat through higher winds than that we finally felt comfortable to leave the boat and see if we could hire a scooter to explore.
We picked up a 125cc motorbike as we were told that anything less might not make it up the hills. Unfortunately we only had it for the afternoon so after a quick chat with the guy in the rental shop who gave us some recommendations, we set off. Milos is a fascinating little island, made famous by the discovery of the Venus di Milo and the Poseidon of Melos statues found there. Sadly they have been moved, the former in the Louvre and the latter in Athens. Still, apparently there was a replica placed near the site where it was found. First stop though was the catacombs, an early Christian site from the 1st to the 5th century. Initially used as a burial site and later as a place of worship and refuge against Roman persecution. The museum closed early so we zoomed up the mountain to catch it before it closed. Having seen the vast underground cities and chapels in Türkiye earlier in the year it really felt like we were back there. Just goes to show how closely linked the history of the whole area is.
Next stop was Klima Beach, where the colourful fishing huts that we’d seen on the way in were. But, on the hill above the beach, was the site where the statue of Venus di Milo was found. There was not much left there apart from a fantastic amphitheatre looking out over the water. It must have been a specular venue in its day.
