The winds are picking up in the harbour at least. It is sitting at around 6-8 m/s and gusting up to around 10 which means that it will be more out on the water. Or maybe not, it actually tends to be worse close to land, particularly on the lee side of the islands…but that’s one of the few things that seems to follow normal weather patterns here!. We have another long haul today and we cannot stay at anchor at Delos because it is an archaeological site. We are going to check with the port authorities before we even drop anchor because although the captain of the Cosmos said we could (and should) stop there for a couple of hours in the afternoon before heading to Mykonos, other things seem to indicate that it’s not exactly kosher…and we don’t really feel like spending a night in jail. Delos is the centre of the ancient world and where the Delos Oracle was consulted before major decisions were made.
So, we shall listen to the weather forecast…if we can understand it, they speak quickly and not all that clearly. Then we will pop up to the internet cafe and check the National Observatory of Athens website which is said to be quite good and detailed with respect to what is going on out on the waters. If it is too rough, we will stay here and maybe rent some scooters and check out Naousis, see what the rest of the island has to offer, and have a nice dinner. Then perhaps on to Delos the next day. We shall see what the weather brings for us!
Well there you go, we turned to channel 16 to hear the 9 am weather broadcast, which was of course at 9:10, to be told to go to channel 23 to hear the forecast for the SW Aegean. They give you a list of channels to go to dependant on your area…then don’t say anything on them! Doesn’t make any sense….yes it does, it’s Greece!
We waited and waited and waited …nothing, we turned to channel 04 where we heard yesterdays forecast…and lo, there is a forecast in progress. I think I heard that the forecast for our area is Beaufort 4 to 5 with 6 locally. So, our interpretation is that the winds will be moderate, winds of between 10 and 20 knots, moderate to rough seas with waves of between 1.5 to 4 metres.
The boat next to us is a British boat, the owner keeps it here and flies in to use it in good weather. This seems to be a very normal thing, many boats here are owned by people from away.
We fueled up today. A whole 55 litres is what we have used in 13 days. Fueling is one of the few simple tasks here in Greece. You don’t have to find the fuel docks….they come to you. They arrive every morning like vultures. Same thing for water in many places.
1130 – we’ve just checked the weather and it looks like a Beaufort 4-5 calming in the evening. We think we are OK so we are going to head for Mykonos after all. Talk to you then!
1230 – Hmm, the winds are picking up and the Port Police say 5 turning very quickly to 6. 6 = not so much fun. It’s gotten considerably windier in the harbour and getting out could be the real trick…if we feel so inclined. The winds are N-NW so we’d be heading straight into it. We may rent scooters and explore Paros after all.
Back at the boat, we find that several boats have come in, all charters. Seems like we are docked right smack into the middle of a charter company’s area. Whatever, we aren’t moving. Competition is good. We are flying our competitors flag with pride! We saw another sailboat come in and went to ask them where they had come from. They had come down from Naoussa, (would be on our route) and said the seas were rough and uncomfortable.
1300 – We are the proud new, temporary, custodians of two sewing machines with wheels! AWESOME goofy looking helmets! Are we cool, or what. Don’t answer. Kondolis Rent a Bike. We managed to barter the price down a Euro, not much, but I love to haggle.
We are off to explore the Island of Paros. First stop Naoussa. This would have been our escape had we attempted to round the island, and are we glad we made the decision we did. At the top of the island we can see that it’s one chunky sea out there. The wind is howling up here. Probably well into 30 knots with seas between 3 and 5 metres. We made a good choice and are happy with it …albeit frustrated at losing another day in a harbour we hadn’t intended on staying in.
Naoussa was a cool place, little harbours with teeny boats. Tavernas RIGHT on the water…the waves washing almost into the tables.
From Naoussa we went to Lageri, a cool little beach on beautiful aquamarine waters. The winds precluded any swimming because any warmth was stolen away quickly, but lovely all the same. Santa Maria was our next stop where we found the most amazing potential summer properties if anyone is interested. No idea on price, but they are almost finished.
We headed South to Ampelas, then back on the main road and straight down to Pisso Livadi where we found a great little fishing village on the sea. We could see the most amazing church (Ayios Andonios) up on the hill and wound our way up to it.
We got to the quay and I noted that my gas was dropping faster than I anticipated. I asked Kirk how much he had left and he said he was full. I said I was at half. We stopped and opened the tanks to discover they were both at half. Note to self, Kirk’s gas gauge doesn’t work …neither of us have functional speedometers and Kirk’s lights are intermittent. It’s Greece, par for the course.
It turned out to be the most amazing ride up, and up, and up, and waaaaaay up! So far up to the church that I actually had to run while riding my scooter just to get it up the last leg. Poor things, the scooters not my legs. When we got to the top we could see for miles and miles (isn’t that a song?). Paros is amazing, it is so fertile and covered with agriculture. We could see Naxos across the channel.
When we hurtled down the hill back to the main road, we stopped for fuel. The elderly fellow asked us where in Canada we were from. First person who hasn’t assumed that we are from Toronto! Arrrrgh! We constantly need to correct people that the centre of Canada is actually Vancouver, sorry Denis 😉
Anyway, we said Vancouver…he asked where. Odd question coming from a fellow in the absolute middle of nowhere in the Greek Islands. We said North Vancouver and he nodded knowingly and said he was from Vancouver. We were sure he was pulling our leg at this point. We asked where and he said Kitsilano. OK, we believe him, you don’t pull that out of the air. He lived there for 15 years but left 22 years ago. He offered us a drink and wanted us to sit awhile and talk to him about Vancouver but then someone came and needed some work done and he said he was disappointed, but had to work.
Amazing who you meet and where!
When we went to get going again, Kirk’s scooter wouldn’t start using the electric start, good thing there is a kick start too.
Off we went again, bzzzzy little sewing machines.
Next stop, Lefkes. A gorgeous hillside community tucked into the top edge of a valley that is so lush. There are geraniums the size of trees! I’ve never seen anything like it! The town does not allow scooters down the main streets (if you want to call them that…for reference, by streets we mean what would constitute a quarter of an alley at home) so we left our sewing machines in the square and went on by foot. And got completely lost of course …there is no other way to navigate the streets of these villages because you really and truly are in a maze. The “streets” are stones and there is a marble water drain running down the middle. MARBLE! It is everywhere and used like we would use brick.
We headed out of Lefkes intending to head for Kostos……and here we hit our daily snag. We figured that we dealt with so many obstacles on the water that it would be a pleasure to stay on land and be comfortable in the knowledge that nothing would go wrong today. Yeah….riiiiight. This is us! If you haven’t caught on by now, everything that can go wrong, really and truly will go wrong. It’s not Murphy’s Law, It’s Kirk and Paige’s Law of Relativity. All things being equal, we will encounter the problem that is least likely to occur!
So we are screaming down the highway, Me with a big smile on my face, leading the way. I can see Kirk following me in my rear view mirror. He has started to follow directly behind me so he is more difficult to see without leaning a bit. A ways on I look back, can’t see him, assume he is right on my behind, lean out, check the other mirror ….I am very much alone on an empty highway. It was like aliens had sucked him up off the road behind me without my ever knowing. Okay, perhaps my years of training as an observationalist have not stood me in good stead. I stopped. He was just not there ….anywhere. Where did he go?
A quick about face and I hurtled (Okay, as much as you can do so on a scooter) back down the road. A few turns back and I found Kirk at the side of the road, he says he could hear me laughing and calling, “sorry, sorry, sorry” all the way down the hill. What was the problem? Apparently I was zooming along at such a velocity that I was leaving Kirk in the dust. Typical male ego, he couldn’t deal with the fact that a woman was beating him at a race so he had a tantrum and broke his scooter.
Okay, Kirk’s version now.
I was getting away from him and he cranked the throttle wide open and the throttle cable snapped.
I like my version better.
Kirk dismantled the scooter with his Leatherman to see if he could fix it. No such luck. We both jumped on my scooter (it’s red, it’s better) and zipped back up to Lefkes where we bought a phone card and called the rental agency. We gave them an idea of where the scooter was, he said it would be about a half hour. We popped into the mini market and grabbed a bag of mini bake chips (like bagel chips, really yummy) and a couple of road pops and headed back to the dead scooter. We had taken no more than two sips when a van pulled up at high speed and a smiling fellow jumped out. He hauled a spiffy turbo yellow scooter out of the van, hauled Kirk’s dead blue one in and vanished as fast as he had arrived. And we had just finished commenting on how much longer than a half hour it would be…this is Greece, EVERYTHING is late!
We zoomed back into town, Kirk in the lead (Heaven knows I didn’t want him to get lost again) and went back down to the boat to dump our packs. We headed into the restaurant district and did a circuit first. We found a heritage site with some ruins just on the outskirts of town. The ruins were recently uncovered, 1995. Astonishing to think that there have been people living around here for over 4000 years and we are still finding out where.
We found a place to eat on the beach and had a great dinner (until the waiter tried to poison us with some vile shooter…”on the house”) before retiring to the boat for the night. We rode the scooters right down to the dock and they are on the quay at the back of our boat. This is a cool place after all.
The winds have died off almost completely which we are hoping bodes well for tomorrow. Today was supposed to be the start of a system and it was supposed to be crappy tomorrow. But we are hoping that it has blown over early and that a night without winds will calm the seas so we can head to Mykonos tomorrow. If we can’t make it out on our boat we will be on the 1100 ferry and will spend the night in a hotel there.
