We left early for the 65 mile stretch from Patmos, the northernmost of the Dodecanese, to Mykonos, the first island of the Cyclades to the east. The Cyclades are a circular group of many islands that we'll be sailing in a big backwards "Z," east, west, east, for an optimal angle to the prevailing northwest wind.
Mykonos has a reputation with the "in crowd," many of them gay, as the party island, with its many beach resorts, fancy shops, bars, restaurants, and nightlife. We anchored in Ornos, a protected bay off a beach resort that was booming with music in the late afternoon. Luckily it died down by nightfall, when party-goers made their way across the isthmus to the Hora, or main town. Several large private motoryachts were anchored in deeper water behind us, and we were awakened at 4 am by noisy guests being ferried back to their yachts. High life in all corners!
We survived our adventure with a "quad", aka ATV, which we rented to go to town and tour the island. Cars and quads are rented with nearly empty fuel tanks when you get them, a profitable secondary income for the rental agency, since it's hard to calculate how much fuel you'll use. Extra fuel is siphoned out upon return. So the first order of business was to find a gas station. But the agent had siphoned so much gas out of the tank that we ran out before getting to the nearest one! Luckily it wasn't far ... I don't like motorcycles, Burger doesn't like quads. ("It feels like it's castrated," he kept complaining, as we crawled up the hills.) So we'll stick to cars in future. Or buses. Or feet.
We wandered around the quaint alleyways with its trendy boutiques and shops. In front of one of them we found the famous pink pelican, mascot of Myconos who we later saw meeting the ferry guests.
MYKONOS PHOTOS