We had no real plan to visit Kythnos, other than it would give us a better sailing angle to Hydra with the expected N wind. As it turned out we had no wind for a week in a region renowned for strong, consistent winds. We kept watching the forecast, and picked Monday 5th June for the passage to Hydra. That meant spending about 5 days n Kythnos waiting.

We first anchored off a tiny spit of a beach, called Fikiadha, which really was a proper (sandy) beach. It was a very pretty spot, which of course meant that there were lots of boats there. I admit that I have to get used to this as we are now heading towards the busier part of the Med, and the mid summer season. We spent 2 days and nights there, swimming and snorkelling etc and decided to move and anchor in the town bay, for a couple of days where there were a lot less boats. This also meant that we could go ashore for meals etc.

As usual, we hired a motor scooter for a day and toured the island. I have to admit that most of the island is pretty barren and boring. We went up to the chora, which, as usual, was the prettiest part of the island, had lunch in another bay, Loutron, which was prettier than the port that we are in.

G has been very excited to find some big barracuda swimming around the boat, but failed to catch any. :-( G also wants me to add that it is very stressful for her having to keep the boat clean with me constantly making a mess. :-)

Moving to the harbour to get away from boats proved to be a mistake, since Monday 5th was Whit Monday, a public holiday. Being a long weekend, therefore, many Greeks came to town with their boats to celebrate. We ended up moving to the next bay and anchoring after one night in town. It was just as well though because I saved someone's life. While anchored, a child's floating swan toy went blowing past heading out to sea with a father swimming after it. He wasn't gaining on it though and after about 500 m offshore he was tiring; he wasn't going to make it back. So I jumped into the dinghy, went and rescued the swan, then came back and picked up the guy. The beach-goers all gave a big round of applause when I got them back to the beach. :-)