.... make lemonade!" While it took some doing, the result was delicious. In this case the bitter bit was an afternoon of very uncomfortable sailing in steadily increasing winds that built to Force 7 and 8, that's 28 to 40 knots or some 50 miles per hour!

And, to make matters worse we needed to sail upwind before finding the one and only nearby safe harbor of Kapsali on the southern tip of Kythera Island. Seems the first of the season's strong North winds - a Meltemi - had not been forecast on Monday evening when we planned our early Tuesday morning departure.

Ah, but the very tasty lemonade turned out to be the lovely town of Kapsali, which could have been a miss and remained unexplored if we hadn't made the best of our situation.

So, two days after dropping anchor in the wonderfully protected harbor and sitting out continued gusty NE winds, which now were clearly shown on the weather forecasts, we're sitting snug on two anchors, enjoying a light 10 knot breeze and some cool lemonade after a hot morning's hike to Hora, Kythera's old capital town. We checked the boat (which was behaving very nicely in much lighter conditions) and the stunning view at every turn in the switchback road that led us to the Hora and its cluster of Cycladic-looking (white, blue shuttered) houses. So take a sip with us and enjoy the scenery (another mountaintop 13th c. Venetian fort!); more pics in the photo gallery!

Note to cruisers: The Greek Pilot suggests that this harbor, open to the south is often untenable and that anchoring requires Port Police permission. Our experience was one of excellent protection (with NE Force 4-6) excellent holding in sand, and helpful port police who stamped us in & out, gave us the anchor "OK" and only charged us for one night @ 5.40E. The beachfront is lined with shady tavernas and a mini-market has limited provisions (more up the steep hill in Hora). Kapsali is described to be heaving with tourists in July & August, but not so during our June 21-24 stay.