Friday April 18, 2014. Windy Loutra.

Loutra harbour on Kythnos was a bit more filled with boats this time around, but we found a nice spot and performed a perfect stern-to berthing, only slightly delayed by the incompetent rope-throwing technique of the skipper (shame on him). We had arrived just before happy hour and were welcomed, literally with open arms, on the quay by Alkistis, the owner of the Xerolithia restaurant where we spent such great times last year. What we experience over and over again is that for many Greek people human relationships are more important than Euros (they didn't get rich out of us last year). Its a bit hard to get used to again, but it reminds us of pre-historic times when money was not the centre of the universe; it seems to soften life that way.

After getting Clio sorted and secured, we went and get our well-earned drink and a lovely dinner of a giant squid dish and a scorpion fish caught that day, excellently prepared by chef Rose, as vibrant and lovely as ever. We also met Rose's children, Popi and Christos, with which we had a great conversation over dinner about many subjects from E.coli bacteria to how to spent your life. Claude, another 'regular' we met last year, appeared on the scene and we had to strain our brains to get into the French language again, but it was great to meet up with him. We decided to stay over Easter in Loutra.

Friday morning we woke to a beautiful spring day with a clear blue sunny sky and started our day with a walk around Loutra and then joined Claude in the Tavern for coffee. He kindly invited us to have a look at his apartment on the hill which has a stunning view of the bay. He then took us for a drive across the island to the local butcher where he collected many kilos of mince meat for the Tavern. We then drove back to Hora where Chris was able to purchase a hair dryer - what a luxury. We arrived back to Clio for lunch and then Chris enjoyed washing a drying her hair. The wind picked up in the afternoon and Francis was busy assisting boats around us with securing their yachts which were drifting off their anchors and at risk of damage to themselves and other yachts. Once all was secure we settled in for an early night with the heater keeping us nice and warm. After dinner we had a visit from the Englishman Gary who brought us a bottle of wine in appreciation of the help that Francis had given to Aie, his deckhand, in securing their yacht while he had been away in Hora. We had a very interesting discussion about Gary's very colourful experiences over a couple of Metaxas.