We've been receiving reminders via email about how slack we are in keeping up with the blog. Its true, we have, but we have a good excuse: its the heat! Seriously, its been so super hot here, like 36 degrees, we're roasting our butts off and can only sigh and wait for the cool of the evening to arrive.
Anchoring has gotten much better though, in that we have found sandy grounds again.
Together with Kleiner Bar, we have been moving slowly, oh so slowly through the Cyclades islands.
With a trip down memory lane, to visit the island of Naxos, where I spent a summer during college working for a few months, oh so many many years ago, so many in fact, that not too much about the place rang a bell. Then again, there wasn't all that much to see when you're 19 and you move from the beach to the bar and to work. Naxos is a picturesque island, and one of our favorites so far, along with Symi. Lots of tavernas line the shore, and you can wander forever up the steep little streets that curve above the waterfront. Like all islands, night time is the most vibrant, when the heat dissipates and allows for comfortable exploration.
We visited the island of Ios, still a party island, and popular with 20 somethings, hence we didn't quite connect. It was here that we were holed in for a few days waiting out the highest winds we have experienced in our nearly 4 years of sailing, blowing a steady 30 knots, with gusts up to 40. As we knew, it can indeed blow like crazy here in August. Our friend Robert flew in from Australia and came to join us on the boat at Ios. Together, we moved down to Santorini, an island that lives up to its uniqueness; formed by a volcanic explosion, and the town sitting atop, hosts the most amazing views across the collapsed caldera. But boy, was it hot. In order to get up to the town, we had to wrestle our way past passengers from 3 cruise ships. You can either get up by gondola, donkey or plain old fashioned walking up a steep narrow windy wide footpath. For the cruise ships passengers, walking up would entail just too much movement, and they seem happy to queue under the sun for a few hours for the gondola or a donkey. We bypassed them all and chose to walk up and down on the first day. On the second day, as Uwe was suffering from sunstroke and decided to stay at the boat, Robert Kara and I decided to take a donkey, much to the annoyance of the mainly Italian group, who collectively almost crushed us, as they yelled at us in foreign expletives that we couldn't understand. But we knew they were mad. Well, it wasn't our fault, you see, we started out walking, changed our minds, and hopped on a few stubborn donkeys, so yeah, I guess we did jump the queue. Typically, we would never do this, but bypassing cruise ship passengers somehow doesn't elicit the same guilt. In the end, Santorini would have been much much nicer, without the cruise ships.
We've been holed in here at Milos, waiting out some strong force winds. Occasionally, a big swell comes in, and the lines tied from the boat to the shore, make piercing squeaky sounds that are impossible to sleep through. We're making a break for it tomorrow though, so we can finally make some westing, otherwise we'll soon be Greeked out.