We left Fologandros early for the relatively short sail to Santorini (a/k/a Thira). I fondly remember wonderful moments there in the past; James was in search of some ruins. We knew that finding a good place to anchor would be difficult: the cruising guides are unusually silent with info and hints. We had met a Spanish couple who confirmed it, but gave us the names of some people to contact to help us. On arrival, we tried to contact those people but two of the people were unreachable and the third one said our boat was too big. So...we were on our own. We drove around, studying the shoreline carefully but to no avail. One can't simply drop an anchor; the high volcanic cliffs drop precipitously into the sea with depths over 200 feet...even at the shoreline. The caldera formed by a volcanic eruption in 1650 BC produced water depths of over 1200 feet. Even huge cruise ships are dwarfed by the magnitude of the hight of the cliffs.

We looked for a public mooring field but there was none. There were a few moorings, here and there, but we suspected they were private. We crossed over to the island of Therassia but no luck there, either. We went back to Santorini and found an empty mooring. No sooner than we were secured, a speed boat raced up to us and let us know, in no uncertain terms, that it was private and we needed to leave. So much for Greeks being warm and welcoming. Obviously, Santorini may be a haven for cruise ships...but not for cruisers.

If you're a boater, or have been following the blog, you know that one can't attempt to anchor or enter a harbor in the dark. Now what? Fortunately it does get dark late here. We continued on to the island of Ios. Life is choices. The winds were kicking up. To get to the secluded anchorage of Ormos Bay, we would have a nighttime arrival....not a good idea. Our other choice was to drop the hook on the south end in Manganari Bay...which was very windy. We went for it. Anchoring was dicey; we dropped 200 feet of chain....and prayed. We were rewarded with an on-board dinner of chicken stir-fry and wine, a lovely evening....a surprisingly calm night's sleep (the wind and waves were nicely in sync) and THE ANCHOR HELD. Moonbeam is quite a boat!

Photo courtesy of Mike Fauser