Wednesday 3rd July 2019
I have to be honest dear readers - I was so happy to be leaving the winds at the last anchorage on Paros, that the island of Kythnos, our next destination, could have been Barry Island for all I cared. (No offence my beautiful Welsh friends, especially as I haven't visited Barry and my only point of reference is from the TV show Gavin and Stacey.)

As it turned out, not 'Barry' island, but a 'barren' island, like so many of the Cyclades. The anchorage we chose however, was picture postcard perfect. It was the bay of Kolona, aptly known as Sandbar bay, as it sits at the spot where a thin sandbar joins the island of Kythnos to it's tiny neighbour the island of Ay Loukas. In my mind the soft sand of the sandbar and clear, blue, shallow waters either side, could have belonged to an uninhabited island on the Pacific. The sand was soft between our toes and we swam alongside two rays the size of small dinner plates - amazing ! The view across from Patience to the yachts, anchored on the other side was also quite something.

The charts showed a natural hot spring, further north of the bay where we were anchored in, but sadly, we didn't get to visit this time as we made the decision to return to the Ionian and we had a weather window to sail West. Could have, should have, would have stayed longer - as the blog title says, it is a small island worth returning to.

The following morning at 8am, we headed off. We needed an early start to get to Poros, back in the Saronic Islands, our next destination. My disappointment at leaving was fortunately short lived, as we were a few hours into our trip and Ricky spotted some slashing ahead of our bow. Big splashes, not jumping fish this time, but a small pod of playful dolphins. All but one, who popped up to the boat for a few seconds, kept their distance. That said, they did put on quite a magnificent display, which, as always, we felt was for our benefit, so made us feel very special indeed. Dolphins have a habit of doing that.