Fri June 20 The ferry we took from Crete arrived in Naxos at 1400 - a bit late due to the weather. Our boat looked in good shape except that the stainless steel bar on the back edge of the swim step was bent (again). We had put a fender on the back of that step, but evidently that wasn't enough. Nikolaus, the marina manager came by soon thereafter to let us know what had happened as he felt badly about the step. Evidently they had very high winds for a couple days coming from a direction that was on our bow and it pushed the boat back into the dock. We had left the keys in the ignition and the hand crank in the windless and he made use of both of these to move the boat forward a bit and reset the docklines. We were grateful that he had taken that initiative. Damage seems to be cosmetic only but Dennis thinks we won't be able to raise the swim step to shorten the length of the boat -if we need to do that again. While discussing the mooring issue we mentioned that we needed to do some laundry and Nicolaus had the delivery fellow at our boat within about 5 minutes to pick it up and deliver it to the laundress (a person could get used to this laundry service!). We still had our bikes assembled (just strapped them to the aft deck for the trip from Mykonos) and decided to do some touring of Naxos town that afternoon.

Our first stop was the Portara that overlooked the marina. It is the gateway for the unfinished Temple of Apollo (another unfinished temple for Apollo -poor Apollo). There is also a beautiful view from there looking back at town. We saw some young boys near the Portara who were diving from the cliffs down into sea below. Scary. The water was so clear that it didn't look deep enough. Next we visited Mitropolis Square where there are churches on several sides and the ruins of the ancient town of Naxos on one end. The excavation site is fully covered and in a building. It was closed (after 1500) for the day. We cycled down the street that runs on the outside of town and saw the soccer field and beaches (with lots of lounge chairs, all full), a butcher (which we needed), and the city center fountain. We had heard (tripadvisor again) that there were concerts at the Venetian Museum which is located in the old castle in the Kastro area. We called and made reservations for Sat night and wanted to locate the museum. So we wandered through the cobblestone walking streets which, like we experienced on the other Greek islands, were like a labyrinth (guess where the word comes from -yup it's Greek). When in doubt you just head downhill until you reach the sea and can get your bearings. We have found maps of these small towns on the islands like Naxos (Lonely Planet Guide and other sources) but they aren't very useful as the names of the walkways are noted in English on the map but in Greek on the street signs and the two are not often similar enough to decipher. The Kastro area housed the nobles and other wealthy families and you can see the crests of the original owners carved in marble plaques above the doorways. It is a lovely area and we did find the old castle and the concert venue as well as the Archaeological Museum. The museum building is a historical monument built 1600-1800. It has five floors and you enter on the top floor and then walk down through the 'basement' floors - called this because they are built into the hill, but have windows on the one side looking out toward the sea. No pictures allowed here so you will be spared another round of pictures of artifacts in our gallery.

Sat June 21 We rented a car to tour the island. It is a relatively small island and we had no problem covering it in a day. We drove in a loop, clockwise, starting on the west coast where we stopped at the Eggares Olive Press Museum. We were given a history of olive oil production while touring the museum which contained the press equipment dating back to 1884. Did you know most of the oil is in the olive pit? (It takes 15 kilos of olives makes 1 kilo of oil). Then we had a tasting of oil, various olive spreads, orange bread made with olive oil, and some local fruit jams. We bought some of all except the orange bread and only because it wasn't for sale - it was delicious. At the northern tip of the island we visited the site of the large kouros (marble statue) of Dionysos lying in the ancient marble quarry where it was being carved. The thought is that it was abandoned when the face cracked accidentally. Very interesting to see it in situ, imagining the original sculptor working on the piece and wondering how in the world they would get it from the quarry to the temple without breaking it -guess they didn't have to worry about that this time. Once we were stopped by a large herd of goats making its way down the road. Another time there was a smaller herd, about 20, of sheep standing in the middle of the road all huddled like a rugby scrum around the ram in the center. Dennis had to get out of the car and encourage them to move on. Heading down the eastern side of the center of the island we visited Panagia Drossiani near Moni, considered the most unusual church on Naxos. It dates back to the 6th century and its domes are made of field stones. We stopped for lunch at Filoti to fuel up for our next activity which was a hike up to 'another' Cave of Zeus. On the way up, we met a young (and fit) American couple who had climbed to the mountain top from the other side and were headed down our side. This time there was no entry fee and the cave was even a bit larger than the one we visited on Crete. We had read that we would need flashlights and we used them to explore the deepest reaches of the cave. This was not a limestone cave so there were no stalactities/stalagmites but interesting just the same and thankfully cool after our climb. We hit Bazeo's tower, a 17th century castle now privately owned and charging an entry fee that we decided against and ended with Dimitra's Temple which we got to climb all around on.

We ate dinner on the boat and then walked up to the castle for the 2130 concert. It was a lovely setting -outdoors in that ancient building with a view out to the sun setting on the ocean. The program was Jazz and Blues -amazing that we're thousands of miles from the US, on a little island in the middle of the Aegean Sea and we're listening to original American music. What was even more amazing was that we're pretty sure there was only one other American couple in the audience. The two gentlemen performers played multiple instruments and one also sang. We recognized many of the songs on the program - pieces from Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Billy Holiday, Spencer Williams, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, and the Beatles. At intermission there was wine tasting of local Naxos wines. It was a wonderful evening -we fully enjoyed it. They played three encore songs and the venue manager finally had to apologize for stopping the show, but we had reached the curfew time for that neighborhood.

Sun June 22 Lots of boats coming into the marina again as higher winds are being forecast for a few days out. We now have 2 boats rafted outside of us. We already were barely on to the end of the concrete pier but the harbormaster proved to be very skilled at positioning the boats -giving specific directions on where to drop their anchor, how far back to come, where he wants your docklines cleated on your boat, etc. But leaving will be a challenge and everyone on the rafted up boats have to step along our boat and over our gangway to reach the pier (they seemed to have very heavy feet when we heard them return from town later that night). We spent the day working on our blog and doing some provisioning -surprisingly we haven't had any trouble getting all the fruits, vegetables, and meats we want on these small, remote islands. The daily ferries do a good job of keeping the markets stocked up and much of the produce is locally grown.

Mon June 23 We were going to leave today and the other two boats would have to release to let us out, but the winds did pipe up so we decided to stay another day. One of the other boats was going to leave that following day and it would make it easier on all of us to delay. We had two nights of the 3 of us rafted together but it meant a lot of traffic on our boat and across our stern gangplank. Somehow the hand rails that Dennis had added to the gangway got broken. But maybe they saved someone from going in the drink! Another maintenance project added to the list. (When we did leave the next day Nikolaus, the harbormaster, orchestrated us out and we had no problems.)

We thoroughly enjoyed our time touring both the town and the island.