Sailing the Aegean II - Epilogue

We're back in the real world again, and it feels like hell. Compared to the wondeful time we had during the 3 weeks of sailing, office hours seem to take your will to live. And the constant gray veil that covers the Dutch skies isn't making things easier. But it does make the memories even better!

So, where DID we go during those 3 weeks? Before we left, I tried to give an idea of the route we could have sailed. Of course things turned out to be a little different...

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All pictures
Finally, at home, I was able to serve you with all the pictures. Be prepared, it's quite a collection...

Update
To every log-entry I added the related pictures in the comments. So, to enjoy the full story, you should take it one step at a time.
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Athens Anticlimax

Usually, sailing into Athens after so many days on the islands is a guarantee for a solid anticlimax and feelings of regret. Well, not this time.

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Final leg

19/7 18:30 - Passing Cape Tourlos, Aigina - We sailed out of Poros together with our friends from Holland. (More pics coming up, guys!)

After a quick swim and some salad in the bay of Aiya Marina on Aigina, we just started on our last leg to Alimos, Athens. We planned to arrive there around sunset. Not only because the huge, lively city will then become a beautiful sea of light, but also less bloody hot.

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Hello again Hydra, kiss goodbye

18/7 14:20 - 1 Nm north of Poros - When out of nowhere the wind started blowing yesterday, we couldn't resist the temptation of going to Hydra again. Instead of staying with Lefty, Hans and the charming, sharp mouthed Anna in Poros for another day. It was definitly worth it!

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Old friends

16/7 20:15 - Poros - Another windless and bloody hot day started of with a knot in our anchor, tied together with another one, of 1,5 meters! I wish I took a picture of it...

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Hydra Hangover

16/7 11:15 - Hydra - My love, what have you done to us, again...

Oh, those bells

15/7 9:32 - Dokos - About 3 miles before the coast of Hydra, the wind finally picked up a little. So we went straight for the lovely port, and missed it.

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Where's the wind when you need it

14/7 12:55 - Halfway between Serifos and Hydra - We succesfuly made an early start this morning: 07:00 GMT we left the port, as planned. It began with some strange moderate, WSW winds caused by the island. But as soon as we cleared it, the wind turned to NNW. Straight in our face!

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Pink sause is Finish

13/7 19:23 - Serifos - Yesterday we decided to go for the third option: to not go anywhere and stay anchored in the bay. Our anchor had proven to hold during the remaining part of the night and all morning while we were recovering from the first part. So, we thought, why not recover some more. And then suddenly Chris noticed we were adrift. The anchor, despite of the 70 m of chain, was loose. Again.

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Sweet & Sour Serifos

12/7 11:30 - Serifos - Meltemi came to pay us a visit tonight. We were on the north side of the peer, our anchor a little to the west and holding us tightly. And the wind came from the NW, as I expected.

The only problem was this huge, 15m, metal motoryacht to our portside, with its anchor crossing ours to the east: It was going to crush us against the peer for sure.

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Deep

10/7 21:45 - Sifnos - In the beautiful bay Vathi (Greek for 'deep') on Sifnos, we are just preparing to go ashore, by dinghy. (Which Chris had to pump up, because she lost a game of Backgammon! :-)

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Boat Stop

9/7 18:15 - Karavostasis Folegandros - It was a rough night down here in the small port of Folegandros. With very strong gusts of wind, and really unpleasant waves, the Rinia was shaking with discomfort all night.

Karavostasis literally means 'boat stop'. And what's in a name, again?

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Sssh... Sssha...

7/7 15:22 - Ios - Un....ing believable. This morning, an big, beautifull, one year old Swan 62 (!) pulled up beside us. It's called Orfeo and it's definitely one of the most beautifull yachts I've ever seen in my life.

Until...

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That's the way (ahah ahah)...

6/7 21:35 Ios - The Rinia seemed to like the 4-5 beaufort, as she did a steady 6 knots over and through the gentle waves coming in sideways. And we - obviously - loved it.

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Meltemi

5/7 21:25 - Parianos, Koufonisia - Wow, what a day! The friendly (yes, that right!) port police in Amorgos told us this morning there was going to be 5 bft, north-west.

Boy, were they wrong.

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No pictures, please!

After we got the God of Internet on Amorgos out of bed, I managed to connect the camera to the web. Because of the usual low bandwidth here in Greece, it's not much. But there's plenty more where this came from!

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Amorgos

4/7 21:15 - Katapola, Amorgos - Just half an our before yet another dramatic sunset announced yet another star-filled night, we entered the big bay of Katapola.

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Dreams do come true

4/7 14:15 - at sea, 7 Nm south of Naxos Town - Although the wind seems to have abandoned us for the moment, everything is going just fine.

Yesterday a nearly fell in love with "somebody else's woman": next to us in Naousa was a 52 ft Swan, called Daphne's Smile. Dimitris, who had bought it in Hindelopen btw, is sailing charters with this dreamboat. You can bet you will see more of it on C-Sails.com in the near future!

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Lazy, lazy, lazy day

3/7 20:38 - Naousa, Paros - Yep, we're still here. No sailing today, just a lot of sleeping / a little shopping / enjoying the port. And awaiting the predicted 6-7 Beaufort Meltemi, which of course didn't show up. Bloody weather-forecasts!

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Here's to you all

2/7 20:05 - Naousa, Paros - OH YEAH! We found a spot on the quay in the small port after all. Cheers everyone!

Naousa Memories

2/7 17:50 - Ay. Ioannis bay, Paros - The port of Naousa, the lovely main town on Paros turned out much smaller than in my blurred memories of 5 years ago. Much smaller too, in fact, than our Greek Waters Pilot told us it would be. But then again, we only have got version 5.0 on board, instead of the v8.0 that I wishfully wrote about earlier. So this "Bible" was last updated in 1992. And the trouble with these Greek ports is, even for minor changes, there totally NOT backwards compatible.

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Mondays...

1/7 21:25 - Ornos bay, Mykonos - Just for underlining, to ourselves, the fact that we are really on vacation and therefor can do anything we damn well please, we decided to stay in Ormos for another day. Other reasons are of course that a) Ormos is very, very beatiful, and b) we're still tired as hell from our relatively stressy lifes In Holland. (Anybody who does not feel he has a lot of stress in his daily life, I can recommend an sailing trip in Greece. It usually is a great eye-opener, in many ways. ;-)

And c) it's a Monday. Although, to be honest, I'm almost have lost track of days, like I should.

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