Kytera Island, Greek Islands

Med Moored Backwards
Kytera Island
Southern Ionian Islands
Greece
36'08.5N/22.59.9E
(click on photo to see Sandpiper)


Kythera Island, our last stop here in Greece and a beautiful one at that. Not to mention the birth place of Aphrodite. Our arrival here was our first overnight sailing trip since Cyprus. To our amazement we actually were able to sail the entire way, making 6-7 knots, and quite smoothly too. Upon arrival we were side tided to the quay to make room for everyone. But once it started to clear out, we med-moored.

The second night here the winds started to pick-up, gusting up to 30 knots. So we had to set a second stern anchor and hang out on board to make sure all was OK. Even though we have been here just shy of a week, we decided to take it easy and just get a few boat jobs done. We can save our money and hang on the boat. Besides we have free WiFi here.

Since here we have done a through cleaning on the inside, cleaning out this locker, and that locker, and even throwing some items away. Tom spent most of his time in the engine room, (surprise!) working on that dreaded heat exchange pump one last time.

While tied up here at the quay we met a few Americans on vacation and had dinner with Jay and Annai (sorry if I totally misspelled your name), a couple from Seattle here on their honeymoon. Always a pleasure hanging with non-boat people.

We have been watching the weather everyday via our free WiFi . It looks like the weather will be in our favor to cut the lines loose from the quay tomorrow morning. We will embark on a 400 nautical miles, or 4 day, trip to the tiny island nation of Malta. We are hoping to sail most of the way. A few of the sites we monitor the weather on are GRIB and Passage Weather.

Once we arrive in Malta our game plan is to check in, source out a replacement pump or two, provision, and check out. In my ideal world I would like to spend few days on Malta, get the big jump to Spain over with so I can take Tom to a Spanish Bullfight.

We will try to do a few updates during our passage and don’t forget to check out the new photos, videos, and my first published article in the October issue of Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine online.

One Love
Amy and Tom

Thera (Santorini) Island

On Mooring Ball at Fainikia
Thera (aka: Thira, or Santorini) Island
The Cyclades
Greece
36'27.5N/25.23.0E
(click on photo to see Sandpiper)

We had another great passage from our last stop, being able to sail all the way here with 20-30 knots of wind just forward of the bow.

Thera Island is 6 miles long from north to south and is the remains of a huge volcano that exploded so violently in 1400BC that is was estimated to be three times larger then the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883. Thera Island has remained an active volcano since 1400BC with many smaller eruptions lasting for years in length. The last major earthquake in 1956 produced a tsunami over 17 meters high. As result of the major eruptions the whole island has been blown away leaving a large area in the center, kind of shaped like a doughnut with a bite taken out of its left side.

When we arrived at the south end of Thera we circled around the west side of the island and through this open area that used to be the center of the volcano. Right where the center of the volcano used to be is a small island (Palaia Kameni) made of lava that is still active with many tour boats going there daily to visit the hot springs. Thera Island goes straight up from the shoreline for hundreds of feet with all its towns on the cliff tops of the caldera. This gives very few spots for boats to stop as the water is hundreds of feet deep right up to the shoreline.

But when we got to the north side of the bay we found a free mooring buoy right next to a set of stairs that go straight up the cliff to the town of Oia. There is a small concrete dock at the bottom of the steps for tour boats to drop their passengers off where we can tie up our dingy. Our first night here we decided to visit a tiny restaurant (The Sunset Taverna) that is there as well. Not many people come down here to visit this restaurant because the walk down and back up the stairs is so steep. So we had the place to ourselves and a few other visiting boats. The owner come over and started pouring us complimentary shots of Raki which is some kind of Greek moonshine. We are not sure what happened later that night other than everyone, even the kitchen help, were dancing around to Greek music till everything got very blurry. The man that owns the restaurant has a small fishing boat that he takes out every afternoon and catches all the fish he serves that night for dinner.

We did climb the stairs the next day up to the town of Oia that we quickly named the 'Trail of Tears' as is over 280 steps long with long stretches of incline. There are donkeys at the bottom that you can hop a ride up on. But its $20 dollars a trip each way for both us. So its leg power for us. By the time we reach the top we are sweat covered and quite a contrast from the many tourists here on vacation all dressed up. From the top the Sandpiper looks quite tiny hundreds of feet straight below. There are many small hotels all perched along the cliff sides and some even built inside small caves, with many small restaurants and tourist shops. Its quite fun walking around all the tiny sidewalks and steps trying not to get lost.

Yesterday Amy and I got an early start to battle the steps to the top before the sun got too blazing hot. We rented an ATV to drive around the island. The roads here are a bit crazy as they go straight up and down with lots of huge buses full of tourists racing around. One of our missions was to find a welder to repair our generator's exhaust elbow that had cracked in half (If you are ever in the market for a DC Gen Set, make sure that you never never never ever buy any products from Ample Power!) We found the only welder on the whole island at an auto body shop that was filled with crashed rental cars. He had us back on the road in 5 minutes.

We toured around to the south side of the island to Perissa, a town that actually levels off to sea level and has a nice black sand beach that stretch's for quite a ways with many beach bars and restaurants. This end of the island is a bit more laid back then the rest and a good spot to stay for backpackers.

We then decided to go on our own ATV wine tour of the island. Thera is famous for its wines and some of the wineries are hundreds of years old. We visited 3 different wineries finishing off at Koutsogiannopoulos Winery that has been making wine since 1660!!

Sandpipers current plans are to pull into the small pier here tomorrow morning to fill up on water, then head out for an overnight passage of 120 miles to the island of Kythera which will be out last stop in the Greek Islands before pressing on across the Med.

More later
Tom and Amy

Anafi Island

Anchored in an unknown bay
Anafi Island
The Cyclades
Greece
36'21.1N/25.49.4E

We did it! We actually sailed and not just for part of the trip today but the entire 35 nautical miles and we averaged 6 knots all day! It wasn't the smoothest of sailing but it was much more pleasant than smelling diesel exhaust all day and a lot quieter too.

Not much else to report as when the engine isn't running Tom doesn't have to do his Stairmaster workout and continually check/re-fill the coolant. The fridge has been running for a full 36 hours without incident.

Tomorrow we arrive at perhaps our last Greek Island and one I hope we can stay at for a few days. The Island of Thera, or as most know of it as Santorini. I promised my friend Amy I would cross it off her 'bucket list'. I hope to spend the next few days exploring the island, people watching, and expanding my Greek culinary experiences.

Until then,
Amy and Tom

Astypalaia Island

Anchored at Ormos Agrilithi (Agrilithi Bay)
Astypalaia Island
The Dodecanese (12 islands)
Greece
36'35.0N/26'25.4E

Another rough passage. We left the quay this morning at 7am, a day later then planned due to high winds from the direction we need to go, and we got thoroughly thrashed! The passage to where we are currently anchored at Astipalaia Island was 37 miles straight into the 20+ knot winds and seas all day.

We are still having drama with Sandpiper's cooling pump on the engine. It leaks everywhere every time I rebuild it with new gaskets and seals. Now have to constantly pour fresh water into the coolant tank about every 15 minutes. Every time we get smacked by a large wave we loose sea water discharge. This is not good either and this requires a bit of action in the engine room to get the sea water discharge going again. I have given up on trying to rebuild this pump. As soon as we can get to somewhere where we can receive mail, then we will try to have a new one shipped to us. This pump has given us all kinds of drama the last couple of years. Every time we think we have it figured out, it fails on us. This makes running the engine for long periods a bit stressful with constant checking in the engine room.

Anyway... living the dream out here! We are anchored in a small bay surrounded by old ruins and sheep walking around with bells on their collars. We can hear them jingling around the shores. We have swapped a few hoses around on the engine room. So hoping tomorrow's 30 mile trip upwind to the next island is a little less stressful

Tom and Amy

Nisyros Island

Med Moored at Paloi
Nisyros Island
The Dodecanese
Greece
36'37.1N/27'10.2E

Happy Labor Day! How fitting as it's the first day since back on the boat that we haven't had to do anything involving labor. Since being back on the boat and even leaving Turkey we have had nothing but issues with our refrigeration system. We keep asking each other "How could such a small box hold so much R-134?" The past week has gone something like this: fridge overloads, fridge freaks out, coolant lines freezes up, fridge heats up. Our drill goes something like this: boil water, apply wet hot rag to lines to defrost, remove frost, put fuse back in, and try her again. This process has been at least a twice daily event for us, except for today! Today... so far, so good. Fingers crossed, no more fridge freak-outs.

Another project has been the sea water/fresh water coolant pump for Sandpiper's engine. We have had it fixed or repaired in several countries and it still leaks! While you have your fingers crossed for the fridge lets do the same for the pump and hope yesterday was the LAST time it had to be removed, fiddled with, and replaced. Even though it's not totally leak free, we will take the leaking of sea water over loosing fresh water any day.

Ahhh yes. Fixing the boat in exotic locations and 'Living the Dream.'

Since there were no projects to attend to, we rented a scooter and set off to explore this small almost perfectly circular volcanic island. We were told that the crater was featured in a James Bond flick and home to Mr. Bond's lair. But a local at the crater said he didn't think that was true. But perhaps this was the inspiration the idea.

So once at the active volcano we hiked up to see and smell the beauty. Nothing better than the smell of sulfur being blown into your face early in the morning. We then fought our way through the tourist and down into the large crater of Stefanos. I've never been that close to hot earth under my feet. If you stopped for even seconds you could feel the heat coming up through your shoes and around your ankles. Too cool! I thought it a bit dangerous that they just let us all walk around as you could possibly step somewhere near these boiling pool of water and create your own crater. But hey, who needs safety?

Back on the bike to explore some more of the island. We wound our way further up the mountain side with miles of sweeping views of the brilliant blue of the Mediterranean and came to the town of Nikeia. Nikeia is as you picture a Greek mountain village to look like, small and narrow cobblestone lanes, white houses with the vibrant blue shutters and door and winding stairwells to get lost in. There's also an overpriced museum on the history of the volcano in town. Not recommended by Team Sandpiper.

Time for lunch, so we ride back down the mountain and to the main port town of Madraki where we dined on Greek salad and chicken Gyros. Wrapping up the day with the bike we assumed our positions of Tom steering and me holding on for dear life on the back, but this time with camera in hand to take a video of the narrow streets and colorful buildings. Stay tuned for the video to appear on You Tube soon.

Love to all. Hope the Holiday weekend was enjoyed!
Amy and Tom

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Note From Ron: I found this notable blog posting about the island of Nisyros... worth a read.

Symi Island

Med Moored at Ano Symi
Symi Island
The Dodecanese (12 islands)
Greece
36'37.2N/27'50.6E


We finally made it to the Greek Islands, a place Amy has been dreaming of coming to since conception. We had a 10 mile motor from our last anchorage crossing over from Turkey to Greece. Symi Island is very tall rising straight up from the shorelines with little vegetation and many large rocks. After Sandpiper made it to the north end of Symi Island we hooked a left and entered the small quay at Ano Symi's harbor and around noon dropping our stern anchor and bowing up to the quay's walls.

If anything, Europeans are experts at operating their boats in reverse, as everywhere in the Med the only way to moor your boat is to drop one's anchor and back down till close enough to shore to tie off, aka...Med-Moor. For Sandpiper this is really not an option as we have so much stuff hanging off Sandpiper's stern that if we back in we have no way to get off the boat. So we just drop a stern anchor and motor in until the bow is right off the wall where we can jump off.

Simi is just how a Greek Island should look. The town surrounds the waterfront and then raises straight up the surrounding mountains. There are many restaurants and shops all along the waterfront, and pulling in is a bit intimidating as Sandpipers bow is just feet from all this activity. Later in the afternoon the harbor really fills up with boats. If there is even a small gap between two boats then someone will back in, shoving all the boats next to them aside.

Sandpiper had a 150ft wooden charter sail boat that was way to big for the harbor and towered over Sandpiper on one side. And on the other side was a very nice old traditional 35ft Greek sailboat that had been built on Symi Island 35 years ago. We got to talking to the owner who lives in Athens and he told us that he was in Symi that night to show a documentary that he produced/directed about traditional Greek boats and his love of the sea. He invited us to come by the town square later to watch it.

After making sure that Sandpiper was secure amongst her neighbors and not causing any drama, we went ashore to clear in to Greece. First stop was the police station where we got our passports stamped. Then over to customs to clear in. Then to the harbor police to get our transit log. And we were done.

Usually when in a new town we are scooping everything out to see where the best prices are for grocery shopping, eating, and drinking. Usually the farther from the water the cheaper the prices get. We found our new bar a few blocks from the water with the cheapest prices in town.

After a few cold ones we headed to the town square and found our new boat neighbors had set it up to show his documentary. We brought a couple beers with us and I was not sure how cool it was that I was going to pop a beer open during his show. But when we looked back everyone was popping beers open. The documentary was a pleasure to see and featured his boat in several scenes.

After the movie we headed back to the 'Piper to watch all the action along the shoreline while sitting on Sandpiper's bow. Lots of good people watching when they are forced to walk just feet from us.

The next morning we headed out to the beach just outside of town and spent the afternoon swimming around and laying out in the sun on large rocks. Later that night it was back to our favorite cheap bar where we met a cast of interesting characters. One man, Kieran Ball from Ireland, was currently living in Symi and has just finished writing a novel 'Aphrodite's Curse'. Another interesting lady we met from England had published a book on textile design and had a PHD in tie-dye. Never knew you could be a Doctor of Tie-Dye.

The man that owns the bar has owned it for the last 10 years. After sitting in his alley having some more cold beers, we saw lots of small kids running up and down the alley. I guess this was a sore subject with him because when we mentioned the kids he told us that their parents worked in the shops up the alley and just let their kids run around all day back and forth in front of his bar. He had done some research on the internet and found a device that repels kids with a sonic sound that only kids can hear. The only downside was that it cost $1000 dollars. So for now he is researching other options.

More from another Greek Island,
Tom and Amy