“It is a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Lord of the Rings
Last night I went into Sawyer’s cabin to read to him before bed. There he was smacking his head. “ What are you doing?” “Dad it makes my head hurt .” “What does?” “Thinking of our plane flight to Greece, the time in the boat yard, Egina Island, all the places we have been so far.” That’s the amazement of traveling, sometimes it boggles the mind where you can go when you put your mind to it. We hope the places we go and the people we meet will leave a lasting impression on the boys.
In our last post we were on the island of Kithnos preparing to cross the Aegean Sea. We made your way to the island of Siros. We had been there last time we were in Greece on the sailboat. Unfortunately it was so hot we could not enjoy the city of Ermoupoli to its fullest.
Well it turned out we could not this time either. The weather was again was going to turn to strong winds from the south. We stopped at the town cay for a few hours but conditions were deteriorating and we needed to move the boat. There is an abandoned marina at the south end of the bay. There we would have protection from the south winds. We weren’t the only ones who sought refuge there. Nice thing was it was free to stay.
One review, on our online cruising guides had said that the place gets surging and water sprays in and out of the harbor. The rest were favorable and it seemed like a good spot.
We made to boys walk to town and had a nice day there. It’s about a mile away. We returned to the boat, heaving and about to slam into the dock. Luckily the fenders were doing their job. Quickly we moved the boat around to the other side of the dock before we ended up with concrete on fiberglass.
The next two days the wind blew and the water surged in and out of the marina. Once the wind finally let up we were very relieved to get out of the abandoned marina.
Off to the famous Mykonos. This was where we first saw our sailboat when we were looking for one to purchase. The old town is a tourist’s dream. Everything is white washed and the trim is blue. The town is a maze of passageways that even the boys said was fun to explore.
Our time there was short as the weather window to cross to Ikaria would only last a day. The middle of the Aegean is known for strong winds and big short seas. Not something we want to take on in unsettled weather.
Poseidon allowed us a comfortable passage and eight hours later we had arrived on the other side of the Aegean on the island of Ikaria.
