Well it turned out we were comfortable enough for two more nights in
Ios. On Tuesday it was a lovely
sunny day, but the wind was quite strong.
We toyed with the idea of going out of the harbour into one of the nice
bays in the afternoon. But in the end
we decided not to and to leave on Wednesday when the weather was supposed to be
much better.
So we spent the day being tourists. We went to see a prehistoric village dating back to about
3000BC called Skarkos, near the port.
Then we walked along a footpath back up to the village. This time we wound up on the opposite
side from where we were before and were among the windmills. We had lunch in the village, which was
much quieter now that it was no longer the Swedish midsummer festival. We then went to the museum which had a
display of the items they found excavating the ancient village we went to.
Back to the boat on the bus and then off to the beach on the next
bus. We found another nice beach
with comfortable sun beds and umbrellas, again for free if you ordered a
drink. I am on the water. Speaking of water, I finally got in for
a swim. All this high wind has made
it too cold for me to want to go in the water!
We decided to have dinner out.
We wound up at a restaurant which is part of a brand new hotel directly
in front of the boat! We chose it
because they have a lobster dish and I thought this would make up for Richard
not getting his lobster on his birthday.
It turned out to be an excellent restaurant and we had a really good
meal for a change.
This morning we left port at about 8:45. The sun is shining, but there is forecast to be a good
breeze and we hope we can finally sail.
When we get out of the harbour there is a lovely breeze of about 15
knots - yes, on the nose! We have
to battle this around the island until we get on course for our next stop. At one stage we get so fed up with the
bashing into the sea that Richard decides to sail, ie tack. So we shut off the engine and head off
at 45 degrees to the wind. When we
tack back we are still just too close to the wind to sail without doing another
tack. So we motor sail for a short
time. But as we turn around the
next headland the wind is on the beam and we can finally get a sail. As we get going I come over all
sleepy. I don’t know why. But I decide to go below and have a nap. While I was asleep the wind came up
more and as I wake R is on the phone to a friend telling him that it is blowing
19 knots and we are making 7 knots in speed. When I get up to the cockpit, the wind is picking up
more. Luckily it is still on the
beam but it is gusting up to 25 knots!
So we take a reef in and speed on.
Then, just as we get to out last waypoint to go into a bay the wind just
disappears! From 17 - 25 knots it
is now 4 knots from the opposite direction. It doesn’t really matter because we are virtually at our
destination.
We go into a pretty protected bay on the island of Schinousa. The only problem is that a very large
motor yacht has anchored just where we were headed. He is so large he takes up nearly the whole anchorage. To be more on our own we head to another
end of the bay where the plotter indicates a sandy bottom for good
holding. We put the anchor down in
what looks from the surface like a sandy part. However, when Richard goes hard in reverse to set the anchor
there is a strong tug and we are pretty sure that the anchor is on a rock. We nonetheless have our lunch
here. We can’t decide what to
do. There are a few choices. So we try the first, which is to go to
the other side of the bay and see if we can find a sandy spot to anchor
in. So we move. This time when R goes hard in reverse
there is not such a strong pull and we think we might be OK. However after an hour warming up in the
sun Richard goes for a swim (I put my feet in and was so cold I gave up). He takes his snorkel and looks at the
anchor. It is lying on its side on
a rock! With any change in the
wind direction we will drag the anchor and there is no sand here, just rocks
and weed. Not a place where we can
stay for the night.
So we decide we must move again.
The choice is to go on to the next island which has a marina where we
were going to go tomorrow, or try the bit of the bay where the big motor boat
is. I don’t really want to rush to
this other island because it looks like we will have to stay there for a few
days in high winds, so the later we get there the better. So we make our way over to where the
motor boat is. This time when I
lower the anchor I can see that it is going straight into sand. Also when Richard does his strong
reversing it digs in without giving the tugs we were getting when it was on
rock. So we are happy to stay here
the night. We hope that out here
there will be no light pollution and we will get a good view of the stars!
We have dinner on board with food I bought in Ios. I am also making a cooked courgette
salad for lunches over the next few days.
I was hoping we would be meeting up with friends before the
weekend. However we have just
heard that they are weather bound and we are unlikely to meet before
Monday. Just as well that we are
in good time to get to Rhodes to meet Colin.
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