Crete

April 16th Chania, Crete

We left Marmaris two and a half weeks ago and it is wonderful to be moving again. The weather has been up and down with a couple of days of fine weather in the mid 20s then a couple of days of gales. We have been lucky in that we have been in good harbours and very safe.

Simi

We cleared into Greece on the island of Simi which is quite different as its buildings are of Venetian design all built on top of each other up the steep hill sides. We climbed up the hills and enjoyed the views. The colour of the water changes from dark blue shades to those of sapphire gin. Lovely to look down upon as well as to sail on.

New Ship wreck off Knidos

We stayed in the Dodecanese islands for the next week visiting Kos, (where Hippocrates was born and is know as the father of medicine), Leros, Lipsos, and Samos. Out of the island of Kos I tried to call one of the boats that led the EMYR last year on the off chance that he might be around. Mashona answered right away and we changed course and met up with Dave and Kath in Samos at the town of Pithagorion. This is where Pythagoras came from. We had dinner with them and their crew of Gwyn and Mandy who did a great job of cooking a beautiful meal. We spent the next day visiting the town of Vathi and just sipping a few cold beverages on a warm spring day. Dinner on board Kilkea that evening and said our goodbyes as they are heading to Istanbul for the start of this years EMYR.

Pythagorio, Samos Island

We departed around 0800 under grey skies and had a good sail down to Lipso where we tied to the pier and let the wind blow itself out as we wandered around the small town. Everything is still pretty much shut down as things don't open up until after Easter which is April 27th this year.

Naxos

Next morning we sailed down to the island of Amorgos in the Cyclades and stayed at Katapola which again is very small and not much is open. There are very few people on this island and it is very mountainous so we decided to push on the next morning. We were planning to stop at Ios and possibly visit with Fionna but the winds dictated that we either stay where we were or move northwards to Naxos. We were there last year with Nevan, Sarah and Elise and had a great time driving all over the island. Nevan did the driving! We arrived there and tied up almost the same place as last year and went out for a good fish dinner. This was a restaurant which the owner was so nice to us last year but we never managed to eat there. So we made up for it this time. We spent two days just wandering the narrow alleys and streets of the old quarter and just enjoyed ourselves.

Folegandros

We had a weather window for a couple of days so headed off to Folegandros for a short over night where we helped, or maybe hindered, a fisherman with his nets. Then it was up at 0500 for an 90 mile crossing to Crete. We arrived here after spending a day of good sailing to start with then calm winds with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s, around 1700. We anchored up in the town of Khania, with the help of Martin and Jannet on a British power boat, and then had a dinner out with them at a local outdoors restaurant. It was like summer is starting.

The next morning the winds picked up to gale force again and are continuing thru today which is our grandson Eamons third birthday. We miss not being home to celebrate but will try to call him on skype this evening. It was a good move to get over here when we did as sailing around in 40k winds is ok but it is a lot of work and not that pleasant. Kahania is a bigger town than we have been to in a long time with lots of shops, tavernas, outside cafes and lots of people out and about. It is Venetian in character. We will stay for a few more days, rent a car and drive to Iraklion, visit Knosses and just enjoy the countryside. Behind us here are snow capped mountains which makes us feel at home.

Khania, Crete

From here we plan to head for Corfu with a bunch of stops along the way before entering into Croatia.