IOS
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Wed 13 Jun 2012 07:20
Port Ios
Thursday 7th June
We set off from Santorina just before 0600 in a calm sea. Hoisted the main
and motored up through the caldera - which was like glass with wonderful
reflections of the surrounding hills. Witnessed the sun rising to the east
while being passed by a huge cruise ship coming in to anchor of the main
town of the island. Just after 0900 as we made our way north to Ios the
engine died! No alarms it just faded and stopped. We decided it had to be
a fuel blockage so began to check each of the fuel pipes, the filters etc.
Fortunately there was a light breeze from the NW so the boat just sailed
itself with the main and kept us away from the rocks off the north coast
of Santorini. We eventually got the engine started after some 90 minutes
having changed the primary fuel filter which appeared to have a couple of
bits of black stuff on it. We think the rough crossing from Crete to
Santorini the previous day may have stirred up the large fuel tank and
also having been on a starboard tack for 12 hours it had drained across to
the smaller tank so some sludge was probably floating around!
We were very relieved to get it going again and continued north to the
island of Ios arriving in the port around 1500.
We dropped the anchor and tied back to the south quay where there were
already several boats. In retrospect we should have gone to the east quay
as we subsequently learnt there were good strong lazy lines here! We
explored briefly the small port and decided it was rather nice! The
following morning we were unhappy about the berth and decided that we
would move on however this action was necessary much sooner than we had
planned as the boat next to us dragged their anchor across our chain (and
that of 4 other boats) as they left and we had to hastily disconnect the
power cable, mooring lines etc before we ended up on the concrete
quay!Unfortunately we caught the port quarter and took a small chunk of
gel-coat off! by this time it was blowing from the north west around a 5
with stronger gusts so we decided to anchor across the bay and get
everything sorted out including taking the passarelle off (yes we had gone
shooting out with it still rigged sticking up in the air and swinging
around a bit!). We finally then moved back to the east quay and found a
strong lazy line and made fast. We are still here! (water and electricity
is provided - you get a key from the ticket office near the ferry wharf
and buy in units of 5 Euros. We have found that this will last for at
least two days as we turn it off when the sun is out and there is some
wind - using our own power systems then.)
Later that day Jason from Crystal Stream (two boats down from us) came to
say Hi - he and Kate run a dive school here and they remembered our boat
from the winter of 2010 in Alanya! They later came on board for drinks and
gave us loads of local information.
We hired a car on Saturday shared with Alan and Iban (from Marmaris)who
were also in the harbour. The island is very hilly so plenty of hairpin
bends but some stunning views. We did all the surfaced roads heading north
first to the burial site of Homer, then to the eastern side and finally to
the bay in the far south called Manganari. Approaching this was like
looking down on a turquoise haven of tranquility! We had lunch at a small
taverna and Jacky had a long swim and lie on the free sun beds.
There are regular buses to the various beaches and to the main town
(Chora) but as the Carrefour across the road is well stocked we haven't
bothered as yet to shop in the town. The only down side is a silly
galleon-styled boat that plays music until around 0230 each night not
particularly noisy but irritating as it has the same CD every night!
Apparently although the pilot book says this place buzzes at night and is
very noisy things have changed and all the night spots and dance venues
are in the main town above us and we don't hear anything from there. The
ferries are a bit bothersome in that they have no consideration for us
yachties so you do need to keep well of the quay and keep your passarelle
up. To date we have had 12 ferries on one day but usually it is more like
8! It is a popular quay for boats that come here to visit Santorini, the
crews leave the boat and go down by ferry.
As there is a strong wind expected from Friday we think we will stay here
until next week as there aren't any safer places to be near bye.