Strong winds in he Cyclades.
Flinns
Terry/ Nicola Flinn
Mon 21 Aug 2006 09:17
Ios. We were fortunate to have another "dolphin experience" between Naxos
and Ios when a small pod of 3 bottle-nosed dolphins stayed with us for about
20 minutes, frolicking in our bow wave. We could even hear them squeaking to
each other - fascinating. We managed to get some good video footage, but our
efforts with our digital camera were pretty woeful. We arrived at the island
of Santorini on Saturday 12th August in plenty of time for Jacquie and
Andrew's arrival. The whole island is one huge collapsed volcano and getting
ashore is pretty difficult because of the steep cliffs. The main town of
Thira sits at the top of 700ft cliffs and the only way up from the harbour
is by cable car or by donkey up a steep pathway that zigzags up the hill. We
elected to moor at the only reasonable harbour at Vlikhada, but it was very
shallow, has no shops whatsoever, is terribly dusty and the water or
electricity only comes on intermittently. We hired a scooter and spent a day
exploring the island; the views over the caldera are breath-taking and the
little villages with their pristine white and blue houses are so pretty.
However, the island is a popular stop for the cruise liners and so the town
is manic with hordes of people everywhere. J & A hired a "moto" and we
gave them a guided tour on the day after their arrival.
Unfortunately they brought very strong northerly winds with them and our
gentle cruising plans were disrupted. We spent a very fraught night in the
harbour at Ios, it was completely full of boats looking for a berth and
someone tripped our anchor without our realising it. The result was that
at 11pm, in the middle of 42 knot winds we found ourselves pinned
against the harbour wall.
When we started to take damage to the wind-steering and had 2 fenders
pop, we had no option but to go back out into the dark, stormy waters.
We were fortunate to be able to tie up to the ferry jetty for a few hours
fitful sleep.
The whole harbour was so dangerous, we decided next morning to run to a
nearby bay where we sat out the 3 days of gale-force winds.
Needless to say we were still bothered by idiots who insisted in anchoring
their boats far too close in the extremely heavy conditions.
In the relative shelter of the bay we were able to get ashore and spent time
on the beautiful beach and used the local tavernas.
