We had to wait a week for a weather window to make the crossing back to mainland Greece via the island of Kithera – 2 or 3 days of reasonable conditions were needed, and that doesn’t seem to be common this time of year.  Day 1 was fab – lots of great sailing in strongish winds coming at us over the side of the boat.  She goes best this way and we made great progress, averaging 7 knots during the 10 hrs of sailing in rough seas towards the end, plus some occasional sunshine. Our destination was Diakhofti harbour, the island’s uninspiring ferry port - just a place to rest our weary bodies really.  We moored alongside huge rubber tyres used by the ferries, so got the boat and our fenders filthy. It was a pity our schedule and the miserable weather meant we didn’t linger to explore Kithera at all as it has a certain fame as the “holy grail” for island hoppers and is known as the “end of the line” because of its isolation.

As we approached we saw this sight, which should have warned us that conditions around here are not always as expected – as we found out the following day!