Amorgos 09/06/12
Open Blue
Tim & Manfreda Penfold
Sat 9 Jun 2012 09:09
Leaving Skinousa we had to decide where to go next, it was a toss up between Amorgos to the East and Ios to the South. Fred had read some nice things about Amorgos, so we decided to head there and check it out, but when we got out from the shelter of the island of Skinousa we found it was blowing 25-30 knots and there was a big sea. It was a tight fetch to our destination, so was going to pretty uncomfortable for 3-4 hours, so we considered turning round and going to Ios, but in the end we decided to push on and tough it out. I didn't hoist the main, just rolled out half the genoa and this was enough to have us bashing along at 5-6 knots. As we got closer to Amorgos the wind backed slightly to the North and eased, so we were on a tight reach, we rolled out all the genny and hit 8.2 knots.
As we entered the harbour at Katapola we felt glad we had stuck it out, as it was a beautiful place with very rugged landscape and already felt different to the other islands we have visited.
We ended up staying in Amorgos for 4 days and had a wonderful time exploring the Island with it's amazing cliffs and crystal clear water. While there we met a French family with 4 year old triplets who were also travelling for a year, There was an obvious language barrier between the kids, but it was good for all of them to have some company of their own ages, and eventually they began to make friends and play together. Visiting the Monastery was amazing and swimming in the crystal clear waters at the bottom of the cliffs was truly magical.
Amorgos is where much of the film 'The Big Blue' was made and as such a lot of French visit. We borrowed the DVD from our French friends and Fred and I had a movie night. It was fun to spot all the places in the movie where we had been earlier that day, but the film is very dated these days and not as good as both of us had remembered.
We could have stayed in Amorgos longer, it was definitely our favourite of the Cyclades so far, and had a wonderful 'off the beaten track' feel to it, but it was time to start heading West and I could see some strong NW winds arriving in a few days, so we wanted to head towards the Islands of Paros, Sifnos and Milos while we could.
Here are lots of pictures from our visit to the Monastery.
