36 43.339N 025 16.312E Ios

Pipedream
Fri 15 Oct 2010 17:18
Left Paros for Ios, the birth place and where Homer is said to be buried... he was buried at sea and they say he washed up on shore, (good for the tourist trade! maybe Marge Hutton can take a lead from this and find the remains of Henry Clay and erect a tomb or something) sailing down the channel between Paros and Nexos in a haze that lowered visibility to about 2 miles. Checked the weather a few times before we left and it was supposed to be 10 knot of wind about half way down the channel we were motor sailing into 37 kts on our nose. Waves started to build until it was down right rough. Chuck and I tied in the first reef into the main and then the third. We were making about 2.5 kts over the ground and I was looking for a close port to make for but ended up pushing on to Ios was our best bet. We arrived along with the BIG fast ferry comming up the channel together. They passed us at about three boat lengths as I turned to head into his wake.

We dropped anchor and backed into the concrete bulkhead along with a German boat and after tying up were told by the Port Police to move because they needed to work on the dock. After a discussion with the work men they let us stay. We signed in with them later and they were more than friendly and apologized for the confusion. We decided to look around town today, took on fuel from the mobile tanker, and bought some groceries.

Found a great little place last night for dinner, probably the best Greek meal yet. Lamb kabobs and a great salad. I think we are going back there tonight. We went into town for lunch and met an expat woman and her two year old son from St. Louis who had lived in Ios for over four years. She lined us up for lunch places and the full tour of town. She recommended the lemon chicken at a place called the Nest. Similar to my recipe but they put mustard in the lemon sauce and only oregano and garlic. The potatoes are cut up in large pieces and slow roasted and then added to the chicken. Super for about 8 Euros

We investigated the ferry service to Santerini, which the books say is the lost city of Atlantis, our next planned destination. The three island complex is actually the left overs of a huge volcano that erupted long ago. An entire city ,the Greek Pompeii was discovered only a hundred years ago. Bill Stellin reported that the marina was not as bad as everyone was suggesting. We have already planned the remainder of the trip and it is a matter of spending only 5 hours at Santurin if we ferry in verses spending two or three days to move Pipedream the 24 miles down there and then get set up to explore the place. If it looks as good as it does in the books I'll come back through with the boat on my way out of the islands and stay for a few days. There is always the weather factor around here.