We started Season 2022 on Knotty Girl !!
Knotty Girl
Tanya/Roberto
Sun 1 May 2022 18:19
36:55.7N 24:43.7E Better late than never - but late for very good reasons since we bought a new house and had (well Roberto particularly) to install all sorts of things in the new house - such as irrigating system, a couple of plants in the garden, lights all over the house, alarm system, etc. but while it was sad to leave our new house which we both love, we were very pleased to get onboard Knotty Girl in Marina Zea (which Knotty Girl is by now familiar with since we have been there a couple of time) in Athens, Greece on 24th April. As usual a couple of things needed to be done before departing (but not so many as Roberto went in March with John - a friend by now but the guy who is fixing Discovery boats and now others on its own but who used to work for Discovery when we first bought Knotty Girl - to put Knotty Girl on the water from the Yard in Kilada and to sail it to Marina Zea). On April 27th early afternoon we left Marina Zea to both sail and motor (hic) till Cape Sounion - or as some used to call it “cape of Athens” which is a beautiful bay on the coast from which you see (and can visit it - which we did already on another occasion) the well kept remains of the “Temple of Poseidon” . It seems that the earliest literary reference to Sounion is in Homer’s poem the Odyssey, probably composed in the 8th century BC. This Odyssey recounts the mythical tribulations suffered by Greek hero Odysseus in a gruelling 10-year sea-voyage to return to his native island, Ithaca in the Ionian sea, from the sack of Troy. This ordeal was supposedly inflicted upon him by Poseidon, to whom the temple at Sounion was dedicated. We spent the night there with very few other boats - a privilege of the fact that we are early in the season. The next day we left early in other to be able to motor upwind to Lavrion get some diesel (no comments on the Diesel price…) before sailing (yippee) in good conditions, namely with the wind coming from the back at 15-20 knots - to the South East of the island of Serifos. We anchored in a beautiful bay with a nice beach from which a few few people were swimming (which I thought they were crazy before I realised that the sea temperature is 19°C - so not to crazy, just reckless ! We also realised that in the beautiful spot there was 0 internet / phone connection which means that Roberto was in trouble since he had a business call scheduled later that day. Yet as we are always resourceful, we decided to take our Dinghy (“mini”) to the next bay were we know there were some hotels and hence potentially a signal - so we went and surely enough in the next bay the connection was perfect, which means Roberto could take his call from “mini” :) The next morning since we had suggested to our friends Julia & Julian to meet up in a bay on “Sifnos Island” we woke up early - in the hopes that the wind which was forecasted quite strong would not yet be up - to realise the wind was up (36 knots) yet that we had to go. I was a bit anxious but Roberto reassured me saying that we were going to sail downwind and that out of the bay the wind would probably be less strong and of course (or almost of course !) he was right. Nevertheless the wind was there with gusts up to 30 knots so we decided to only go with our JIB and with the JIB only we went at 7 knots - so it was great ! We arrived safely in Platys Gialos bay on Sifnos were our friends Julia & Julian were waiting for us on their boat “Lalaria” (a well kept Hallberg Rassy 55) which we saw for the first time ! We were kindly invited for dinner onboard and had a wonderful time visiting their new acquisition and catching up with them. The next day, since the wind was still strong we decided to rent a car and visit some parts of the island. We offered to pick Julia (Julian wanted to stay aboard given the weather conditions) up with our dinghy and go the the small harbour to leave it and take the car we rented. I surely underestimated the wind strength and did not dress appropriately as by the time we arrived in the small harbour it was as if I had taken another shower :) - yet with the wind and the material of our sailing cloth I dried relatively quickly but regretted not having put on my wet suit :) We stopped for coffee in “Kastro” the “old” capital of the island (EAST) and a picturesque village on top of a hill. The village's name comes from the fortress-like 'castle' formed by its buildings. We then drove up to Cherronissos (NORTH) were we had lunch in a restaurant in a magnificent private (as there was basically no one except us !) bay. A totally “hors du temps” moment ! We then drove to visit the Mycenaeans acropolis to find out that this was the only week-end of the whole year were they were closed !! We then went back to our respective boats before meeting up again with them on their boat for a pasta dinner. The next day, our friends picked us up and we went for a walk along the coast to visit the Monastery of Chrisopigi build on a peninsula. A very beautiful location of a Monastery !! We then walked along the coast to find a nice small restaurant on a beach were we had drinks before walking back . Tonight we meet up again to go ashore to dine in “Omega3” restaurant situated on the beach. I look forward to this as it says that “it is a fish restaurant with a twist: instead of just cooking up whole fish and large filets, with olive oil and lemon (as is the Greek way), Omega 3 borrows techniques from around the world.” - so I am curious… And tomorrow we leave for…      |