On our way to Despotiko and Ios
Knotty Girl
Tanya/Roberto
Wed 4 May 2022 19:11
36:42.6N 25:17.5E After a nice quick sail as the wind was from behind blowing around 20 knots and even if the weather that day was “crap” - namely cold for the season and rainy, we arrived in Despotiko’s bay were we decided to take a nap since we basically “rolled” (we still cannot figure out how that was possible given the wind direction…) for 3 days in Sifnos! As the wind continued to blow we then remained on the boat doing all sorts of things (always something to do on a boat). The next morning as forecasted the sun was out and the wind was there but much less strong so after cleaning the boat who again was full of of this Sahara sand (which literally goes everywhere… !), we took our Dinghy and went ashore to visit the archeological site on Despotiko island. Just for you to know, the majority of excavations on Despotiko have taken place in the last 20 years and what is amazing is that these excavations are ongoing - even if it ishard to believe as we were there on a week day and no one seemed to be working there except for a few dogs… :) Yet, to be honest, one also needs to know that the site isn’t officially open to the public, which is the main reason why it’s not so famous yet and worth visiting as we were they only ones visiting this site when we did !! We then left for the island of Ios, with blue sky and a very nice & quick sail downwind (10 to 20 knots). We anchored in Mylopota bay on the island of Ios. This town is known for its night life - hence needless to say that I did not see that !! (those who know me know I am an early sleeper !). Further more, according to ancient tradition, Ios was Homer’s burial land as well as his mother’s homeland. The island’s name comes from the ancien world “ion” that means flower referring to the large amount of blossoms found here during antiquity and I must say, still today, there were so many beautiful natural flowers everywhere. We took the bus up to the “chora” = main town which we visited. It resembles a typical village from the Cyclades except in my view that it did not have any charm (yet Roberto would disagree) ! Roberto mentioned it would be wise to do some grocery shopping as in our next stop - Santorini - it would be more difficult. So we looked for mini-markets and were disappointed about what could be found in the ones in the “chora”, however, upon entering the village we saw from the bus a mini-market where we went last and where we should have been first !! We took a taxi back to the bay and as we were in our dinghy coming back to Knotty Girl, we were called by a guy on another sailboat who asked if he could hop in our dinghy to look for his dinghy that was swiped (as not well attached) by the wind about 1 hour before. It must have been his luck day at we found the dinghy between rocks further down the bay - it was a bit tricky to let the guy down from ours on his dinghy (he was socks on…) while not having our dinghy go against the rocks and while catching his rope to pull his dinghy behind ours (as his dinghy did not have an engine on) till his boat. Yet mission was accomplished and the guy and his family were grateful !     |