Hi Everyone,

 

After our extended stay in Paros we finally left the inner harbour on 28th June and headed out of the bay, clearing the Paros Rocks and Volves reef before heading south west to SIFNOS.

We had a great sail for the first 19 nautical miles in 11-14 knots, a real treat after too much motoring, the wind finally died later and we motored the remaining 9 N miles to the bay of Vathy, Sifnos.

The island is approx 10 by 3 miles and is historically famous for it’s pottery. In ancient Greece, Sifnos was a wealthy island due to its gold mines.  It is said—that in ancient times , each year the people of Sifnos would send a solid gold egg to Delphi to pay homage to the Sanctuary of Apollo.  For some reason on one year they sent only a gilded rock---- Apollo cursed them, the mines flooded and went into decline--- the island fell into ruin and the name ‘Sifnos’ was born meaning ‘empty’.

 

This story is of interest to Tony and myself as you may recall we visited the Sanctuary of Apollo when we went to Delphi. (See blog and Photos---Galaxidhi/ Delphi 6th-8th June.)

 

We arrived in Vathy and anchored in the protected bay.  Vathy is the archetypal Greek bay with crystal clear water, sandy beach,  a scattering of white washed sugar cube houses and a small quay jutting out into the sea with a small church nestled onto it.

 

It is a sleepy place---- you can hear the sound of silence.  We have been fortunate to see some lovely Greek places, often sophisticated or sometimes developed or touristy but Vathy is traditionally ‘Greek’.

We think we have found another place for ‘Shirley Valentine’ to sit on the edge of the beach by a simple taverna and drink, ‘ a glass of wine where the grape is grown’.

In the British classic 1980’s movie, Shirley Valentine leaves her mundane life and falls in love with Greece and the ‘idea of living’ again.  She takes a ferry to Mykonos and ‘thinks she has come to the far side of paradise’ and she loved it.

We are expecting the Cycladic Island of Mykonos to be beautiful, but developed and touristy--- far from the film portrayal twenty something years ago. However, on the island of Sifnos we have found Shirley’s sea which is ‘blue and as deep as forever’.

 

If you feel like watching a great feel-good, true escapist movie set in a Greek Cycladic Island-----watch Shirley Valentine and think of SIFNOS.........It’s only a ferry ride from Athens.............

 

Photos of Vathy bay, village and church.

 

Love to all

 

Tina and Tony x x x