Ay Ermioni, Khios, Eastern Sporades
Vasco da Gama
Ian Strathcarron
Sun 31 May 2009 15:26
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Just said goodbye to Sophie and Lanky with a heavy
heart - missing family and friends is the saddest part of our sailing life, but
every other aspect of it is glorious now that summer has arrived in the
Mediterranean. During their seven day visit we have spent six of
them sailing or motor sailing from island to island, and now find
ourselves on Khios, just ten miles from the Turkish coast. Lanky sailed
for the British sailing team while at school and has been a great help to Ian,
while Sophie has brought her elegance and beauty and innovative culinary skills
to enliven our cruise.
We sailed east from Piraeus into the Cyclades or,
in Greek, Kyklos {circle} Islands, so called because they encircle the
sacred island of Delos. Delos was believed by the ancient Greeks to
have been the birthplace of the twin gods, Apollo and Artemis and was studded
with shrines and temples, majestic houses and sanctuaries, the ruins of which
can be visited today. The islands are mainly rocky and barren, but here
and there they are dotted with pine forests or olive groves and at this
time of the year the mountain slopes are covered with herbs and wild
flowers. Sailing around them this week has been a joy, as the sky and sea are
permanently blue and a warm sun has been beating down on us.
The only rough sea we encountered was sailing
from Kea to Mykonos, when a strong northerly wind suddenly turned the sea
into a churning mass and winds of up to 26 knots drove us to our
destination. It took us more than an hour to tie up to the quay in the new
port, one mile from Mykonos town. Sophie stepped ashore and was
helped from there by two Italian yachtsmen. The three of us left on
board pulled on ropes tied around winches and slowly inched the boat
towards the quay as the wind surge occasionally died down.
We stayed there for the next 48 hours until the wind stopped howling.
Our first impression of Mykonos town was of a place
of dazzling beauty. All the houses in the Cyclades are white cubes, with
their doors and shutters painted in different shades of blue. In
Mykonos town the houses are built along a maze of winding streets, each
balcony covered with bouganvillea or vines. Sadly on our second day
Mykonos turned into hell. Two huge cruise ships, looking like floating
blocks of flats, tied up at the quay, two sailing schooners and another cruise
liner anchored in the bay and by the
afternoon we estimated that 6000 tourists crammed themselves into the narrow
streets or walked in a slow crocodile from the quay to the town, or were
ferried in a traffic jam of tour buses along the main road. Early the next
morning all the cruise ships had gone, no doubt sailing to the
next 'famous' destination, such as Santorini or Crete, leaving the
little town to catch its breath before the next cruise ship invasion. The
great thing about sailing on our own in a small sailing boat is that we can
visit the unspoilt unknown islands of quiet charm where Greek families spend
their summer holidays.
Our longest day's sailing was yesterday when we
left our anchorage on the sleepy island of Tinos at 4 am under a sky bright with
stars and arrived here in Khios where we are tied up in a delightful fishing
port. This morning we listened to the Greek Orthodox service being sung
and chanted in the church opposite. Sophie and Lanky are flying back to
Athens and London and tomorrow we head east towards Turkey. We aim to
arrive in Istanbul by the middle of June.
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