Kithnos 29/05/12
Open Blue
Tim & Manfreda Penfold
Tue 29 May 2012 07:05
Again we left after breakfast bound for Kithnos, which is the island directly to the south of Kea. Not much wind, and it was bang on the nose, so we motored all the way (18 miles).
Headed into Loutra and moored up in the town quay, we chose this place because it got a good write up in our pilot book, and it was fabulous. Until that is, two very large stinkpots (motor boats) came in and moored next to us on the quay. That probably would have been OK, but the big one (78 foot) next to us kept his generator running the whole time, even all night. This annoyed all the yachties enormously, and when they complained the crew just shrugged their shoulders and blamed the captain.
This still didn't manage to ruin the place, it was lovely, with the clearest water I have seen yet. Giu and I were looking at the fish swimming past the big rocks on the breakwater when we spotted an Octopus right below us. He was about half a metre long and was checking out the sea urchins to see if he could knock any of them off the rocks. When he saw us he pretended to swim off, but came back and hid behind a ledge where he thought we couldn't see him. He also changed colour from red to grey to blend in, and at one point went all spiky. Amazing creatures.
Across the small bay from the town quay was a little beach and at one end a stream that runs from the local hot spring (there is a bath house as well, but it wasn't open yet). We all went for a swim there and were amazed by how hot the water was. Alessia was walking round some rocks which were all red and slimy from the sulphurous water, when she stepped on a smaller rock which unfortunately had 2 small sea urchins hiding in a crack. This was incredibly unlucky as there were no other urchins around the area, anyway she got 10 spikes in her foot and was understandably quite upset about it. We've managed to get the largest one out, but the other 9 very small ones are still in there. Our first aid book very helpfully says "go to hospital" to have them removed....hmmm.
This was the view from our table where we had lunch, Open Blue is the left hand mast. Stink pots can just be seen behind the fishing boats.
