Position:  37:08.19N 25:14.41E

May 25^th

Back in Loutra as part of the general housekeeping and because many of our lines had hung around in the dirty harbor water, John used the hot tub in the boat to wash them all with washing powder - a bit like stumping grapes. Actually, you could see other boaters were fascinated as John filled the inside of the boat helm position with water! There is nothing quite like nice clean sheets and mooring lines.

We left Loutra at around 9am.
The wind was light so it was time for the whisker pole.

Drat!
Yet again it had become salted up at the catch to the mast and it would not detach. Despite doing everything to keep this catch clear of salt it always finds a way back in. Never mind it was soon freed up and now John has a devious plan to protect the catch from salt water when we travel! It’s called a plastic carrier bag!

A couple of miles out the wind picked up, we were now having a great sail for the only 30 miles east to Naousa on Paros.  What an amazing bay with lots of great anchorage. We found a good spot some distance away from any other boat. We needed to away from anyone else.

There is a little passenger ferry that takes day trippers from the little harbor at Naousa to the even littler harbor to the west of the bay. He ferries every couple of hours.

Distance and/or time is money and so the fact that we were sort along his rumb line just meant that he passed by every few hours!

We had a quiet night then along came the wind at 20 knots increasing to 30 knots over the next two days. The anchor felt much more secure than being tied up in Loutra.
The ferryboat was stuck in port. Shame.

This was the first consistent wind of this magnitude we had experienced in ‘Timeless’ and so it was good to see how the anchor performed over the two days. As a result of this experience We now have a piece of hose that is slipped over the snubber line to protect the snubber from chaffing over a long consistent blow.

There was a Greek warship anchored at the entrance to the bay (I’m surprised that Greece could afford a warship!) and we were given a display of maneuverers and helicopter landings. John fixed the whisker pole and covered it with a plastic bag.

Alas, during the normal daily check of the rigging John noticed that two of the furling guides had worn through enough to need replacing shortly.
Another purchase order into Discovery.

During a wind subsidence we took the dinghy into the lovely port of Naousa. John had previously checked in with the authorities – not the local staff seemed that interested.  This port was indeed a bit too shallow for us to berth. We had a great lunch, got some more petrol for the dinghy and of course, provisions.
Time to move on towards Turkey. We decided to head for the island of Patmos near the Turkish border 60 miles from our current position.

John had to dingy back over to the port police again to check out of the port of course.

The weather forecast had slated more wind for that particular night but subsiding to 15 knots from the west (i.e, in the right direction) tomorrow.  So we felt that a good time for us to up anchor for the 60 mile trip would be daybreak if not before.

 We set the alarm for 5am.