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Writer's pictureCaptain Ian

Cyclades, September 2024

Updated: Oct 10



Astros was lovely, however after 5 days there on the town quay, we were beginning to go a little stir crazy. The unlimited water supply on town quays make them great for boat and laundry washing and they provide easy access to the shop and restaurants too. However the constant parade of locals along the quayside becomes a little tiresome. Most amusing though, was the day when two young guys that had mistaken our coriander and chilly plants for something else, stopped by and asked us if we had some weed for sale. Time to move on.


Kilada

We crossed the Argolic Gulf to a very ordinary anchorage, outside the equally ordinary town of Kilada. There is however a good chance that our assessment of Kilada had been heavily swayed by the atrocious winds we had experienced on arrival (40 knots from all directions). We really didn’t give it much of a chance. We did however pay a very quick visit to the famous Franchthi Cave that is just by the anchorage. The cave is thought to have housed humans at least 38,000 years BC. Sadly, it too was rather unimpressive. Hence the lack of photos from our overnight stay in Kilada


Porto Cheli

Mother nature redeemed herself the next day by sending us a couple of friendly dolphins during our sail to Porto Cheli. Dolphins are very difficult to photograph and we seem to be getting worse at it, as our photos will attest. The town of Porto Cheli sits at the head of a large natural harbour that is safe in almost any weather. It is thus very popular amongst fellow cruisers. Some close sailing friends of ours spent an entire winter in Porto Cheli. We base ourselves here for a few days while we had a sail repaired. We also hired a car one day to do some inland touring. We drove to Nafplion, visited the Theatre of Epidaurus, and followed the coastal road back via Poros. At one point, the car said it was 47oC outside. Both car and human struggled on that day.





Nafplion

Nafplion is an important city in that it was briefly the Greek capital after the war of independence. There are two major fortifications that overlook the town and the Argolic Gulf. The old town is also quite pretty. We chose not to sail here as the town quay has a reputation for getting rough in even the slightest of Northerly breezes.

 

Epidaurus

Home to The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, which It is considered to be the most perfect ancient Greek theatre with regard to acoustics and aesthetics. It also contains the great temple of overpriced slushies. We paid homage to the god of lemon. Both expensive and bad. But in 45oC anything cold is welcomed.



Ermioni & Hydra

With the chafing on our Code 0 sail repaired (Cody as we call him) we were off sailing to the cute little town of Ermioni. We spent a few days in Ermioni, shopping for fans (the heat had become unbearable) and frequenting the brilliant little supermarket. One of those days, we caught the early ferry over to the uber popular island of Hydra. Hydra was an interesting experience. It’s really quite pretty. But unfortunately this is spoiled by the staggeringly vast numbers of visitors the island receives. By 10am we were trying to find the quickest route back to Ermioni. Hydra did provide plenty of entertainment in the form of watching amateur skippers trying to anchor/dock where there clearly wasn’t room. 




Hydra


Poros

We arrived back in Poros in time to meet Tayla and Stefan who were arriving from Athens by ferry. We were very excited to see them, catch up on their travels over the past two weeks and hear all about Tayla’s adventures while working at the Paris Olympics. We ate out at our favourite Poros restaurant, visited the famous clock tower, and hit the sack in preparation for the next 10 days sailing.


Our plan was to sail down through the Cyclade Islands, all the way to Milos, where Tayla and Stefan would catch a Ferry back to Athens and head home. Poros to The temple of Poseidon and Kea were our first stops, and all places we blogged about last year. So we didn’t bother taking any more photos. Our fourth night was at a remote beach on the Island of Kithnos. We had the anchorage more or less to ourselves and were expecting a peaceful night. Unfortunately the owners of the Taverna had other plans. With only a handful of customers, he decided to turn the music up to 11. It was so loud that we were unable to hear the movie we were watching. Fortunately it wound up by about 1am.


Serifos

After a lumpy, bumpy sail from Kithos to Serifos, we anchored in Livadi harbour. Livadi is your typical beach side tourist town with more taverna’s than people. That is of course until 8pm when people appear out of nowhere and the town becomes impossibly busy. The real attraction of Serifos though, is the Chora (hora in Greek). The chora is typically the ‘Old Town’ and in the case of the Cyclade islands, it's usually built up on a hill rather than in the port. The Chora on Serifos is spectacular. It sits high on the hill behind Livadi, has the quintessential white wash buildings that all seem to be randomly stacked on top of each other, and meandering “painted on” white stepping stone pathways. You’ve got to give it to the Greeks… Any old crappy concrete path can look a million bucks with a little white paint and some imagination. 




Milos

I’m reliably informed that Milos is the new Santorini for the Instagram set. There was definitely a more youthful presence there and the restaurants were full of young pretty things. Some of the islands best attractions can only be reached by sea, so it’s a perfect destination for us. For our first full day there, we hired a car and explored the island by car. The first thing we discovered was that the Fiat Panda is not designed with 6+ foot passengers in mind (sorry Stef). By car we visited…


Pollonia



Papafragas Caves/beach


The Milos Catacombs





Klima



Sarakiniko Beach (which we also visited by sea)



Plaka (which is the Chora)




Kleftiko Caves

On day two, we sailed around to Kleftiko caves and anchored there for the night.



Paros (as well as a day trip to Santorini) 


Sadly Tayla and Stefan left us in Milos. Having family onboard never seems long enough.

We had a great weather window, so we decided to get moving right away to our next destination, Paros (not to be confused with Poros). We had a few days to fill while in Paros as the Meltemi (northerly wind) was blowing for a few days. We caught the local bus up to Lefkes (chora) which was nice, but not special, and wandered the streets of the old town behind the port. One day, we caught the very early ferry over to nearby Santorini were we spent the day saying things like “look, that’s where we took that photo of the kids” and “Oh man! I’m so over tourists”. We did have a cracking breakfast there though… Once the Meltami died down, we sailed around to neighbouring town Naousa for a night as well.


Paros Town


Lefkes



Santorini



Naousa





Delos 

From Paros we sailed to the culturally significant island of Delos. Just off the coast of Mykonos, Delos is another one of these sights where the ancient Greeks had assembled temples to honour the mythical Greek gods. However, unlike Olympus and Delphy and even the Acropolis of Athens, Delos was also a thriving community of pirates, prostitutes, the elite and every day man. In its prime, there was no import duty on goods passing through Delos. Therefore it attracted people from all walks of life, to trade and transport their wares. There is not a great deal left of these 2000+ year ruins, however with a good guide (or an excellent audio guide in our case), there is plenty to see and be fascinated by. Most amusing was the temple of Dionysus (the Greek god of wine, fertility, madness and theatre) which is fronted by two enormous phalli. The greek gods were a wacky bunch.



Mykonos

By now we were so close to Mykonos that we would be crazy not to go. We went there fully in the knowledge that there would likely be a cruise ship in and that it would be quite busy. However nothing prepared us for the 6 (yes 6) cruise ships that had descended on Mykonos old town. It was absolute bedlam. We pushed our way through the crowds, took some photos, reminisced about how it was when we took the kids there, and then got the hell out of there.  




Tinos

From Mykonos we sailed to Tinos. We spent two nights there, but didn’t think much of the place. The town was a bit drab, our berth on the town quay was incredibly noisy as we were right next to the central roundabout in the town, and it was very rough every time a ferry arrived. Something that will always stick in our minds about Tinos is the disturbing practice of people crawling (in the literal sense) for 500 metres along the side the road from the harbour, all the way up to the church on the hill. We witnessed someone making this pilgrimage. There was a special “crawling” lane on the side of the road which we mistook for being a bike lane. No pearly gates for us I’m afraid… We couldn’t get out of Tinos quick enough.




Finikas, on the island of Siros

What a contrast to Tinos. Finikas was quiet, peaceful and well protected from the Meltemi that had blown in for the weekend. It had a cracking bakery and a reasonable supermarket. But most importantly, it had a bus service that took us into the bustling city/town of Ermoupoli. We had planned to moor in Ermoupoli rather than Finikas, however the main harbour has a reputation for being uncomfortable when the Meltemi is blowing. This reputation was confirmed when we visited by bus. Nevertheless, the town was lovely. While I was waiting out the front of a busy supermarket, a man rode up on his brand new Ducati motorcycle and proceeded to leave his keys in the ignition while he went in to do his shopping. We have seen this a lot in Greece and in many parts of Europe. It’s heartwarming to see such trust and makes me feel a bit silly when we lock our scooters. Burnt once…Sigh…





Loutra, Kithnos

Once the Meltemi abated and the sea state had sufficiently settled, we set sail for Loutra on the East side of Kithnos. It was on the West side of Kithnos where we were subjected to the loudest, most obnoxious taverna in Greece. Loutra was beautiful and remarkably peaceful given its popularity amongst sailors and charter yachts.   I wish we had come here instead on our way South. Loutra also offered a mini bus service that takes you up the hill to the island's Chora.  Like many of the Chora’s throughout the Cyclades, during the day, they are very quiet. But during the evening they buzz with energy. 


Loutra




Kithnos, Chora