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After a bleary 5:50am arrival, it has been a very busy day. It was a beautiful day here, 28oC and not a cloud in the sky. Of course, I didn't have time to take any pictures, so you'll have to trust me on it.

I am off to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon, so will hopefully get time for a run in the morning. Promise I will put up a photo tomorrow.

Have 2 weeks of solid travelling ahead -- Hong Kong, Japan, China, and probably Korea, although I'm waiting for China's meetings to confirm before booking that.

I've been getting some lip that there are people out there (you know who you are . . ) who have actually gotten into the habit of reading this everyday, and now that there isn't daily postings, they are at a loss!

Well, I'll do my best . . not sure sitting in a plane for 12 hours constitutes a blog entry (do you really want "I had a lovely TV dinner of chewy chicken in a sauce of MSG and apricot, with a side of gluggy rice while watching another movie with Steve Carrell in it -- but wait there's more . . did I tell you every detail about the fat guy sitting next to me??") :-)

Laptop is back up, photos are off camera and up! They'll be a little all over the place, but another 45 you haven't seen!

Sorry for keeping you in suspense -- we did make it home!

Updating the blog from my mobile means that I have to have a picture (mobile updates are actually done through Flick, the photo site rather than Blogger which is the blogging site). There wasn't really much to take a photo of, so I didn't update!

Not sure that you would have wanted to see 5 hours of bus, 1 hour of taxi, 18 hours of sitting in planes and 7 hours of airports!

Anyway, Melbourne is relatively cold (7oC when we arrived!), but spring is in the air!

I'll put up a link when I upload the rest of the photos!

Our bad luck in getting off Skopelos continues, as the storm and windy weather that cancelled our ferry this morning has continued, meaning that the "big" ferry that is going nowhere near where we want to, but is our only choice, is now unable to come into the port of Skopelos.

We have now relocated to Agnotas via local bus, where the ferry is perched at the end of this small fishing town's pier. The weather has sent all types of craft in here, and it is crowded and chaotic.

The elderly Greeks are very pushy and my feet are black from them walking all over them, but we are seated on the ferry.

So, we are one step closer to getting off Skopelos, but still 2 steps from Athens, and at least 12 hours of travel ahead to get to the airport and our flight home....

Well, more adventures.

After a 530am start, our 730am ferry to Agios Constantinos was cancelled due to bad weather. It also means we miss our 2.5 hour bus from Agios Constantinos to Athens. So we are still in Skopelos.

Our only option is a 530pm ferry to Volos, which is 4 hours north of Athens (vs Agios Constantinos which is 2 hours north). It doesn't arrive in Volos until 930pm, and the next bus to Athens at 1am, arriving at 5am.

So, we've cancelled our accommodation in Athens and will now stay in Volos until tomorrow morning, where we will then take a bus to Athens, and then the airport, and then the plane rides home.....

Hopefully, we make it!

After great weather, we are starting to see autumn appear in Greece. The winds are up today, and it is a little cooler than previous days.

Greek ferries run to their own whims, and the one that we were to be on has broken down, so we now leave Skopelos @ 730 am tomorrow morning. Its a bit disappointing, but part of the reality of living on a remote Greek island! The next ferry isn't until 4pm Friday, and we are due to fly back to Melbourne on Friday night, so we must catch this one!

A lovely run this morning, and then some laundry and packing, and I'm sure, more pool and swimming!

The next 2 days will be in Athens, so there won't be much chance to do that!

The car we picked up at 8pm last night gave us freedom from the local bus, which while an experience, doesn't run very frequently.

So, we ventured down to Agnotas for dinner last night, to one of the three fish tavernas on the beach. Had a nice dinner of fresh kalamari, sardines on the grill, shrimp and a local black fish with salad and green beans.

Then we were up early this morning to head to Loutraki, where we had been told we could buy fresh fish off the boat to cook at the villa.

After a lovely breakfast in front of the fishing boats, it was clear today wasn't the day for fish! So we headed to the east coast of the island to Ag Ioannis sto Kastri (picture).

It is a lovely monastery where they believe St John lived, and was of course featured in the recent movie "Mamma Mia". The locals are very proud of the movie, and assume that you are only there to tour the film locations. We had no idea it was filmed here (found out after we booked) and don't really care.

We then drove up to a beach called Perivoli for a swim (still hot here), then Glossa for lunch.

Then another beach (Limnonari) for a swim and snooze, and finally some errands in Skopelos Town.

The island is very different than the ones in the Cyclades...very lush and covered in pine and olive trees. Very much like Vancouver Island (where I am from), except we don't have the olive trees!

Not an exciting picture today, because we've only left the villa to have dinner in Skopelos Town last night, and I didn't take the Blackberry. Am guessing you don't really want to see another shot of the pool and/or villa! :-). So you get one of the 50 olive trees on the property.

Its been a lazy day...the plan was to take motorbikes around the island, but they wouldn't rent them to us as we did not have international motorcycle licenses. ? However, we can rent a car without having international driving license....

So, we pick up the car at 8pm tonight, so will do the island touring tomorrow.

Its overcast today, and there has been a few drops of rain, but it is still warm and it hasn't stopped us hanging around the pool!

It is all about downtime here....

Sarah and Dave are recovering from busy careers in the UK and Dave and I are enjoying not having the responsibility of the boat.

Although last night for the second night in a row I woke up convinced that the villa wasn't tied properly, and had to walk outside to convince myself we weren't floating and weren't going to drift into rocks....

It is spookily quiet here....we've all commented on it. No cars, no voices of others, no noises from other properties. The rooster next door crows every morning, but that's about it. The bees buzz, occassionally you hear a dog in the distance. But little human noise, which while lovely, does take some inner city dwellers some time to get used to.

As Dave F said "its going to take a day to get used to, and then you'll never want to leave"

While you would think a sailboat is quiet, there is always the lapping of water against the hull, the squeak of the bumpers against the quay, the slight banging of a loose halyard against the mast, the rubbing of the lines against the fairlead.

Here there is only the rooster.
And some pesky wasps.

Explored the little village of Panormos y'day, and had dinner out last night. We slept in until about 11am this morning, and will laze by the pool until tonight when we'll head into Skelopos Town tonight.

Google tells me my laptop battery needs to be replaced, and well, that's not likely here, so looks like limited Blackberry pictures until we get back. Sorry!

Yesterday was on of the "unglamourous" days of the trip, that will probably be forgotten over the whole 3 weeks.

A 6am start, for a 4.5 hour motor (still no wind) to Kalamaki to return the boat, find a laundry, an internet café (we had been trying to find one for 3 days, more on why below), and some new sunglasses for me (I do not want to talk about it, but let's just say its a big ocean...)

Then, a taxi into Athens (which never arrived, and the first option provided a scooter with 2 helmets and then he saw our luggage), meaning a stressful race to meet our just meet our 2.5 hour bus ride to Agios Constantinos, and then an almost 3 hour ferry ride to Skopelos Town, with another taxi to Villa Gereki in the little town of Ponormus.

We arrived about 11pm, so couldn't see much, but awoke this morning to find ourselves in this beautiful little farming coastal village, a gorgeous Greek villa with private pool, and an amazing garden, where we picked figs for breakfast with Greek yougurt and honey, and then tomatos, basil and capsicums for a mezze platter for lunch.

There are some eggplants and zucchini still out there!

We met our friends David and Sarah who are currently living in the UK in Athens, so its nice to spend the next week or so with them!

Ah yes, we are the proud co-owners of a new development property in Port Melbourne. We will build one of the townhouses to live in, and have been negotiating on this one for some months. So, hence the internet banking!

Except for a very soft bottom on the harbour which meant we had to reset our anchor twice, Perdika was a very nice stop for our last night on the boat.

We had a nice swim, took some photos, and then went onto the quay to share "Fish for 2" (calamari, fried school shrimp, a grilled whole fish) and a Roka salad (roka, which I think is argula/rocket, tomato, olives, capers and parmesan cheese). Washed down with a Santiori white!

We always gather interest from other groups because our boat is so small and there are just 2 of us, and Predika was no different, so we ended up talking with most of the quay.

An early night, as we had an early start to get back to Kalamaki to return the boat.

One of the reasons I enjoy sailing is feeling like you are harnessing nature. Of course, when there is no wind, you really are being harnessed by it....and your saviour a noisy 18hp iron lung.....

We are now sailing in an area called the Sardonic and
Eastern Peloponnisos, which is basically south west of Athens (rather than the Cyclades). What a difference!

Most of the boats are small here, and the seas and winds are much smaller.

Last night was our second last night, as we are now dropping the boat off Friday afternoon instead of Saturday morning (we'd have to stay in Athens marina Friday night anyway so we've decided to head to the villa early).

We stayed in what the pilot guide said "was a sleepy little fishing village ignored by the Sardonic charter boats". And it was sleepy until 11
Sardonic fishing boats came in....and drank and partied until 4am....

It was another Vathy (we stayed in one on Sifnos), this time on the Methana Peninsula (mainland Greece).

Was a lovely run this morning though! And unfortunately our morning sail to Perdika (on Nisos Aigina) has turned into a motorised putter.....

Sorry for continuing bad photos....hopefully can get the laptop working today...

We did a lot of preparation for this trip, including multiple charters and sailing trips, I did a coastal navigation course and regular weekly sails to get my hours up, and we researched sailing in Greece before booking the trip.

However prepared we thought we were, it wasn't enough! There has been so many unexpected things that we have had to deal with, it is actually a fitting trip for our 10 year wedding anniversary.

For this trip has had all of the challenges, unknowns and ups and downs of a marriage. And sometimes it has just been a tough go.

And just like our marriage, what has gotten this far in the trip is each other, and the unwavering belief that we will survive this adventure!

Anyway not sure what brought that on, now where were we last time I wrote...heading to Milos to get fuel. Which, when we arrived, we found out that the rough calculation for fuel consumption was very rough, and we had more than enough fuel, and it was an unnecessary 2 hour diversion.
Anyway, we topped up and headed off in very calm seas to Hydra. As the meltemi was due to set in again today (which it did), we were keen to get out of the Cyclades ASAP.

Except for the tedium of motoring a small sailboat across a large body of water at a relevatively slow speed for 8 hours, we only had a minor skirmish with a freighter (he won), a unexpected visit by a submarine (I freaked out because as it surfaced in the distance I thought it was a marker and I couldn't find it on the charts or GPS), and some playful dolphins (apparently rare).

Then we found Idhra (Hydra's main port.

Words do not describe it well, except to say "utterly and completely mad".

It is a tiny harbour, with 100s of vessels crammed inside.

The idea is, you still do a stern-to, but you do it 3 - 4 boats deep. On each side of the 2 quays, which face each other. And ferries and local boats fit in around you. Huh?
That's what we said as we came in.

Basically, the first boats that come in drop anchors and back into the quay. When that is full, the next boats do the same thing, but they back into the boats that are already there! And they build these rows at times 5 deep! Meanwhile this is also happening on the opposite quay, so you are crossing anchors with them.

Nothing had prepared us for this... The pilot guide mentioned this as something that happens in the peak of summer, but this was a Tuesday night in September, and we hadn't seen a full quay yet.

We had no idea what to do....if you back into another boat you hit his anchor chain with your rudder. And when you drop your anchor, you are dropping it on others. And what happens when the boat behind you wants to leave? And how do you get off the boat? And how do you do this with no assistance from other boats because everyone is having dinner in town? And it is late, getting dark, you've been up since dawn and there is no other port that you can get to before midnight?

You learn very quickly, and in what became the most stressful 15 mins of the trip, we managed to squeeze ourselves between a 50.5 Benteau and a huge motor cruiser. We then walked over 7 boats to get to the shore, where we had a stiff drink.

Of course, things got really interesting in the morning. Firstly, a 20kt wind blew up from the north and directly into the harbour (not the prevailing wind and the only warning in the pilot guide was not to be on the town quay in a strong north wind!). At 6am, the fast ferries started coming in, and the combination of wind and swell meant the entire "platoon" started rocking and pitching about against each other. As we were the smallest boat, and on the outside, we were tossed closer and closer to the motor cruiser. This picture was taken 5 mins before our plans to stay another night were quashed.

The boats on the left of picture started to leave, and in what was one of the most apt remarks of the trip, David said "the platoon has lost its structural integrity". All of the remaining boats were pushed towards us by the wind and swell, and so with much excitement, and little planning we left in a rush, with many following us.

Which is disappointing, for what we saw of Idhra was very quaint and pretty. But, if we return it won't be by sailboat, but ferry!

Lots of great photos, but laptop still out of action, so you just get the trusty blackberry one!

I think it is Tuesday morning here....quiet early. We woke at dawn, and left shortly after. Not sure where we'll end up...found out that Hydra doesn't have diesel, and we have about 6 hours of fuel left.

Normally not an issue, but as Hydra is 60 nautical miles away (over 100km), and we currently have a very light wind on our nose (which for you non sailors means it isn't possible to sail), we are heading back to Adhamas on Milos to fill up with diesel, and then we'll head out and decide what to do.

Our options are another port on Serifos (about 25 Nm north) or attempting Hydra.

It gets dark @ 8pm here, so if we can get turned around before 10am, we might try that.

Anyway, the sunrises are just as nice as the sunsets! This picture looking east over Milos.

Am losing track of days I think....but that's probably a good think.

Laptop has died a hopefully temporary death....we have been using a dodgy adapter to charge it, and I think it has charged its last device....so blogging from the blackberry. For something that is taped together and a few key buttons don't work, it is proving remarkably useful!

After a sleepless night listening to "doof doof" music and drunken sailors in Admadas, we decide to ask the locals where they'd recommend a little boat and a crew of 2 go in the approaching meltemi.

They suggested Kleptiko, on the south west corner of Milos. A former haven for pirates, many ships do day tours. After David dove under the boat to unwrap one rogue rope, we headed off for a reasonably nice sail until the last few miles when we got hit with 35kt winds with no warning.

We then found this narrow, but beautiful cavern, about 6 boat lengths wide with water only 8 metres deep. The local had told us we had to anchor and the pick up a mooring ring on our stern. Which sounds quite straight forward, but was a little challenging in the gusty winds.

Fortunately we were assisted by our Swiss friends from Vathy, who were moored the next bay down, and who were touring the bay in their dinghy.

It wasn't the most restful of nights as the meltemi came gusting down, but we held well and until a Beneteau 50.5 decided to come screaming in this morning at 7am (and with me screaming at them while fending them off our starboard side in my pyjamas), we were enjoying the solitude.

The forecast is for 26 - 31 knot winds today, easing to 15 - 20 tomorrow, so we'll stay here again tonight, and then have a long (60 nautical mile) sail to Hydra. Hopefully the meltemi will keep everyone else away...there's not a lot of room in here!

The picture is of one side of the cavern we're in. You'll have to wait to see the real camera pictures to get a sense of the scale.

After putting the post below up, we were invited to "Blondie", a Beneteau 56' with 8 Swiss 30-somethings and their Slovenian skipper for a drink. Their boat is out of the shot (left of frame). We also met everyone else on the little quay. The local church (in front of us) had its name day, which must be celebrated with a Greek festival.

The flags went up, and all of the women in the village came down and prepared food all day, so we decided to stay another night and partake in the festival. It was mostly held in the church, so weren't able to see much. Only Greek Orthodox people are allowed in the church . . the Catholics (and the rest of us) have to stand outside.

Anyway, there was dancing and it looked like everyone had a great time.

We headed off to Milos this morning . . ended up in the main harbour of Adhamas. Our bad luck continues, as we attempted our first stern-to with mooring lines, and got the lead rope caught in our prop. So it looks like we will be here awhile as we sort this out.

Looks like the meltemi is settling in again anyway!

We have free internet access from the boat, so I've put up some more photos as well. You can see them by clicking on the picture.

We've finally had some good sailing, with the wind on our back both from Kythnos to Serifos (yesterday) and Serifos to Siphnos (today). The winds have been 15 - 20 kts and we are getting used to the largish seas.

This morning we went up to the top of the Hora (top of the mountain in Day 5 picture which was spectacular. We then had breakfast in the little town square at the top, and then walked down.

We then sailed down to Siphnos (only a few hours @ 30km) south, and have ended up stern-to in Vathi, on the south western corner.

As you can see....its a nice spot! Still no internet, so limited pictures.

We've have run out of internet access, so everything is being done over Blackberry. Last night was at Lavadhion on Serifos. Will update more when we find internet!

After below "incident" we rang the owner, and were told we needed to report to the Port Police. Which was fine, except the Port Police were not in Lourta, but in Merichas (about 10km away). So, armed with the boat papers, our passports, the camera and 2 gutless mopeds, we headed off to the Port Police.

Upon arriving, we met Mr George, a lovely "Commander of Port Police" who fortunately had better English then our Greek, but there was a lot lost in translation. Let's just say we know a few more words in Greek now. After spending about one hour in the Port Police office, we were told to come back at 6pm to collect the papers needed to release us from "negligence" (quite important when you are chartering someone else's boat!).

This left us with a few hours to kill, so we drove around Kythnos some more and after having to push our mopeds up some of the steeper hills (they were really gutless, and I have to admit David did most of the pushing) we found the lovely Dryopida .. a little township in the middle of Kythnos. Apparently (according to our Greek map), Kythnos has 359 churches, and only 1500 people. I think Dryopida has about 300 of them! Anyway, we had a lovely late lunch and a wander around, before returning to Merichas to find out that the other boat hadn't yet sent through the papers required.

So we had a drink on the beach, and ended up back with Mr George about 6:30pm. We were "released" (amusing story here) about 8:15pm, with our required papers.

Really, while a day of ups and downs, we met some lovely local people, and know a lot more about this little island. The meltemi has died down, and winds should be a nice 15kt tomorrow, so we're going to leave Kythnos and head ??. Probably Serifos. More of our adventure soon!

PS If you select the photos you can see more.

Well, Day Four started with a bang. Literally.

The Oceanstar 56.1 mentioned earlier ran into us at some speed as she was leaving harbour.

So we have a nice dent in the starboard, with a bent stanchion and some stretched lifelines. Ah, the open sea for me!

Anyway, in the scheme of things, it is minor "scuff" and the boat is still sail-able, so we are okay. Fortunately (?) the meltemi still was raging too much for our little boat, and we are planning on staying in Lourta anyway.

The books and other peoples photos do not do justice to the light here. So, we got up early and went for a walk to see the little town and take some photos (more to the right).

The amazing thing about the meltemi is that there isn't a cloud in the sky . . just this amazing wind that comes screaming (literally) in to the harbour and knocks us around.

So it was a good day, and interesting as we watched other boats (all larger, we are definitely the smallest boat we've seen) attempt their stern moorings.

I am starting to develop a nautical wishlist for things like a bow thruster, and anchor remotes.

Wow, how a few days changes a girl ;-)

Eager to rid ourselves of one of Athen's busiest marinas, we ignored a Beaufort Scale 6 -7 warning and set course for, well, somewhere that wasn't Athens.

Was not one of the brightest moves of our lives. The Sea was angry that day my friend.

Worse, so was the sky, with us getting the first rain that the area has received in 4 months. And, with no wet weather gear, well, let's just say it wasn't fun.

The 3 - 4 metre seas that followed saw us put on life lines and hang on for dear life, as we were dumped mercilessly by rogue waves that broke well enough to surf (and unfortunately broke most over our little boat and us). After 2 hours of this, we had more than had enough, however we still 5 hours from the nearest safe harbour. So we continued on. I'll leave it there. Again, not good memories, none of the 8.5 hours or over 100km of distance (in land terms) of it.

Then we reached the little, unknown harbour of Loutra on Kythnos (37o26".6N 24o25".7E). After attempting our first stern docking (no, we weren't stern . . apparently it is where you anchor in the middle of the marina and then drive the boat backwards in the quay to tie up to the dock). Not something we had done before . . not something we recommend trying for the first time in gale winds, in a small, full harbour. Anyway, we are now friends with everyone in the harbour, and ended up rafted on a Oceanstar 56.1m with a New Zealand Skipper named Alan, and 10 expat Australias from around the world.

Once we had made introductions and had the first drink, we looked at our little safe harbour, and are very happy. Which is good, as the Meletemi raged up more to a Beaufort 7 - 8 (the Greek Port Police will only let you out in emergency circumstances). So, safely tied up to our big, friendly sailboat, we slept relatively well.

Was a bit of a fizzer, unfortunately. Doesn't matter how many times we do this . . it never seems to work out like it does in the brochure.

Anyway, its not a happy start, and we ended up staying in the Kalamaki Marina (Alimos near Athens) that night.