FROM METHONI TO KATAKOLON, TO ZAKHINTOS, TO CROTONE (winter port).

The sail arrived a bit after sunset and I went to pick it up at the beach, where the taxi driver/hotel owner was waiting for me. A very nice guy that kept up with his word and went alone to Kalamata to pick up the sail, as soon as the sailmaker told him it was ready.

The repair looked solid and the sailmaker also reinforced the leech and the luff. It looked well made and I will strongly recommend Michael for the ones who have a problem with sails in the region (+30 693 237 8737). The next day, before sunrise (for not having wind), we mounted the jib on the furler, had a good breakfast, and sailed north along the Greek coast. The place where we would stay for the night depending on the wind we would get.

And it was not bad, a bit on the nose (we had to do some tacking), weak at the beginning, stronger in the afternoon. About one hour before we left a Pogo 12.50 sailed away, and I was interested in comparing its performance with my boat, a more traditional cruiser racer, a Comet 41s.

The sea was almost flat, an advantage for the Pogo, which loses a lot more speed with wave drag. The Pogo had also a big genoa while I had a small jib. In fact, my boat comes standard with a big genoa but I had ripped it off last year (an 8-year-old sail) and decided that this year (to save money) I would sail with the small jib, so, in the weak wind, another advantage for the Pogo.

Even so, I would say I was gaining on the Pogo. Difficult to say because the wind angles at which the Pogo and my boat perform better going upwind are very different, with my boat going much closer to the wind. When the wind freshened up I took two reefs on the main, not because I needed (I needed only one) but to have a more comfortable motion for my wife, that was a bit indisposed.

So, again, difficult to compare but I would say that not surprisingly the Pogo performed better with stronger winds (and small waves), and even if on a much more open course could compensate with more speed the worse wind angle. 

In the end, I would say that both boats arrived at Katakolon separated by an hour, doing about the same time, but taking very different courses. I would have liked to extend the comparison to the next day, upwind, in stronger conditions (more wind and bigger waves), but it was not possible.

We left Katakolon at about 9.00 in the morning in direction of Zakinthos or Cephalonia, depending on what the wind allowed us to do. The Pogo had already set sail (about one hour earlier) and the wind was well on the nose. We sailed slowly, tacking on a changing weak wind till midday, and then the wind started to pick up, and some hours later it was unexpectedly strong, increasing the size of the waves.

Good, I thought, now I catch the Pogo. The wind was blowing at 25kt, more on the gusts, and the boat was going well, close to the wind, with two reefs on the main and a slightly furled jib. We were doing between 6.5 and 7.5 knots sailing hard against the waves when the jib ripped off again. Not in the same place, but also on the bottom of the sail, further aft. I furled the jib and sailed to Zakinthos port (we were not far) under reefed main alone, doing over 5 knots.

I was quite demoralized. I was thinking of making the passage to Italy the next day, or the day after, getting medium to strong wind (in some places 30 knots), reaching all the way. But not with a sail in bad shape. I would have to repair the sail myself and we would have to avoid strong winds.

I was in need of a good meal accompanied by good wine, so instead of trying to find a place in the port (that seemed full), with all the work that implied, we preferred to stay on anchor between the beach and the port walls, protected from the wind, and have that meal as soon as possible. 

Isabel was perfect, preparing pork steaks served with a mustard/cranberry sauce and rice, all accompanied by an excellent red wine from Limnos, the one that is said to be Aristotle's preferred one.

I felt much better after. The next day, very early, we took the sail down, had breakfast and went to Zakinthos port. No trouble in finding a place, with a sailor directing me to a place and helping me to moor the boat. When I asked if I could pay him he said yes, and for my boat, water and electricity, for a day, he asked me 40€.

40€ without having WC or shower? What the hell, I protested saying that it was everywhere much cheaper than that. The guy smiled and said that if I had the trouble of paying in the maritime authority office, 1km away on the other side of the port, it would be less and I cut a deal with him for water and electricity, for 10 euros. In the end, I stayed 3 days, did not pay more for water and electricity and I paid 19,5 € for the three days.

After filling the water tank and connecting the electricity, we ate some snacks and went for a short nap. Later, after starting mending the sail, we went to dinner in Zakinthos.

I cannot say I like the town, kind of restaurant after restaurant and I wonder where all that people come from: Zakinthos beach is ugly and the town has nothing particularly agreeable. But the fact is that the town was full of people. 

The restaurant that Isabel chose on google maps according to the stars, was very expensive and not a very good one, the kind that gives you small portions at outrageous prices.

The next day, after many hours of work, we finished mending the sail, using the material from a Doyle sail repair kit, reinforced with American tape, complete with three rows of stitches, one along each side and a central one, in zig-zag uniting the two ripped parts. It did not look nice but I hoped it was strong enough.

On the afternoon of that day the wind started to blow, not allowing us to mount the sail, so we stayed one more day, also taking into consideration the better wind window for the passage. We wanted wind but it could not be strong, and as many times on the Med, in the next days, there was either no wind or strong wind. After considering all options we set sail to the other side of the island, to Porto Keri, where we would try to put the sail in the furler (the wind was supposed to die at sunset), then we would sleep some hours and in the night we would start the passage to Italy, Crotone, a 200nm passage. Starting at night was the only way to arrive at Crotone in the daytime.

And, with the exception of losing about half an hour to untangle the chain from rocks, it went like clockwork: enough wind to sail to Porto Keri only with the main, doing between 5 and 6 knots, at sunset the wind became weak allowing us to put the sail up without trouble, and at 3 in the morning we raised the anchor and sailed to Crotone, motoring because there was no wind.

At sunrise I was already doing motor sailing and a short time after we were sailing at 4 knots, and kept sailing all day, sometimes at 3,5 sometimes at 5,0 knots but rarely more than that. Well, we were not in a hurry because, knowing the wind would be very weak, I had considered for the passage an average speed of 5 knots, to arrive in the afternoon of the next day at Crotone.

Another calm night with the moon shining and illuminating the sea, with full sail doing mostly motor sailing. With the first light the wind came stronger and we sailed all day long, first slowly then, after mid-day, faster and faster with the wind increasing progressively to +20 knots and the boat increasing speed to 6,7,8 and near the Italian coast, over 8kts, already with two reefs in the main.

We arrived at Crotone at 5 in the afternoon, I phoned Elio (the owner of the shipyard) to know if he could anticipate the day for taking the boat out of the water. It was booked for Saturday 10 September, we were arriving on 8 September and it was perfect if Alma could be taken out of the water on the 9th, Friday.

And as usual, all is possible with Elio, and the boat would be taken out of the water Friday, at 11 in the morning. We took shelter under the big port wall, northside, anchoring in sand in 5m water. Good anchorage even if not a nice one.

Now we are already at home, in Portugal. It took about 4 days to prepare the boat for winter then we rented a car and drove to Rome, sleeping on the way.  We left late on the afternoon of 13 September to drive some hours along  Italy's boot, following the slow route along the coast. We could have gone faster by the E90 but Isabel had by mistake put us on the GPS as going to Rome on foot, so the machine chose the nicest, slower roads.

I found it strange to be driving on small roads, but Isabel was quite sure that we were on the right track, even if she said to me that we would arrive in Rome in 4 days and a half (but the GPS was surely wrong because we were making km fast). Well, if that was not for her mistake we would not have enjoyed a beautiful scenario and have not known all those small towns along the coast.

But when the night fell it was no fun anymore and I decided that I had enough driving, and looked for a place to sleep. I would like to tell you where it was but I have no idea. 

We found on booking.com a room in a nearby house in the country, made the booking and went looking for it. 

Not easy to find because nothing in the house told us that it was a house that rented rooms, but Isabel asked somebody in the next house and it turned out to be the son of the woman that rented the house.

 In no time we were in a room, with the car inside the property. It cost 36 Euros and the room was not bad, clean, with WC, AC, refrigerator and all.

The next day we went all the way by highway, so no story, no fun, but we decided that instead of sleeping in a hotel near the airport, we would sleep in some nice place some km away from Ciampino (the 2nd Rome airport), and it turned out we found a very nice place, one that surely we will use again, at about 36km in the countryside. 

Nice country house, nice people, nice restaurants around. This one I know where it is, in Labico, it is called "Il Sottosopra", the price is 80€ and it includes breakfast. 

We paid less because we only booked in the afternoon, the same day (a trick to pay less on booking.com). There are lots of options around so if it is not at the weekend you could do the same. We had dinner at a local restaurant, not bad (excellent house wine), but not good enough for a recommendation.

Yes, this time we were in a bit of a hurry to come back home. It turned out that I had ordered a motorcycle and the delivery was booked for 15 September. Due to all the problems with the sail we could not make it in time, but two days later we were in Fundão, a Portuguese city in the mountains, to take possession of a Moto Guzzi V85TT.... and on the same day we crossed Serra da Estrela (biggest Sierra in Portugal) by mountain roads, me on the new bike and Isabel driving a sports car, a MR2.

Slept near Seia, in a rented house, and the next day we came home by mountain roads: Coja, Arganil, Gois, Lousã, Miranda do Corvo, always using secondary roads. All in all 400kms of driving pleasure. I really missed riding a motorcycle. Well, not anymore and it seems I am not yet too old to ride the bike because I arrived not too tired and without pains in odd places. Nice to know that I am not that old LOL!

Note: photos from all sailing season

DIAKOFTI (KITHYRA) TO PORTO KAGIO, THEN KORONI BEACH AND METHONI

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Methoni

Alma's log, 1 September 2022

We are in Methoni, and we have been here for the last 3 days, a forced stop due to a ripped jib, and the need to repair it before crossing to Italy.

                                                                                    Methoni

Well, there are many places worse than Methoni to be in a forced stop, in fact we love Methoni with its huge Venetian fortress, laid back tourism and excellent, not expensive restaurants. In fact we would recommend the place to the ones that would like to have a holiday in a quiet, beautiful, non expensive place. 

You can also rent a small motorboat and sail around, exploring the nearby islands.

                                                                                   Methoni

There are some small hotels and there is one whose owner is a very nice guy. He works also as taxi-driver and today he went to Kalamata, early in the morning with Isabel to take the sail to a sail loft for repairing.

It is going to be ready today at about 8 pm and when he realized that Isabel would have to be there all day waiting, he offered to take care of it alone. Isabel was back in the boat before mid-day. He has the sail-maker's telephone number and will be there for picking the sail when the job is finished, delivering it at the beach.

                                                                                   Methoni

Well, it cost the same as any other taxi, 70 euros for each 70km ride (Methoni Kalamata and back). 140 euros is expensive, if compared with the sail repair (250 euros) but we could not find a car for rent many miles around. The only one that we could find was in Costa Navarino, 26km way for 120 euros a day (all cheaper smaller cars were rented), plus 60 euros for delivering the car here.

We still thought in doing it by bus, but the weather is unstable, the boat is anchored and I want to be in it or nearby, that means Isabel would be travelling alone with a huge bag, the bus stop here is 750 meters away from the beach (we would have to carry the bag there) and Isabel would have to pick a taxi from the train station to the sail-loft and vice-versa plus we would have to carry the bag from the bus station in Methoni to the beach….at night.

Beach, south of Koroni

Maybe if we were younger, but it is just too much work and on top of it the bus to Kalamata was at 6.25 am and the last bus to Methoni was at 7.15 pm. Probably the sail was not ready in time to catch it and that would mean a taxi from Kalamata to Methoni…if Isabel could find one.

But apart the sail transport everything went extraordinarily well. I contacted the Naval club of nearby Pilos and a very helpfully guy pointed me to Michael in Kalamata (0030 6932378737) that in two days repaired the sail. Great guys!

                                                                                                       Porto Kagio

But let’s get back to where I left on the last post, to Milos and the thunderstorms. We were in Agios Dimitrios cove (Milos) intending to make a passage to the continent. We got up at 5 in the morning on a black night illuminated by lightening, but after checking with the weather radar we could see that the thunderstorm was already to east of our position. There was another one on the route but it should get out of our way before we reach there.

We decided to sail away and before the sun rise we were already motoring and motoring we went almost all the day, doing motorsailing. From the three different weather forecasts I have told about on the last post, the one that was right was the one that announced less wind, 4 to 6kt, no more.

                                                                                   Porto Kagio

In fact we could sail, but doing only 3,5kt knots and that was no good for the 82nm we had to do to reach the continent, meaning that we would arrive late at night. We had to do motor-sailing, with the engine doing 1500rpm, for doing 5 knots or a bit over to be sure that we arrived with day light.

Not all was bad, the forecast gave 3 hours of raining and the rain never showed up, the sea was flat and the day beautiful.

Due to the direction of next day's wind we decided to go for the east coast of Kithyra instead of Elefonisos. It would be a better place for sailing to Porto Kagio, with a better wind angle. From there maybe we could make it all sailing hard close to the wind. From Elefonisos we would have to go tacking against the wind.

                                                                                   Porto Kagio

We arrived at Diakofti, on the east coast of Kithyra, at 7 in the afternoon. Diakofti is a big and very sheltered anchorage but unexpectedly we had some trouble to set the anchor. The anchorage is huge and on the setting sun all bottom looked like to be sand, or sand with small sea weed, but it was not the case as I found out at the second try, with the anchor not being able to set.

In fact there is some sand but most of the bottom is covered by a flat yellowish rock that has on top some sand and sea weed. You have to look for white sand, and there is some that we could find after knowing what we were looking for (more details on anchorages, at the bottom).

                                                                                   Porto Kagio

Apart from that it was a very quiet night with no rolling and almost no wind.

Next day we had a nice day sailing to Porto Kagio, always as close as we could get to the wind, even if the second part of the journey was too muscled for Isabel. With jib and a second reef on the main we were going fast on a bumpy road, over waves  about 1 meter.

Porto Kagio is another excellent anchorage, an old pirate nest, with sand and weed on the bottom, with good to reasonable holding, but very deep in the middle of the bay. It is a very popular anchorage and it tends to be full.

Ripped jib

I knew that those weldings needed to be remade, and probably all the forward balcony reinforced, but I thought it would resist till Crotone. The problem is that the forward sail is lower than the balcony and when hard against the wind it goes inside the balcony and outside if I open a bit.

That makes for a lot of lateral big forces on the balcony, and not always the sea conditions allows to go forward to put the sail inside or outside the balcony. The result, after 14 years of use, a broken balcony…and the other one will not last much longer.

We arrived at Porto Kagio at 7 pm (we sailed from Kithyra at mid-day having waited for the wind) but with all the work to remove the balcony (that had the port position light attached) and to think about and mount a system to substitute it, using what we had at hand, the night fell and with all the stress I was really tired. Fortunately we had a very good night, with no wind and no rolling and the next day, well rested, we sailed away at 9.30, towards Koroni with head winds.

We had always wind till Koroni even if we had to tack several times, but it was nice sailing with one metre waves and only  the last part of the voyage  was a bit too hard for Isabel's taste. It was not very different than the previous day, with the wind becoming stronger in the afternoon, but with stronger gusts. We sailed Alma first with full sail and then with a full jib and second reef on the main.

Just near Koroni beach the wind veered dead ahead and we took the opportunity to take the sails out and made the last two or three miles motoring, charging the batteries. For the night it was forecast some wind and we preferred to take it on the beach than in front of Koroni, where the bottom has sand and mud but also lots of rocks.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Diakofti (Kityra)

Near the beach the wind increased even further, due to the high coastline and we could see that an anchored cat had plenty of wind. Further away to the south, one or two miles away, along the huge beach, it looked like to be less windy and I could see half a dozen of small boats there, obviously the place chosen for locals to have boats in moorings. I decided to go there and see for myself and bingo, 1/3 of the wind that we were getting where the anchorage is marked on the map and in Navily.

Beach south of Koroni

We anchored there, in sand, on a large flat platform that had between 4.5 and 4 meters, just behind the mooring boats. With 30 meters chain and our reinforced rode system we would be set for the night, that turned out to be lot less windy than previewed, at least in that place. No roll also. We will be clients of that anchorage.

At 10 we set sail from Koroni towards Methoni. We waited for the wind to sail out. Perhaps 10 knots of wind on the stern that allowed us to go over 5 knots, but when we turned cape Akritas all changed, the direction and the strength of the wind.

                                                                                                            Methoni

Seeing at distance the white caps and waves I reefed the boat, maintaining full jib and main on the second reef, but I was not expecting the wind intensity that became a head wind towards the direction of Methoni. The wind was blowing 30kts, maybe more in the gusts and I was clearly overcanvassed.

Because Methoni was not far away and it was easier I reefed the jib instead of running a 3rd reef on the main. It worked, we were sailing fast (6.5kt) and very near the wind. The other boat that was sailing nearby, an over 50ft classic yacht, was not going faster and pointed at least more 15 degrees out of the wind.

                                                                                                            Methoni

I was having fun, with waves of over 1m, sailing on a heeled but responsive sailboat, but I should have taken into consideration that, contrary to the main, the jib was an old sail and that because the forward car was not designed for a reefed jib, even all forward, for having a decent and needed pressure on the leech line the foot of the sail was submitted to a huge pressure, pressure that was just too much for the old sail that ripped by the foot.

                                                                                                            Methoni

Bad luck also because when that happened we had already sailed the rough patch, the tack to open seas, and where already on the other tack heading almost to Methoni in almost flat waters, under the protection of the two islands that stay out of the coast.

And that was it, the problem that made us stop in Methoni, that I sincerely never thought that could be solved so rapidly. Last time this happened I waited for more than a week in Preveza for the sails to be mended.

I am waiting for the sail and if all goes as planned we will be sailing before sunrise, unfortunately without wind, slowly motoring and motorsailing for 7 or 8 hours and will be only sailing for two hours or so. We surely can make it to KataKolon, maybe to Zakinthos.

                                                                                                           Methoni

I hate it but I need to recover the time lost and I cannot, as usual, sail waiting for the wind. Besides we are on the Ionian where much of the time there is no wind in the night or morning and where it only picks up in the afternoon, becoming moderate to strong.

That’s what makes many cruisers love the Ionian and that’s why I am not very fond of it, preferring by far the Aegean where you have wind all day and sometimes all night. Sometimes too much, but at least you can sail and sailing is what a sailingboat is about.

                                                                                                           Methoni

Anchorages: we love the one in Methoni (continent), the bottom goes very slowly down and between 5 and 8 meters there are hundreds of meters, meaning a large number of boats can anchor there. The bottom is sand, with very good holding but when the wind is strong, like this time, there is some swell and just a bit of rolling, nothing that matters much to us. We just love Methoni.

Diakofti in the east coast of Kithyra has a big natural protection, from almost all sides but the bottom is a bit tricky and what seems sand is  flat rock. You have to look for the white (not yellow) stuff. You can find it near the second beach (low for big drafts) or faraway from there in the alignment of the outer ferry pontoon, but far away near the coast (150m). There you can find lots of sand that allows for a good holding.

                                                                                                               Methoni

Porto Kagio is a classic and a very popular anchorage, very often crowded. Kind of closed cove, used in old days by pirates, it is very deep at the center but near the beach and along the shores the depth for anchoring can be as small as 6 meters.

The holding depends on the place you lay the anchor, there is sand but if it is crowded and you have to anchor in 10 meters, you will get weed and the holding can be unreliable ( I have dragged there in those conditions). Beautiful place but often with strong gusts.

The beach south of Koroni (near the small boats in moorings) was surprisingly good, no katabatic wind and a big sand plateau between 4 and 5 meters. The landscape is nice but apart some hotels no place to enjoy a meal.

FROM PAROS TO KIMOLOS AND MILOS

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Kimolos - Kalanitsi

Alma's Log August 25, 2022:

               Kimolos - Kalanitsi

We are still in the Cyclades, in Milos. Well, we had more days with calm weather than what the weather prevision indicated, but not all is as well as it seems. We want to go back to the continent. We are leaving Alma in Crotone in the south of Italy and we want to leave Greece before September not to pay the Greek tax for the month of September (around 100 euros) but are experiencing some difficulties.

The meltemi that supposedly would reach Milos did not show up, the winds for sailing to the continent are weak, variable or even nonexistent and even a boat that sails so well with weak winds cannot sail without wind or with winds lower than 4kts.

I mean if it was a 15 mile jump it would not be a problem (we would be making between 2.5 and 4 kt) but we are talking about an 80nm passage (to the Elefonisos Island), there is no moon and the weather is very unstable with the possibility of thunderstorms. We would not make it during day time and would need to use the engine for a considerable period of time. Two days ago, looking at the wind forecast it looked like we could make it in 4 to 8kts, wind if we leave Milos (Adamas) very early and we tried.

Milos - Adamas

We got up at 5 in the morning in the middle of a big thunderstorm, winds blowing over 20kt and pouring rain. Well that was not previewed, the thunderstorm was supposed to pass well north of Milos, but a check on the windy weather radar showed that the heavier of it was over Milos.

We waited for hours for the rain to subside and the thunderstorm to pass. The thunderstorm went away but it kept raining and we decided to postpone the passage. But when we looked at the weather forecast it was very frustrating; till the end of the month there was not a single day with good wind for the passage. Heavy blue (no wind) was the dominant color on the windy forecast between Milos and the Continent.

Milos - Adamas

After studying all possibilities it seems that the best one is tomorrow, but we will have to sail away from Milos at about 3 in the morning not to miss the weak wind. Well, it will have to do even if we are going to catch 3 or 4 hours of rain. We will see how it comes. The weather continues very unstable with the sky full of clouds, with fronts passing and bringing some wind. 

For more than a month I have being saying the weather looks like September, and now it looks like the last 15 days of September, with rain and thunderstorms everywhere. This summer has been an atypical one in the Med, with strong winds, big storms and many boats in trouble, many boats lost. We have been lucky but we don't want to stretch our luck and like many others will finish the season slightly sooner than what is usual.

Agius Dimitrius

Changing subject and talking about fun and nice cruising: the sailing from Paros to Kimolos was very nice, Isabel style, gliding in flat see with little wind making between 4.5 and 6.5 kt. Kind of enjoying life in a sailboat, reading and surfing the net (amazing how far you can get wi-fi in between islands).

In a hot summer day with weak wind, going to windward is much better than staying at anchor. Too hot at anchor, perfect with the refreshing wind the boat is making. 

Agius Dimitrius

It was so good that we decided not to go to Sifnos (nearer) and continue do Kimolos or Milos. The wind finished in Kimolos, so Kimolos it was. We stayed on a nice anchorage, Kalamitsi, in front of the beach, on 5m of good sand. 

Beautiful all around landscape, but after having being on that anchorage several times let me tell you that it is a "wind maker". There you have always a lot of wind even when outside there is little wind. 

On the other side of Agius Dimitrius

In the morning, gusting well over 20kn, Isabel wanted to stay. I told her that the wind was katabatic wind and that outside there would be no wind. I had to compromise and sailed out only with the jib. Half an hour later she was convinced and I was raising all sail. We went slowly but always sailing till Adamas, inside the huge central bay that almost divides Milos in two.

It was a bit windy and we chose to anchor well far away from the coast where the wind was less strong. Adamas is just a great anchorage, because far away from the coast (maybe 500m) the bottom is at only 7.0 meters, being almost flat toward the coast. Consider to anchor out if the wind is strong.

It has a great anchorage but a bad public port, with water and electricity, not expensive but where the ferry wash puts the boats rolling in such a way that is not uncommon the masts banging against each other, and I have seen many stanchion bent. If you insist in putting the boat there make sure there is a meter between your boat and your neighbor (almost impossible) and make sure the mast is not aligned with the boats next to you. If possible choose to stay at the side of motorboats that roll much less than sailboats.

On the other side , Plaka, the old village

Even knowing all that I put Alma there for a night. Isabel needed to go to the supermarket and to the bakery. I filled the water tank and went to talk with the guy from the diesel truck. I was lucky to find a place just after the reserved local places, after the big motorboats, the only places where you can have diesel because the others are too far away for the truck hose. 

The guy from EKO told me that in the afternoon around 5 would bring me diesel. At 6 PM I went looking for him, he said that only next morning at 10.30. At 11.30 he arrives with the hose and puts diesel on the 48ft motorboat next to me, that had arrived much after I had talked with him about putting diesel and then tells me that he has no more, that he has much work and that does not know when will be able to "serve me", but that he "has trying".

This guy does not respect the order of the requests for fuel and just puts first bigger yachts, with huge fuel demands, even if they have just arrived. I was one day and a half waiting for fuel, with two bookings that he missed, just to tell me that it had arrived a yacht that needed 20 000 liters and that he had no more diesel (and this after many boats passing ahead of me, including my neighbor motorboat). I guess that rich guys from big yachts give him big tips and he just passes them ahead. It gives a bad fame to EKO and to Greeks in general even if he is much more an exception than the rule.

Fed up with this and because after all I have a sailing boat, I just sailed away to the other side of the bay, near the entrance, to Agios Dimitrios Cove. We went sailing, slowly, only using the jib because to put the main in the bag is just too much work for such a small jump.

 It is a very nice cove with a chapel. You have to find a patch of sand (not difficult, but don't mistake sand with pebbles that are almost the same color) and you get a reasonable holding (the sand is hard) in a very beautiful place. You can anchor in 5.5 to 6 meters being the water relatively deep near the coast and without rocks.

But be prepared because when you are just enjoying it there will be a huge number of sailboats full of tourists that will come and will anchor everywhere (5 at the same time) with hysteric girls that will cry of joy (or whatever) while jumping in the water. Kind of a carnival. You will only have peace in the morning, late afternoon and night.

From there we sailed slowly (very weak wind) around the west coast of the island, to Kleftiko a famous and hugely popular anchorage on the south coast, near the SW tip. The anchorage is not marked or detailed on C-Map, only on Navionics. 

The bottom is good sand everywhere, the landscape is beautiful, with coves and caves, but it rolls and rolls, with the movement of the many touristic boats around, and, when they go away at night you find out that it keeps on rolling. For a motorboat tied to the coast it is acceptable, but for a sailingboat it is uncomfortable.

Next day we sailed out in the morning, with weak but steady wind that brought us back to Adamas. I put the boat near the shore, just in front of a Shell road pump, put my 10 liters reserve (in a jerrycan) in the boat tank, found out two 4 liters containers and rowed to the pump. The nice Indian guy lent me a 14L container and I brought to the boat 32L diesel. Went back there again and with the first 10L I had managed to put in the tank 74L. It was not full but almost. I guess it would take  15L more or so.

With 135L in the tank probably it will last till next year, even if I have to go up the Ionian coast, beating against the wind. About the price, well, fortunately my boat, sailing almost all the time, wastes very little, because at 2.30 euros a liter it has become very expensive to motor.

Happy with solving the diesel problem I celebrated with a dive. Yes, on this anchorage, the holding is great, but the waters are also very clear. I like it a lot and you cannot see here many charters but plenty of cruisers chose to stay here for some days.

It is not only the anchorage that is good, Adamas is a nice place and from there you can take a bus to the old town on the top of the hill, Plaka and its Venetian castle. The village is nice, with good restaurants and the view from the castle is superb.

23rd August was Isabel's birthday and we went ashore with the dinghy to eat at a good restaurant. Expensive but really good. A reference if you don't mind to spend about 35 euros per person, Mikros Apoplous. 

We had as starter small fried shrimps, Isabel had a tuna steak and I  a grilled squid. The squid was ok but the tuna was delicious and was so big that I ate almost half of it. The house wine was Moscafilero and was good. If you don't eat an expensive starter neither an expensive desert it would be about 25 euros for person.

24 was the day we should have sailed for the continent, but again there was no wind offshore, and tomorrow we will be sailing away in the first hours of the day. For now I am just sailing the boat to the Agios Dimitrios Cove. It will save an hour tomorrow.

Anchorages:

Kimolos - Kalanitsi: good sand bottom that goes down slowly, excellent holding, nice view all around but lots of katabatic wind, even if there are no big mountains.

All the above pictures are from Kleftico

Milos - Adamas: one of the best you can find. The bottom is sand and it lowers slowly towards the center of the bay. If the meltemi is blowing put the boat faraway from the shore where the wind will be less strong. Milos - Agios Dimitrius: beautiful, the bottom is sand and rock, the holding is good if you can find a patch of sand. The protection is better than what it seems. Some rolling due to the passage of ships and lots of touristic boats. Milos - Kleftiko: all sand, very good holding, beautiful, but you will roll day and night, with the passage of touristic boats and with waves on the beam.