Monday, December 21, 2015

Through the Aegean to Crete

Hi all Sue here

Well what can I say, we have been very remiss with our Blog duties!! It has been a very busy summer and end to our cruising year. We are now in the Marina in Agios Nikolaos where we will stay until April. It is a lovely place to spend winter and once again we are with some really nice people, old friends and new friends. But lets go back to August!!

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Anchored in the Volos Gulf

Guiding us Down the Evia Channel

The Volos Gulf was beautiful and not somewhere I would have ever thought to visit. It was so quiet considering we were there in August. The main town of Volos is a bit industrialised and not the prettiest of places but there are many beautiful peaceful anchorages around the Gulf and we spent about 10 days exploring the various places.

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Quiet Anchorage Even in August

Down the Evia Channel from Chalki

We made our way down the Evia channel to Porto Rafti where we then picked my sister Caroline up, who was staying with us for 10 days. This involved a midnight passage through the sliding bridge at Chalki since they only open the bridge at night when the tide is pretty slack. There were about a dozen yachts and motor boats passing through as well as a couple of huge super yachts and one fairly large cargo boat that came down the approach channel at about 10knts creating a horrible wash past the boats waiting on the quay, we had just moved off so we missed the worst of it.

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Sunset Over The Sand Bar, Kythnos

Fykiada Cove, Kythnos

Kythnos was an island I had always wanted to visit, we missed it on our way down 2 years ago and everyone said what a beautiful place it was. It was truly stunning and Caroline and me were quite happy to just chill there for a few days, heaven.

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Old Traction Engine, Karystos, Evia

Memorial to Fishermen, Karystos

I then returned to the UK with Caroline for 2 weeks as it was my sons 30th Birthday and I also took my grandaughter to London for the weekend for a belated Birthday treat. What an amazing 2 weeks I had with my lovely family.

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Local Wildlife outside Karystos

Quaint Little Cottage

Chris based himself in Karystos to wait for me and to shelter from some bad weather. Glad I was in the UK as he sat out some pretty grotty stuff!!

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Stormy Weather near Porto Rafi

Safe in Loutra Harbour, Kythnos

We then made a dash for Kythnos again where we stayed for a week safely tied up in Loutra. As you can see from the picture the sea behind us was not nice!! There was much fun and games with some of the poor charter boats who had to come in and leave in this horrible weather. Here we met Ramen & Chrissie and had a great time with them. The men spent all their time helping the charter boats and Chrissie and I sat and watched the entertainment with a glass of wine!!

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High Up on Kythnos

Artistic Cottage, Irakleia

We didn’t spend all our time socialising though, we did explore the island as well. After Kythnos we sailed through the Cyclades Islands, occasionally dodging some strong Meltemi winds but also visiting some lovely Islands including Sifnos, Irakleia, Schinousa, Amorgos and Astypalia. It was really nice travelling through the Islands in October since there was hardly any other boats around so plenty of room in the harbours and anchorages.

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12kg Albacore Tuna, Nisyros

Tuna Party With Fellow Cruisers

Finally managed to escape and make our way to Nisyros to meet up with some friends, Steph & Andy. On the way there we caught a very large Tuna so radioed ahead to say we would do a Tuna BBQ that evening. Had a surprise when we got there as Raman & Chrissie had ended up there as well, cruisers plans always change!! We definitely gave the Tuna a very good send off with 10 onboard singing and dancing until the early hours!!

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The Town Hall, Chalki

Sorting the Catch

Another island that was a total surpise was Chalki, well worth a visit. Reminded us of Symi but on a much smaller scale.

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Parade Day in Chalki

Old Castle and Church, Chorio, Chalki

 

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Norna Byron Leaving Chalki

Spinalonga Island, Crete

It was now the end of October and we were now cruising with 3 other boats who we had met up with in Nisyros. We were having such a good time and the weather was lovley but it was time to head towards Crete and our winter berth. We arrived in Spinalonga at the beginning of November and stayed anchored there until 18th November. The weather was so nice and we were still in the company of Steph & Andy and Cathi & Dave it seemed a shame to go into the Marina.

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Krista Gorge

Owl Rock, Krista Gorge

We soon acclimatised to Marina life though and joined in with all the social activities!!

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Scrambling Down Richtis Gorge

Richtis Waterfall

The weekly hikes are both challenging and amazing!! It’s a big thank you to Tony Cross for organising them and also filling us in on the history of the places we visit.

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“Bounty Advert” Beach, Vai, Crete East Coat of Crete

We also have the use of a hire car once a week so manage to get out and about sightseeing and of course do the Lidl shop!!

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Bat Cave, near Kavousi

Walking the Old Kavousi to Lastros Road

Anyway that’s all for now so Chris and I would just like to wish all our family and friends

                      A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR