Saturday, October 12, 2024
It was finally time to leave Thessaloniki and make our way south. We had such a wonderful time here, but the North winds are starting in and they will will soon be too strong to safely sail, so we must go. There are enough islands on the way to Crete, that we decided that we just do day sails from one island to the next and after a few days of day sail, we would rest for a day or two. The islands we really wanted to spend some time at were Mykonos and Santorini. I wasn’t sure how much time we would get to spend at each place, because winter is coming, and the weather can get pretty nasty.
So we set out, heading southeast. The first night we stopped at Possidi Beach, which was a beautiful spit of sand with clear water on both sides. It provided a very nice stopover for us. One of our next stops was going to be Mount Athos. However we were unable to anchor there because it is the most holy place in all of Greece and anchoring was not allowed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos
It was a beautiful place to visit, nonetheless.
Our next big stop was Mykonos, which is one of the major tourist islands in Greece. That being said, the tourist season was winding down, with everything closing up for the season at the end of October. Luckily we just made it and were able to enjoy some of the amazing restaurants and even visit the old town of Little Venice.
From Mykonos, we sailed to Santorini. It was very high on my bucket list, and it did not disappoint. I didn’t realize that it was once a volcano, and is now a caldera. There is actually still volcanic activity and there are a couple lava islands out in the middle where you can swim in natural sulphur hot springs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini
First we stayed on the island called Therasia. We moored near a small village area where the ferries come. There are a couple of restaurants, but the main village is at the top of the steep hill and the only way to get there is to walk up the steps that zigzag back and forth across the hill face. Mike, Stella and I hiked the stairs to the top and had a very lovely lunch at on of the few restaurants at the top.
The next day we took a ferry across the water to Oia. This is where photos of Santorini in all the magazines are taken. It’s beautiful. But again we would have to hike the steps up the hill. There was a road, but what fun would it be to take a cab to the top. Just after starting to climb the stairs, there was a man renting donkeys to get you to the top. We chose just to walk. When we finally reached the top, we discovered the beauty of Santorini, with the white buildings and blue doors. We walked along the cobblestone walkways, checking out numerous amounts of shops, restaurants and villas. We had the best meal we’ve had in Greece and one of the restaurants overlooking the caldera. After spending a couple hours walking around, we decided to start heading back down. After all the last ferry out was due to arrive soon.
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We left our mooring site in the morning and sailed south, around to the other side of Santorini. It was like a completely different island. The building were all the color of the sand, almost camouflaged. I had told Mike that it sure would’ve been nice to be able to stay in a villa while we here. So we decided to do it. I was completely surprised by two things, there were villas available and they were much cheaper that I had expected. We found a very nice private villa at the top of the mountain looking over the water. It came complete with a wonderful hot tub and it was pet friendly. Perfect. It was the first time since we left Florida that I have spent a night off the boat. It was definitely good for the soul.
Unfortunately, it was time to leave. We planned to go to Rhodes, which is still a bit east of Santorini. We got part way, after island hopping for few days, and decided to skip Rhodes and get to Crete. We had been dealing with very high winds and very exhausting days of sailing. We were ready for our Greek adventure to come to an end.
We reached Crete on Tuesday, November 12. We would still have to travel a little over 100nm to get to Souda Bay, where we would provision before going on to Tunisia. Finally we reached Souda Bay. We anchored just outside at Marathi. Since it is now the off season, there were no other boat at anchor and all of the restaurants were closed. We decided to rent a car, so we could go check out the town of Chania. We also discovered the there is a US Naval base very close the Marathi. Luckily we were able to get on base. They didn’t have a commissary, but did have a pretty well stocked MiniMart. We found western food we haven’t seen in a very long time. I was surprised that we were able to fill two shopping carts full of “western” food. We still ended up shopping at the local grocery store. Literally every cupboard, locker, fridge and feeezer is packed with food. We should be good for quite some time, which is good because I’m not sure what kind of food we will find in Tunisia.
Well, after spending several days in Crete, it’s time to head to Malta. Looking at the weather, there aren’t really any great weather windows anymore, so we will just have to go and hope for the best.
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