Paros and Naxos - WTRD 30, Thursday, September 8

Paros and Naxos

The sky is hazy.  We set sail for Paros and Naxos.  Paros is the smaller of two side by side islands.  After a down wind sail, we arrive in Paros around 1:30, swim, and have lunch before setting off again for Naxos.  

We arrive around 3:00 pm.  There are fishing boats and nets on the dock.  There is something alluring to me about fishing nets.  Almost a work of art.

Russ and I hike to the ruins of a temple


and a castle, weaving our way through small alleys and streets where tiny tables and chairs in the alleys become seats for tiny restaurants throughout the city when the sun goes down and we see more cats than people.  

We eat dinner in a traditional Greek restaurant...Eggplant rolls baked around sticks of feta, Greek salad, bread, spicy sausages, french fires, melon, lemon cake, wine and ouzo.

As usual we are the first to return to the boat.  We shower and call it a night after another fine day.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in Naxos.

Ruins of Delos and a Night in Mikanos -WTRD 29, Wednesday, September 7

Ruins of Delos and a Night in Mikano

A large ship pulled in and out early this morning at 2:00 am tossing the boats around and waking everyone from sleep.  I came up to the cockpit to see what was going on and was in good company as skippers up and down the quay, including our own, were checking their lines and raising their planks.  This is probably a nightly occurrence.

We are off to Mikanos.  THe clouds have passed.  We never experienced thunder storms or rain yesterday.  We have a good breeze today and a few white caps.  The sails are raised.  

Russ is at the helm most of the day.  

I spell him awhile.  It feels nice to be back on the helm.

Rory, Chris and Natty are raising and trimming the sails.  We are all reading our books and lounging about as we sail toward Delos, a small Island off of Mikanos.  I enjoy sitting on the dinghy bottom on the bow with my back against the mast.  I've missed this.

We reach Delos about 2:30, set anchor, have a late lunch, launch the dinghy and take turns motoring.....to shore...kind of....The dinghy engine quits.  The first group (Rory, Chris, Lynn, and Deborah) gets 2/3 of the way to shore before they have to paddle.  Rory drops three off and paddles back for the rest of us.  

The dinghy holds five, and Cass needs to go to help paddle.  Rory, Cass, Russ, Natty, and Matty go next.  I stay back.  Perhaps I've seen enough ruins and the idea of being alone is appealing to me...although I'm a bit wary.  Seems that in the past all sorts of crazy things happen when I am at anchor alone. Someone always comes too close or pulls up the anchor

Rory and Cass paddle back, and we move the boat to an empty spot on the dock, only to be told that we have to move it when the ferry arrives.  I am tempted once we are on the dock to explore the ruins, but no sooner thought and the ferry is in sight, so we slip the lines and pull away until the ferry comes in and then stern back into to pick up everyone else.  

They had a great time exploring, and Russ took some good photos of these archaeological ruins.  Modestly settled 2400 years BCE by early indigenous people, the Mycenaeans built the first city in 1500 BCE.  Delos's heyday was 900-68 BCE, when it was believed that Apollo was born here and a temple was raised in his honor in 1000 BCE, bringing people from all over the Greek world to worship. It was declared a free port and became the trading center for the Greek Islands.  It rose and fell many times, but between 80 -60 BCE, Delos was attacked by the Mitherites  and other invaders.

Our crew arrives in Mikanos late in the day.  We med moor in the new harbor as the sun is sinking into the sea. 

I watch some fisherman catching their calamari for the evening meal.  Our group of seven piles into two taxies, and we spend the evening shopping, walking, looking, and exploring the sights and sounds and of Mikanos. 

Russ and I eat at a seaside cafe that is organic, called Nice and Easy.  The meal is excellent.  We buy gelato afterwards and board the Sea Bus back to the new port.

It's been another sun drenched, aqua marine day.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in Mikanos

Hermopoulos, Siros, Greece - WTRD 28, Tuesday, September 6

 Capitol City of the Cyclades, 

We are on the fringe of a weather system on the mainlands of Greece and Turkey.  There is a high grey overcast and the wind is forecast for 15-25 knots with thundershowers later in the day.  Our skipper preps to leave around 9:30 so that we can do some sailing and get to our next destination before it starts to rain.  We are underway by 9:45 and for awhile have enough wind to sail.  After lunch and a swim in a small cove on the west side of Nisos Siros, we arrive at Hermopoulos on the east side of Siros, capitol city of the Cyclades islands.

It's a large city with a quay along the city front.  

A colorful city - They don't adhere to the all white with blue theme.

The wind was ripping sideways

on the beam making a stern Med moor quite challenging as we had to thread the needle between some other boats, but our skipper and mate efficiently dropped 150 feet of chain and pulled directly back into the moorage.  Just glad we weren't having to do this.  The port traffic, wakes and quay rebound create a washing machine effect.  THe boats are so close we rub bumpers and the boat is in constant, agitated motion.  Walking the hanging gang plank as it slides and sways across the dock is quite a challenge.

Our gang  plank delivers us right to a table in a Greek restaurant on the quay. 

We are the entertain,emt for the restaurant patrons as we walk the plank.  Everyone goes in different directions.  Russ and I walk the narrow back streets of the city, 

Matty and Natty on an Empty Street

stop at an ATM, unsuccessfully hunt for a geocache, have a beer and eat pork gyros with tzaziki at "our  table", cross over the dancing gang plank before we drink too much wine, and spend a pleasant evening sitting alone together in the cockpit as port traffic and winds calm.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in Hermopoulos, Siros

Labor Day Anniversary - 7 years ago! WTRD 27, Monday, September 5

Happy Labor Day

This is the seventh anniversary of the beginning of our Sea Adventure to the Australia. 

September 5, 2009 - We Hung a Left at the Golden Gate

So it is appropriate for us to be sailing again.  After a lazy morning, coffee and breakfast in the cockpit, and last minute provisioning to replace the bottles of wine drunk last night, we were underway by 11:30.  There is a gentle breeze, the motor is on and the jib is out.  Whoo Hoo!

We have Greek salad for lunch with fresh bread, and tuck into a cove on the southwest end of Nisos Kea for a mid afternoon swim in crystal clear blue water.  

There is an option to visit a hot spring at our mooring destination in Loutra on the island Kythnos, so we wrap up the swim, pull the anchor and continue to head southward.

Loutra is a small sun drenched seaside village.  White flat top buildings climb barren mountains and the restaurant tables run right into the bay.  

At the end of the bay, a channel of thermal spring water runs into a little rock dam off the shore mixing with the cooler salt water.  We enjoy a lovely sit as the sun sinks behind us in the west.  











We return to the boat, shower, and take a stroll through some of the towns back streets and find a family harvesting their grapes.  The give us some of their grapes and invite us back next year for the wine.

Our group eats at a local restaurant inches from the water  The wine flows along with Greek salad, calamari, garlic olive oil bread, fried sheep cheese, moussaka, and lamb casserole with lemon.  It's been a beautiful day.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in the Lovely Village of Loutra.

Rocked to Sleep - Nice to be Aboard, WTRD 26, Sunday, September 4

Malama - In the Middle

Rocked to Sleep - Nice to be Aboard

We sleep in again today, check out at noon leaving our bags at the apartment, hang out in a local restaurant until 3:00, and try to find our boat.  Either we have totally lost our map reading skills or the drawn arrow on the map where the boat was supposed to be moored was incorrect.  Finally we call our skipper's number and he directs us to the correct location, however, the boat wouldn't be ready for us to board until 4:00. We hung out some more in the apartment lobby until 4:00 and our Airbnb host drove us to the port which we actually could have walked, but the ride was much appreciated.

Meet the Crew

We met our Skipper Rory and First Mate Cassandra (Cass), a young couple from the UK 

and France, and Chris from the UK, one of the other passengers.  

The four other passengers were out sight seeing.  After dinner out, we returned to the boat, a Jeanneau 52.5, 1998.  There are four staterooms, set up for eight.  There are seven us, one man (Chris), two women friends (Debra and Lynne) together from the UK

and a young couple (Matias - Matty  and Natalia - Natty) from Chile.

We are in the port stern stateroom, under the cockpit area.  It's roomy enough.  Our medium size gear bag fits under the Saloon table and looks dwarfed by the bag Natty brought.  We had arranged our stuff so we could park the bigger bag all week with never opening it.  The other stuff fit well into the lockers.  Stressed for nothing.  No worries mate.  We're aboard!

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's Rocking to Sleep

Lavrione (Lavrio) Greece - WTRD 25, Saturday, September 3

Relaxing in the Charter Boat City of Lavrio, Greece

It is the first time in three weeks that we have been able to sleep in and have nothing on our agenda.  

It's a breezy day in Lavrio, the jump off port for the Cyclades, (pronounced Kiklades) Islands. Sailing charter boats from crewed to bareboat, line the docks. Our itinerary will take us from Lavrio to Santorini via Kithnos, Siros, (northern Cyclades), Paros and Naxos, Delos, Mikanos  (middle Cyclades), Ios and Thira -Santorini (southern Cyclades).

We walked around the town, looked at all the charter boats in the Marina, trying to find ours, but didn't see it.   

Maybe, it will come in tomorrow.? I'm stressing about our luggage fitting on these boats. With our gear for Iceland to Morocco, we think we have more than our stateroom will accommodate.  I fear we may be sleeping on top of the bags. 

We found a geocache near the marina (309 world wide), had great pastries for breakfast, moussaka and Greek salad for dinner.

All is well with the Worrall Travel R's in Lavrio, Greece.

Goodbye Moldova, Hello Greece, WTRD 24, Friday, September 2, 2016

The Power of Friendship - Thank you Friendship Force

We bid our Moldovan Host and Host Country of Moldova a fond farewell.  Mariana and Catalina left for work and school at 7:30 am.  Mariana's mom came over just before 11:00 with beautiful vegetables from her garden and prepared us a healthy lunch of tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, meats and fruits before the taxi picked us up just before noon.  Our exchange coordinators met us at the airport, helped us check in, and we gave each other tearful hugs as we departed.  Farewell Moldova. We hope to reciprocate your hospitality in California.   The power of friendship is awesome!

After a transfer in Bucharest, Russ and I arrived in Athens, took a taxi to Lavrio (about 70 kilometers west of Athens on the coast), and checked into our Airbnb by 10:30 pm). Our host Sophia was waiting for us and showed us our rooms.  This is a small apartment/hotel, recently remodeled.  We are close to the marina and have a small studio.  Very Nice.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in Lavrio, Greece.

Gone Sailing in The Cyclades Islands, Greece.. WTRDs 24-33, Sept 2 -12, 2016

There was a time when I took a vacation that would leave a sign on my desk at work that said "Gone Sailing"  Well, I am taking some time off from blogging for the next week while we sail in the Cyclades Islands. The last three weeks have been fabulous, but blogging until 1 and 2 am have been fatiguing. Since we will probably only have a little bit of Internet time when we come into port, it's a good time to give it a rest. I'll post some photos when we are between Santorini and Athens.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's - Gone Sailing in Greece