March | 2020 | Cuffysark Adventures

The next set of Islands are the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, which is much windier however, at this time of year it should be more settled. There are a lot of small islands which are off the beaten track and so much quieter than the larger islands that most people have heard of such as Santorini. The islands are just as you imagine the Greek Islands to be, everything white washed, houses, churches and roads.

We hopped around the islands, first arriving at Fikiadha on Kythnos. We anchored in a bay that had two sides to it which was separated by a sandbank. Unfortunately, the weather the next day was rain, yes we do get some here, so we only stayed the one night.

The next island was Syros we anchored at Finike. We took a local bus to the main town, Ermoupolis, on the other side of the island.

We next headed to Paros, where we met up with some of the Licata Crew and anchored at Naoussa, a large sheltered bay and then from here we went round to the main town of Parikia which is very well connected with ferries. We had to dodge five of them in the first hour. There was zero wind.

Parikia had lots of narrow whitewashed streets and churches, everywhere has at least one church! Also seem to be more windmills in this area. There is also a castle sited amongst the streets, The Frankish Castle, built in the 1200’s.

We had a meal out and we got chatting, and no I don’t know how this subject came up, very random I know, about the TV programme “Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead?” and how it wasn’t possible to fold a piece of paper in half eight times. So much to the amusement of the other people in the restaurant, Dave attempted to fold a tablecloth eight times and no by the time you got to the eighth time, the tablecloth was too thick. It kept us and the other diners amused for a while!

After a few days we decided to go a small stretch of sea between Tigani and Theodotis, Nisos Iso which was deserted. It looked a bit foggy in the distance, Ian not to be deterred, we left the rest of the gang behind and headed off. Half an hour in and there was nothing but clear blue skies. So now the rest of them followed. Tranquillity was broken particularly that evening with our boat party!

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The forecast was for some strong winds, so we headed to Irakleia to hide, and the others went off in the other direction, was it something we said. Irakelia has just 141 inhabitants, so if you want to get away from it and the rest of the world this is the place to be.

Koufanisi was our next stop, in the harbour, which had quite a bit of surge, so not the most comfortable place to be. Another unspoilt place.

Our final stop in the Cyclades was Amorgos, the eastern most island . We hired a car here so we could explore the island. There is a shipwreck, the Olympia, which sank here in 1980. You had to walk down the hillside, which was very muddy, as we’d had quite a downpour, so after going along and gaining 6inch platforms of mud on my shoes I decided to turn back and left Ian to go down.

One of the most spectacular and memorable sights of the season was here on Amorgos, the Hozoviotissa Monastery. It is built into the side of the cliff and is the second oldest in Greece built in 1017 and renovated in 1088. It is 300m above sea level. The monastery is 40m high and 5m wide and has eight stories. The monastery is open to visitors twice a day. There are three monks that live here. It is a steep walk of 300 steps up to the entrance.

March 2020

We are now moored in Zea Marina, which is in Piraeus, the biggest passenger port in Europe (September 2019) and spending a few days here before my next trip back to the UK. We took a tour bus as we find this is one of the best ways to get your bearings of a place.

The main attraction is the Acropolis. We were fortunate as although it was hot, there was some breeze, a few weeks earlier the site had been closed because it was too hot.

The Parthenon is dedicated to the Goddess Athena, the patron of their city, and was built between 447 and 438 BC.

The Erechtheion is on a slope, so the west and north sides are about 3 m (9 ft) lower than the south and east sides. On the south side, is the “Porch of the Maidens”, with six draped female figures as supporting columns. One of those original six figures was removed by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century and is now in the British Museum in London. The Acropolis Museum holds the other five figures, which are replaced onsite by replicas.

Whilst we were here they were setting up for an event at The Theatre of Dionysus.

There were good views of Athens from up here. An interesting fact we learnt on our tour was that the Marathon was changed from 25 miles to 26 miles and 385 yards as a result of the 1908 Olympics held in London. Originally the course was to be from Windsor to White City stadium. However, a request was received from the Queen asking to locate the start line at Windsor castle so Princess Mary and her children could watch from a window. A change to the finish line was also requested so that the finish line could be in front of the royal family’s viewing box inside the stadium so the course was further extended. It was 1921 before this became the official length of the marathon. So there you go!

We had a nice evening out with Karen and Ronnie in Pireaus and had to have a photo taken under the Clock Tower just to prove that Karen does stay up late sometimes.

I left Ian in Athens and headed off to the airport back to the UK. Ian made his way to Poros where he was going to sit out the Meltemi that was forecast whilst I was away. He found himself a nice spot in Russian Bay where he managed to tie the boat up to the rocks, not an easy task when you are single handed. He then made his way to Navy Bay where I would meet him. I arrived at Athens airport, then took a bus to Pireaus and finally a ferry to Poros where Ian was waiting dockside to meet me at about 9.00pm. We took my stuff back to the boat and then headed back to Poros to eat. Poros is a lovely island but can be very busy.

After a couple of days we headed off hoping to take the route between the island and the mainland but unfortunately the power lines had come down in a recent storm and so we had to take the long route round to Ermioni adding 2.5 hours to our trip. To keep the power line out of the water a mobile crane had been placed on a ferry to hold them up in the air but not high enough for us to take this route.

Ermioni is another popular place and we anchored in the bay. The harbour wall on the other side is normally rammed but today whilst having some breakfast, ok it was brunch, was empty.