Andiparos & Paros

Photos to be posted shortly ! Having a great time with Sharon & Doug aboard and they are truly chilled out now and in holiday mode. Serifos was great and we spent 2 nights in Livadhiou on the South coast.
On the hill overlooking the bay is the “Chora” or village and we went up by bus to have a look around the ancient village and had lunch there. Also in this bay we tried our “flopper stoppers” for the first time. These are stainless steel hinged plates which hang 5m under the water using the same paravane arms as our stabilizers and they significantly reduce rolling at anchor.
They worked well when arriving large ferries put up a big wake (common in most anchorages). On Weds 11th we anchored off and visited the ancient walled town of Kastro on Serifos.
Kastro is a well preserved medieval village perched on a cliff top above a tiny cove.
It was a very hot day for a walk up there but well worth it to see the beautiful old buildings in streets thankfully too narrow for cars. Kastro is not sheltered enough for overnighting so we headed East to the island of Andiparos and a bay called Ormos Dhespotico. This bay is very well protected and in the 16th-17th centuries was the base of pirate galleys. We went ashore to the inevitable taverna and saw lots of octopuses put out on a wire fence by the roadside to dry in the sun – Doug and I were forced to try some grilled octopus to have with our local Mythos beer. Sharon & Di said we were eating “road kill” but whatever – it tasted great. The next day, Thursday we visited the romantic village of Andiparos, another ancient walled town but with little remaining of the walls. A narrow channel separates the islands of Andiparos & Paros with depths down to 1.8m but we put our trust in our C-map (navigational software) and went through OK to Ormos ay Ioannou on the island of Paros. Paros was inhabited from 7th century BC and was famous for marble – Napoleon’s tomb being made of marble from here.
We had checked the forecast and it advised of gale force Northerlies for several days.
This bay looked like the best one to be “stuck” in and tonight will be our 5th night with no sign of a let up in the 30-40 knot wind at times lifting sheets of water off the sea. However there has not been a cloud in the sky in that time, the water is clear, clean and warm and the bay is very attractive with an old church in one corner and a taverna in another. One feature of anchoring here is nobody takes the slightest notice of the “5 knots rule” – that is keep speed under 5 knots within 200 metres of the shore or 30m from another boat. Here there are water skiers, jet skiers etc passing within 10 m of us. Envoy doesn’t rock with the wake and its something you just have to get used to. This longer than expected stay will mean that Sharon & Doug won’t get to see quite as much but there’s not much you can do about the weather except enjoy what you’re doing. They have caught the ferry each day to visit the town of Naousa and explore around there, while I’ve not been wanting to leave Envoy unattended at anchor in these very strong winds. We hope the wind and sea will drop a little tomorrow and will head South towards Skinousa and then East towards Astipalaia in the Dodecanese group. Sharon & Doug leave us on Friday 27th from Bodrum (Turkey) so we expect to be either in Bodrum or close to there by then. Our next visitors will be Ian & Patsy Ristrom from Christchurch joining us in Bodrum on 10th August and in fact we plan to base ourselves around Bodrum for the next few weeks exploring the Turkish Turquoise coast and the more Eastern Greek islands.
Miles covered 1832 in 131 days on board.
Technical: nothing to report at this time.