We had friends I’d known for 40 years on the boat (does that mean I’m old?) for about a week. It was nice to have help with the anchor and the dingy and motor. We moved around more than we usually do, since they had a limited time to see the ‘less touristy’ Greek islands. The plan was to leave Ios and hang out in Koufonisia, the 4 smaller islands just to the north-east. We went to Schinousa first.
We have been there before and we loved it. There is a *tiny* village you can walk to (always up a hill) with a grocery store and some restaurants and small hotels. Then we were planning on going to Kato Koufonisi which is hardly inhabited….but when we started to pull into the bay the winds were just crazy and we decided to head to the big island of Naxos. There is a big bay to the south, Kalados Bay, where we anchored nicely and has a great restaurant on a hill we liked, so we stayed for a few days. Naxos is a very big island and this place is more than an hour car drive from the main town, so it is very quiet…and a somewhat nude beach… (always an old guy on the beach showing the inevitable effect of gravity. ) The weather was perfect, and the water was crystal clear.
After 2 days we motored north (sorry Karl, I should have sailed even though it would have been longer) to AgiosProkopios Beach which is very close to Naxos port where our guests were going to leave from. We also needed to wait for a package that was being delivered here for some spare parts (Spruzzo loves her spare parts.) After a few days, our friends had sadly left to get back to the real world; I had my parts, and we were ready to start heading north.
Victoria really wanted to visit Delos, which is a famous Greek island, but the winds were much better to head northwest to Syros where we are now. The trip was not too much fun. The winds were more than forecasted, and the wind and waves are always nasty between Naxos and Paros because there is less than 10km between them and you get a funnel effect for any north wind. We motored for about an hour, bashing into waves and having our deck washed to get out of the funnel. It was not the worst conditions we had been in, but probably in the top 10… although I’m sure we are getting more tolerant of rough weather.
After we got north a bit, we were able to sail for about an hour, which is nice, but then the winds shifted, died, shifted, got stronger in the wrong direction so we ended up motoring for the rest of the way which is always disappointing since we time our travels to wait for wind to let us sail. I’m thinking in the future we will be more flexible on our destination and pick a spot that we can sail to after we leave and see the conditions.
I love Syros. It has a population of over 20K, a very large port, and has a ship yard where they work on very large ships. I think we passed an iron fabrication shop. This island does not only depend on tourism for income. The island was managed by the Venetians (Italians) for a long time, and you can see the Italian influence in much of the architecture. Also the population is 50% Roman Catholic!
We took a taxi up to the ‘old town on the hill’ where the church was. Remember that people used to live on hills as some protection from pirates and invaders….not because they enjoyed the walk.
The current weather forecast calls for winds from the south on Sunday….which is great because it will make it easy for us to go north. Not sure where we will head to next but we will probably leave here on Sunday. We will definitely come back to this island.
As an aside, I fixed the bow-thruster *again*, hopefully for the last time. One year ago almost to the day we caught a rope in the bow-thruster in the Port of Naxos. Since then I’ve: 1) replaced the slightly broken propeller, hoping that is why it wasn’t working (didn’t work) 2) replaced most of the parts inside (a plastic part inside had broken) 3) had the new propeller, which has plastic screws, fall off (I had tested it but apparently not strenuously enough) 4) replaced the plastic propeller 5) had it fall off again when we left Agios Nicholaos (I was so mad I refused to stop to get it) 6) replaced the plastic hub with the original metal hub with the propeller in the water (more on this) and 7) just replaced the propeller again with the original that was on the boat (has a chip out of a blade) with the metal screws it had when I got the boat.
Amels have plastic screws holding the fiberglass propeller so that if something gets caught in the propeller the screws break and not any of the very expensive metal parts inside the housing. Unfortunately, or because of something I’m doing wrong, the replacement parts I got from Amel are not ‘holding together’ properly……so I’m back to metal screws. We will be very careful not to catch a rope again. I can hardly wait to use the bow-thruster because it makes me look like a pro…….not having one is *much* more difficult but it did teach me to handle the boat better.
I also discovered that I can work on the bow-thruster with my mask and snorkel….I can just reach the propeller and still breath. I took off the plastic ‘hub’ and mostly put on the metal one in the water, but I could not get the propeller on underwater. I spent close to an hour trying, and dropped tools and parts 3 times in about 6m of water. When I removed the entire unit today (which takes some time to remove and put back…..but since I’ve done it after 6 times before I have memorized all the steps and tools needed) it took me 5 minutes to put it on.
Anyway it is on…..tested more vigorously…..and seems to work. Looking forward to using it again to dock!
Adventures on Spruzzo 