Author Archives: Jeff Williams

August was a busy month on the boat. We moved around between islands more than usual. My sister and her family visited and everyone had fun! My brother-in-law bought a spear-fishing gun for the boat. I Med-moored (backing-in) to a dock twice without my bow-thruster, which I was concerned about….. but it turned out toContinue reading “August: Patmos, Leipsi, Leros, Kos, Gyali, Tilos then Astypalea”

After resting in Fournoi, where we had a nice anchorage but it could be a bit wavy, we decided to head south to Patmos.   The winds were forecast to be light and from the north, so I was expecting a nice run (where the winds and waves are behind the boat).  It turned outContinue reading “Fournoi to Patmos: The Importance of Firm Bottoms”

We needed to go into town to drop off our garbage (Greece has big garbage bins that everyone uses) and we needed to stock up on some groceries. Our choices were to dingy over to the next bay (maybe 500m) and walk about 1.5km up and down a hill to the main town, or dingyContinue reading “Fournoi: my kind of island”

After 2 weeks in Paros we were ready to leave. We had a decent weather forecast open up for Friday, which called for 15-20 knots of wind along our route (perfect), 1m or less waves. The forecast was slightly worse in the afternoon, so we got up at 5am to leave at 6am. The onlyContinue reading “Respect Meltemi”

After our adventure leaving Naxos harbour, we looked forward to spending relaxing unstressful time at our new anchorage in Paros. Paros is just beside Naxos, but it was still quite bumpy (2m waves) coming over, and we were happy to be at anchor and resting. We inadvertently anchored outside a ‘natural’ beach. We took aContinue reading “2 Weeks in Paros”

When we dropped anchor in Naxos Harbour the harbourmaster pointed to a spot to drop our anchor so we would be away from lines and chains and he said when we left to be careful not to ‘drag’ the anchor, but lift it straight up, so we wouldn’t catch it on anything on the bottom.Continue reading “…lines, chains and tangles!!!”

The marina is right beside the main Naxos tourist area. The Naxos tourist strip, just below the ancient castle with its twisting passages and old rock walls, reminds me of the waterfronts in Chania and Reythemo both in Crete. It is not as busy as Chania, which was literally wall to wall tourists, and whileContinue reading “Naxos Harbour: Med Mooring, Big Boats and up the Mountain”

We decided to go to the Naxos marina for a few days so I could see the city, which looks amazing, and also to get fuel. I called the day before, and the marina guy told us he had space and we should arrive before 11:30am. We woke up early and left our very niceContinue reading “Naxos Harbour”

Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades. We came here to drop off our guest Nour, and we needed to find a spot that was 1) safe/comfortable from the sometimes strong north winds and 2) easy for Nour to get to her ferry from the main port of Naxos, which is on the north-westContinue reading “Naxos”

We are in a large natural harbour on the east side of Koufonisi, just under Naxos (the big island near here). We picked this spot because the forecast was for strong winds today, which have just started. Yesterday the winds were from the east, then they moved north, then south west, and this morning theyContinue reading “Private Yachts and Meltemi”