We had a great sail across from Kea, finally making use of the Code 0 (our lighter wind reaching sail), and pulled into the anchorage on Siros where it was blowing 25 knots (but only for 10 minutes before it died thankfully!). This bay seemed to cater to local Greek tourists and was actually nicer than the photo indicates. It was also a good kicking off point for the south end of Mykonos. A Meltemi (ferocious summer wind mostly affecting the Aegean), was due, and we hoped to find a sheltered bay there. The trip over the next morning was an uneventful 5 hour motorsail, passing Rinia (birth place of Artemis), and Delos (birth place of Apollo and at one time, the religious and political epicenter of the ancient world ref. Ernie Bradford “The Greek Islands”). Apparently a lot of other boats had the same idea, and we figured we should get a move on to find an anchorage before the bays filled up.
Mykonos was a chaos of massive power and sailing boats, jet ski’s, kayaks, ski boats, charter boats and everything in between. The first 2 bays we went through were packed, and didn’t seem safe to stay for winds in the 40 knot range. We finally found a bay about 5 miles from town and had a nice sandy spot with good space around us. An hour later though, we had become the turning point for the boat towing the kid-filled inflatable sofa, which was anoyingly loud and kicked up a wake on every lap. In the end we left Mykonos after a 4 hour stay, and headed 3 hours south to the island of Paros which ended up having much better protection.
We heard from other boats that had stayed on Mykonos, that the the wind was sustained 30’s with gusts to 40 knots over the next week. Meanwhile we experienced 15s with gusts to 20 knots until the following Sunday when it ramped up to gusts in the low 30’s. The wind makes everyone a bit crazy. You get anxious as boats are dragging their anchors around you ( and you are hoping yours holds!), and everyone is on edge until the wind dies down again. Sunday we didn’t leave the boat and we weren’t really talking to each other either!
On the Friday before the strongest winds were due, we rented a side by side and toured the island, stopping to check out the windsurf and kite boarding sites. It was a great way to get a feel of the place and do something “touristy”. The lady at the rental place said that it hadn’t actually been windy yet, and that during August the Meltemi blew all the time and at greater force..we would need to consider getting out of the area by then!
That side-by-side looks awesome, and Todd looks like he’s about to drive it like a go-kart! ?