Meeting the Meltemi

With a large crew change in Athens in which we needed to wait a couple of days for the next crew to arrive, we were so happy to be reunited with Hauke, the Goden Wind's skipper for these past few years, who unfortunately is unable to lead us on our voyage this year. Together, we moved the boat further into the harbour and prepared her for a week's stay.

After a few repairs, restocking and the arrival of regular crew members, Fred and Janis, we were ready to head out to the islands.  With a strong Meltemi blowing East of Athens, we went first around the Saronic Gulf to slowly acclimate ourselves to this strong prevailing wind.  We left Microlimano in the late afternoon and sped downwind with a strong breeze. After only a few hours we arrived at our anchorage for the night on the small island of Kyra.  With a bay really only large enough for one boat, we took lines ashore across the bay and had a comfortable night.  

In the morning, we explored the island by dinghy seeing spectacular views of the islands and Athens in the hazy distance. With this steady wind, we were able to cover another 20nm in the afternoon quickly, and we enjoyed sailing between the Methanon Peninsula and the island of Poros to find a peaceful, but popular anchorage where we had time to service some of the winches in the evening.  

The next day we began our sail passing between the narrow channel in front of the picturesque town of Poros and the Peloponnese Penninsula.  We then followed the coast southeast before turning south to reach Hydra.  Sailing along Hydra's southern coast we found a nice bay to anchor near the island's southwestern point before sunset.  

We left early the next day to cross over to the Cyclades heading east.  As we crossed these 60 miles, the wind increased as we expected as we neared the area where the Meltemi blows at its full strength and also saw the waves increase hitting us with some pretty intense spray.  So with our smallest foresail and a twice-reefed main, we approached the island of Serifos where the gusts became stronger at times due to the unusual effects that these tall islands have with the prevailing north wind. After taking down the sails we motored directly into the wind into the long bay near the town of Livadi on the southeast of the island.

Lucky to get a good holding with the anchor on our first try, we were comfortable in the gusts that reached up to 39kts during the night and the next morning. Seeing the forecast suggest that the wind would decrease a little that evening, we felt secure at anchor and made a few more repairs on the boat during the day before taking the dinghy to shore in the evening for dinner and a grocery restock.

After a more peaceful night at anchor, we headed directly south to Milos and admired the white mountain top villages as we entered the three-mile channel leading to a large bay in the center of the island.  Once there, we moored in the harbour and were able to use our folding bikes, which were a new addition to the boat this year, to bike up and see the beautiful island views.

Later a boat arrived next to us and the skipper was quite certain that our anchor lines were crossed. So, after a dive in the morning to confirm, we untangled the lines before setting off and were pleased to pull up the anchor with ease.  We then had a slower day and saw the wind increasing closer to the islands and decreasing away from them as we made our way to Santorini.

As we passed Folegandros, we set the spinnaker hoping to make it to Santorini before it got too late. Experiencing a few more lulls we were happy to have a very bright moon to allow us to keep the spinnaker up until just after dark as we neared the islands surrounding the caldera.