8th October 2008
Laundry is a problem for a live-aboard – especially out of season it seems. We ask others we meet what they do and they also seem to have the same problem. Our American friend Gail said she found soaking in a bucket kept in the heads (bathroom) worked best – “Don’t just sit there, prod Frank!” I tried this technique but my Frank said he was too busy. Others have mini washing machines. Sadly I don’t. I wait for a place I can get a bucket of fresh water (not very often) then wash the clothes in salt water before giving a final rinse in the bucket, all while underway. Deep Blue then arrives in port looking like a Chinese laundry which the locals find quite amusing. The last laundrette was in Corfu. My hand and arm muscles have been well exercised – Andy is impressed - but I hate struggling with sheets and bath towels. Andy always seems to find something urgent to do with the engine when the buckets come out.
The reason I mention all this is that we haven’t even had water recently so I am getting very alarmed at how big the pile of dirty washing is getting. In the summer we had very little washing anyway but now it is cooler in the evenings and at sea, we are getting through more clothes. Greece has so many unfinished marinas with non-working taps and electricity points – it is very frustrating. There is a fantastic business opportunity for someone with money and energy ... working marinas! We are currently in yet another of these useless marinas on Island Syros. At least here I have found a laundry though – clean sheets at last!
We had an amazing sail to Ermoupoli, Syros at an average of 6.5 knots in 20 knot winds from beautiful Kea 40 nm away. Kea is about 30 nm from Athens and is apparently popular with the Athenians. There is a huge building programme of second homes at the moment but fortunately they blend in fairly well. Hopefully they will get finished despite the world recession and the Greek propensity not to finish projects. The main town (Hora) is in the middle of the island in the folds of three mountains linked to the other settlements by a network of ancient paved roads. We walked the 6kms to beautiful Hora along the one that linked to the port. Hora is ancient like the road that we walked, clinging to the hillsides, with narrow paved roads that excluded cars. It has been sited so that it has views of the sea, enabling plenty of warning that pirates are in the vicinity. Whilst walking the ancient roads we were passed on two occasions by elderly people riding their donkeys side saddle and clutching their plastic carrier bags full of shopping – they do not use the new road which winds up the mountainside far more than the old.
From Hora we decided to follow the ancient road back to the next costal settlement along from the port. Words cannot describe how wonderful this walk was – one that people have done for 2,500 years. Up and down the mountain, skirting the valleys and following old river beds. The road is still paved most of the way, lined by stone walls and signposted in hours and minutes. We walked through almond orchards (where we feasted on almonds straight from the tree!), olive groves (what do they do to olives to make them edible?)and grazing land. Past chapels, drink stands where we met a gentleman watering his donkey and we filled our water bottle, and ancient animal shelters. We walked for hours along this network of roadways and arrived back at Deep Blue exhausted but very happy.
11th November 2008
Ermoupoli here on Syros is the ancient capital of the Cyclades. We have been here since Saturday and, though by ourselves in the marina, have made several friends. We discovered why we are the only “live-aboard” in the marina – it is a terrible place to be in a storm and unfortunately we have been storm bound since Sunday. We have learnt a lot of lessons. One, head to wind is good in a storm, port-side too is not! Two, fenders are not sufficient protection for the boat when she is being buffeted by high winds onto a rough concrete quay, especially if you want to use the fenders again. Three, if a free marina is not being used – there is a reason!! Unfortunately for the first night of the storm (and it was only actually force 7) Deep Blue was pinned to a leeward quay. Fortunately there was a pile of tyres and we tied these to Deep Blue in addition to all our fenders. The tyres rubbed off DB’s decorative blue line and have made black marks but this is much better than a damaged boat. Our fenders are really a write-off. Moving her in the high winds in this ridiculously designed marina was a challenge but we were very glad that we had moved once we had safely secured her head to wind in the only corner sheltered from the swell. Now we don’t need the tyres and she barely touches the quay.
This town is a UNESCO world heritage site and once you get away from the industrial part (we are sandwiched between a working docks and a coal fired power station – consequently Deep Blue and everything else is covered by a thick BLACK dust) it is obvious that there is some pride taken in the marble paved town that is built on two hills. However, Ermoupoli is blighted by literally millions of Euros of unfinished European funded projects. It truly is a scandal, and an eye-sore.
Today we climbed up one series of the many marble flights of steps, past dozens of 18th century picture postcard houses and churches, to the cathedral at the top and looked down on the magnificent views to the other island on our clearest day yet. On the way down we stopped for a coffee at a cafe which turned out to be closed. However, we were invited in and ended up chatting with the very interesting owners Vasili and Elaine. Vasili told us something which was very revealing. Last night, he told us, he had watched his first ever interview with a politician where the interviewer forced him to answer the question and to expand on his answers. He said that until now Greeks have been prepared to leave the politicians to their job and interviewers were almost in awe of them. But things are changing – Greece is in a mess and tax payers want answers. His friend who joined us agreed, adding that Greece has been in steady decline for a century now. The politicians need to start justifying their actions. Greece needs to pull its socks up.
Andy and I discussed what Vasili had said. The Greeks are a very trusting, generous, friendly people. Perhaps it is their trusting nature that enabled their incompetent politicians to run Greece down so that it is now, in many places, like a third world country. Our Ermoupoli sailing friends, Wolfgang, Bettina and Klaus agree. Wolfgang and Klaus have sailed around Greece for many years and Bettina speaks Greek due to having a Greek boyfriend for many years. All three are wintering here, Klaus and Bettina’s boats out of the water. The three joined us for dinner on board Deep Blue last night and much of the conversation was about the ills of Greece. Today’s conversation with Vasili and Elaine gives me hope that the pride in Greece by the Greeks will be restored.
Our wind-generator has stopped working, so apart from waiting for the storm to move on, we are also waiting for a spare part to arrive. As Ermoupoli is a truly working town there is a healthy bustle about the place. Despite the terrible dust we really like the place as it is not touristic in any way. Vasili told us 30,000 people live and work here and it is hard to remember that this is an island and quite a small one at that. The traffic is terrible and there are a huge number of shops selling everything from wind generators to the latest flat screen TV. The guy in the wind generator shop knew his stuff and is a real advocate of alternative energy. He told us about the latest technology coming out of Japan which, if their claims are true, will revolutionise the industry – Flying Dolphin by Zephyr. He is about to test run one of the generators at his house. He showed us his store room and some of the machines he was about to install. It turns out he also helped out Bettina and Klaus with a spare part for their solar panel on their Lagoon 420 catamaran.
We have had two good evenings here so far. Saturday night we were jiving (well I was!) until 2 in the morning with a very lively Norwegian oil rig support ship crew who were in for repairs and last night our dinner party. Tonight we are out again with the Germans .. maybe we should stay as this town has potential!
14th November 2008
I have had my hair cut. The only reason I mention this is because it was a very Greek experience. The morning of the day before yesterday I called into a hairdresser that said it was open all day. Sure enough there were three staff in there and no customers but when I asked if I could have my hair cut they told me “tomorrow”. OK.. I said, but it will have to be early as I am leaving Ermoupoli. At this point one of the girls got out her phone. “The hairdresser is on another island today. We call to see if she can cut your hair tomorrow!” She could, which is a shame in retrospect.
Next morning I arrived at the appointed time to the tiny little shop. This time there were seven people in there. At least five it turned out were staff. They were variously smoking, drinking coffee and chatting. One customer was having her hair coloured. They were expecting me. The very helpful girl who spoke English asked me to go to the sink where she must have used half a bottle of shampoo washing my hair. I asked who was going to do the hair-cut as at this point it still was not obvious. She pointed in the general direction of the smoking and chatting women – I was none the wiser. My assistant asked me what I wanted and this is where things, perhaps, started to go wrong. “But why do you want to cut it? I like it how it is!” (This is not the line that a hairdresser usually takes – perhaps I should have taken it as a warning). But, I explained, it gets in my eyes and I want it about half the length that it is now. She did not understand so I pointed to a picture that illustrated what I wanted.
At this point the hairdresser joined us. She was the most unglamorous hairdresser I have ever had (to be kind). She did not acknowledge me or even look at my hair. She started to cut. None of the usual testing how it lies naturally, none of the carefully pulling the hair up with the comb and using her fingers to measure the lines. Just hacking really. When she finished after less than 10 minutes ALL my sun-bleached curls were on the floor and I was left with VERY short brown hair, especially at the back. However I was not to discover how short until later as, once she had finished, she just abandoned me and went back to her cigarette and coffee. No mirror to let me admire her work. My very Greek experience cost me €15 and all my hair.
After my haircut we left Ermoupoli with Wolfgang, Klaus and Bettina waving us au-revoir. We all hope to meet up again next year. Wolfgang has sailed 23,000 nm over the past 3 years in his 30 year old, 36 foot Contest. He showed Andy pictures of his trans-Atlantic crossings , showed us how to improve Deep Blue’s springs and gave me a lure to catch tuna. Klaus and Bettina intend to cross the Atlantic next autumn, a delay of one year as they realised that they had not explored Greece properly yet and wanted to fit out the Lagoon better for the crossing. We also met Anne Marie, Reinhart and his wife Maria who live permanently in Ermoupoli. It was a little sad to go after so much socialising but after 5 days we need to move on.
That night we anchored in a secluded bay opposite the ancient site of Delos and went swimming! Then this morning we motored round to the entrance. Delos was the centre of the world once – Apollo was born here. At its peak in 700 BC there were over 30,000 inhabitants and as a “free port” it became immensely wealthy and powerful. But it was abandoned by AD3 after, first Athens decreed, in a fit of jealousy, that no one can be born or die there and then the Romans transferred power to Rome. So, for over 2,000 years stones, statues and other artefacts have been pillaged leaving a ruined city. But the roads, drainage, cisterns and many walls still exist as do many mosaics and temple columns. From the sea the whole city is camouflaged – blending into the mountain from which stone it is built but once ashore you really can get a feel of how the city must have looked and what life was like. We spent as long as we were allowed on the island – access is restricted and you are not allowed to anchor within 500m of the shoreline – wandering the streets and climbing Mount Kynthos behind the city to the temple of Apollo. From this vantage point, 113m above sea-level, we could see all the surrounding islands to Paros and Naxos – surely one of the clearest days yet.
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