19. Our final days in the Cyclades

23rd-29th November 2008
We left Naxos when the fishermen started to leave after four days of storm. They ignored us – we had just been an irritation. Our reception when we arrived at Katapola, Amorgos Island in the late afternoon and decided to go alongside the town quay was a little different.

As we slipped into position a Port Policeman yelled at us from a balcony “you cannot go here – go over there”. As we attempted to slip in between the fishing boats “there” another man started to yell at us “no, you can’t go there. Come back here!” After he had helped us moor in among the lines of the other boats, the policeman came to the quay and started to yell at us again. “Why are you here? You should be there. Would you ignore a British policeman? Who do you listen to – me, a policeman or him a fisherman?....” We felt well and truly told off! In the end he relented and said we could stay where we were but had been concerned about the lines trailing in the water, now under us, and the ferry that came a little later to the space just behind us. “We are here to help you” were his final gruff words. As we discovered when we tried to leave, we should have listened to him!

One of the wonders of the world is on Amorgos, about 6kms from Katapola. We decided to walk there and found, by pure luck as there were no signposts, the ancient road to the Hora (main town). This ancient road has been renovated except for the beginning and the end. Lots of money (European of course) and energy has been spent on this wonderful walkway but the job has now been abandoned, in typical Greek style, before the most important bits have been done – an inch away from allowing it to be used. The weather was deteriorating and a mist was descending but this added to the occasion as we were to visit a monastery, the monastery of Hozoviotissas, clinging on to the cliffs above the sea.

The Hora was pretty impressive – narrow streets, steep steps, whitewashed and shuttered houses built one on top of the other. Fortifications against pirates were obvious. The town was almost completely closed up against the weather though the school was full of children – the only clue that the place was occupied. The Hora is built 500 metres above the sea and 500 metres from the cliff and we used the ancient cobbled walkway to zig-zag our way 400 metres down before turning a corner and wow...! There was the newly whitewashed monastery clinging to the cliff 150metres above us. We climbed up 350 beautifully maintained stone steps to the front door – a tiny opening. We knocked, stooped and entered. We were met by a monk, perhaps 40 years old, long beard, dressed in black robes and black hat. He invited us up more steps into a beautiful dining room and bid us sit down. He brought us cakes, water and mead – which we accepted gladly! From the window we could see the turquoise sea crashing on the cliffs 300 metres below. “The most beautiful place in the world” the monk stated.

After we were refreshed he took us to the small chapel – it was a truly spiritual experience. The cliff is the back wall of the monastery and towers above, as well as below, the building. It is a miracle that the place clings on and also a miracle no one has been killed by falling rocks from above. The monks sees this as a sign from God. A previous version did not survive but this one has survived over 1000 years. In its heyday there were 100 monks living here but now there are only three. Despite this it is well maintained and appears to be self-sufficient with food. The tour ended very abruptly when our very reverend monk announced that we must go now as he had been called to the phone!

That evening, after our first Gyros – OK but I will not rush to have another – we decided we would slip away and use the wind to sail to Kos, a 60+ nm run. Our Port Policeman could not be found – he promised us a weather forecast – and we appear to be out of radio signal, so we were relying on our downloaded GRIB file forecast which up to now had proved very accurate. This showed the wind dying over night and no more wind until the next storm due at the weekend. As we prepared to leave we were joking about slipping away and how surprised everyone would be. It was not to be quite that simple! As we attempted to leave we realised we were snagged on lines under the water. From nowhere several men appeared to witness our bungled departure. They unceremoniously grabbed Deep Blue and pulled her free, then pushed us off, asking incredulously “you are leaving?..”

We put up the main, one reef. Before we left the harbour we were running at 6 knots under this sail alone into the pitch black, between the cliffs. As we cleared the bay and the cliffs we realised there was rather more wind than we had expected – 30 knots. But it was from behind and the GRIB file said it was dying so we proceeded under main only. After two hours of sailing, with the wind gradually increasing we hit a complete doldrums caused by a wing-shaped spit of high land, then .. wham... 40 knots. At this point we came to our senses. Within another hour we were going to be turning East and the wind could well then be on our nose (island effects are strange and you never know what is round the corner). There were lights in view 3nm away, we knew it was a safe harbour, we made for it (strangely still down wind though we had turned through 90 degrees). By 11 pm we were safely alongside a fishing vessel – they were all sheltering in port along with a tanker so all the quay was taken.

At 6.45 in the morning we were woken by a load banging on our coach roof “Seignior”. It was the only sound our fisherman was to make. We were obviously being a nuisance again. He ignored us as we prepared to leave and tried to make conversation. We theorised that if the fisherman was leaving the wind must have died. Within 15 minutes we were under sail in now much reduced winds but still over 20 knots.

It was November 26th , Piers’ birthday. As we sailed out of Ayios Annas, Amorgos Island we spoke to Piers in China as he ate his lunch. He told us that he was going out that night with 25 mates to celebrate his birthday and then he was going to Beijing for a weekend with his Beijing friends! How does he do it? He sounded very happy and we were able to chat for half-an-hour.
The wind was behind us and over the next 10 hours we covered 55 nm using all our sails – including the now repaired spinnaker. A great days sailing in the sun. We arrived in the harbour of the Hora on Kalimnos Island just before the sun finally disappeared.

30th November 2008
We spent 18 hours in the Hora – a sponge diving centre – where we looked in the museum (very interesting but needing a facelift – it is scary how many sponges a single small boat could harvest and equally scary when you realise that the men who cut them were free-diving to 40 metres). We actually liked the Hora despite the unbelievable traffic (why, when 90% of the population lived in the tiny Hora on a tiny island, were there SO many vehicles?) and the run down feel but had to make a hasty retreat as we were making lunch because a rather thoughtless rib owner had moored so his HUGE engine kept knocking against the hull of Deep Blue.

It was a short hop over to Kos town on Kos, in full sight of Turkey and our next destination tomorrow, where we bumped into New Zealanders Pippa and Richard (who knows Helen very well as he worked in the same industry). We last saw them in Venice and managed to persuade them that Croatia was not too expensive for them to visit – for which they are very grateful.
The weather is deteriorating with many more storms. Sometimes these storms are from the South and are warm but other times they are really chilly from the North. We still have had no real rain but the unpredictability of the wind is a worry for us. We have to be in a safe harbour when on land and it feels like time to hang up our sailing boots for a month or two until the weather improves. We are looking forward to the next phase and have started to prepare for Christmas when Judy, JP, Sam and Emily are joining us.