Kynthos

The sea had settled but unfortunately so had the wind so we left early, after asking the yachts in front of us to allow us out, and motored the 40 odd miles across to the island of Kynthos. What a beautiful day, sunbathing, reading and fishing!

The dreaded fishing lure, bought some 4 years ago in  a small shop in Bandol on the French Riviera, finally worked and Justin managed to catch a huge(!) yellow fin tuna (well big enough for a couple of meals anyway). This caused absolute chaos on the boat with Helen screaming while Justin tried to get it on board without getting too much fish blood on the decks!

We knew that the weather was about to turn again and the Meltemi was about to hit the Aegean so we headed for the west of the island to the village of Loutro. The island is a dramatic change from what we have been used to – it is a very barren, volcanic island with very few dwellings. However, the yacht basin in the village is amazing, with brilliant shelter, water and electricity available and even a supermarket and bakery in the village. A perfect place to hole up for a few days until the winds subside. We arrived just in time because a flotilla of ten German boats arrived soon after us and some of them had to moor on the outside of the mole, a very uncomfortable place in the building swell. Nearly all of the yachts in the basin were charter boats and had to have their boats back in Athens on Saturday morning. Needless to say this caused much concern because the forecast was awful with Force 7 winds and big seas forecast.

There is a small beach in the village with a hot volcanic spring feeding directly into the sea at the south end. We decided to brave the water and investigate – it really was very hot indeed. Apparently the first King of Greece had a spa built here in the village but it now lies in ruins.

 

Helen made friends with the local hound!

Unfortunately the weather didn’t improve and all of the charter yachts had to leave in the bad weather to make their way back to base. I hope they all made it back without incident!

Apparently Kynthos is a popular walking destination and we can see why – we took a couple of walks along the coast which, although very blustery, were spectacular.

 

Tomorrow, Siros,………….