Greece no. 2

12 August ® 21 August 2014   

Yasas ( howzit in Greek! )

Wow, what a great time we are having. It has been so busy onboard “Domicilium”.

We finally showed Bloss, Wojtek and Tadji the beautiful town of Naoussa on the evening of the 11^th August. They found it so quaint and loved the glamorous shops. The full moon was a great ‘torch’ for our dinghy ride back to the boat.

Early morning wake up call to set sail for our next Island of Kithnos. Bye, bye Paros once again you gave us such a good time. Luckily we had more than enough wind to put all the sails up and to reach a speed of 8,7 knots. We anchored next to a sandspit and went stern to the rocks in calm, turquoise water. Tadji and I spent hours jumping off the high rocks into the crystal clear water and snorkelling.

 

 The following morning we went off to go and look for the thermal spring in the next bay that we had read about in the guide book. We found it eventually in amongst the rocks on the beach. It was a natural bath right on the shoreline with hot bubbling water. We all lay in it, it felt soothing. We laugh so much on board that my mom often has tears pouring down her cheeks. That evening we lay on the trampoline on the foredeck and we gazed at the stars, it was so warm, still and beautiful.

Hydra was our next Island.

On the way we stopped for a swim in the middle of nowhere and sadly in the distance we saw a dead turtle lying on its back and fishes were hiding underneath it. We put the fishing lines in but once again no such luck. We anchored in the beautiful bay of Mandraki and walked in the boiling hot sun into the main town. The architecture was totally different from the white washed typical Greek buildings of Patmos, Paros and Kithnos. Here it was very green with luscious cypress trees and Italian style villas overlooking the port. On this Island there are no cars so to get around so you either have to walk, take a water taxi or hire a donkey.

As we arrived we could hear the priest preaching loudly from the church on the dockside. We ate dinner nearby and we could hardly hear ourselves think let alone talk. As we were finishing off our meal everyone filed out of the church behind the priest and his helpers and paraded through the town holding candles and paintings to mark the festival of the ‘Assumption of the Virgin Mary’. The next day Tadji and I discovered a beautiful private villa on the rocks with a big diving board. We were a little naughty and just had to have a few dives off this springy board into the blue, blue sea.

We sailed to Poros and there in the anchorage my dad pulled Tadji and I behind the dinghy on our lilos. We were laughing our heads off as they kept on nose diving.

Korfos was next. Here we tied up to the local docks that were owned by the tavernas (restaurants) and you could get free water, showers and WiFi on the boat! Tadji and I made handlines to try and catch some small fish using stale bread, bits of the left over pork chops and raisins. We were not successful but it was fun. After dinner that evening we went shopping and I bought a white dress and a black skirt which Tadji (also known as Angelina) was prancing around in the shop. The assistant, a lovely old Greek lady was in love with him. We laughed so much that night.

Next day we were finally to go through the Corinth Canal. It is just over 3 miles long and 25 metres at the widest part. The sides of the canal rise to 76 metres at the highest point. Going through this canal saved us 450 nautical miles and a lot of time. At the entrance we saw a replica of an ancient Viking long boat. The Russians on board looked really dirty but they were friendly. They were all wearing traditional Russian clothing and shoes. Tadji got hoisted up the mast in the bosuns chair to take photos from above, he loved it. The Corinth Canal was an amazing experience which I will never forget.

We are now in the Ionian Sea. We made our way to the really beautiful town of Galaxidi on mainland Greece. We all fell in love with this place immediately. We met a lovely Greek woman called Stella who invited us to her home. Here we tried some local Greek chocolate and she gave us a tour of her old ‘ship captains’ house, one of only ten left in the Town. The top floor was a huge open plan area which used to be an old sail loft for repairing and drying the old cotton sails. From here we left very early in the morning by local bus to get to the ancient town of Delphi about 45kms away. Delphi was a religious sanctuary in its time. It is set up high on a mountain amongst olive and cypress trees. We wandered around for about three hours looking at all the amazing ruins dating back thousands of years.

 I loved Apollo’s temple and I found the old stadium with its grass track very interesting. Afterwards we toured the old museum full of artefacts and amazing statues.

Later in the town Tadji and I bought Greek ‘worry beads’ after getting a demonstration from a local Greek man on how to play with them. Back in Galaxidi we dived for sea urchins as my dad and I are planning to make a heart of urchins on a white canvas.

I am a little behind on my blogging as I have to do schoolwork now. This news is up to the 21^st August. I promise to write again soon.

Adio

Tristy xx