We had to round Akra Maleas (Cape Maleas) to proceed further East. The seas around the cape can be treacherous and difficult to navigate, most famously described in the Odyssey. Homer describes how, after the sacking of Troy, Odysseus on his return home to Ithaca rounds Cape Maleas only to be blown off course, resulting in him being lost at sea for 10 years.
PredictWind is a widely used weather app amongst cruisers and the strong Meltimi winds were to ease from 30+ kts to a more pleasant 15 kts on Monday Sept 07. We left Ormos Frangos early morning 05.30 am and motored in the lee of the cape towards the Aegean Sea.
Once in open water we hoisted the sails for the 75 miles to Milos. During the day the windspeed steadily increased and in the evening we entered Ormos Milou under double reefed main and genoa. The Meltimi lived up to its reputation again!
The anchorage off Adhamas is well protected and we would stay there for the next nine days.
The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece. The name “Cyclades” refers to the islands forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. The 220 islands are peaks of a submerged mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands, Milos and Santorini. Milos is the most South-Westward island of the Cyclades and the first one to make landfall if coming from the Peloponnesos.
Milos volcano last erupted 90,000 years ago, and is considered a dormant volcano that could erupt again. The natural harbour is the hollow of the crater, with a depth diminishing from 130–55 m. The harbour town is Adhamas. From this there is an ascent to the plateau above the harbour, on which are situated the capital Plaka, and Kastro, rising on a hill above it. The ancient town of Melos was nearer to the entrance of the harbour than Adamas, and occupied the slope between the village of Trypiti and the landing-place at Klima. Here is a Roman theatre and some remains of town walls. Numerous fine works of art have been found on this site, notably the Venus of Milo.
While a lesser-known island within the popular Cyclades, Milos has grown in popularity as a vacation destination in the past decades. However the population is declining from 6,500 in 1928 to around 4,500 now. We rented a 4WD Suzuki to explore the main sites for a day.
The small village of Tripiti (400 inhabitants) as seen from ancient Melos with remains of the ancient settlements’ walls below.
Empty tables of restaurant Barriello, desperate for customers (COVID) at the foot of the Orthodox Church in Tripiti.
The site of the ancient city of Melos was inhabited for over 1500 years from about 800 BC to 700 AD. The most prominent remain is the Roman theater with a capacity to seat 800 spectators. The ancient harbour is at modern day Klima and is visible on the photo below.
The city had periods of great prosperity as evidenced by the fine art that was excavated on this site, most notably the Venus of Milo (now in the Louvre, Paris) and the Asclepius of Milos (now in the British Museum).
Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the Venus of Melos is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
What used to be Melos’ harbour is now the small fishing village of Klima. The typical fisherman’s’ houses have a “garage” for their boat with living quarters on the first floor. Many are converted into holiday homes.
Sarakiniko beach is the most photographed landscape in the cyclades. The snow white volcanic rock is sculpted by wind and water.
The “Abandoned Sulfur Mine” is one of the tourists attractions for those who want to go the extra mile off the beaten track. Milos was the most abundant source of sulfur in the ancient world. The plant in Paliorema was built in 1930 and continued operation until 1958 producing about 15,000 tonnes per annum. The plant followed the Svoronos process. Basically the Sulfur ore was crushed and heated to 120 degrees C. The sulfur melts at this temperature and upon cooling, small granules of sulfur form which can de separated by a flotation process. The plant went bankrupt due to cheaper and higher quality sulfur being available from elsewhere.
By comparison, Abu Dhabi where Liza and Frits lived and worked, produced 151,000 tonnes of sulfur in 2019. Frits worked on a couple of sulfur projects.
Honey, the food of Gods, is widely used in many traditional recipes. Honey puffs (Loukoumades), are covered in honey, cinnamon and crushed walnuts. Pasteli is another Greek sweetie made with honey and a variety of seeds and nuts like an “energy bar”.
We had not been in a marina since we left Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, two months ago and we were running a bit low on fuel. Adhamas marina has no fuel dock. You make an appointment for a fuel truck delivery instead. We docked TWO B stern too at her own anchor which was a(nother) first for us. You drop the anchor whilst motoring stern to the cay, veering out the anchor chain as you go. Once the sternlines are secured to the cay than you adjust the anchor chain. We got it first time right and Liza did a good job in “feeling” the anchor chain.
Paying cash for the fuel resulted in a 20% discount and no bill. Tribute to the Southern mentality. “The Government takes enough from us already” were his comments.
On Wednesday Sept 16 at 2 pm we hauled anchor for the 55 miles sail to Ios. Only at 4 pm there was enough wind to hoist the sails, (hence our afternoon departure). It turned out to be a tiring trip with many sail changes. At 6pm we found ourselves under double reefed main only to shake out one reef an hour later. We knew that we would arrive after dark and to our dismay the radar gave an error message and was not available. We would have another 4 sail changes before we arrived in Ormos Milopotamou on Ios. The entrance to the bay was easy so we did not need the radar.
The radar was an easy fix. Disconnect the radar dome from power (No, the main breaker for the electronics on the control panel does NOT de-power the radar-dome. Frits had to pull the dome fuse.) Wait 15 seconds, power up and re-boot. Done.
Cyclone Ianos, also known as Medicane Ianos, was heading towards Greece. Although we were 250 miles East of the eye of the storm, the medicane would still bring strong winds from the West and our anchorage was fully exposed so we had to relocate to protect ourselves.
We re-anchored in Ormos Maltas in Sikinos only 6 miles to the West of Ios. We powered against the anchor to dig it in deep and put out some extra chain. Frits dove the anchor to check if it was well dug in. The bay is surrounded by high cliffs and with the anchor alarm set and the wind screaming in the rigging we spend an anxious night, regularly leaving our bunks to check anchor drag and our surroundings.
The small cyclone reached its peak intensity of 120 km/h (75 mph) on 18 September, before making landfall in southwestern Greece. Damage was severe in Greece, A state of emergency was declared for the islands of Ithaca, Kefalonia, and Zakynthos. Four people were killed, and one person remains missing. Ianos caused at least $100 million USD in damages.
Some holiday resorts on Milopothamo beach had not opened for this years season because of COVID. Many of those that were open had a utilisation of around 20% compared to 90% in normal years. Some were already closing shop for the winter while normally they would stay open until end of October. There was one noticeable exception: Cantina Del Mar, run by an Australian couple. The servings where huge. The quality was excellent, service was very friendly, all at affordable prices. They always had business.
We rented as scooter at Costa’s to explore the island for a day.
The ancient settlement of Skarkos is situated on a hill, surrounded by fertile plains and close the harbour, but far enough from the waterfront to protect against pirate attacks. Skarkos was home to between 200 and 300 people of the Keros-Syros culture ca 2700-2300 BC.
The chain-smoking government caretaker of the site was visibly pleased that he finally had visitors. He took us on a “private tour” over the site allowing us in locations normally closed to visitors. The stone built residential buildings consist of a ground floor used for food preparation, a first floor as living room and an enclosed courtyard. Walls are preserved to a height of up to 4 meters.
In Ios port we bumped into an Australian who ran and owned a hotel for over 20 years in the harbour. She guided us to a restaurant that served real Greek home cooking and not the Greek tourist cuisine.
When we told the patroness that we were referred to her restaurant by the owner of Seabreeze hotel she replied; “I will make something for you” and we never saw the menu.
Pictured above are the starters. The main course was a goat/potato stew. Absolutely delicious and a breather from the usual “Greek” salad, souvlaki, giro and tzatziki albeit there is nothing wrong with that either.
After lunch we drove to the NE coast of the island to visit the tomb of Homer. Homer is the author of the Iliad, a poem about the siege of Troy (Ilium) and the Odyssey, a poem about the journey home of Odysseus after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer’s life exist, the most widespread that he was a blind bard from Ionia (present day Turkey), and that he was thrown overboard after he died aboard a fishing vessel and washed ashore in Ios. Most scholars consider this a legend.
In 1771, a Dutch count named Pasch di Krienen came to Ios in order to discover the grave. He was informed by a local priest that there is a place with marbles and some of which had inscriptions. With the help of Spyridon Valettas he found three graves and the last one had inscriptions about Homer reading: “here under the earth lies the sacred head of heroic Homer”. However, Pasch realised some grammatical mistakes on the gravestone and he began doubting its authenticity.
On Sept 22 we sailed nine miles south to Ormos Manganari on the South side of Ios, to position ourselves for the crossing to Thira the next day.
Visiting Thira, also known as Santorini by boat is not recommended according to the cruising guide since it is almost impossible to anchor inside the deep crater. The few anchorages are certainly taken and anchoring outside will leave you exposed to wind and swell. “Leave your boat in Ios and take a ferry instead.” But with COVID there was only one ferry per day at awkward times meaning you had to stay in a hotel for at least two nights.
What do we have a boat for? The weather looked stable for the coming days with winds from the NW and W so we decided to go.
Santorini, officially Thira, is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. It forms the southernmost island of the Cyclades
The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in recorded history, which occurred about 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilisation. It expelled 61 cubic kilometres of magma and rock into the Earth’s atmosphere. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep. It may have led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km to the south, through a gigantic tsunami.
Santorini was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1956, although the volcano is “dormant” at present.
We sailed into the heart of this “beast”.
We crossed the caldera from North to South and indeed, not a single anchorage available to spend the night safe at anchor. We found an anchorage on the South-coast close to the pre-historic town of Akrotiri (closed because of COVID) opposite tavern “The Cave of Nicolas”.
The dwellings at the beach were cave houses of fishermen only a few decades ago until they discovered that tourism paid better, so they built a terras and sunshade in front of the cave-house and opened restaurants.
The patron (with bald head) was very entertaining. His father started the restaurant, COVID took a heavy toll on business with now mainly local clients only. He was interested in our journey and when we finished exchanging stories he gave us a bottle of ouzo. Amazing guy.
The swell curled around the headland we were anchored behind and caused a bit of an uncomfortable night so the next day we moved to the East side of the island and anchored off Monolitos beach.
We dinghied ashore and went to the local supermarket. The owner called his cousin who ran a scooter renting business and we were picked up 10 minutes later. We learned that most Greeks on the island return to the mainland after tourist season and those staying behind are mostly Eastern Europeans in long term rental apartments. After the required paperwork we jumped on the scooter and off exploring.
The (beautiful) church in Kamari had its annual birthday celebration. Yep……..one more reason for a celebration. Free bread for every visitor.
Thera is arguably one of the most famous tourist hotspots in Greece. It is VERY touristy with plenty opportunities for cheesy pictures but now (COVID) without the crowd!
A 20% occupancy rate is bad for Santorini’s economie. There were no Americans and no Chinese. The few tourists were mainly from Eastern Europe. For us it was a boon. It felt as if we had the place to ourselves.
The crater rim is packed with hotels and restaurants facing the spectacular views over the volcano to the West.
The photo above is pictured in every tourist brochure. The location for this shot is signposted!
A film by Simcha Jacobovici, The Exodus Decoded, links the eruption of this volcano to all the biblical plagues described against Egypt. The documentary presents this eruption as corresponding to the time of the Biblical Moses. The film suggests that the Mycenaean Israelites fled Egypt after the eruption, and went back to Mycenae. Rather than crossing the Red Sea, Jacobovici argues a marshy area in northern Egypt known as the Reed Sea would have been alternately drained and flooded by tsunamis caused by the caldera collapse, and could have been crossed during the Exodus.
The movie is available on Youtube and is very interesting: The Exodus Decoded
While Thera has the better views over the volcano, it is the Northern settlement of Oia that has a more authentic and less touristy feel to it.
With a “bin there, done that” feeling we returned the scooter and went for a last dinner at Mario’s before preparing ourselves to sail on the next day.
We hope you enjoyed reading this (long) post and until next time.
SV TWO B; Liza and Frits.