Kea to Kythnos

The great thing about the Internet is that you can check the weather conditions and have fairly accurate predictions of weather and wind at your fingertips. The downside is that it gives you lots of time to fret about what to do about it. The weather called for a couple of Force 7 days – 28-33 knots. It’s okay for our boat to be out in that kind of weather, it’s just not that much fun to be out in lots of wind and the inevitable big waves that come with the wind. So when we see high winds being called for we find a good marina or anchorage and wait it out. Marina picked this small bay on Kythnos that was completely sheltered from the North winds (Meltemi they’re  called here) so we set out for Ormos Kolona on the island of Kythnos.

The anchorage was remote – in the two days we were there we saw four other boats. While we needed to power most of the way to get there we sailed the last bit between the islands of Kea and Kythnos on a broad reach. We anchored by 1pm early for us (usually that’s when the teenage part of our team is waking up). By late afternoon, the waves were getting really big on the outside. Meanwhile in our little bay the waves were tiny, and the wind stayed below 20 knots. Even still, the boat sailed at anchor (when the mast and freeboard of the boat cause the boat to sail forward until the anchor stops it, then it changes course 90 degrees and does it again. This process goes on and on and on and is fine as long as the anchor is set well. Marina, the maven of anchoring, put out 70 or 80 meters of chain in 6 meters of water. With that kind of scope we could probably have survived a hurricane.

 The water was really warm – like 23 degrees and we read in the Imray Pilot book (aka the Bible for cruising the islands) that there was rumoured to be a hot-spring somewhere near the beach. A little exploring later and we found a small “Hot Tub” where the water was something like a hot bathtub and we would swim for a while, and then go into the tub to warm up. It was glorious.

The wind was blowing hard for two days so the second day we went to the spit and played soccer, ran some laps and generally had a great time. I cannot imagine how great that place would be in 30 degree weather – perfect water, soft sand, great anchorage plus a hot tub to boot. In the afternoon we gathered up some wood, recycled some unburned charcoal briquettes from someone else’s BBQ pit, and made a fire pit by the hot tub. Marina only had one match and made it count. We ended up with a great fire that we re-heated feta-cheese perogies and smokies. We then roasted marshmallows …. Everyone that is except Jessie who prefers the “Blackened Marshmallow” so she just basically lit them on fire and ate them ashes and all.

The next day it was off to the Island of Syros, needing to get back on schedule required a 40+ mile day so we got up early to make it happen.