Out of Poros and the Arrival of Joost

Marcel had to go to Athens to drop of Stan and the boys and to pick up his son Joost. We first met Joost at Kremik (“My name is Joost – like toast but with a Yo”) and the kids have been great ever since. We have managed to connect with Joost each of the last 4 summers for a little while. The boys seem to start up where they left off, computer gaming, playing in the water, goofing around. Joost is also nice to Jessie which is a good thing as well. He has a kind heart.

Ross, Jess and Joost on the SUP

 

And sometimes...just too much technology!

And then Chelsea arrived. It was a somewhat close connection after her flight arrival in Athens to get to Piraeus (the ferry port) to catch the last ferry to Poros where we waited for her. She was taking the same route as Marina and Jess...taking a little longer to get to us with the 1 hour ferry ride to Poros but saving a lousy trip to Athens with Tara which is 30 miles straight upwind. We had agreed if she missed the ferry she would find an internet café and let us know. We didn't hear anything so we waited at the ferry dock on Poros.


Jess waiting for Chelsea



In came the 'Flying Cat 6" and off came the passengers...and off they came...and more came off...and then none. About 15 seconds later came Chelsea running off, she didn't realize this was the Poros stop! After a good laugh and lots of hugs we settled into dinner at the tavern right across from the ferry dock, all happy to be here!

She arrived safe and sound!

After another day in Poros where Marcel got his fridge repaired by the same guy that fixed ours, we headed off to Kithnos for a few days. Kithnos is 43 miles from Poros and we ended up powering for a couple, then we set the “whomper” … our mast-head spinnaker and sailed for an hour before we gave up and powered until we were about 10 miles away. Marcel started a half hour before us and continued to power while we were sailing in a dying wind – slowly extending his lead to about 2 miles. At around 10 miles off of Kithnos the wind started picking up so we hoisted our sails (technically we unrolled them) and started sailing. The wind shifted unfavourably at first, for a time we were pointing at Serifos, but as we got closer the Kithnos the wind lifted 70 degrees right into the bay we were aiming at.  We were retracing some steps that we had made a couple years ago on our year away. We had stayed in this bay that we call Hot-tub bay for three nights waiting out the Meltemi.

Matt and Ross taking a break on the bow

We made it into Hot-tub bay around 17:00, anchored and then hit the beach. There is an awesome sand beach there with a Kafe on the point that serves excellent food. We planned on staying at least two nights so we put our anchor in good and solid, let out half a mile of chain and started to have fun.

 

Tara at anchor on Kythnos

Ross and Joost goofing around.

Tomskii had to move on the next morning to pickup more passengers in Santorini. They decided to press on to Naxos – another 55 miles then take the ferry from there to Thira (Santorini) rather than risk the boat in a dodgy anchorage.

The Black Boat Size Competition at Kythnos...the small
one came in first, then the next size up, then the biggest one.
Then the power boat...do they know each other??

After dark Marcel and Lena rowed over and said their goodbyes over a couple of beers and some wine. We talked about a 7am coffee on Tomskii. I got up at 5:30 and they were there – I was startled by Chelsea being awake on deck along with Jess sleeping. It was too early so I went back to bed and got up at 07:00 but unfortunately Tomskii and crew had left – however (Marina’s favourite part of the story) not before I got in the dinghy and nearly stepped on someone else’s boat and got their dog barking at me. The boat that took their place had the same colour bimini, dodger and sails but it turned out to be a Beneteau 50 – just like ours – and I remember thinking on my way over, “I don’t remember Tomskii looking as much like Tara as it does this morning … hmmm” and as I got within 20 feet of the boat that had two people enjoying a coffee in the cockpit, I waved and slowly headed back to Tara.

Sunset on Kythnos

Later that morning Marina was SUPping and the kids took after her in the dinghy. Ross tried to jump onto the SUP from the moving dinghy to knock his mom into the water and in the process, got tomahawked in the head by the SUP paddle. They came back to the boat a few minutes later and Ross had blood streaming down his face. It took some doing but we got it staunched and he’s been cooped up with a headache and unable to swim until it scabs over a bit. We might take him in for stiches back at Poros.

NOT HAPPY!

Needless to say the departure of our friends and Ross having a gash in his head put a bit of a damper on staying in Kithnos. We thought after two nights we might spend a 3^rd however Windfinder put the fear of the 35knot Meltemi in us and we decided to bug out the next morning.

Playing on the beach at Kythnos

Marina and I awoke and we prepared the boat getting ready for the open ocean swells. The wind was in the high-teens/low 20’s and as we exited Hot-tub Bay the waves were a couple of meters high. We started sailing immediately and put our nose towards Poros – some 43 miles away at 270 degrees.

 

Our return sail to Poros turned into a very enjoyable 45 mile down-hill ride with the jib, main, then spinnaker, then back to the jib. We sailed all but a half mile, with speeds in the 7’s and 8’s for most of it. We wind softened after passing the island of Georgios so we hoisted the spinnaker and covered another 20 miles or so until the wind picked up to 12knots true – and we were doing as high as 9.6knots boatspeed. Our safety zone is if we are over 8 knots of boatspeed for 15 minutes we shorten sail, so we switched back to white sails and only lost a knot of boatspeed. It was a bit less exciting but alas, it was much more comfortable.

Jess found a friend