On our own again.

We spent three days in Lakki cleaning and tidying and relaxing. The sailmaker took our genoa on Friday evening and had it back by midday on Saturday, with the sacrifical strip resewn and a couple of other repairs.
We left Lakki on Sunday 28th, intending to sail to Agathonisi, but once again as soon as we got out we found the wind blowing at 25 knots from the north, so we just sailed (and motored) up to Arkhangeli, which was beautifully sheltered as always, and anchored alongside Flyer,

which was originally Flyer 2, record-breaking winner of the 1981 Whitbread Round the World Race, now converted to a fast crusing yacht (http://www.royalhuisman.com/en/yachtdescription145.html). We met her again in Amorgos a few days later, sailed on their own by a Dutch couple of a certain age - I guess it is not so difficult when everything is push-button, but docking 75 feet of boat on your own in a wind can't be easy.
We left Arkhangeli for Agathonissi on Monday with a moderate north wind and comfortable sailing. In Agathonissi we tied up to the town quay (too shallow for us to go right onto the quay) and saw our old friends (all of whom asked where Kai and Charlie had got to).
After a couple of days in Agathonissi we motored across to Arki as there was absolutely no wind (we had to drift for a bit because the fan belts needed adjusting as they were slipping - and the raw water pump is leaking so we have to pump out the bilges regularly).
In Arki we met up with John and Louise Helliwell on their Moody Grenadier. They have what looks like a beautiful villa in Turkey, which they rent when they are sailing in the summer (www.villa-tasevi.co.uk). We also got some photos of the flightless bird (that Jade calls a penguin) that waddles around and is the pet of one of the fishermen.

We left Arki at 7.30 on Friday morning, being undecided where we going to go. We first headed for Amorgos, but then the wind got up and we decided to head for Levitha, but then the wind dropped again so we went to Amorgos, where we tied up in Katapola at 5 in the afternoon.  We had settled in, had a nice meal ashore and were getting ready for bed at 10pm when Lin called down to Simon, come up quick. Simon put some clothes on and came up to find a Serbian-registered boat trying to come in on our starboard side, going all over the place. Their anchor dragged, so they relaid it, and it dragged again. The irate Frenchman downwind of him, on whom his boat was lying, persuaded him to reanchor again, which he finally succeeded in doing, now lying on our port side. Everything now seemed fine. But then their Russian-crewed sister boat arrived (it turned out that both boats were owned and chartered by the same skipper, who himself was barely competent) and came in on our starboard side. They too dragged, relaid and dragged again, at last holding. Meanwhile the first boat was also dragging again so they came out to relay. They managed to hook their anchor on our chain, then wrap our anchor chain around their keel and rudder, spin round so that they were bows on to the quay. Simon dropped all our chain to free them, while Lin got the engine started and the by now large crowd on the shore helped to fend us off. They eventually got free, went out and dropped their anchor and dragged it all the way in. They would not believe Simon when he told them their anchor was not dug in, until they had ground away on the windlass and brought the anchor right up. They tried to reanchor again (with the skipper having transferred from the other boat) and again failed to dig it in, but we just hoped that the weight of the (thin) chain and the weedy kedge that they laid would hold them and we all got to bed at 1.30 am (next morning they moved off and managed to get their anchor in the second time further up the quay). The two boats eventually left in the afternoon in a Force 6 northerly for Santorini, the last place in the world you would try to moor in the dark with an incompetent crew.



On Saturday morning we walked up to the ancient site of Minoa, partially excavated and reputedly the summer palace and burial place of King Minos. There is an imposing entrance gate

and cyclopean walls

and it was well worth the hot stiff climb for the views. As we came round to the seaward side we looked down to see a German charter crew bumping into our boat on their way in, so we took a picture in case we needed it for the insurance.

When we got down we discreetly examined the boat and no damage was done!
On Sunday we took the bus across the island to the monastry of Panagia Hozoviotissa, which was built into the cliffs on the south side of Amorgos in 1088. It was a hot steep climb up the steps from the bus stop,

but the monastry was very impressive from the outside

and very cramped inside

We had planned to spend some time on the beach in the little cove, Agia Anna, below the monastry.

We walked down there along the road, but the katabatic wind was blowing about 35 knots, so decided instead to take the bus back to the Hora

and have some lunch

before getting the bus back to Katapola.