On Sunday in Skhinousa a young Greek couple from Syros came alongside us in a Gibsea 92, the boat we had chartered on our first sailing trip in Greece with Sam and Becky in 1987. They suggested that it might even be the same boat renamed as there are only two of them in Greece. It looked very small next to us!
We had an excellent lunch in taverna Deli looking over the bay below.
On Monday we ran the engine to charge the batteries as usual and after a couple of minutes the engine died. Having ruled out dirty fuel by checking the filter we concluded that we had run out of diesel. Lin had suggested filling up in Lakki, but Simon insisted that we had enough to get to Naxos at least. It had all looked OK, with the gauge on a quarter, but clearly the gauge had stuck. We asked Costas in the taverna where we could get diesel and he replied that we could not get diesel on Skhinousa. So Simon checked the ferry times to Naxos, hoping to take a couple of cans to fill and come back the same day. Costas told us that the ferry stops in Naxos for about three hours, which would give us plenty of time, but warned that we would not be allowed to take fuel on the ferry so we would have to hide it in a bag. What to do? We could not risk sailing to Naxos with no engine, especially in these winds. But then a saviour appeared - an Australian family on a chartered catamaran overheard us and offered us their spare can of diesel - about 20 litres.
We liked Skhinousa very much but it was getting time to leave as soon as the wind allowed.
The forecast on Skhinousa told us every day that tomorrow will be windy but the day after tomorrow will be better, but it then turns out to be worse. The forecast for Tuesday was not too bad, northerly 6 with a bit of 7, so we decided to go for it with two reefs and the third reef rigged just in case. For the first hour we motored as there was no wind at all in the lee of Naxos, but we could see a line of white horses just to the west, which we hit as we rounded the tip of Naxos. We had a windy beat up the channel between Naxos and Paros with winds of 25-30 knots true, a current against us of 1-2 knots and waves over two metres in the channel. Nevertheless we had two reefs, a flat main and a tiny bit of genoa and we made a good 5-6 knots, pointing well, but getting soaked when we hit a nasty wave.
As we got west of Naxos town, on the Paros side, we decided to take in the genoa and motor sail under main only the rest of the way. Simon started to pull in the genoa and the furling line snapped, releasing the genoa so that the whole sail unrolled and flogged violently. Lin tried to keep the boat and the genoa under control while Simon jury-rigged a rolling line and eventually got the genoa in.
As we crossed over to Naxos in increasing winds and seas we got perilously close to the notorious reef, which we could not see until we were a couple of hundred metres off it. Once we had rounded the reef we decided it was time to get the main down - not easy on a bucking deck, with the waves pushing the boat off the wind this way and that, but Lin managed to keep us pretty much on the wind, while Simon got the main down (finding that one of the battens had sprung out of its fitting) and lashed it to the boom - it was not the time to get it into its bag and zip it up. We came into Naxos harbour and found the entrance to the marina, which turned out to be full, but Nikos, the harbour master, was very helpful, getting us to anchor and come back on to the corner of a pontoon.
Once we had settled down and got everything stowed, Simon went to lower the dinghy, to find it half full of water from breaking waves, and floating in it was the top half of the casing of our radar reflector. We realised that the flogging genoa had smashed the radar reflector casing, leaving the reflector dangling from its lower mount. We connected up the electricity, but it tripped. Simon switched everything off and by a process of elimination found that the problem was the immersion heater, which we switched off.
We were tied up next to a very nice Danish couple, who were very helpful. As we were tired and hungry we asked their advice about the best place to eat. We followed their instructions, but could see no sign of their recommended taverna after walking for miles, so we ducked back to a taverna in the old town, where we had a tolerable dinner, went home and collapsed into bed.
Wednesday was the first repairs day. First stop was the immersion heater, so that could get hot water. Simon removed the immersion heater cover to find it full of water, which was bubbling out of the insulation all around. The first thing was to get some stoppers so that we could disconnect the tank from the water supply. Simon tried the chandlers, but the caps would not fit - it looked as though the thread was too wide. The chandlers sent him off to a plumbing supplier on the other side of town, and eventually he found 1" plastic caps to fit the pipes. He got back to the boat to find that the caps were too big (aqbout 30mm), so he had to trudge back to the edge of town to replace them. The shop owner insisted they were 1" caps and that 1" was three centimetres. He produced 25mm brass fittings which were stamped 3/4, so Simon changed his nominal 1" caps for Naxos 3/4" 25mm caps, which, after much manipulation, he managed to get on to the pipes to isolate the tank.
Assuming that the problem was the immersion heater joint, Simon packed it with Leak Fix and declared it sound. Wewalked up to the Kastro in the afternoon, visiting the Venetian museum, a fortified house, making part of the castle wall, that was built by a Venetian invader (supposedly on the Crusade) in 1207 and still inhabited by the same family. The house was fascinating, the exhibits less so (it looked as though they had emptied the junk from their cellar and attic).
When we got back to the boat Simon proudly switched the water back on, and it still came squirting and gurgling out of the insulation on the hot water tank. He had to cut away about a quarter of the insulation to track down the leak, which was on the other side from the immersion heater. Repeated attempts to block the leaks with Leak Fix failed (though the leak is now not so bad) as the water finds its way out under the Leak Fix - probably the surface was not completely dry around the leak so it had not bonded. So now we have to switch the water off when we are not using it and pump out the bilges every day.
Thursday was repairs day 2. But before we began, Simon spent one and a half hours diving to free the propellor of the Danich couple's boat from a tangle of mooring lines - they had dropped the mooring line long before moving off, but it had jammed in their rudder and when the started it twisted round the propellor and picked up a load of other bits of old rope. They gave us two good bottles of wine for our pains - not necessary, we yachters are always ready to help each other.
Having rescued the Danes, Simon removed the old furling line and measured it up for a replacement. We needed a 10mm line (easier on the hands, quite apart from the strength) but the chandlers turned out to have only 8 mm and 12 mm line. 12mm would not fit on the drum, so we had to get 8mm and hope that it holds until we get back to Lakki. We then refitted the batten that had fallen out, with a lot of pulling and pushing, In the afternoon we went off for a swim to a beach on the causeway leading to the temple of Apollo
- a tiny little cove with deep sand and clear water. Simon disappeared, snorkling over to Grotta beach to see the submerged Cycladic and classical buildings. Mostly it was not possible to tell the difference between ruins and natural rocks, though there were some obviously cut marble blocks. Getting out of the water was treacherous - the flat rocks were covered with sea urchins almost to the sea shore. Simon managed to surf over the rocks without getting spiked and walked back to our cove.In the evening we had an excellent Thai meal at the East West restaurant.
Our friend Gill Frith was arriving on the Thursday night ferry from Athens to start her HF walking holiday. Simon went down to the quay, thinking the ferry came in at 10.40, only to find that on Thursdays it did not come in intil 11.40, so we went to bed without seeing Gill, but left her a message to come for a drink on Friday evening.
On Friday we rented a car for the day to drive around the island and check out the likeliest walking routes. The car hire man gave us a half hour briefing and mapped out a route for us, which turned out to be perfect, taking us round all the main sites and ending up on a beach. We went to the temple of Demeter,
where a walking group emerged from the bushes - not Gill's HF group, but a group on a Ramblers holiday. We also stopped off at Halki, where we had a coffee in the old town, and drove up the valley
and over the ridge to Apeiranthos,
a Cretan village, where we took in three museums, the best being a higgeldy piggledy archaeological museum with some lovely Cycladic pieces and ancient carvings.
We drove back down another valley, past a modern marble quarry
then went for a walk to look at an ancient quarry and two Kouros, large statues that had been abandoned in the quarry because they were broken.
We got home just in time for a quick shower before Gill arrived for a drink and Mexican dinner.
Gill decided to duck out of her Saturday walk, so she joined us to go to the wonderful archaeological museum, with terrific Mycenean and Cycladic figures and pottery.
Although not up to the Cycladic art in the Benares in Athens, it is much more impressive when you know where it comes from and you get a good sense of the longevity and prosperity of Naxos civilisation. After the most expensive beers we have ever drunk (Gill paid), overlooking the marina and Mia Hara,
and after lunch we walked round to Agios Georgios beach for another swim. The guide books suggested that we would not be able to move for bodies, but in fact there were few people beyond the tavernas and sun beds and it was all remarkably clean. For dinner we went back to East West - three days without Greek food!
We decided to set off back towards Leros on Monday, so Sunday is shopping, cleaning and clearing up. And fixing the radar reflector, which was dangling dangerously loose. Lin winched Simon up the mast,
where it was very windy and where he tied the top end of the reflector,
but we will have to be very careful not to catch the genoa on it and will take it down when it is less windy. He had planned to go to the masthead and remove the anchor light for repair, but it was too windy, so we put that off for another day.
It has got markedly cooler in the last couple of weeks, jumpers or jackets in the evenings, and we have quite a bit of cloud and even a few drops of rain in Naxos.
We had an excellent lunch in taverna Deli looking over the bay below.
On Monday we ran the engine to charge the batteries as usual and after a couple of minutes the engine died. Having ruled out dirty fuel by checking the filter we concluded that we had run out of diesel. Lin had suggested filling up in Lakki, but Simon insisted that we had enough to get to Naxos at least. It had all looked OK, with the gauge on a quarter, but clearly the gauge had stuck. We asked Costas in the taverna where we could get diesel and he replied that we could not get diesel on Skhinousa. So Simon checked the ferry times to Naxos, hoping to take a couple of cans to fill and come back the same day. Costas told us that the ferry stops in Naxos for about three hours, which would give us plenty of time, but warned that we would not be allowed to take fuel on the ferry so we would have to hide it in a bag. What to do? We could not risk sailing to Naxos with no engine, especially in these winds. But then a saviour appeared - an Australian family on a chartered catamaran overheard us and offered us their spare can of diesel - about 20 litres.
We liked Skhinousa very much but it was getting time to leave as soon as the wind allowed.
The forecast on Skhinousa told us every day that tomorrow will be windy but the day after tomorrow will be better, but it then turns out to be worse. The forecast for Tuesday was not too bad, northerly 6 with a bit of 7, so we decided to go for it with two reefs and the third reef rigged just in case. For the first hour we motored as there was no wind at all in the lee of Naxos, but we could see a line of white horses just to the west, which we hit as we rounded the tip of Naxos. We had a windy beat up the channel between Naxos and Paros with winds of 25-30 knots true, a current against us of 1-2 knots and waves over two metres in the channel. Nevertheless we had two reefs, a flat main and a tiny bit of genoa and we made a good 5-6 knots, pointing well, but getting soaked when we hit a nasty wave.
As we got west of Naxos town, on the Paros side, we decided to take in the genoa and motor sail under main only the rest of the way. Simon started to pull in the genoa and the furling line snapped, releasing the genoa so that the whole sail unrolled and flogged violently. Lin tried to keep the boat and the genoa under control while Simon jury-rigged a rolling line and eventually got the genoa in.
As we crossed over to Naxos in increasing winds and seas we got perilously close to the notorious reef, which we could not see until we were a couple of hundred metres off it. Once we had rounded the reef we decided it was time to get the main down - not easy on a bucking deck, with the waves pushing the boat off the wind this way and that, but Lin managed to keep us pretty much on the wind, while Simon got the main down (finding that one of the battens had sprung out of its fitting) and lashed it to the boom - it was not the time to get it into its bag and zip it up. We came into Naxos harbour and found the entrance to the marina, which turned out to be full, but Nikos, the harbour master, was very helpful, getting us to anchor and come back on to the corner of a pontoon.
Once we had settled down and got everything stowed, Simon went to lower the dinghy, to find it half full of water from breaking waves, and floating in it was the top half of the casing of our radar reflector. We realised that the flogging genoa had smashed the radar reflector casing, leaving the reflector dangling from its lower mount. We connected up the electricity, but it tripped. Simon switched everything off and by a process of elimination found that the problem was the immersion heater, which we switched off.
We were tied up next to a very nice Danish couple, who were very helpful. As we were tired and hungry we asked their advice about the best place to eat. We followed their instructions, but could see no sign of their recommended taverna after walking for miles, so we ducked back to a taverna in the old town, where we had a tolerable dinner, went home and collapsed into bed.
Wednesday was the first repairs day. First stop was the immersion heater, so that could get hot water. Simon removed the immersion heater cover to find it full of water, which was bubbling out of the insulation all around. The first thing was to get some stoppers so that we could disconnect the tank from the water supply. Simon tried the chandlers, but the caps would not fit - it looked as though the thread was too wide. The chandlers sent him off to a plumbing supplier on the other side of town, and eventually he found 1" plastic caps to fit the pipes. He got back to the boat to find that the caps were too big (aqbout 30mm), so he had to trudge back to the edge of town to replace them. The shop owner insisted they were 1" caps and that 1" was three centimetres. He produced 25mm brass fittings which were stamped 3/4, so Simon changed his nominal 1" caps for Naxos 3/4" 25mm caps, which, after much manipulation, he managed to get on to the pipes to isolate the tank.
Assuming that the problem was the immersion heater joint, Simon packed it with Leak Fix and declared it sound. Wewalked up to the Kastro in the afternoon, visiting the Venetian museum, a fortified house, making part of the castle wall, that was built by a Venetian invader (supposedly on the Crusade) in 1207 and still inhabited by the same family. The house was fascinating, the exhibits less so (it looked as though they had emptied the junk from their cellar and attic).
When we got back to the boat Simon proudly switched the water back on, and it still came squirting and gurgling out of the insulation on the hot water tank. He had to cut away about a quarter of the insulation to track down the leak, which was on the other side from the immersion heater. Repeated attempts to block the leaks with Leak Fix failed (though the leak is now not so bad) as the water finds its way out under the Leak Fix - probably the surface was not completely dry around the leak so it had not bonded. So now we have to switch the water off when we are not using it and pump out the bilges every day.
Thursday was repairs day 2. But before we began, Simon spent one and a half hours diving to free the propellor of the Danich couple's boat from a tangle of mooring lines - they had dropped the mooring line long before moving off, but it had jammed in their rudder and when the started it twisted round the propellor and picked up a load of other bits of old rope. They gave us two good bottles of wine for our pains - not necessary, we yachters are always ready to help each other.
Having rescued the Danes, Simon removed the old furling line and measured it up for a replacement. We needed a 10mm line (easier on the hands, quite apart from the strength) but the chandlers turned out to have only 8 mm and 12 mm line. 12mm would not fit on the drum, so we had to get 8mm and hope that it holds until we get back to Lakki. We then refitted the batten that had fallen out, with a lot of pulling and pushing, In the afternoon we went off for a swim to a beach on the causeway leading to the temple of Apollo
- a tiny little cove with deep sand and clear water. Simon disappeared, snorkling over to Grotta beach to see the submerged Cycladic and classical buildings. Mostly it was not possible to tell the difference between ruins and natural rocks, though there were some obviously cut marble blocks. Getting out of the water was treacherous - the flat rocks were covered with sea urchins almost to the sea shore. Simon managed to surf over the rocks without getting spiked and walked back to our cove.In the evening we had an excellent Thai meal at the East West restaurant.
Our friend Gill Frith was arriving on the Thursday night ferry from Athens to start her HF walking holiday. Simon went down to the quay, thinking the ferry came in at 10.40, only to find that on Thursdays it did not come in intil 11.40, so we went to bed without seeing Gill, but left her a message to come for a drink on Friday evening.
On Friday we rented a car for the day to drive around the island and check out the likeliest walking routes. The car hire man gave us a half hour briefing and mapped out a route for us, which turned out to be perfect, taking us round all the main sites and ending up on a beach. We went to the temple of Demeter,
where a walking group emerged from the bushes - not Gill's HF group, but a group on a Ramblers holiday. We also stopped off at Halki, where we had a coffee in the old town, and drove up the valley
and over the ridge to Apeiranthos,
a Cretan village, where we took in three museums, the best being a higgeldy piggledy archaeological museum with some lovely Cycladic pieces and ancient carvings.
We drove back down another valley, past a modern marble quarry
then went for a walk to look at an ancient quarry and two Kouros, large statues that had been abandoned in the quarry because they were broken.
We got home just in time for a quick shower before Gill arrived for a drink and Mexican dinner.
Gill decided to duck out of her Saturday walk, so she joined us to go to the wonderful archaeological museum, with terrific Mycenean and Cycladic figures and pottery.
(Sorry I can't rotate them!)
Although not up to the Cycladic art in the Benares in Athens, it is much more impressive when you know where it comes from and you get a good sense of the longevity and prosperity of Naxos civilisation. After the most expensive beers we have ever drunk (Gill paid), overlooking the marina and Mia Hara,
we had a quick swim in our little cove
We decided to set off back towards Leros on Monday, so Sunday is shopping, cleaning and clearing up. And fixing the radar reflector, which was dangling dangerously loose. Lin winched Simon up the mast,
where it was very windy and where he tied the top end of the reflector,
but we will have to be very careful not to catch the genoa on it and will take it down when it is less windy. He had planned to go to the masthead and remove the anchor light for repair, but it was too windy, so we put that off for another day.
It has got markedly cooler in the last couple of weeks, jumpers or jackets in the evenings, and we have quite a bit of cloud and even a few drops of rain in Naxos.
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