Our main email address is still or Other addresses will appear on our mail as radio propagation to different stations waxes & wanes. Just now it has waned at the head of a Turkish fjord, so even with the new sailmail station in Belgium we are unable to send/receive email without a bus ride to an internet cafe.
When Harmonica left Xora Sfakion on the south coast of Crete, there were ten days to return to Xania before Brian's wife Betty arrived from Canada. We moved a few miles to the village of Loutro which can only be accessed by boat or donkey path. Brian spent 2 days hiking around the coastal path while Dave & Jan relaxed, read, and walked. Moving west again to rendezvouz at Paleohora, we motor-sailed in light airs as far as Sougia where we saw a line of white emanating from the valley. We prepared for some brief gusts, but the wind went to gale force and kept sending savage gusts at us all the way to Paleohora, where Brian had some lovely pictures of white-caps inside the small harbour. Paleohora is a wind-surfing destination and when the Meltemi winds blow from the north they are amplified by mountains. Much of the sand from the local building site was plastered onto Harmonica's rigging. On the 3rd night, we returned to Xania, and dropped 2 anchors when we stern-tied to the harbour wall. The technique of bow or stern tying goes against all intuitive sense, especially in a cross-wind: You put all your confidence in the anchor to hold you off the wall. Add to this the surge which is often found in Greek harbours, and poor holding on gravel bottoms, and you don't always sleep deeply in your boat. After a close call one night with a chafed line, we bought a pair of docking springs, which both dampen the snatch of the lines and prevent them from chafing on the concrete quay.
Next morning, we removed the old forestay, disassembled the furling system, & replaced the wire. This caused great interest to everybody on the dock, & despite our rope barrier, they still trod on it, pushed round it, and tripped over it in efforts to get the "best photos". Many thanks to Brian, without whom we would not have got the reassembled forestay & furling (50 ft. of snaking aluminium which we pulled around on a series of ropes) back up before the end of the day. In fact Brian worked on most of the boat's systems during the 3,000 miles he sailed with us. Brian's wife Betty flew from Canada and we all spent a couple of days in Xania and hiking in the Samaria Gorge region before seperating for independant travels.
Greek food and Greek people were hard to leave: tomatoes, olive oil, eggs & eggplant with a little beer, wine & raki to round it off. In fact before we left Xania, a man appeared from the old building behind the quay & invited the couple of cruising boats to join the Xania Yacht Club for its annual BBQ. We ate kebabs & drank home-made wine & raki on the dock. Then we visited a folk dancing festival with more raki being served straight from a wood-burning still in the street outside.
Jan & Dave made 2 more stops before crossing into Turkey. Our sail from Crete could not omit Santorini, especially as it was late in the year when the package tourists have melted away. Our first sight was of villages spilling over the edge of steep, colourful, cliffs. Small, simple, white houses with mainly blue doors and windows. One "unforgettable sunset" is now recorded in our album. The eruption about 1600BC and subsequent sinking of the crater left a caldera about 10km across and is blamed for the end of the Minnoan civilisation, which was based in Crete 65 miles to the south. It also left cliffs which drop from the rim into very deep water which preclude good anchorages. However, Harmonica picked up a vacant buoy near the north at Oiay and we used the local bus to explore the island. Some frescoes (wall paintings on plaster) showing Minnoan life have been excavated from beneath the volcanic ash.
Another 1 day sail brought us to Nisyros, another volcanic island, just south of the island of Kos. Fewer tourist facilities and quiet. We rented a small motorbike to see the xora (high village) and the smoking fumeroles inside the crater. No formalities like signing papers or asking for driving licenses; just a comment "if you don't bring the bike back, I'll keep the sailing boat". The strong Meltemi winds are supposed to stop after September, but they were still blowing from the north causing annoying waves to sweep into the harbour and bounce back at us from the far quay, and we chafed through another docking line despite the new springs. The weather is getting cooler particularly after the sun has gone down. We are only seeing a handful of other cruising boats...we wonder where they are. Maybe they are sane and already tucked away for the winter!
Its not surprising that Ulysses got blown off course en route from Troy back to Ithaka!