North versus South!

Mykonos is a sort of magnetic anomaly; there are things about the island that attract you and others that you feel compelled to reject, some aspects have a magnetism that tempts you to stay and others drive you away.

The elusive north winds have blown fitfully but never consistently, or not for more than a day. For this reason I decided to enjoy an extended stay on the island. In such a small place it is impossible not to get to know a fair few of the people who live here; in some ways it's a bit like village life! After being storm bound here last year, for almost three weeks, and having spent nearly four weeks here or here abouts this year, it is incredible how many people I now know. You are greeted like a long lost fiend in all the places you have visited before; goodness know how the Myconian people have developed such a good recollection for faces and names but they are amazingly good at it!

Rubbish cascading into the sea!

The net result has been a few very late nights, or early mornings, usually preceded by an invitation to dinner at a friends house. Mykonos night-life does not close down until after 0600, a fact I have witnessed more than once! What Mykonos lacks is a good marina; the basics are there, albeit that the structure is already beginning to collapse in places, but the services are not. That said this year water was intermittently available at many of the berths, an improvement on last year. The Port police seem to have abandoned the place. The office carries a sign saying “In case of emergency ring this number”, other than that on my three visits to their office I found no one other than the maintenance man / general factotum. Hence it was a free visit, unlike last year when I was charged by the day (one overnight equalled 2 day charges!) There are rumours around that a Turkish firm has bought the rights to operate the marina; if that is the case I suspect things will improve rapidly.

Many of the Mykonians will privately admit that Turkish style organisation and inward investment is what Greece needs! Symptomatic of the Greek problem is rubbish collection where, I am told, the local Mayor and associates established a firm who then bid to provide the rubbish collection services on the island. Having won the contract they have now decided there is insufficient money to provide a full service, the result can be seen in the photo, rubbish being dumped in the sea. No wonder the Aegean is full of floating plastic!

Agrari and Elia drop into the distance on departure

Faros town from the anchorage

I finally departed Mykonos on the morning of 11 June; amazing how time passes. The departure morning dawned bright and clear with a brisk south easterly wind. Not particularly comfortable for the anchorage I was in but ideal for a fast passage to Seriphos or Sifnos. Under-way at 1000 and all was going superbly for the first 2 hours. It was 47 miles to Sifnos (the furthest of the two potential destinations) and we were beam reaching at 6 – 7 knots; then the wind changed! In the next four hours the wind went through 360 degrees resulting in very confused seas, and it varied in strength between force 5 – 6 and force 0! Mediterranean sailing can be a cause of much frustration! We were sailing at times under every sail combination from single reefed Mainsail and 8 rolls in the Genoa to all sail set and becalmed. Suffice to say we arrived towards dusk and anchored in the most easterly of the two bays at Faros in Sifnos. My recollection of this bay was that the bottom was weed covered but with some good clear patches of sand to anchor on. This year it would appear the weed had multiplied somewhat! After two failed attempts to get the anchor to hold (it is a Bruce anchor and not good in weed) I headed for the western bay and anchored well into the bay with 50m of chain out, despite the depth being only 6 – 8m. The wind that evening decided to settle in the E but because ot the variation in the wind from earlier in the day a swell continued to roll in well into the night leading to a very roly and disturbed night. Next day the wind had settled into the north and life became much more stable.

Greek Navy presence at the celebrations

As a result of a family bereavement my next crew member has had to defer joining by four or five days and so I have a few days to spare around this area before I need to be in Milos. As a result I decided to stay put in Faros for a day or two. By chance I had arrived on the day before the local saints day, for which much of the island turned out; visitors arrived by a variety of means including a chartered fast ferry and the Greek Navy. The celebrations seemed to centre on the small church, on the coast, just south of the entrance to Faros; I would estimate more than a thousand were present for the sunset celebration and of course it was a local public holiday next day to allow them to get over their hangovers! That same evening I was joined by a group of three charter yachts who arrived an hour or so before dusk. Having shouted at two of them to avoid them anchoring over my anchor cable they finally got themselves anchored and set off ashore, closer than I would have liked but not excessively so.

View of the town with Kurukulla in foreground

By 0100 when they all came back onboard the wind had changed and two of them were excessively close to each other; also somewhat closer to me as my cable had pulled out into a straight line with the force of the North wind. (I had originally anchored on a SE wind and it was now from the N). The noise they made woke me and there followed a form of “ballet of the night” as they first tried to uncross their own anchor cables (which they had managed to get crossed whist weighing anchor) and then had several attempts at re-anchoring before they could get their anchors to hold. I watched silently, but with interest! As I have said before the most dangerous thing a yacht owner will come across in the Mediterranean is a charter yacht with an inexperienced skipper. Charter yachts are also very much larger these days. Almost nobody charters a vessel under 40ft long and many well over 50ft. The skipper may well have qualified on something very much smaller and easier to handle, if indeed he/she has any formal qualifications at all! Next morning we exchanged pleasantries and they informed me all three were heading for Mykonos at the end of their charter; in a brisk NE 4 – 5 they had a lumpy ride ahead of them.

The day was grey and threatened rain, hence I decided not to move on but to have a day relaxing, reading and doing some minor maintenance. It passed amazingly quickly! The following day has dawned equally grey with intermittent rain, hence it looks like another day anchored in Faros. Sailing in the wet and cold is what I and Kurukulla are in the Mediterranean to avoid (if possible). More when I leave.......