Greece - Central Aegean
With just one month left, treasuring being just the two of us, being on the sea, being on NOETA we set sail for Skyros – back to the Sporades!
Skyros, population 3,000, is where Rupert Brooke is buried – it would have been good to visit his grave but the closest anchorage in Tristomou Bay is military controlled, too hard, so with a predicted NE meltimi gusting up to 35 knots and a decided chill in the air (water 21 degrees, air temp 22), we anchored further north in Kalamitsa, unloaded our bikes and rode the eight km rural main road to the chora – a Cycladic maze of steep alleys up to a 13th century Venetian kastro and Byzantine monastery, then a further three km to Agios Nikolas church in a rock at seaside Molos. The view from the kastro was magnificent, looking down on a very exposed east coast, battered by sea and wind; the ancient name for Skyros is Anemosa which means windy.
Interesting and sad pandemic fact - in 1918 the Spanish flu swept through the island infecting 2,000 of the 3,200 population and killing 1,000 – all within one month.
Three days later we were off again, an eight hour 7-8 knot sail down to the Cyclades and Andros, population 9,220. We found a good western sandy anchorage off “Gold Beach” which was very pretty and easily tenderable to the not-so pretty port town of Gavrio, it did however have an AB supermarket right on the waterfront! And it was there that I started noticing curious geometrical details on some of the buildings – and discovered that the area had an interesting dove farming history! - but more about that later when we get to Tinos…oooh the anticipation….
What is interesting about Andros is that from the 4th century the island had a vibrant silk industry with most people using the top floors of their homes to cultivate the silkworms until a deadly mulberry bacterial disease killed the industry in the 19th century – I did look for silk and mulberry trees in my wanderings, but alas to no avail.
A morning cruise along the SW Andros coast, we spied very distinctive stone walls, large slabs of schist interspaced with smaller rocks, like jagged teeth, again something we were to discover is quite unique to this area. We were keen to divert briefly up the E coast to the main town to see the quintessential Tourlitis lighthouse, a Venetian arched bridge and the Goulandris Museum of Modern Art; worthwhile even if the Museum was closed. However I did manage to get an artistic fix of sorts then next day when I dragged the captain up to the hillside village of Korthio village in search of dovecotes.
Fact: Tourlitis lighthouse is the only European lighthouse built on a rock in the sea and was the first automatic lighthouse in Greece; it started operating in 1887, was bombed by the Germans in WW2 and renovated in 1994.
Two days later we headed down to Syros, capital of the Cyclades, “Island of the Pope” and population 21,500. The main town of Ermoupoli is a natural amphitheatre and quite beautiful in the late afternoon golden sun. And is it also a vibrant port catering for large ship repairs and on arrival we spied the Maltese Falcon, last seen in Villefrance-sur-Mer!
In the hills above Ermoupoli sits the12th century Venetian town of Ano Syros, the Cathedral of Saint George (Catholic) atop, facing across to the 19th century Church of Resurrection (Greek Orthodox); we walked up to the church the next day through open air markets, up many marble steps and past 19th century neoclassical houses, many in disrepair, before heading off up to Tinos.
Tinos was less than two hours up from Syros, population 8,636 it was where I was hoping to go on a dovecote hunt, I was not disappointed. After a morning excursion along a religious paraphernalia lined street and red carpeted walkway up to the sacred shrine of Panagia Evangelistria, we hired a car and spent five hours exploring 30 kms of villages and dovecotes – Volax, Komi, Krokos, Tarabados and Kardiani. Volax was something else - a small village set on a boulder plateau, poetry written on the doors and walls of old buildings.
Dovecotes are the trademark of Tinos, although initially used for farming doves – food and fertiliser, the decorations are superb works of art. It is thought that the Venetians probably built the first unadorned dovecotes in the 12th-17th century, a privilege only afforded to the feudal lords, however after the Ottomans arrived in the 17th century, any person could own them, so they became a sign of prestige and ownership.
My dovecote obsession satisfied, the next day we headed one hour down to Rinia - population 0 (with leased farming). Flat and barren, Rinia was where the residents of Delos in the 6th century went to die or be born; a belief to purify Delos and appease Apollo, so every pregnant woman was carried over to the island to give birth and I presume if you were dying that’s where you were taken as well. I wonder where they were buried?
We visited Delos on Oxi Day which was quite special. Oxi Day (anniversary of the no) celebrates an important moment in history (October 28th 1940) when Greek Prime Minister Metaxas said oxi (no) to Mussolini when he demanded Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified "strategic locations" or otherwise face war. The refusal signalled the start of Greek participation in WW2.
Delos, population 10-20 (archaeologists, guards, and guides) - inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC with most ruins dating from 7th century BC – a truly remarkable island, where Leto, pregnant by Zeus, gave birth to Apollo and Artemis - hence many temples dedicated to Apollo, to Artemis, to Hera and Isis. It was a stormy afternoon, with more rain and thunderstorms predicted but we decided to chance it and were greeted by a lone guide who informed us it was closed (boat from Mykonos was cancelled) then relented - we wandered free of charge for several hours accompanied at the end by three guides and one security guy - on a typical summers day they get up to 1,000 people, so lucky. Through the mosaic floored theatre district and the amphitheatre with its circular guttering emptying into large cisterns which provided water to the residents after the show! Up the steps of Mt Kynthos to the sanctuary of Zeus and a whole island view, down to the sacred lake where the twins were born, guarded by white marble Naxian lions…
Less than one hour north lies Mykonos, population 10,134 and maybe it’s because it’s the end of the season and closed shops on a grey day aren’t really that appealing, maybe it’s because night clubs and lying on crowded sandy beaches aren’t really our thing, but we found Mykonos quite unappealing, even the iconic windmills failed to impress .
Seven hours across to Ikaria, population 8,500 - legend of Icarus and one of the five "blue zones" where higher than usual number people live much longer than average (one in three to over 90). Cruising along the S coast mid afternoon suddenly NOETA started shaking, what the! The captain thought he must run over a rope, but no, several minutes later we received text tsunami alerts – there had been a magnitude 7 earthquake just N of Samos and what we were experiencing were the shock waves through the water. Keeping a safe distance out from the shore we sought shelter in Áyios Kirikos and tendered around to Therma hot springs to relax our nerves, but we been spoilt by NZ geothermal so we weren’t keen to soak in a radioactive spa inside a cave building.
It was less than two hours down to Fournoi, population 150, and possibly the most magical anchorage of the season in Quarry Bay and a short walk along a scrubby coastal path, large lizards sunbathing, to an impressive ancient marble quarry, Water 22.4 degrees, air temp 27.
Then two hours up to Samos, population 38,000 and Pythagorean (birthplace of mathematician Pythagoras) - a pretty, taverna lined harbourside town, with small odd angled cobbled streets and rubble on rubble everywhere from over the ages. We hiked up to the Tunnel of Eupalinos (6th century BC 1086m long aqueduct) but it was closed due to the earthquake so a quick change of plan saw us enjoying a quiet beer/ouzo watching local fishermen mending their nets.
The Mycale Strait runs between Samos and Turkey, less than a mile across and it felt strange standing on barren Samos looking across to the lush, forested hills of mainland Turkey, maybe next year.. We were still experiencing quite strong magnitude 3 aftershocks and wandering ashore at Posidonia we felt like we were the only people in the world (apart from the odd fisherman), another sleepless night with rumbles from the shore and shudders on the sea.
With just over one week to go, it was time to head back to Leros. Stopping briefly in Agathonisi, population 185, we learned that Greece was going into COVID lockdown in two days’ time, which meant that you wouldn’t be able leave whatever island you were on, definitely time to head back to Leros and start the pack up. We had given ourselves a week but several flight cancellations later saw us leaving after four days, not the most relaxing way to end the season. We farewelled Leros on the 13th November, left the rental car key under the mat and boarded the overnight ferry to Piraeus – antio sas Elláda!
We had travelled 1,759 nautical miles in 103 days, stayed in Greece and visited 30 islands, run 220 hours on each engine, 189 hours on our genset and made 32,400 L of water.