Seatbelts not to be used!
Great view
Stairway to Heaven
Town square, Serifos
Eye Candy, Delos in foreground
Delos Lions
Delos Statues and Mosaic
Minoan artefacts at Delos
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY We moved to the Serifos town wharf on Wednesday and took the local bus up to the hora on the highest peak on island. From here we could see in the distance the islands of Paros, Sifnos and Siros. In the past this strategic vantage point was used to see any attacks by sea. Today in peaceful times, it's just an old Greek village with a very spectacular view. We climbed many stairs to reach the church at the top. I couldn't imagine doing this every Sunday especially in the winter months. How easy we have it at home, we just take the car.
I LIKE NEAT The town bus was an old fashioned square rattler that could only be described as basic. As always, I sat by an open window. My logic is that if the brakes on the bus fail and we end up in the sea, I want to be able to swim to freedom - how's that for confidence in the local transport? However in all fairness, this bus was not entirely void of safety equipment, it had seat belts on the front seats - but they were cable tied together so they were unusable. They did look neat.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION We planned to visit the island of Delos. In the cruising community, there is much conjecture as to whether anchoring is allowable at the island. Over a period of years, regardless of how many people we asked we got conflicting answers. So we anchored for two nights on the small island of Rinia three miles from Delos. Andrew watched various ships and a few yachts disappear up the channel towards Delos and they all stayed for a some hours. It looked good to us, so we headed around Saturday morning. What a lot of fuss about nothing, there are even signs up saying you can anchor until 3pm. Delos, being the birthplace of the Gods Apollo and Artemis, was a sacred place for ancient Greeks. It's earliest inhabitants date back to 2500 BC and by 1st century BC 30,000 people lived on the island. We spent a few hours exploring the site and the museum containing statues, mosaics, and artefact's uncovered since excavation commenced in 1872. In their time some of the houses were pretty impressive, large and ornate, obviously the wealthy lived very well. POWER BOATS GALORE We left the site at noon because the wind was blowing 25 knots down the channel and we weren't confident of the holding. We put the storm jib up to cross the channel from Delos to Mikonos, a known windy funnel. We headed for the southern end of Mikonos to escape the n/w winds. It was supposed to be a quick trip and then lunch, but it took four hours to find a suitable place to stop. All likely spots were taken up by large power boats with numerous shore lines out. It's every man for himself and first in best dressed. Eventually we found a spot in front of a power boat who told us he was there for the next ten days. No wonder there is no room. We will stay for a few days until the weather calms down a bit.
love CANDY
---------- radio email processed by SailMail for information see: http://www.sailmail.com/
