TURKEY AND GREECE 2002

The summer of 2002 was another delightful experience in the Mediterranean.  This year was a reverse of last since a small amount of time was spent in Turkey with the majority in  the Greek islands.  The boat wintered well in Antalya Turkey and after 2 weeks preparation was ready to go again.  The route south covered some familiar stops at Finike, Kas, and Marmaris, however, with so much to see most stops were at places not visited last year.  

One of the most interesting was the ancient town of Tekirova (ancient Phaselis) which was built around 609 BC and boasted no less than 3 man made harbors.  The ancient breakwaters are still visible just below the surface and putting into and anchoring in one of them was very exciting.  The city became prosperous through trading and built phaseli, small fast ships to carry cargo.  It surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 BC but remained prosperous until the Byzantine era.  The town is built on a peninsula and the beautiful main road stretches between the harbors on either side.  Some of the city is quite well preserved with an agora (business center), baths, a marvelous little theater and an aqueduct.  I was fortunate to get there fairly early in the morning before the Gullets (large charter boats) brought in the hoards of tourists. 

 Skopea Limani is a large bay with numerous islands and anchorages.  The Meltemi was working up to its', reputation that day as I threaded my way in between two islands and pulled into Tomb Bay.  After deploying my anchor and setting a stern line to shore the boat settled into a nice pocket of calm water and gentle breeze as the wind screamed over the hilltops all around me.  The bay got its' name from the numerous Lycian tombs carved right in the  hillside and with a little effort one can scale the cliff and inspect the tombs.  They, like others, were vandalized centuries ago and now were being used as shelter by the numerous goats that roamed the countryside.  It was most pleasant, I had planned on just staying overnight, but it turned into an extra day, or maybe it was two, I wasn't counting.

                                                      GREECE

After spending several days in Marmaris getting the roller furling fixed and eating my last great Turkish food in the local restaurants it was time to push on to Greece.  Rhodes town, island of Rhodes,  is a port of entry for Greece but Mandrake Harbor was full upon my arrival so I went over to the commercial "big boat" harbor.  I don't know if I qualified as a big boat but there were several boats there smaller than I was so I stayed.  I was not interested in spending much time, just check in and move on.  The process was familiar, spend a day running from office to office, filling out endless forms that no one will ever look at, pay the never ending fees and taxes sometimes returning to the same office several times.  Process done;  I had my Transit Log and many receipts in hand by late afternoon.  After nights' rest I sailed south to the town of Lindos.  Lindos like many island towns is built on a hill with a castle dominating the area.  The Island of Rhodes is officially in the Dodecenese but Lindos is typical of towns found in the Cyclades, islands further to the west, which I would be visiting soon.  I would compare it to Mikinos, only nicer since it is not so crowded.  It is a very pretty town, with winding, well cared for streets and the typical windmills.  Shopping and tourism are major industries.    

After spending 3 relaxing days at anchor in the harbor, swimming, exploring the town, and finding interesting restaurants, it was time to move on.  Rhodes is a large island and the first day I just traveled to the southern tip to spend the night in isolated and lovely surrounding with beautiful  clean water.  The following day I rounded the bottom of the island, heading north again and stopped at the island of Khalki.  It is quite small has a certain charm and seems to be the destination for people from the British Isles.  The island has many rental villas and all seem to be occupied by Brits. Other than a small Greek population that serves the industry I found no other nationality.  These smaller islands get little rain and in fact the two days I was there they were out of water.  The water barge that supplies them was late and the only water on the island was bottled, I may have had more in my tanks than was available on the island.  Life went on just waiting for the barge.  It reminded me of the South Pacific where the islands had plenty of water but were dependent upon supply ships to bring mail, fuel and food supplies and was often late. Since it came only monthly, lateness was of great concern to the islanders.

It was finally time to start heading west again and get a few miles closer to home.  I was entering the southern Aegean Sea and visiting Astipalaia, my last island in the Dodecanese.  Astipalaia is a small butterfly shaped island, which is comprised of two mountain ranges joined by a low isthmus in the middle, making it appear as two islands.  It is not on the usual tourist tract and use to be the hideout for pirates. With its' many small harbors there was always shelter somewhere from the Meltemi. The town in addition to its' usual complement of inexpensive tavernas and mom and pop bakeries also had a large white pelican who just strolled around town allowing anyone to pet him (her?).  It also had an overly friendly goat that roamed the castle ruins and was constantly looking for attention. The castle, which is undergoing some restoration, is completely open with no ticket booth or opening hours; just walk up and explore.  I stayed in several of the anchorages moving to a more secure spot when the wind shifted and occasionally rafted up with the fishing boats on the town dock. Astipalaia was a pleasant place and even had an Internet Cafe but it was time to move further west into the Cyclades and the island of Santorini.

Santorini (Thera) is one of the southern most  Aegean Islands;  it was finally time to end my solo sailing and pick up Elizabeth. Santorini is the name left over from the Italian occupation while Thera ( Psira) is the Greek name.  It seems to go by both names with the native Greeks preferring Thera and the tourist related industries using Santorini, which is more deeply ingrained in the publics' mind, maybe it sounds more romantic.  The island is one large tourist trap and considering all the similar but less touristy towns that I had seen, this one was not high on my list.  What did interest me was the ancient history located here.  One of the largest explosions ever to occur on earth took place here around 1600BC and was the cause of the demise of the Minoan people and the birth of the Atlantis legend.  As the legend states the people were fore warned of  impending doom and evacuated. There is little trace of any human remains or personal possessions left within the archeological finds.  Unfortunately they did  not realize that after the incredible explosion that blew half the mountain away the seawater would rush into the empty 1000-ft deep caldera causing a massive tsunami.  The huge wave of water wiped out all civilization on the surrounding islands  where they had fled.  The Minoans', one of the most advanced civilizations of the time, was gone, never to recover.

Guests, Joyce and Doug, joined us for two weeks and we toured Santorini end to end.  The cliff side cafes, wineries (we had to provision with that good Santorini wine), the Minoan  excavations in Akotiri, buried under 100 ft. of volcanic ash made Santorini (Thiera) a beautiful and fascinating destination.  As in many locations in Turkey and Greece the archeological sites are a work in progress.  The valuable statues and wall murals have been removed and relocated in local museums and the main museum in Athens. The Santorini of today is built on the rim of the ancient volcano with the cinder core making two islands in the caldera called Big and Little Burnt.  As we sailed through the caldera on our way to Ios, the town of Santorini, perched at top of the massive caldera wall, was most impressive.  The volcano is still active with sulfurous gas bubbling up here and there. 

The sail from Santorini to Ios was a rollicking ride we had not anticipated with the Meltemi blowing Force 6-7.  We broke out the safety harnesses and took several big waves, prompting an unplanned stop in a protected cove to shower, regroup and spend a peaceful night.  Day sailing in the Mediterranean has made us soft.  The next morning we were prepared for a rough trip but the sun shone, the winds decreased to moderate and our sail into Ios proved to be one of our most pleasant sailing days.  On the way we passed a large rock outcropping  with a church on it, miles from any major land. This is not uncommon in Greece, but one wonders, since there is not good place to anchor around it how often it is used or for that matter, how it was even built in the first place. Docking stern-to at the Ios town dock was a breeze with extra people on board.  Elizabeth on the bow dropping the anchor and feeding out the chain, Joyce and Doug handling the stern lines and Jack backing into a slot between two other sailboats.  This had been a solo act up until now sometimes with less than amusing results.  The bakery was ten steps from the stern and within minutes we were eating sweetbreads and spinach and meat pies.  The bread was hot and crispy and best just torn apart and eaten on the spot. Ios is typical of many towns in the Cyclades with a small "expendable" settlement at waters edge, the main town built on the hillside and often a castle dominating the whole thing.  They were built this in way mainly for defense from pirate attacks.  If an attack was forthcoming the residents of the waterfront town would move up with whatever valuables they had leaving the smaller settlement to the pirates.  The main town was built with winding streets and interconnecting houses, the lower floors having few windows and heavy doors.  The winding streets confused the attackers who would soon become separated making the defense of the town easier. The houses had interconnecting tunnels beneath the streets for escape if the defenses were breached.  The pirates, while after any booty of value, were most interested in capturing people.  Unfortunately, the slave trade was extremely lucrative with people being sold as farm workers and house servants.  Ios also is claimed to be the burial place of Homer complete with gravesite and yearly festival.  Supposedly he died on a ship while on route to Athens;  his body was thrown overboard and washed up on Ios beach where "the sea buried him".  Many other places also claim his grave, whatever the story,  it is reported to be a great festival.  The island is very popular with the younger backpacking tourists because of  its' numerous sandy beaches and very casual lifestyle.  Local ferries, which were still operating, come daily creating quite a wake in the little harbor as they turn around using their bow thrusters. The turbulence causes havoc for the boats lined up on the town dock; the anchor has to be dug in well and the stern lines kept very secure to avoid damage.  I enjoyed the town since it had facilities for the hundreds of tourists that passed through but these same tourists disappeared into the interior within an hour of the ferry docking leaving the town deserted and peaceful.  The lower "expendable," but now modern town included many restaurants,  2 Internet connections and once the fuel man and water man were located an easy fill up for the boat.  Well-stocked stores made re provisioning easy and the always friendly and cheerful people made this one of the nicer ports.

Paros

 Built on a gentle slope beside the sea with steeper slopes behind, the town is typically Cycladic. Houses, shops, churches are dazzling white cubes with bougainvillea and wisteria providing splashes of natural color.  The old quarter is an interesting place full of the typical windmills, winding alleys, archways, stone houses and shops with wooden balconies. The old Greece was still there especially in some of the back alleys.  While the old town was built around the 13th century, the island can trace its' roots to the 7th century BC.  It is a bit of a tourist town but thanks to a sudden inter island ferry strike, few were in residence and those that were there were scrambling to find ways off  for connections with their international air flights. With the Greek ferryboats tied up in port, a dispute over social security benefits, sailing between islands was less complicated.  Ordinarily the crisscrossing ferries and hydrofoils require constant vigilance because they do not alter course or speed for sailboats. 

The Meltemi continued at its' predicted Force 7-8 ( about 40 knots of wind) and most boats, make that all, were staying put in the harbor.  Several more would come in each day looking wet and tired and would have to raft up to other boats since the seawall was full.  With boats three deep, the maze of lines to the sea wall running over, under and beside the other boats was most impressive.  What was of more concern was the anchors and where they and all of the chain were lying.  The thought of trying to leave the harbor when the time came was daunting especially since many of these vessels were charter boats and were not always sailed by the most knowledgeable of people.  I had planned on spending 2 days and then moving on to Mikinos and Delnos but it was straight  upwind and with Mikinos harbor being notoriously rough in any kind of blow it did not seem like a good possibility.  There was however a local ferry that was still running and did day trips there. The boat was about 150 ft long and I figured it would be safe enough for this passage.  The trip was rough but uneventful and we were able to see everything before returning to Paros.  With no easing of the Meltemi for a few more days we were off to see a spectacular cave that we bypassed on the way up from Ios.  A local bus ride, 10 min ferry ride across a channel to Andiparos and another bus ride, total cost $1.80, brought us to the cave.  It was blissfully cool inside and quite a relief from the constant heat.  It was spectacular and after descending hundreds of steps down it was time to climb back up.  The route back was reversed with the busses and ferry making good connections with little wait time. We spent 5 days in Paros instead of the two I had planned, due to the high winds, but they were filled with plenty of activities. The town was pleasant, the restaurants were always great, and riding the local buses a high point.

To continue with Mainland Greece, click here or  the Next Log Entry below.

"