97 Ios port.
cliff path to the holy monastery of Panagia Hozovi- otissa, an amazing structure built into the cliffs 300 metres above the sea. Built in 812AD, the monastery is a maximum of five metres wide and eight storeys high at one point. It has 15 cells for monks but today just three live there. Sailing west along the coast of Amorgos we visited the M.V. Olympia which has lain shipwrecked in Ka- lotaritissa Bay since February 1980 and was featured in the French Film Le Grand Blu. We anchored in total seclusion in the long narrow inlet of Ormos Akrotiri which lies in a steep sided valley, watching the full moon rise over the hill at night and in the morning waking to the gentle tinkling of goat bells and whistles from shepherds corralling their herds upwards. It seemed we had stepped back in time. Another storm was due so we headed back to the
safety of Katapola Bay. While moored off the quay a Greek skipper managed to snag his anchor in the chains of two yachts moored alongside Leonie. None of the crews seemed to know how to untangle the mess and the Greek skipper, in his 70s, was preparing to dive nine-metres down to try and wrestle his chain free. Carl came to the rescue, advising the moored yachts to run their engines to keep themselves off the quay while releasing the tension on their chains so the
Greek skipper could winch his up. Carl climbed into our dinghy and chugged over to the Greek skipper, advising him to winch his chain high enough to attach a rope around the two snagged chains so he could release them and bring in his anchor. All went to plan and Carl received a relieved ovation from the harbour side yachts. Snagged anchors is a common enough occurrence in the sailing world. When the meltemi finally abated we set forth for
Ios and passed a shipwrecked yacht which had come a cropper during the high winds of the past few days when it collided with a low lying rock just past Katap- ola Bay. The four days before the arrival of yet another meltemi
were spent at peaceful anchorages before we headed for shelter in the busy, noisy port of Ios into which 12 big ferries surge every day to drop off passengers. The wind caused quite a stir on our pontoon; ma-
noeuvrability was compromised and with yachts com- ing and going there was a lot of shouting going on. On the storm’s fiercest day waves crashed over Leo-
nie’s deck and the bay foamed with white horses as the wind whistled down through the valley. Little did we know less than three weeks later we were to experi- ence the worst storm to hit the islands in 75 years, but that’s another story...
Church at the Chora.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
