Yacht Pania

April has been a very different month to March. The seasons have definitely changed – March still had a wintery feel but spring has now definitely arrived. Whereas cold days used to mean sweatshirts and jeans, even the coldest days now are still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts (sorry!). We spent most of March travelling from East to West and rarely spent more than two nights in one place. We have spent most of April in one place – Epidavros and have had a brilliant time getting to know the people here – the people who live here and the people like us who are just passing through.

We first arrived in Epidavros at the beginning of the month, stayed for a few days and travelled to Aegina, a large island just south of Athens. We were heading to Athens to meet the Sendalls at the airport and also accompanying the Jan crew for their final sail before storing the boat and flying off to Hong Kong for the final chapter of their year out.

We spent a few windy nights in Aegina, which is not a comfortable place to be in the strong westerly we were having. Nobody got much sleep and we moved the boat one evening to try to find a better place in the harbour. Unfortunately while moving we fouled our anchor on a huge clump of chain and an abandoned anchor and spent a good hour marooned in the middle of the harbour untangling everything. It was pouring with rain and we were all soaked – including Laurie who helped in the dinghy. Thanks Laurie. Still, we provided some much needed and free entertainment for the people of Aegina on a soggy night.

When the weather settled we set off for Athens, a short trip of just a few hours. There was little traffic although in theory this should be the busiest stretch of water in Greece. We saw the Acropolis from a distance as we came in but that would be as close as we got – no time for sight-seeing. We were heading for Zea Marina, which is a big commercial concern and very different to the quiet places we've been used to since Marmaris. In addition, we were now in downtown Athens and we took immediate advantage of the big city attractions – Dunkin Donuts, Dominoes Pizza, the Carrefour supermarket and Marks & Spencer!!!!

Having stocked up on provisions and too much junk food Steve took the brief taxi ride to Athens airport to pick up Sue, Ben and James. Tired from lack of sleep in windy Aegina he fell asleep in the taxi. The taxi ride was timed to perfection and Steve got to arrivals just as the new crew J arrived. The plane had been delayed a few hours and by now it was about 10pm local time. Everyone went back to the boat and talked and talked, catching up on nine missed months.

The following morning saw us bidding an emotional farewell to Laurie, Vicki, Laura, Isaac and Anna. Laurie was hoping to get Jan stored at Zea and if he could sort it out then they would be marooned in Athens until it was time for them to leave for Hong Kong. We had plenty of photographs and hugs and kisses and sailed out of the marina as the kids sang "We'll meet again".

The sail back to Aegina was calm and still, which was just right for a first trip for Sue and the boys. We talked in the cockpit for the short trip back and listened to "Scouting for Girls" blaring out of the speakers. We dodged a few cargo ships on the way out of Athens and sat back to enjoy the sun.

Aegina was miraculously and unusually calm when we arrived and moored alongside our usual rickety pontoon. The boys played on the rocks, fished for tiddlers and generally ran around the harbour. We spent the afternoon and evening drinking wine and chatting and then went out to "Tchias" (pronounced cheers) for a typically Greek meal in the evening. Perfect.

The following morning we left Aegina to sail back to Epidavros. We wanted to get there for the boys so that they had room to run around. The trip was quiet and uneventful until we were a mile off AND a large pod of dolphins appeared and swam around with us for about an hour. We followed them all around the bay, taking photos (mostly of splashes in the water) and generally doing a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing. This was the biggest group we'd seen in the Med and we were just so pleased that the Sendalls were lucky enough to see them. We all pulled into Epidavros wearing the cheesy grins that dolphins always seem to put on people's faces.

The four boys spent the first day playing in and under the trees, playing football and visiting the park. In the evening we settled into Aktis, our favourite bar in Epidavros, and had a long and lingering meal. While we sat, Sue spotted Jan appearing in the harbour and Laurie, Vicki and the kids all came over to see us!! The boat was fixed, but Zea couldn't find them a berth so they left Athens and came back out to "Hotel Epidavros" – so called because you can check out but never really leave.

The days in Epidavros with Sue, Ben and James were spent on the beach, with the boys in Jan's dinghy terrorising the fish, playing football and just generally enjoying the sun and the outdoor life. We didn't do many (any!) touristy things, but had a great time in the warm fresh air. Thanks for coming out to see us guys, it was fantastic to see you out here and we had a great time being together and catching up.

Sue and the boys caught a taxi to Athens on the 11^th and the following day we went out in the dinghy with Alison and her son Harry, who are travelling around in a camper van for a while. We had intended to go around the headland to the other side where there are some ruins of ancient Epidavros actually under water in the bay. We just got out into the bay when the dolphins reappeared (assuming they were the same ones) and we spent another hour chasing them around the bay, in the dinghy this time and so on a level with the water and the dolphins. They didn't let us get too close and we think they had some babies with them, but still we watched them jumping and pirouetting around us. It was a great surprise for Alison and Harry and far better than the expected underwater ruins (which in the end we couldn't find anyway).

The following day we sailed back to Aegina to say a final final goodbye to Jan and true to form the weather in Aegina was not good. Also Maxine had pulled something in her back and was hobbling around in agony.

Still, we had a last supper in a tasty restaurant and the following day steve went with Laurie and Laura to take Jan round to the boatyard on the north of the island where she was lifted out and stored. We then had another tearful farewell and left them all (landlubbers now!) to catch the ferry to Athens for their "planes trains and automobiles trip" to Vietnam via London and Hong Kong.

We sailed again back to Epidavros (Pania is now able to find the way on her own). We've been here now for a few weeks since we left the Lowther's in Aegina and we become more and more part of the town furniture each day. We're glad to have stayed because we are now getting to know the people of Greece a bit better, rather than just the ancient sites and the harbours. Edward and Alexander are always off the boat and their freedom level goes up every day. They spend time in and around the town, being with Harry and the local children and have been known to go to the internet cafe on their own, order drinks and a meal, pay for it, leave a tip, surf the internet and then come back to the boat before it goes dark. They are going to get an unfortunate shock when we get home and normal service is resumed.

They have met some local boys, George and Spiros. AJ and Edward spend a lot of time with them in the town or visiting their house. George and Spyros's mother keeps them well fed! The boys Greek is coming on well and they like practising on the waiters in the bars and restaurants.

Last week was Easter in Greece (some years the Orthodox Easter is at a different time). Easter is a big festival here involving church services, light processions, fireworks and feasting. Unfortunately the weekend was a bit wet but it didn't seem to dampen the spirits and the whole town still turned out for the late night service (11pm) and the fireworks that followed. The boys though couldn't stand the pace and fell asleep. We tried to wake them when the fireworks started but they were too exhausted.

At Easter every family roasts a whole sheep (or two!) on a spit, the combined result of which fills the town with smoke and mouth watering smells. AJ and Edward had some food at Spyros and George's and their mother sent some food back to the boat for Maxine and me. The lamb was fantastic.

Other than the Easter excitement, we have spent time wandering the walks through the orange groves and spring-filled fields which surround the town (the smell of the blossom in the morning is amazing), visiting local beaches and generally exploring.

Last week we hired a car and made a trip out to Mycenae, which isn't too far. The boys enjoyed a tour of (yet more!) ruins and learned a little on the way. We then drove around the surrounding countryside, which is spectacular, beautiful and amazingly green and made an impromptu stop at the caves of Dirou (see pictures) and stretched our legs on the stroll to the biggest cave.

A few days ago we took Alison and Harry on a day sail over to Vathi, had a bite to eat and then sailed back again. No dolphins this time, but we did see a turtle bobbing along on the way. We spun round and went back to it but it dived as we got close so no photographs unfortunately.

We left Vathi in brilliant sunshine but by the time we'd got back to Epidavros it was thundering and lightening and throwing it down with rain. It was blowing 25 knots of wind as we got into the harbour and the place was chock-full with charter and flotilla boats. We managed to squeeze into a tight spot that everyone else had left because it looked too thin, but we pushed our way in and nudged the boats to either side out of the way. Six more boats came in after us and rafted up five deep off the quayside. Amazingly, only a few weeks ago Pania and Jan were the only boats in here, now it's full every day. We've joked with the Jan crew that it got busy as soon as they left!     

Yesterday we said good-bye to Alison and Harry who are heading north in their camper to get to Croatia via Albania. Good luck guys. Safe trip, let us know how you get on in Albania.

Last night Steve, Alexander and Edward had a lads night out at the local bar watching Man. Utd. beat Barca. (you can take a man out of England, but you can't take England etc etc etc.) and that brings us finally up to date.

At the moment our plan from here is to head back through the Corinth Canal and for the Ionian where we will stay until it is time to pack up and return to reality. We've rented a villa in Cephalonia for a week in early May so that we can get off the boat for a while (we need a holiday J) and we've started working out how to transport ourselves and all our belongings back to the UK from Greece in the summer, but more about all that in the next exciting episode...

Best wishes to all, the Faireys.

Naxos – Delos – Mykonos – Tinos – Syros – Kythnos - Hydra – Poros – Epidavros

We've had a whistle-stop tour of the Cyclades since leaving Naxos, some of the places we have visited before & some were new to us. Our original intention was to head straight from Naxos to Mykonos and spend a few days there, but we decided to try and visit Delos first and see the sights. In the end we were unable to land and so just saw the ruins from the distance. It is a peaceful spot (there weren't many tourists) and the ruins we could see from the boat looked impressive. It's hard to imagine though that this tiny island was arguably once the most important harbour and trading centre in the world.

We sailed on from Delos to Mykonos but were foiled again because the marina was packed full of fishing boats. We turned around and left the harbour just as two huge ferries were arriving. Take a look at the pictures of Jan playing chicken to get some idea of how close we were. It's never as dangerous (or as close) as it looks in photographs, but it does get the adrenalin going. We sailed on for another ten miles to the island of Tinos, which wasn't originally on the agenda. We were glad that we did – it would have been a shame to miss it. Tinos is a significant place of pilgrimage on account of a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary which was discovered by St. Palagia. The icon is reported to have healing properties and so every year on 25^th March and 15^th August pilgrims crawl on their hands and knees from the ferry to the Church of Panagia Evangelistria as a mark of devotion and often to seek a cure. We missed the 25^th March procession by a few days but did manage to catch a Sunday parade for the start of Lent, complete with brass bands, priests and people carrying a long line of icons.

We stayed a few nights in Tinos, moored to the old town quay, and then left for Syros. Amazingly, after nearly three weeks, we finally saw another sail (apart from Jan!), which shows how early in the season we had left and how uncrowded everywhere is at the moment. What makes it even more difficult to understand is that the weather is as good as an English summer, but nobody seems to want to sail. Oh well, more sea for us.

Syros is not a huge island, but its main town, Ermoupolis, is affectively the capital of the Cyclades. The town is pleasant enough although it suffers a bit for its size – there is more graffiti here than in the rest of the Cyclades put together. Regardless, it's not an unpleasant place and "Market Street" is a wonderfully colourful place first thing in the morning with all the fruit, vegetables, flowers and meats on display.

It was a bit "rolly" in Ermoupolis and we didn't get particularly good night's sleep, so after a couple of days we moved on to the island of Kythnos. We visited Kythnos last year so this time around we headed for a different harbour (Loutra on the east coast). The marina here is relatively new and quite safe and sheltered which always helps. Greece is dotted everywhere with new marinas, built with EU money, which have all the infrastructure (water, electricity etc) installed, but nobody to run them. Consequently the marinas are invariably free to use but the facilities are all turned off. On the one hand, it's frustrating because the taps and plugs and everything you need are there but they don't work, and because a lot of money has been spent on something that is just rusting away, but on the other hand, it somehow adds to the "Greek-ness" of the places and means that your mooring is free!

Loutra is a strange place. It has a number of hotels (some quite big) and some holiday villas, but only twenty permanent inhabitants. There's only one child – a girl of maybe two, and the overgrown children's playground is home to a vicious looking dog who is tied to the swings. Consequently, out of season, it feels like a Wednesday afternoon in November in an English seaside town – shut! Having said that, there are a few tavernas and supermarkets open and there are enough fishing boats coming and going to keep the activity levels up. Even so, it's hardly rush hour. Loutra's one tourist attraction is a thermal spring which comes out of the ground near the church and streams down into the sea. Where is comes out of the ground it is scolding hot and even by the time it gets to the sea it is too hot to keep your feet in for too long. The patch of sea it runs into is pleasantly warm and the boys went for an impromptu swim in their clothes. They were fine while in the water, but getting out into the late afternoon, March air was a bit of a shock. Hot showers all round when they got back to the boat.

Once you've done the spring there's not too much left to keep you in Loutra although we did stay for three nights. Finally we made an early start on a sunny morning and headed for the island of Hydra. It was an uneventful trip, although there was plenty of cargo traffic (we are getting closer to the mainland, Athens and Piraeus all the time). We had pasta and meatballs en route and arrived in Hydra mid afternoon. We moored up on the town quay between the fishing boats, water taxis and trading caiques.

Hydra is an interesting place. The harbour and town are very picturesque, helped by the fact that there are no vehicles allowed on the island and everything is moved around by donkey and cart. The town is all narrow lanes and passages between whitewashed houses and churches. There are photo opportunities everywhere you look. Hydra has attracted its fair share of artists over the years and you can see why. Unfortunately though, being just a short ferry trip from Athens, Hydra is constantly visited by a tide of tourists, washed in and out on the ferries. Apart from making the place very busy (especially in season I would imagine), it's made Hydra very touristy and the shops are all full of fashion – clothes and jewellery.

While we were there the weather blew up quite a bit and the harbour is not particularly sheltered. We started to bounce of the quayside quite a bit and then a trader turned up saying that the mooring line we were using was his. In the end we had to give him the line but he agreed (very reluctantly) that we could tie up to his boat. We stayed tied to his caique for two very uncomfortable nights but thankfully escaped without any damage despite chaffing through two mooring lines and bursting a fender.

We were determined to stay in Hydra despite the weather and the poor mooring because there was a precession taking place on 25^th March for Greek Independence Day. The Rough Guide and anything we could find on the internet suggested that the Hydra procession (along with Tinos) was one of the best, not to be missed. On the morning of the procession the weather was still very bad and the sea still rolly. Hundreds lined the quayside in front of us and we had a grandstand view. Just as the procession was due, a big swell came in and Pania and Jans' masts clattered together with an almighty bang. Everyone waiting for the procession turned round to see what had happened and there was much murmuring and discussion. As it turned out, that was the most exciting part of the whole procession, which amounted to ten minutes of children and sea cadets filing past. Hopefully we have passed into Hydran folklore as the foreigners whose masts clanged together at the start of the 2008 procession.

Despite it being so pretty, in the end we were glad to leave Hydra and the grumpy trader. We set off to head for Epidavros on the Peloponnese. Unfortunately Jan's spreaders (the bits that stick out from the mast!) had taken a bit of damage when the masts collided and so half way to Epidavros we decided to pull into Poros to see if they could make some repairs. Poros is (as always seems to be the case) a beautiful setting - a small island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The quayside runs along the side of the island opposite the mainland coast and it is full of fishing boats, ferries and yachts. We had a one night stop in Poros and managed to replace the burst fender and broken lines as well as buy a new inverter (the old one having strangely died in Hydra). Losing the inverter would have been a maritime disaster – it powers the DVD and computers!!!!

The following day we completed the journey round to Epidavros and the mainland. Everyone was glad to be back – this was probably the boys favourite place last year – there is plenty here for them to do, trees to climb just beside the boat, grass to play on, a football pitch close-by and plenty of local children to mix with.

On the second day in Epidavros the weather got up again and our berth on the quayside became very difficult. We had to move round to an anchorage in the dark, wind and rain. It wasn't a pleasant experience, especially since the bay is full of shallows, but we made it, and it was worth it just to get under the lee of the land and feeling the sea and wind calm right down. The following morning was flat once again so we up'd anchor and went back to our old spot (where, so far, we have been ever since).

We are spending the next few days in Epidavros with the Jan crew. We will make the most of the time because unfortunately they are heading off to Athens very soon. They are then flying out to South East Asia (Vietnam first) to spend the last few months of their year-out there before heading home to New Zealand. We will miss Laurie, Vicki, Laura, Anna and Isaac very much.

On a happier note we are all looking forward to 7^th April when Sue, Ben and James Sendall are coming out to visit us for a few days. Maxine and I are looking forward to catching up with Sue, and the boys are high as kites waiting for Ben and James (they count down the days every morning). We'll let you know what we all get up to in the next instalment.....

Love and best wishes to all,

The Faireys.

After an early start on Saturday morning we were rewarded with a beautiful sunny day which meant the 8 hour passage to Katapola, Amorgos was spent soaking up the rays in the cockpit. This time we decided to go North around the island as the winds were more favourable for sailing but also because the scenery and approach would be different to our previous visit in October. As we have come to expect of the Greek Islands the views are amazing and we never seem to tire of the beautiful landscapes, once again our journey was highlighted by visiting dolphins.

Katapola is just as beautiful in the spring, the local people friendly and the bar in the square still inviting. Maxine, Edward & Jasper spent Sunday morning exploring the rest of village previously unseen which has resulted in some different photographs, which as soon as we have internet we will upload. The time on Sunday afternoon was whiled away in the cafe in the square with Vicky & Laurie and finished off nicely with a barbeque. We decided to stay an extra day as we all love Katapola so much, so we didn't set sail again until Tuesday morning when we were blown out of the harbour with 18 knots of wind. The journey to Naxos saw us battling with the wind head on for much of the way so getting in to harbour was a welcome relief.

Naxos is a very lovely island, lots of trees, vine terraces, mountains and beautiful flowers. The town has a fantastic array of shops, restaurants, ice cream cafes and bars which we have enjoyed. We hired a car for the day and managed to see most of the historic sites around the island, the highlight of the trip was seeing a group of vultures feeding on the hillside and then taking flight and gliding through the air above us. We are planning on moving to Mikonos on Friday weather permitting.