Woke at anchor in the bay off Katapola with Swagman rising and falling under a gentle westerly swell which was coming straight up into the bay.  It seemed for once the forecasters got it right!  Suns up, nice day.

We’ve heard from other cruisers that the one small harbour on Santorini is not to be recommended even for a day visit.  Great place to see, but not one to take a yacht and leave it unattended.  The one small harbour on the south side of the island is in very shallow water and its depth at the entrance might give us a problem – plus it is pretty small and does get packed with local fishing and day trip boats.  The suggestions are to do what most cruisers do, and choose a spot to leave the yacht on a neighbouring island with better protection.  So we may do this and go to meet the girls off their plane by regular ferry.

Ios is maybe 35 miles west of Amorgos, and itself maybe only 20 miles north of Santorini.  So as we’ve time in hand, we’ve decided to stop for another night here on Amorgos but find a nicer anchorage to while away the day. 

We were successful.  The photos don’t do this place justice, but right down on the south west tip of the island is a shallow sandy beached bay tucked in and well protected from almost all winds.  We were impressed.  Crystal clear waters – only a couple of other visiting yachts for company – and a deserted beach taverna that kindly left its beach beds and umbrellas for all to use.

Explored inland to get to an adjacent cove where a wrecked coaster Olympia  still perches.  Only living things we saw were goats.  Lots of them.

The westerly winds continued all day, but the low beach lifted it over our heads to keep the bays waters flat and undisturbed.  Swam, lazed, drank, slept.  Tough one.

Awoke Thursday to find no wind at all.  Listening into the 0830 Med Net on SSB radio to learn most of the Med awoke to find the same.  With bimini raised to keep the sun off, we more or less motored the whole way over to Ios.  Arrived midday.

Did get a short sail in once we’d got round the top of Ios and heading south to its small port.  Not a lot of protected anchorages on Ios, so we’ve decided to head for the port.  Glad we did – its both sheltered and pretty. 

The pilot book shows room for only 8 or so yacht on the town quay – but they recently added another long concrete quay which adds maybe a further 30 spots – plus laid in tailed mooring lines to the town quay.  We found a spare slot on that old town quay, and slid in with no help from others.

No charges for staying here on the town quay as they don’t provide power or water.  One can call up a local chappie who will turn on one water tap if one is desperate – but due to our watermaker topping the tanks up on the motor over, we’ve no need.

Nice little port but busy as.  Ferries of all shapes and sizes arrive almost each half hour so quite a bit of surge as each roars in to swing around to tie up maybe 100 metres from the town quay.  They don’t hang around – and are usually roaring out only 15 minutes later.  Our new super long gangway allowed us to tie up a long way off the quay and as the surges come in and all the boats bounce back and forth, we’ve minimised any risk ramming back onto the concrete.

Here’s a shot back down to the port from the steep 20 minute walk up to the town of Ios which is set atop the hill.

The island caters for backpackers – and it seems of all visitors, Ireland rules here.  So many Irish bars we lost count.  The narrow back lanes which wind up and down behind the main church high in the town above the harbour are attractive.  But pretty sure it might be a very noisy / pumpy place in high summer.

Most of the beaches here are set aside for nude bathing, and we’re told for June / July / August / September they get packed with the combined youth of northern Europe in a variety of slowly changing colours.  White. Pink. Red. Brown.

Decided to stop over tomorrow and do the beaches - maybe.    

Or maybe take time out to visit Santorini by ferry tomorrow and check out the harbour first hand.

Or maybe sail over to another close island, chill for two days at anchor and return to leave the boat here and get the ferry for the girls on Tuesday………

Decisions.  Decisions.

But favourite is to hire a bike and head for the far flung beaches of Ios.  And probably burn me bum.

Cheers

John.