Yasas,
It was another long day. Cruising at an average of 5.8 knots, with wind on the nose and choppy seas, the 54 nautical miles from our anchorage in Vathi to Ios Island where Homer is reputed to be buried, took us all day. Thankfully it was a much calmer passage than from Nisyros to Vathi, though that’s not saying so much. Every stop has been a set of new challenges, but there have been kind people to help and we’re learning more each time we dock the boat. Randal really is quite good at it. Today we also had a battle with the pedestals not working when we tried to get our power and water connection to work. The tourist office, where you buy your access key, was less than helpful, and mean to boot, so I asked the friendly men at the Port Police and they were really great and got it all sorted out. Randal washed the salt from DoraMac so he’s happy. I have internet access so I’m happy.
Tomorrow we’re taking the 7:20 ferry to the lovely island of Santorini for a night or two. I do understand why cruisers love to spend months cruising these islands.
Ru
Nisyros, the Volcanic Island http://www.nisyros.gr/index_en.html
“According to mythology, Nisyros was formed when the enraged Poseidon threw a chunk of Kos (an island) on the warring giant Polyvotis who was submerged beneath it fiery and fuming. “ Eyewitness Travel: The Greek Islands.
I used to love reading Greek mythology and here we are in the middle of it. In the 7th grade we had to write poems based on the Odyssey and this was mine.
Brave and bold Odysseus;
Fair of face and form.
Poseidon plots against you
and brings about a storm;
to hider your homecoming;
to bring you further woes.
How hard it is for mortals to have immortal foes.
Well Poseidon still is still plotting but it’s against those of us mortals cruising the Mediterranean. Mercury, god of the winds gets in the act too with winds blowing everywhere. Diesel trawlers and bicycle riders need similar types of winds; none at all or gently at your back. But as we found biking, the wind always seems to be in your face or maybe at the side, but rarely behind you. Our day from Nisyros to Vathi was more of Poseidon and Mercury being unkind, but that’s another story. This email is about the lovely island of Nisyros. Actually it will be several emails as I loved the village of Nikia and want to share my walk around it. We also visited the caldera and the big village of Mandraki.
But, and this is certainly a case of incredible hubris, (a word borrowed appropriately from the Greeks;) what makes Nisyros important to most everyone reading this is that Randal and I came here. Odd as that might be, you probably would never know of this island, and many others we’ll visit if we hadn’t gone there. I had certainly never heard of them before we visited. Of course I’ve just publically admitted to a huge amount of geographic ignorance, but that’s the punishment for my hubris.
We arrived Friday late in the afternoon after a rough passage so just rested, ate dinner across the way and had a good night’s rest.
Our second day on Nisyros started at the motorbike rental place and then we were off to get gasoline, 3 litres needed to see the island. From there it was a wild goose chase to find what was literally right in front of our faces. But that was okay as we had a lovely ride into the hills and a visit to the ancient acropolis.