Friday 9 June 2017 - Plati Yialos, Sifnos

Well we are still here.  The very high winds sort of came, but it was not as bad as we feared.  There were gusts of up to19 knots here in port but they quickly disappeared and by 10am it was fairly normal.  Nonetheless we stuck to our plan and took a car around the island.  We first stopped at Chrisopigi, a monastery built on a promontory into the sea between two lovely bays.  The church was small, but heavily decorated, but the real beauty of the place is its location.



We then went on to the capital, Apollonia.  It is another little village on a hill.  There is a narrow pedestrian street which goes up to the end of the town.  It has smart boutiques, cafes and restaurants.  However as we are in the very beginning of the season there were not many people there and some of the cafes and restaurants were not open.  I did spot a butcher shop, but decided not to buy fresh meat for the moment.

From Apollonia it is suggested one walks up a stepped path to the town of Artemonas.  But I was already suffering from the heat, so we drove up there.  It is again on the hill, but has large villas instead of modest two up two down houses which are in most of the villages.

We decided then that we needed a break, so we drove to a bay which has a nice sandy beach, Vathy.  It was very sweet.  Quite quiet with only one major low rise hotel on the beach.  We hired a couple of sun beds and an umbrella and spent a couple of hours there, even taking a swim in the sea.

Richard is now worried about our future plans.  The original weather forecast we were making our plans on was that there would be high winds today setting up a big sea for at least one more day with good conditions to leave on Sunday and the following week.  However, now the situation has changed and it is due to be fairly benign for the next two days, but terrible from Monday to Wednesday.  Also the next port we were hoping to go to is supposed to have a new marina but we are told that the marina is very tiny (smaller than where we are) and rarely has room.  If that is the case and we leave on Sunday we have no safe haven when the bad weather comes in.  What to do really depends on the weather in various places we could go. 

To make up our mind we go to the main port on the island, Kamares.  This turns out to be a tiny place, much smaller than were we are moored.  We have a cold drink in a café on the beach and get free WIFI to look up destinations and weather.  The conclusion is that we should leave tomorrow and try to go to an area where the weather forecast is not so bad.  We have paid for the extra night here, but we guess (rightly) that the harbour master will return that fee.  We will have to return the car half a day early and may not get our fee back, but so be it.  It seems to safest thing to do.


So we make a dash to the largest supermarket on the island and reprovision as best we can.  We dump the lot at the boat and it being 8pm already we rush off to the last sight we wanted to go to, Kasto.  This was the ancient capital of the island and is a hill village on a promentory.  Regrettably we get there too late to walk around, but we did get a good view as we drove in and get the idea.  We have dinner in a recommended restaurant at the bottom of the village.  So now back on the boat making ready to leave in the morning.

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