Sun 14 Jul to Tue 16 Jul – Paros to Antiparos

Sunday

The boat was still pretty filthy after her stint at the boat yard, the chrome took it especially badly and every inch was covered in rusty patches. It’s not really until you come to clean it do you realise how much metal there is and it took Tom a good few hours to polish the dirt off. Meanwhile I washed the salt from the sides of the hull by sitting in the dinghy and pulling myself around the boat, armed with bucket and sponge.

It was Wimbledon final day and we contemplated going ashore to find somewhere to watch it on a big screen, but in the end settled for a rather grainy almost-live stream on Tom’s phone. The only slight disadvantage was that we couldn’t really see the ball but we got the general idea.

Early evening we went across to have a sundowner with Phil before going ashore with him to have dinner with his photographer friend and a model who’d spent a few days doing a photoshoot on his boat. We had a lovely meal, lots of laughs and afterwards we took a walk through the towns backstreets before having a nightcap and heading back to the boat.

Monday

After breakfast we left Paroikia and motored towards the channel between Paros and Antiparos. It’s pretty narrow and shallow in areas with a few rocks scattered down the middle so it’s really only do-able on a quiet day. We’d heard Antiparos was worth a visit so we stopped for a late lunch. The harbour itself is small and shallow, we ventured in anyway but were narrowly beaten to the last decent spot by a big catamaran so we left and anchored around the corner in the huge bay. 

It wasn’t all that warm so we put on jackets, took the dinghy ashore and walked along a short coastal path to the harbour. As seems to be the case with many of the slightly larger towns we’ve visited, the waterfront itself wasn’t all that special. Most of it is taken up by companies offering day trips on boats, cars, scooters or quad-bikes with the remainder being touristy restaurants and a smattering of gift shops. The real niceness is usually found by walking into the backstreets. Antiparos was no different and the further back we walked the prettier the streets became and the more chic the boutique shops, bars and restaurants (with a price tag to boot, naturally).

We considered staying anchored where we were for the night but with 15 knots of wind forecast from the NE, the bay might become a bit uncomfortable and there was another anchorage on the south side of Paros which would offer more protection. We arrived in Aliki early evening and anchored in-between a small blue yacht and three catamarans which were rafted up together. The wind was coming from the south (not mentioned on a single forecast) and with it due to turn NE over night we wanted to know how much chain the cats had out, just to make sure we didn’t have a rude awakening in the early hours. Tom took the dinghy over and asked politely whether they were staying the night. Their response was along the lines of, “We’ll decide later” with an undertone of, “What’s it to you anyway?” which sounded to us like they’d interpreted our asking as meaning we didn’t want them there – which wasn’t the case, at least initially anyway! Unfortunately too it was raining so we assumed they’d be staying put.

Just after we’d finished dinner the music started. At what sounded like 100dB’s it was blaring out from a sound system which would rival any you’d find in a massive London nightclub. Pretty annoying but at the same time pretty impressive and they were playing some decent tunes so we didn’t mind. By 23:00 the disco ball had come out and one lone girl was dancing on the trampoline (it did look pretty awesome) and she was soon joined by her friends. Then the karaoke started, and that’s when I started to lose my sense of humour as I imagined this going on until sunrise and us getting not a wink of sleep. Tom even had fantasies of swimming over underwater, knife-clenched-in-teeth Rambo style and slitting the trampoline sending them into the water then hopefully into bed. Just when we’d started to lose all hope and were considering a night sail to anywhere but here, on the dot of midnight the music stopped (mid sing) and everyone went to bed! Including us.

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning we got up early(-ish) and went for a run and afterwards stopped off in the town for breakfast (after ruffling the heads of a few goats). Picking the place with the most non-natives was a strategic mistake as we walked away 20 Euros lighter having only had a small coffee, orange juice and 3 slices of bread each. Walking back along the beach we came across a herd of cats together with their owner, a German lady called Olivia who gave us her life story, those of the cats and warned us about cannibals in the Caribbean. You do meet some interesting people. 😀

At 10:00 we checked the latest forecast. We’ve mentioned this before but there are about 4 different weather prediction models which everyone uses. If they all say roughly the same thing then you can be fairly confident that’s what you’re going to get. Although having said that several times this season they’ve all got it completely wrong. It’s more common though for them to offer contradictory predictions where one promises a champagne sail, one zero wind and the remainder have you fleeing into the nearest anchorage fearing loss of life. We’ve learnt to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. 

Wednesday and Thursday looked to have 20+ knots of wind so we sought out a protected looking bay between Antiparos and the island of Despotiko and headed there late morning. We were pleasantly surprised to sail downwind for most of it, then even more pleasantly surprised to find the bay huge and absolutely gorgeous. We anchored across one side of the anchorage then when the wind turned north we moved across to the other side in the hope of having more protection and less “fetch” (waves) in the water when the wind picked up. 

In the evening we went for dinner in Captain Pipinos taverna. It’s famous in the sailing community for its best-in-Greece squid and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.