Sat 20 Jul – Sail to Schinousa

Looking at the latest forecast the wind was supposed to build late morning so we set off from Ios towards Schinousa, which is an island in the Small Cyclades. These are a group of 4 inhabited islands laying south of Naxos, the largest (Iraklia) is 19 sq km and has a population of just 400. We’re expecting 5 days of strong winds and apparently these islands are nicely sheltered.

For the first 5 miles we were motoring into the wind, as predicted. We were expecting the sea state to be horribly bumpy so were pleasantly surprised to find that with our main sail up it was reasonably comfortable. After an hour and a half we rounded the top of the island and sailed the 7 miles across towards the Small Cyclades. The sea was pretty choppy and with the wind at 25 knots we were glad to have our 2 reef in. As we came into the lee of the first island we were ready for the strong gusts, which with the flatter sea were manageable and meant we were flying along! As we approached the anchorage we were still sailing hard in a north wind so were confused to see the anchored boats facing south (they always face into the wind). Strange! As we got closer in the space of about 50 meters the wind dropped to zero, literally zero, it was the weirdest thing. We took down sails down and motored into the anchorage to find the wind gently blowing from the south. It was like a completely different day in here. We anchored, checked it was nicely dug in, Tom went to say hello to our neighbours and in the evening we went for a bite to eat on the beach.