Tom Döhler
We’ve been waiting for a day with favourable winds for what feels like an eternity. It’s either been too windy or there’s been no wind at all. But for the most time it’s just been blowing like crazy, which isn’t ideal.
We woke up excited to find a gentle breeze rolling into the bay. We got the boat ready in no time and headed out curious to see what conditions we would find. And what can I say, today was going to be perfect. We had around 20 knots straight from the north and an absolutely flat sea. To go from Irakleia to Paros we had to go on a close haul, which means sailing as close as possible to the wind. We weren’t sure at first whether we’d be able to make it up north enough but luckily the wind bends around the islands as it funnels through them. This meant that although we were going too far west to begin, the wind soon turned allowing us to head towards where we actually need to get to.
It felt fantastic to be out in these conditions, the sail was probably the best one we had so far. Originally we were planning to anchor at the south of Paros for the night, but sailing was so much fun we decided to continue on. The wind was building a bit and since we had to go straight north into it by now the sailing became a bit harder. We tacked backwards and forwards up the the channel between Paros and Antiparos in a building breeze which by now was gusting into the 30’s but which felt awesome on such flat water. We were the only boat in the usually busy channel which was great!
By now we’d decided we’d get back to Paros town this evening however the small passage at the top between Paros and Antiparos is rather shallow (2m in places) so we thought we’d better wait for the wind to die down a bit before going through. Exhausted but thoroughly happy we dropped the hook just off Antiparos and sat (with a cup of tea!) and watched the 50+ kite surfers flying along between the boats. What a sight! Towards the evening the wind died down and we motored the few miles up into Pariokia bay where we had dinner on deck and an early night.
Today, 14 years ago was when Camilla’s Mum sadly passed away so we spent some time looking through some old photos and remembering just what an awesome lady she was 🙂
?