It’s a hazy and quiet morning when we leave Mytopolos Bay on Ios towards Antiparos. Very little wind, but we’re not in a hurry so lets just see how far the wind will bring us. Still amazing that even a bit of wind is capable of getting all 30 ton of us up to a decent speed. At just a few knots of wind the sails are normally capable of matching the apparent wind speed with speed over ground.
Seatramp is joining us for this 20 Nm crossing to the northwest but the remaining waves and the wind angle combined make it unbearable for them to sail without turning on the engine.
When we arrive in the very blue bay of Antiparos (Ormos Despotiko) they have already send the drone out to welcome us again. The water is still pretty cold, but the last couple of days it was already OK to take a swim every now and then.
The bay is more or less open on the other side as well. It would be nice of we could pass on that side because that would give us a nice wind angle to sail to Naoussa in the northern bay of Paros. The charts however indicate depths of 1.40 and less. Greatcircle needs at least 1.55 but Seatramp even 2.20m.
The weather is really calm so we decide to give it a try at the lowest speed possible. Greatcircle ahead and Seatramp following behind here. Extremely difficult to judge from the deck of the boat whether or not this will fit. The depth meter gives of course an accurate indication, but only at the exact position of this device (in front of the keel on the port hull). That could mean that there’s enough room for the port hull but the starboard hull gets already stuck on a rock at the same time.
Ónly way to get a better idea is to get into the water and even then it’s difficult to guess the actual amount of water between the bottom and the keels. When we’re half way it looks like we are going to make it, but no way that we feel comfortable to wave Seatramp through as well. It might work, but it might as well not work at all. Not worth the risk, so we’ll meet up again on the other side of the island.
For us it turned out to be worth it, because it gives us a couple of hours of nice sailing conditions along the west coast of Antiparos before the wind dies completely.
Although Ormos Naousis has a big opening to the north the big bay offers good protection for a lot of situations. Entering the bay we are looking out for Tanga Catamaran, Pete & Meli should have arrived here a day earlier. We have met last year in Astrous and went together to Spetses. Our circle of friends gets more and more international.
We invite all the youngsters on board for Mojito’s and introduce Pete and Meli to Mario and Nina. They don’t often meet liveaboards of their own age.
We didn’t know anything about Naoussa, but as it turns out this is a very nice town as well. A bit similar to Paroikia and Naxos-town but with its own charme. Narrow alleys, lots of bars and restaurants and quite some original shops, not all 13 in a dozen like you tend to find in all major cities. Marijke is able to score nice looking trousers here.
Next day we meet the crews of the cats Olé and Blonde Moment when we are invited together on Tanga. Seatramp sail bye and wave as the have to pick up new arriving friends in Paroikia. We’ll meet them later in the direction of Milos.
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