We left Finikas with a 10knt northerly pushing us south towards Delos Island, just off Mykonos. We arrived in the early afternoon in a secluded bay about 1nm from the visitors centre and immediately jumped in the dinghy and sped over. The experience was fantastic with much of the old buildings still visible with their mosaic floors and well explained. We had arrived just as the visitors ferry was leaving so we were alone on the island bar the staff. The museum on site housed many original statues dug up from the site. We had an interesting 3 1/2 hour walk around the city ruins before a couple of staff turned up who apparently were looking for us, being concerned that they didn't know where we were!
Sights of Delos
After a night alone in our bay we set sail again to Paros island, specifically the town of Naoussa. We had passed here last year but in our hurry to get to Turkey we hadnt been able to visit. It's apparently the new 'trendy' place to be, a baby Mykonos. Certainly very pleasent but the prices in the old town were around 3 times we have found elsewhere. We found a bar upstairs and we were encouraged to sit on the balcony where we were fed snacks and the local Mastica liqueur for free alongside the beer we bought. It became obvious that, as the first customers of the evening, they wanted to keep us there to attract other customers! Nevertheless the bar staff were very friendly and chatty, insisting we mentioned the handsome staff in a review on our sailing app for livaboards, Noforeignland. Review and customer attraction job done, we found a restaurant for dinner before heading back to the boat.
Naoussa
We had planned to stay in Paros for Easter as it has a reputation for the celebrations, however the welcome, but short notice, news that Amanda's son and friend were coming to visit meant we had to keep moving towards Rhodes where they would fly in to. We therefore headed to Koufonisi, one of our favourite stops from last year. Sadly this time it was pretty deserted and after eating ashore we were back on the boat for the night before heading to Astypalaea for Easter. This is a lovely town, with a small harbour and attracted a few yachts for the celebrations. We ended up moored stern to with a couple of UK boats next to us, joined soon after by an Australian couple on their boat Dash. We had a lovely time socialising with them, having meals together and watching the religious procession on Friday night and fireworks on Saturday night.
The fireworks were spectacular, we were almost in the middle of the show as they were fired from two sides of the harbour. We had to give the boats a good clean the next morning to remove the debris. Sunday found us in a restaurant eating Lamb roasted on a spit with rice, a traditional Greek meal for Easter Sunday.
Remnants of Spit roasted Lamb
Sadly Monday morning was time to leave, Dash heading West and Kerensa East. We hope to see them later in the year when we return to Greece. Kerensa is now making her way to Rhodes where we will pick up Amanda's youngest son and friend for a short visit.
