Across the top there are wonderful carved reliefs of the eight winds. Northwest, West and Southwest were our most common winds.
North Boreas Man wearing a heavy cloak, blowing through a twisted shell
North East Kaikias Man carrying & emptying a shield of small round objects
East Apeliotes Young man holding a cloak full of fruit and grain
South East Euros Old man wrapped tightly in a cloak against the elements
South Notos Man emptying an urn and producing a shower of water
South West Lips Boy pushing the stern of a ship, promising a good sailing wind
West Zephyros Youth carrying flowers into the air
North West Skiron Bearded man with a bronze pot full of hot ashes and charcoal
Our re-entry to land from the sea is in Nauplion.
It is on the Argo-Saronic Gulf and we had thought at one time to sail here. Instead, Tara and I walked down to the dock to check out the sailboats mooring and the dock.
Nauplion is a wonderful town that reminds me more of Tuscany or Provence than Greece. The view is from where we eat breakfast each morning at the Marianna Pensione. The photo is at 8:30 in the evening.
Tomorrow we head for Athens.
Sailors since Classical times have had the Temple of Poseidon as a landmark that one is close to Athens.
The view from the sea of this magnificent temple is rather stunning.
It was a highlight of our final day of sailing on Friday.
We just now made it safely to our drop-off spot outside Athens.
Thanks to current and all former crew for all your help and friendship.
George and Tara
Michael, Kira, Jesse and I went deep down into the Parian marble quarry today.
Nice activity on a hot afternoon.
These quarries provided the prized marble in ancient times for sculptures. Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace are two of note.
Most fascinating shining the flashlight through a 2 inch thick piece at the bottom in the dark quarry shaft.
This is Michael at the bottom.
We visited the grave of Homer on Ios.
It is at a desolate spot. Only thyme, bee boxes, rocks, goats and weeds. Flowers are all dry now.
This island originally was covered with oak forests, which did a wonderful job of preserving the top soil.
I did enjoy the fresh yogurt with thyme honey on the island. Greek yogurt rules. You can get it in the US. Total is the brand.
When reading the inscription, note that word get cut from line to line. For example sac red should be read as sacred.
We arrived in Naoussa, Paros, yesterday afternoon.
Tara, Mom and I had visited the town by car about 3 1/2 weeks ago. It is more alive now and is fun to enter and access the town from the sea. This is one of the real benefits to sailing the Greek Islands.
We are off to explore the island a bit more, including visiting a friend of Catherine's who has a Summer place on the South end of the island.
Also need to pick up a spare fuel filter.
We had a scare on the way to Paros. The engine just went dead. With the algae issue a few days ago, we thought that might be it. We were quite worried, since we don't have a spare fuel filter. Instead, a 1.5 liter water bottle with only 3 inches of water in it that was standing up on the floor in our room had lodged behind the fuel kill lever. It didn't have enough water to fall over, but did have enough to slowing work the lever out and kill the engine.
Photo of Kira and Tony at dinner last night. We had a delicious caper salad and baked feta, as well as other things.
After a 9 hour sail we arrived in Ios.
It has a reputation as the hot spot for young backpackers, but in June it is quite pleasant. Very relaxed.
We decided to stay an extra day and it is a nice spot for our younger crew.
Wonderful view at dusk.
Tassie and Heath departed in Rhodes and headed for Turkey. Here is a wonderful update from them on the Southern Coast of Turkey. George
Hello from Turkey! We are sleeping in a tree house in the midst of orange trees! Today we wandered through the ruins of Olympos and they are REALLY still ruined--not excavated at all. There are vines crawling over everything, trees popping up in the rooms, and yellow leaves all over the ground. We walked down forest trails along crumbling walls through intact arches and found giant busted open tombs and mosaics. And when you finish walking through the abandoned city, you step out onto the most gorgeous pebble beach with warm water and bits of ruins all over the cliffs around you. After we exhausted ourselves swimming we laid on some couches that reminded me of being in a tatami room and this old woman made us fresh-cooked pancakes (more like flour tortillas) filled with bananas and warm honey. We're going to go enjoy some hookah and some sort of torch tour this evening...I'm not really sure what that entails. Tomorrow night we're taking a long bus ride to Cappadocia. When we booked plane tickets from Cappadocia to Istanbul, the Turkish airlines offered us a choice of a bland or high fiber meal. I thought that was funny. Hope everyone is well! Can't wait to see you all in July! Love,Tassie
Last night, walking to dinner, I needed to talk to my fellow attorney, Erik, at the office.
Upon completing the call, I promised to e-mail a picture of my view at that moment. This is it. The island of Astipalaia.
The castro mentioned in an earlier blog is at the top.
Tony and I hiked up to the castle for the island this morning.
Much was destroyed by earthquakes and the town has spilled out below it with well maintained white buildings similar in style to Cycladic islands.
But still you find pockets of civilization being left to the harsh elements slowly dissolving back to the earth.
We check the fuel separator each day before departing although usually weekly is advised.
This morning, instead of clear oil, it looked like someone put a can of spinach in it.
With rough seas yesterday, it kicked up algae that can grow in the bottom of the fuel tank in water that collects from condensation. (At the end of the day we still had 5/8ths of a tank of fuel. We were not running on a low tank.)
We had to remove the fuel filter, replace it since it was all gummed up and clean out the clear separator bowl. The algae was quite chunky and had to be broken up. The cleaned bowl photo is also attached. It all took a couple of hours.
Hate to think what would have happened had we set off today on a long journey today without checking this.
As is, with rough seas anticipated tomorrow, we stayed put and will enjoy the island of Astypalaia tomorrow as well. We also topped the fuel tank to reduce further problems, although we need to get another back-up fuel filter.
Another learning experience.
Amazing food, each course done perfectly.
This is grilled octopus and grilled squid. In the middle are pasta bows
with squid ink coloring.
I woke up early the other morning and went walking at 5:30 AM.
A few of the clubs were still pounding music and there were people sitting at tables about to retire. However, by sunrise, possession of the city was being turned over to those living by daylight.
This is a photo of the castle at sunrise. It is best walking the old town inside the castle before the town and tourism awakes.
Our next change of crew arrived yesterday, so we are 12 strong in Rhodes for a few days as we run about.
We arrived in Rhodes yesterday (Friday).
This represents the furthest point in our sailing that started in Corfu.
To celebrate, Tara and I went to a Turkish bath, had a massage and checked into a hotel for the night in the old town behind the castle walls.
This is a view from the rooftop of the hotel where we had breakfast.
We arrived yesterday in Kos.
This is a photo of the boat from the Kos Castle built by the Knights of St. John in the 14th and 15th Centuries.
We are in the main town harbor at the base of the castle.
Kos is a very beautiful and cosmopolitan town. It seems to have an identity outside of tourism.
We are currently arriving by day ferry to Bodrum, Turkey, to see the premier underwater archaeology museum in the Bodrum Castle.
The town of Lakki on the island of Leros was designed and built by Mussolini and he would come here where he had a summer residence.
The style is Italian Fascist Art Deco. Really bizarre, but we did enjoy it. It is as if South Beach never caught on and grew.
Leros was wonderful, especially after Samos. No English or American tourism presence.
Great food. Last night we went to a seaside taverna by a secluded beach. Tara and I were there in the afternoon and they had some great traditional Greek music playing.
At dinner, she asked them to put the same music on. It had wicked violin that you find with such music. They agreed to play it on the condition we dance to it. Tara agreed, if they would teach us. They did!
We should note that Tassie and Meryl kicked the soccer ball with Niko, the six year old son of the owner of the taverna for about an hour.
The music was by musicians from Leros, and the guy who grilled the octopus for us was the violin player. Every Saturday night they play live.
Magical evening with an orange full moon rising over the water.
Greece has sweet shops. Everywhere.
Well, except for Samos.
We landed in Leros today and hit two wonderful zaharoplasteios after a dry spell.
Here we are at seaside enjoying our favorite drink, the Nesfrappe metrio me gala. Whizzed instant Nescafe with a little sugar and milk over ice at our favorite sweet shop.
They have diples (layered fried pastry, very light) and soaked in honey. Some are filled with honey and walnuts, others mandarin and almonds. Heavenly.
Meryl has fallen in love with the guy running the shop. Something about the bite of rich creamy pastry he offered her a bite of. Not sure if she will be on the boat, when we depart tomorrow.
Mom mentioned that she had not yet put her feet in the sea on this trip, so Tara took her into the sea on a secluded beach on Patmos.
After a few days in Naxos, which is a wonderful island, especially in the interior, we spent two nights in a small bay in the first island East of Naxos, Dhonousa.
We had planned only one night, but the rocky sea bed refused to release our anchor until about 3 pm of the day we intended to leave. So we stayed put for another night.
We went ashore on the island for help. The woman who was cleaning her taverna in preparation for Summer, informed us that there were no men older than 15 in the remote village. She called the adjacent village with ferry service and confirmed no divers on the island to help. She also confirmed no ferry service to the island for 2 days. This bay was so secluded that for the first time in Greece we had no blackberry service.
We went back to the boat and luckily freed the anchor after more messing around. It was a hard day. Good learning lesson. Had a nice dinner on the boat and we celebrated my parents 58 year anniversary.
This morning we left at 6:30 am for Patmos. Just saw these four dolphins off the starboard bow.
It appears that the making of souvlaki on Thira/Santorini goes back to at least the 17th century BC, as evidenced by this ancient souvlaki grilling device.
This basic design is still in use in Greece.
Such continuity of culture in Greece is rather fascinating.
The modern souvlaki is small pieces of pork (fatty, such as shoulder) that is skewered onto sticks. It is cooked slowly over coals. It is then seasoned with salt, oregano and lemon as it comes off the coals.
The ancient Thirans would not have had the lemons. They didn't really come to Greece until 1000 AD.
We hopped on a ferry to Santorini for two nights. Was a nice break from sailing and we didn't have to handle the docking.
Was truly stunning to see the caldera and the towns perched above.
The crowds and the level of tourism made us look forward to our Kolossos and sleepy Paros.
We had a wonderful dinner in Oia on Santorini at a slow food restaurant (called "1800"). Ate outside and had wonderful white wines from Santorini. Truly enchanting evening.
The break was nice and we could compare ferry island hopping to sailing ourselves. Nice to have dinner on our boat this evening with the setting sun.
We arrived yesterday in Paros.
It is obviously more into tourism than sleepy Sifnos.
The old part of town is a delight to walk and is relatively flat, making ideal for my parents.
The attached photo is of a Frankish castle remnant that was made with parts of ancient temples.
Paros also has a beautiful Byzantine church complex dating back to the 7th Century. Well worth the visit. Sorry no pictures of it.
One of the most useful devices for us has been my blackberry.
The uses include,
1. E-mail.
2. Phone. Works everywhere.
3. Google maps. Locates us usually within 3 meters with satellite photo of where we are. Always works.
4. Photos, which we e-mail to post on the blog.
5. Weather forecasts. We get decent hourly forecasts going 3 days into the future and they are decent.
6. Internet access. At the site of the battle of Actium, we read the wikipedia entry for the battle and info on triremes.
This is a photo of the diesel fuel separator. (Upside down). It's located in a place under the engine that is impossible to see. (You are looking for water or fuel impurities to bleed out, since they are heavier.) Just stick the blackberry down there with forced flash and take a picture. Another set of eyes.
We guard it with our lives.
Yesterday we sailed from Patras to Itea, where we grabbed a bus up to Delphi.
It was exciting to arrive by sea, since so many pilgrims most likely did so during the 1000+ plus years that it was the dominant oracle.
We had visited in 1980 with backpacks, but failed to really enjoy the experience. It sits on a rocky shelf about 1300 feet above a sea off olive trees that lead to the bay on which Itea is located.
We arrived late in the day and hit the museum first. It seems all of the archaeological museums in Greece have been extensively revamped since 2001. Delphi is no exception. The attached bowl is an example of one of the pieces in the collection.
We ended up wandering the site between 6:30 an 7:30 as the sun was sending shadows over the site.
The stadium, which we didn't visit in 2001, is at the top of the site and is in incredible shape and is a wonderful example of an ancient stadium, even better than Olympia.
A recent find was the debree from a temple that burned. It was all buried at that time in two pits. The picture of the gold work was part of what was found.
We are now in Kiato, about 20 kilometers West of Corinth. We are picking up my parents, Mike and Myrt, and our brother-in-law, Art, and dropping off our friend, David. We head for the Corinth Canal on Friday.
We just went under the Rion Suspension Bridge, which separates the Gulf of Patras and Gulf of Corinth.
We are headed for Delphi.
We spent two nights in Patras. Visits before in 1964 (45 years ago) and 1980 were in transit and only in the port area. The other areas of the city are quite charming and vibrant.
The Cathedral here is the largest in Greece and is quite impressive. Mosaics, icons, carved stone, carved wood, and silver work are all impressive and well done. They have the head of the Apostle Andrew and part of his X cross. A wedding was to happen a little later in the evening, so it was all adorned for the ceremony. In addition, the chanters were active and the priest was swinging the incense. Nice experience, especially for David.
We had a taxi driver drive us to all the sites in the early evening. From the church to the Odeon, to the Kastro and finally he dropped us off in this area that goes from a large plateia down a walking area with many outdoor restaurants.
After eating outside we walked part of the way back passing another large square with lots of activity. Greeks stay up late.
Back at our boat that night, we were in the middle of probably the hottest scene. Blaring music in the line of clubs along the marina and people having fun. It doesn't seem to keep us from sleeping.
Sunrise as we leave Kefalonia for Patras.
Beautiful morning. Quite calm.
We have a good 8 hour trip before us.
Everyone in good spirits, but our coffee has yet to arrive.
Wonderful weather for our departure, but we are waiting for final approval of the papers by the port authority.
We are on the ferry to Corfu.
Travel by sea has commenced.
The weather reminds us of the San Juan Islands in Washington State, which is kind of comforting.
We are looking forward to a slower pace of travel.
We eat these everywhere. The ubiquitous Horiatiki Salata, aka the Village Salad.
They can vary in form from place to place. This one was at a fish taverna in Volos in Thessaly. Quite beautiful. We don't seem to tire of them and I don't know why.
The little boiled zucchinis are quite beautiful and are unique. Also, up here there all types of peppers, so instead of the conventional green pepper this has pale green and red peppers. Not hot peppers.
<<P1000610.JPG>>
