Milos & Manolisi Island

We are going a different route to Nicolas, he’s heading round the same way we did last year but we’ve decided to have a look at some of the Southern Cyclades so our first stop is the island of Milos.

Arriving Milos

We had an early start of 0600 as its about 60 miles to Milos. Unfortunately, we only got sailing for about two hours as there wasn’t much wind. We arrived at the marina (pontoon) in Adhamas where we moored up on the inside . It was a long day, so had a quiet, early night before exploring.

Next morning we were visited by Renate & Wolfgang from Kalamata. They had been over anchoring in a bay when they were approached by the coastguard in the middle of the night.  Somehow, they had some SOS light going and didn’t know, so the coastguard had been alerted to this and paid them a visit to see what was wrong. They were asked to follow them into harbour and go to the office in the morning with all their papers etc. Good that the SOS light was acted upon but not so good for Renate and Wolfgang having to follow them into harbour in their pyjamas in the middle of the night with a big spotlight on them to guide them in.

Dr Wolfie & Renate

We met an English couple here who were out on a trial sail on an Oyster 57 for a week to see if the were going to buy it. They did and are now the proud owners of Ultima. Jon and Angie, the new owners, have only started sailing and just done their Comp Crew and Day Skipper…..wow, a big boat for two newbies. They seem like a nice couple and we’ve exchanged details to find out how they get on. They’ve sold up everything at home to do this, I hope it works out for them.

Adhamas is a nice place, it has a wee buzz about it, plenty cafes, nice bars and restaurants along the waterfront and when we were there, not too busy. The bay Adhamas is a volcanic crater glad it didn’t erupt when we where there.

We met a French lady who was feeding the stray cats. She was telling us she came to Milos two years before that on holiday and ended up staying there. She has set up a wee feeding station for the cats. I told her I had seen a wee kitten there the day before and it looked quite distressed. While we were talking, we heard the kitten and she went over to it. The poor wee things eyes were all crusted over and it couldn’t see. The lady put it in her car and took it home. She already has forty cats, now she has forty-one.

The Cat Sanctuary – Tiger has a lot to answer for !

We left Adhamas Bay on 19 May and went across to Rivari Bay to anchor.

Rivari Anchorage

It says it’s sheltered from Southerlies!!! We had gusts of 35-40 knots and a sleepless night so we upped anchor and made our way to Pirgonisi Bay on the south side of Kimolos Island about 13 miles away. We anchored here for one night with only us and one other German boat, another Moody. We didn’t bother going ashore as the place didn’t really grab us, a good enough anchorage but that was about it. Other than I was looking like Qusimodo with an eye infection, Dr Wolfgang reckoned if you can still see then its OK.

Our next stop was altogether a different story. The barren Island of Poliagos, close SE of Kimolos is connected by a reef and sand bar to a little islet called Manolonisi Island. You can tuck in behind Manolonisi and drop anchor there. The place is lovely, totally secluded and has Caribean type water and good shelter. We had a lovely two days here swimming in the beautiful clear water. We also had an interesting four hours watching a German charter boat trying to anchor????  3 metres and a sandy bottom….I have no idea what their problem was. If I had been them, I would have given up and moved on with embarassment. Wait till you see, I’ll get my come uppance for that comment.