Nisos Astipalaia

We left Ios at dawn for Astipalaia which was about fifty-four miles.

We managed about four hours of good sailing, the wind was coming and going so had to motor sail the biggest chunk of the passage, hey-ho. Approaching Skala the wind got up round the cape and we had a bit of a race with another yacht, as it turned out he went into one of the bays just before Skala making the whole race a waste of time, but adding a bit of excitement.

Entering the harbour there was a fair wind blowing making the stern too mooring very difficult with the cross wind. Didn’t help that another yacht, which was lying across the bows of some boats at the other end of the harbour was screaming something at us as I was dropping the anchor leaving us wondering if there was some reason we shouldn’t be going in where we were. As it turns out, he was seemingly asking us if we had a long line to tow him off the other boats. Why wait till we had dropped the anchor?? Duh?? Anyway, we got in beside a nice French couple and were tucked up safely watching the antics of others mooring with the cross wind.

Skala is a lovely place, all wee sugar cube houses rising up the hillside to the Chora and the castle at the top. The architecture is very typical of the Cyclades albeit we have now left the Cyclades and are in the Dodecanese Islands. There is no charge for the harbour or the electricity but they charge ten Euros for the water which unfortunately was limited to one hundred and fifty litres per boat. They haven’t had rain for two years and the water is very scarce. Camira was looking decidedly grubby as this has been the case in a few places and she hasn’t been washed since Milos which was nearly a month ago.

While in Skala we hired a moped for a couple of days to see a bit of the island. It’s a volcanic island and very beige as I would say, no vegetation and to be honest not a particularly pretty island but it does have some beautiful bays for anchoring in. We more or less did the island on day one of the moped, getting to most places except Panormous which we followed the signs for on both days but just seemed to run out of road. I don’t think there is actually a place called Panormous or if there is, we certainly didn’t find it. The other place we almost got to was Vathi until the road ran out and turned to dirt track and was really hard going, so we passed and just took some pictures from a distance.

We stopped for lunch in Skinhouda, the bay immediately East of Maltezana and ended up in a fantastic tavern doing the usual Greek food but with just a bit of difference, attention to detail as they say. We decided there and then we would come and anchor in the bay and go for dinner one night. 

While we had the moped we went up to the Chora and visited the castle and had a meander around. Some quite dangerous drop offs.

Day two of the moped we just used it for a bit of shopping to stock up and for a trip to the beach which we don’t actually do very often.

Wherever we go, Camira is the smallest boat; however it has never been as obvious as it was while we were in Skala. After the French people left we moved into their spot which was next to a sixty foot yacht and gave us good cover from the prevailing winds and then a seventy-six foot Grand Banks motor boat came in at the other side of us. We looked like the tender to either one of them, so much so, a couple came round and asked us if we were not feeling just a bit overwhelmed. It was quite funny looking.

When a big boat comes in my inquisitiveness gets the better of me and I like to find out who the people are. I sat for about three hours one night waiting to see who was on the Grand Banks but they never came out. Probably knew there was some nosey bint on the wee boat next to them just dying to strike up a conversation. As it turns out, we did get talking to the “boy”, gosh he was only about twenty something, it was his family’s boat and he and his wife were out on it for four months, The boat is actually up for sale just now, a cool 2.6 million Euros. The guy, George, was really nice, we exchanged flags, we got an All Blacks flag, brand new and he got our old Saltire which was hanging in shreds but he was really chuffed with it. Unfortunately they were leaving that day but we have an invite on for a beer if we bump into each other again……What shall I wear???? 

We left Skala on 10 June and headed round to Ormos Skinhouda for four days and for dinner in the lovely tavern, which didn’t disappoint. It took us three goes at setting the anchor which is unusual for us, the Rocna has been a great anchor and usually sets first time. However, once in it set fine and we enjoyed our four days swimming, eating and relaxing. We enjoyed Astipalaia, as I said, not the prettiest island but we enjoyed it very much and Skala is a lovely place to visit.