Astipalaia

Although Astipalaia is technically part of the Dodecanese, it’s exposed position close SE of the Cyclades makes it look & feel Cycladic.

Route planning in the Cyclades is really a matter of going East or West. Anyone who has sailed there will know that getting back through the islands travelling West against the meltemi is the problem.

How to do this (our direction) is a much debated point. One thing is clear – going East through the Cyclades is infinitely preferable to going West when the meltemi is blowing, so it’s for this reason we are taking the opportunity to go when the winds are not blowing full strength (hopefully).

35 miles west of Nisiros, Astipalaia, called Stampalia in the middle ages consists of two mountain ranges joined by a long slender isthmus. When approaching it appears to be two islands. The coastline is much indented and offers a number of safe anchorages. The Greeks call it the butterfly island because of its shape.

Approaches from the pilot book

Until the Romans & later the English suppressed piracy in the Aegean, the island was a natural lair for pirates to pounce on merchant shipping.

In antiquity the island was famous for its seafood & fertility. Pliny praised its mussels and the surrounding seabed was supposed to have the best sponges in the Aegean. Today little of this is evident – the land mostly barren or scrubby, the mussels nonexistent and the sponge divers go to the African coast.

All that said it’s one of our favourites having visited it on our 1^st trip across to the Aegean after wintering in Kalamata on the Peloponnese. On that occasion we initially arrived in Skala Astipalaia, I remember in very windy weather.

This time we were headed for two small bays Matlezana & Skhinounda. The latter being the favourite as the wind is a bit less here and also a has a very good fish restaurant with a modern twist we had wanted to return to on the shorefront. However as luck would have it, uncommonly, we couldn’t get our trusty anchor to hold there. So after 8 hours underway we finally dropped anchor in Maltezana Bay, just around the corner.

The two anchorage options

Another good days sailing only using the engine for departure and arrival.

Maltezana Anchorage

Camira from the shore .. glad I fixed that outboard !

That night however we did walk over to the restaurant and saw other boats anchored, so maybe we were just unlucky on this occasion?

The short walk over to the restaurant in the other bay

We enjoyed the meal but felt that the service had slipped quite a bit, but not the prices! Think they are now living off past glories. Louise enjoyed her meal but mine was just OK, Ah well.

The Holy Grail

The above picture may not mean much to you – but when you are starved of fresh water for showeriing etc the above is a godsend, especially this year as we don’t have our resident water maker & tanker Nicolas ! We were able to fill up our water jerry cans at will .

Glamorous life this sailing…… no ?…… lol …….ask Diane