Ticketyboo in Patmos.

All well in Patmos but we headed west to Naxos together with S/V Maple. Strong winds on the beam made it a good sail until we rounded the northern Cape to head down to Naxos town. 10 NM against the wind made us think of our prevoius stuggles in Egypt. We definately prefer to be with the wind! With the wind continuing to blow the ancourages of Naxos town were pretty rolly but the beach was great as were the windling streets of the old town. After three days fresh winds from the south blew us to Paros were we now are anchoured in the big protected bay of Naoussa. Here the water is crystal clear and turquise. So at the moment we are enjoying swimming and a safe relaxed anchourage. And with the canadians close by Edvard sleeps over at his friends "house" pretty much every other day! So its ticketyboo here too!

Gumdrop and national day!

Boats come and go. Some stay longer. We stay when we enjoy ourselves. With our friends from Canada and six boats from the UK the quay on Arki was a good place to be. The children are often popular with other sailors. And other sailors are popular with the children. They make friends with good people. On S/V Iolanthe they had toys for grand children and a book which they gave to Edvard and Ingrid. The story of the 1926 old Austin Heavy 12/4 called Gumdrop. So now we have a much appreciated book in english. And reading in english is great as spesially Edvard develops his language skills with the canadian friends.

Norwegians  celebrates 17 th of May wherever they are. And with being a norwegian crew we too celebrated with the best of effort. We thought of traditions back in Oslo and Norway. Children in parades. Cakes. Hot dogs. Icecream. We hoisted our signalflags and had a great day in short!

Today we sailed to Patmos together with S/V Maple. But thats another story!

Now I am off to find a TV to watch Liverpool play Sevilla. Go Reds as they say!

You'll  never walk alone.

Laidback Lipsi and friendly Arki.

From Agatonisi we sailed to Lipsi where we spent two fine days in the small old town and enjoying the fact that the Island was green and fertile. As usual we trawled the town for playgrounds.

Arki. With strong southerlies we seeked shelter on this small island. 40 inhabitants. Two children. One teacher. Two tavernas. Fisherman. A few sailors and a couple of hundred goats and sheep. Thats this place in short. We visited the school and Edvard made good friends. This evening all the children played football on the little square between the tavernas. Good atmosphere with the weekend visitors from Patmos including two children!

Tomorrow we look forward to meeting our canadian friends on S/V Maple who hopefully will be sailing up from Leros!

Weather wise we have had rain which is welcome as the winter has been unusally warm and dry. We expect one more day of rain before the sun should be back!

Easy Agatonisi.

Relaxing days for us on the Island of Agatonisi. Moored with a line ashore we spent five days playing football, taking short walks or swimming and jogging for me and Janna. With few other boats or tourists we enjoyed the calmness and seaside restaurants. Or breathed in the contrasts of the Med. Every other night a navy ship came in. During the days it monitored the greek/turkish waters to the east. During one of my running excursions I met two of the staff from the organisation Medecin sans frontiers. They where out checking the routes ashore where the refugees land. This part of Agatonisi is desolate and barren. The refugees often land in areas far away from infrastructure. Either because smuglers onboard need to return without being caught or simply because the boats or dingys are helmed by people without prevoius experience from navigation. Today there are fewer refugees making the crossing. Or at least making it into European waters. The agreement between Europe and Turkey has had an effect. So today there were no regugees to greet for the staff I met. Just huge amounts of old lifejackets and plenty of sunken rubber dingys. I jogged back to the boat and the beach where Edvard and Ingrid were playing.

-Drive up to the monastary. Its a 40 min walk to the top.

The guy at the petrolstation fils the car up for 20 euro and says good luck! And off we drove to climb Mt. Kerkis 1440 meter peak. We turned right off the main road and followed the sign. The road quickly turned out to be a small and winedy one. We passed a derelict house. And a barking dog. Now the road was gravel. Or sand and loose rock. We continued onwards. It was getting steep bit we kept on in first gear. We could see the face of the mountain to our right. The road could not go up there? Well as the road steepens we decide to take to our feet. The monastary can not bee far off. We enjoy the views. We can see the Fourni Islands and Agatonisi. But we can't see the monastary. We walk on. We reach the end of the road and it turns into a narrow path slung to the mountain side. After an hour of walking there is still no sanctuary for us. We walk on. And Edvard impresses us with his imagination in play and strength in walking. Finally we reach the monastary. It looks deserted. We picknick and push on. Only 40 minuits to the top now. Its a beatiful walk through the wooded landscape. In the forrest there is lee from the wind. Its getting cold. As we pass the tree limit we can see the ridge running to the top. It looks far but we continue for another 15 minuits til we reach some shelter behind some bushes. We can see the top now. Its embeded in dark clouds. We pick up our softdrink and celebrate todays effort and to call it a day. We only have the walk down to do!

Safely back ar the car after five hours of hiking we head of for a meal. In Ireon we found a memorable restaurant and enjoy a good sea food meal. All happy with the days adventure!

Tomorrow we sail to Agatonisi, even though we gladly could of stayed longer on this green and diverse island. But the wind is blowing. The right way. So as sailors who prefer to bee with the wind we leave tomorrow with good memories of Samos.

Take care!