Paros to Mikonos

After a restful night, moved around to Naoussa Bay, anchored and enjoyed a lovely chat with a retired RAF gentleman while the mob tendered ashore for a few hours on a beach.  Perfect weather again, though a little windy.  Powered out to Mikonos in the afternoon in a stiff headwind with only 2 - 3 foot waves, arriving in time for supper.  This time we moored in the New Port but buses were provided to ferry us in to town.  Reggie's tummy rebelled at the prospect of more movement, so we opted for a night aboard.

I had watched the Captain tie up to the pier stern-first (in approved Mediterranean fashion) while wrestling with a beam wind that seemed to be half a gale.  Afterwards I asked him how high the wind had been and he said only "More than 20 kph."  The bay in front of our position was occupied by two enormous cruise ships who were riding to anchor and as we watched, a third cruise ship inched carefully in to shore to dock beside us.  Mikonos was going to be hopping tonight.  An hour later, one of the anchored ships made ready to depart, only to discover that one of his anchors was fouled.  I looked on with great interest as he struggled with it for half an hour, towards the end of which an inter-island car ferry zipped in, rotated in its own length and insouciantly backed in to the dock between us and the third cruiser.  He squeezed in with the ramp already partially lowered, docked and began unloading just as the other ship finally freed his anchor, and with a collective sigh of relief sailed off into the sunset.

Never a dull moment on the Aegean!

Happy swimmers off to the beach, Naoussa

Nearby boatyard, Naoussa

Cruiser inching in, Mikonos

Ferry spinning in front of struggling cruiser

Ferry squeezing between us and another cruise ship