It’s a Small World

The first sight that met our eyes was a quaint little fishing harbor. Stray cats ambled about, goat bells tinkled in the distance, and an old fisherman was checking his nets. A small Taverna slowly filled with locals, and as I sat on my battered deck chair on the shore, I could hear animated Greek chatter and laughter. The little inlet was calm, which was a blessed relief, since the waves outside were only getting bigger. As the others straggled around, we munched on granola and compared how we hadn’t slept well. Oh well, we can sleep at home.

With our spirits fortified, we untied and headed back out through the narrow channel to go find the Red Cliff, a famous swimming, jumping, and cave exploring spot on the south side of the island. We didn’t have that far in the big rollers, but far enough. We told stories to pass the time and keep any nerves and stomach problems at bay. Every day I write that the waves were the biggest I’d seen, and every day they get even bigger! They were truly gorgeous today, a brilliant dark blue and when they broke they turned to turquoise. Colors you could never replicate. Avril, crazy girl that she is, stood on the bow with water running over her feet, whooping into the wind. Totally unsafe, and after a while we called her back. She was soaked. Most people are made for the land but enjoy the sea, that woman was made for the sea and enjoys the land. Salt water runs in her veins.

Red Cliff was everything we had hoped for. Once again the crew outdid themselves as we tied off to the rocks and got everything secure. We felt an enormous sense of accomplishment and teamwork! Truly the best crew you could work with. No panickers, everyone just shuts up and does their thing, whether it’s holding fenders between the boat and a small bit of concrete, climbing up the cliff to tie off to a ring, or dingying out with more lines to tie off to other rocks. After a lunch of fried rice that wasn’t actually fried, out came the snorkeling gear, and into the water we hopped. Camille and I headed to the cave, fear tugging at our hearts cause neither of us had done a cave thing before, so it was freaky. Fun freaky. We had to keep encouraging each other to proceed and man, it was so worth it! There were all kinds of shelves and nooks under water and some little places you could swim under shelves and pop up in the next section. The ceiling was open, so it wasn’t dark, dark. After a short swim, you got to a solid wall but the sun was shining through the water, so you knew you could swim through a tunnel and pop into the open sea. Rob was the first to do it. Super cool!

Other brave souls were scaling the rocky cliff and leaping off into the water, progressively getting higher and higher until it was at least 35ft. The rocks were sharp, so legs were running blood and smiles were huge. It was an epic afternoon, made even better by the iced coffee and heavenly pastry that Avril suddenly produced. Salty and satisfied, we untied and headed for the town of Astypalea.

There was only a very narrow spot to med moor in the harbor, but the German guys gladly moved their boat lines so we could slide in too. A far cry from the gal at the dock the other day, these guys never yelled, never twitched in panic and calmly took our lines. Avril got mad all over again when she compared the two behaviors. It was a perfect mooring, which made me smile cause that was the thing that scared Heath the most about the whole trip. To execute it, you have to drop anchor the perfect distance from shore, back the boat up to the concrete pier, stop just short of bumping, get two stern lines tied to the pier and then suck the anchor in till it’s tight. So many things can go wrong, and if you add wind, other boats or yelling, it can be extremely stressful!

Zach and Camille bought us a delicious pizza and salad supper at a quaint little dockside restaurant and we enjoyed every bite. But wow we were tired. So exhausted our eyes could hardly stay open, so we staggered back to the boat and crashed. Probably the best night yet.