It’s a Small World

The first thing I saw when I idled on deck were two goats silhouetted against the sky at the top of the cliff. One had curly horns and the other had none. It appeared they felt terrible smart. In the water Dalen was ripping around in the dinghy and eventually he and Zach went and explored for a bit. It was a small island with nothing much on it, so we didn’t linger long before weighing anchor and sailing over to Red Cliff. Yes. Actual sailing sans motor. That was a nice change.

Red cliff is basically a little slit in a harbor where you can snorkel, cliff jump, get the rope caught in the dinghy prop and swim in a cave. We visited last year and had a small struggle tying up the boat. This year we found someone had handily planted a mooring ball, so it didn’t take long at all to secure the boat and leap in. The sea was rather choppy, so that was disappointing, but we spent a couple hours there having fun and eating.

From there we went to the harbor at Astypalaia, where an old man ripping back and forth on a motorbike yelled at us where to dock, and two friendly Greeks from a different boat helped us tie up. Such nice people! We still aren’t sure if the old man has anything to do with the harbor, or if he’s just self appointed boat usher. As far as I know nobody ever came to take a fee from us, and we happily used power and refilled our fresh water tanks.

As it was Sunday the town was really dead but it felt great to stretch our legs on the steep steps leading up to the castle. We took in the views, and watched a most ridiculous cat eating her food like a person. She had a nice tray full of Mousakka, obviously from a restaurant, and instead of eating like a normal cat she would put her paw in, scoop up a little bite and then lick it off. This was near the spot where there were two toilets sitting side by side on the street/staircase, so maybe it’s an odd neighborhood.

We perused a small and incredibly messy Supermarket and found some treasures like a little broom and dustpan and some more rags and clothespins. We seem to need a ton of the latter. Our lifelines are often strung with towels and clothes, either freshly washed or freshly swam in.

Andrew cooked supper and the rest of us dozed, walked and watched in awe as a 450’ ferry came and dumped its cargo of people and trucks. According to measurements on Google Maps, that harbor is 750 ft wide where the ferry has to turn around and do all it’s maneuvers. It was impressive! The pilot had clearly done it a time or two before. The ferry personnel wasted no time and the whole process looked like a video in fast forward. Cars and trucks zipped off. Semi tractors would whip into the ferry, hook up a trailer and come screeching back out. People loaded boxes of fresh fruits and veggies out of other trucks and they’d rush back into the ferry to do it all over again at another island. A small group of people disembarked and roared off in little cars or on motorbikes, winding their way up the road that lead to their homes. And then with a blast of the horn they were off, leaving a massive wake of churning water the full width of the harbor.

We leave port at midnight and our plan is to head for Santorini. The waves were a little large to go earlier, so hence the unusual hour of choice.