3. Sing..........Go West..........Pet Shop Boys

We depart Kalimnos around 5am, yeah an early one as we have a big leg ahead of us.  We want to get away from the Dodecanese and enter the Cyclades region so we are heading for Amorgos.  We are heading west and the forecast is for westerlies 3s and 4s.  The winds are fine but the swell is bothersome. Bang, bang, bang, splash! the bow gets smashed into the short swell for seven hours, a very uncomfortable ride.

Finally the swell and the winds subside to give us a little relief.  Greg has been working hard all morning on the helm and takes a little siesta on deck.  Eventually we arrive at our anchorage called Kalotaritissa at the southern end of the Island.  Most of the Greek Islands are barren mountainous rocky Islands with little civilisation, so you wonder how they build some of the monasteries, lets hope there is no more landslides for this one..  

Amorgos is 16 kilometres long on the east side so we both feel it has taken forever to arrive at our destination.  I'm so 'are we there yet'.  Eleven hours later we are tied up on a dodgy wharf right in front of the Greek version of a man cave.  Now we can relax and enjoy what is left of the day; unfortunately it's overcast and getting cold but hopefully we can swim in the morning before we leave.  It really is a very pleasant place to spend the night along side all the local fishing boats.

Greg finishes off the last of the bonito sashimi tonight and its still melt in your mouth delicious!

After showers we get a visit from some locals teenagers who seem intrigued about us pulled up at the fishing wharf, shame we can't communicate too well with them.  We all have a few laughs and they leave soon after.

Saturday.

Around 2.30am we are woken by a rolling swell coming into our bay.  You can here the winds picking up outside as they whistle around the island just west of us.  It's hard to sleep in this rock and roll that continues till morning.

We pull up anchor around 8 and continue in our westerly direction.  During the day our destination changes around five times as the winds change.  We are on a starboard tack all day sailing into W NW Beaufort 4s to 6s.  The yacht and skipper handle the conditions very well.  Our top speed is 8.7knots; that's pretty fast for a yacht this size and we are really heeling over most of the way.  I need a Xanax!

As we can't sail up between Paros and Naxos as planned we settle for a bay on the south side of Paros called Aliki, supposedly protected from the Meltemi winds.  We drop anchor around 12.30, it's a really beautiful bay but we are still experiencing gusts to Beaufort 4s and 5s.  The forecast is for it to drop of to 3s for the afternoon evening so lets hope so.  

Sitting on the back of the yacht I notice a small plane approaching which looks pretty low and just skims over the top to touch down not so far away up a hill.    It really looks like its going to crash into the mountain but the runway is up the hill. 

We were hoping to go ashore and eat in the village and use some Wi-Fi but unless the winds drop off we won't be able to take the tender out as we will end up out to sea as the winds are still to strong.

The winds are driving us nuts so we  finally decide to move anchor across the bay and get some good advice from a fellow Aussie who is a regular here.  Just as we move of course the wind drops off anyway.  It is much calmer over here and we are closer to the beach.  Dale drops by and we offer him a few beers for his help.  He shares a few stories with us that will be useful later on and we are both heading to the same place tomorrow so that's good.

We are able to row ashore for dinner and Wi-Fi, yes finally an update!