After picking up our friends on the south coast of Mykonos we headed straight to a beautiful bay for a swim, lunch and investigation of the various water toys! This included bailing out the dinghy!

The next day we headed to the small Island of Renia just off the coast of Mykonos. Splendid scenery, great walks and great view of the Moon rising over the Mykonos skyline!

We ate on board that night and Kyle was so taken with Jacques’ version of a Greek Salad that the following day he had his first attempt at making his own and it was delicious!

The strong winds started to arrive a day earlier than expected so we went with it and headed back to Naxos but this time much further south to a small marina in Kalantos which is run by Vasilis and his family. Very enterprisingly, Vasilis also runs a small Taverna and will take you food shopping in his car for 50 Euros! We declined the food trip but we did head to his rustic Taverna. What is amazing is that in such a small place, where there is nothing to be seen apart from the Marina (which anyway only has room for six or seven boats), there are an additional two Tavernas within walking distance!

We spent 3 days in Kalantos, mostly chilling – I’m not sure if this was a ‘fishy tale’ that Gary was sharing with Jacques!

With the trips to the two Tavernas we had only one night eating on board during our stay here. What is so good on Mossy Joe is to have a galley (kitchen) where there is space to cook along with storage for the full range of kitchen utensils and all the ‘pantry’ items that you would expect to find in a house. What is even more fantastic is to have not one, but two, excellent cooks on board (plus now Kyle with his Greek Salad!) On this evening Rosario made us a fabulous curry! Delicious!

We had some lovely walks, albeit two of them were to the Tavernas up the hills, and there was hiking for the more adventurous! There are no pictures of the hikes because, surprisingly, I was not on them!

The walk for our visit to a second Taverna had been part beach, part sea and part rock climbing! Suffice to say that there was a heavy session of ‘wash your feet’ when we got back on the boat!

After three days and a slight break in the wind conditions we headed north to be close to Naxos town for when our friends had to depart. We anchored in another bay, slightly livelier than previous ones, and went ashore for food shopping and a cheeky cocktail – well 2 actually! A very kind treat from Kyle. This is the view from our cocktail bar and spot Mossy Joe!

There was time before dinner for some more fun in the water! This series of photos I am presenting as ‘Images of Brotherly Love’ starring Kyle and Jake!

And so the following day back to Naxos town – a short trip of 40 minutes but with a strong 22 to 28 knots of wind right on the nose making it incredibly uncomfortable! There was no space in the marina so we anchored in the bay fully expecting the wind to drop so that we could dinghy to shore.

The wind, and therefore waves, abated slightly and there was a moment when it appeared OK to make the short trip for some of us, by dinghy from the boat to the quay. As you can see it’s not so far and not at all disconcerting in the daylight!

The ride there at dusk was bouncy but safe, if a little scary climbing out of the dinghy to grasp the ladder on the quay wall. I was tired and decided not to go ashore so I watched from the boat as Jacques offloaded his passengers and then headed back to me – all looked OK until Jacques got back completely soaked as the waves had crashed on the quay and all over him!

The return trip just after 11pm was even more of an adventure – the wind traditionally dies at night but not this one! Still peaking at 28 knots when Jacques went to pick up for the return journey was really frightening, the waves crashing into the front of the dinghy and as I watched I could have sworn at one point that it had capsized with all 5 people flung into the sea! Thankfully this was not the case, I had just lost sight of the dinghy lights for a few seconds as it was tossed about in the waves! Everyone was soaked but our lovely gift of Gin and Cakes had made it back unscathed!

On a lighter note, one of the unexpected highlights of the week has been the introduction of the card game, Uno, to our friends which we often played well into the night seeking revenge on whichever player had caused us to pick up 24 cards just as we were about to win!!

We have had the most wonderful week with our friends, they have now headed off to an apartment for a week on land in Naxos and then Santorini. We wait in the bay for either a spot in the marina or for the wind to change before our next lovely guests arrive on Wednesday.

Right now though, Saturday night cocktails await…..Hooray!

Thank you for reading and more to come soon xxxx