3S & M Syros, Serifos, Sifnos and Milos

Saturday, 4th June 2016

An overnight stop on Syros and stock up, great place, for details see location in blog a couple of years ago.

On to Serifos, somehow much better than we were expecting - though not sure what that was we were expecting! A lovely little harbour, €3.5m worth of work going on to make it a more attractive and safe option for visiting boats; new quay, power and water being installed whilst we were there, painting and sprucing up going on. What a shame the planners did not know anything about boats or sizes or turning circles, etc. The inner basin (where we went) will either inevitably get filled up with little local boats, or will have only one side of it utilised by visiting boats - it is too narrow for the two facing rows of boats they envisaged to fit! They do make you despair at times. We spent a couple of nights here, taking the local bus for a visit up to the Chora with magnificent views, and visiting the local beautiful beach for a much needed afternoon swim later. Topped by a meal of anchovies and squid in a little harbourside restaurant and our visit was complete.

Sifnos is a barren rock of an island - we anchored in a lovely bay of clear water, little village and tourist cottages and a few other boats. A practical stop this, we are hopping slowly down to Milos to use that as a jumping off point for a long sail to Crete - weather watching all the while for a good window. We don't want any adventurous stuff, thank you, for a journey of about 14 hours.

A great sail to Milos under blue skies - it has suddenly become very hot. We threaded our way through the islets and reefs bordering Milos, stopping for lunch at the top by the village of Apollonia. There was an uncomfortable swell rolling in there, so after a swim, we decided to carry on round to Ormos Milos and the main port of Adamas. Great bakeries, a local tiny fish market, charter boats, excursion boats, ferries, restaurants, land-based and water-based tourists - it all made for a very lively place. We anchored off to avoid the chaos of the quays, find some cool and quiet, and went ashore in the dinghy.

This is the home of the Venus de Milo, the famous marble statue found in the 19thC (now in the Louvre). It should really be called the Aphrodite of Milo, not the Roman Venus. It might not even be Aphrodite, although most do think it must be. It is made of Paro marble, quarried from nearby Paros island. Her arms have never been found, despite the stories of them being knocked off by the French captain trying to wrest her back from the thieves who had stolen her - a fabrication, but makes a nice story.

Today we head for the south of the island, to a cove called Kleftiko, to make it a good jumping off point for our passage tomorrow to Crete. This island (volcanic caldera like Santorini) has all manner of weirdly shaped rocks and stacks. The cruise boats go down there, so must be lots of interest to see - we aim to arrive as they leave!