Icarius's Ikaria, Sunday, 11th SeptemberA quick postscript to the last entry from July. The morning before we left Myrica in Leros boatyard, we heard a loud bang or crack and suddenly the hillside behind out boat was ablaze. Strong winds fanned the flames and soon the whole area was a furnace of burning heather, eucalyptus and scrub, threatening a few houses and billowing smoke over the little airport and the boatyard. The yard staff did what they could to create...

Of Meltemi and shrines, dentists and archipelagos - and being defect free Sunday, 10th July 2016 The Meltemi is upon us, meaning there are continuous, strong north-westerly winds. These can last from a few days to a fortnight at a time. We did well to work our way north and west first, some good if a bit gung-ho sailing to get us to Patmos island via a lovely spot on the south side of Lipsi island.Here we anchored in the bay around the point from the main port. ...

End of a great big Aegean loop Thursday, 30th June 2016 We have been off radar for a bit and are now about 260nm from our last report having closed the loop of our Dodecanese, Cyclades, Crete, Dodecanese circuit. Our timing has (more by luck than judgement?) been good - we got out of Crete before the Northwesterly winds came blasting down. We sailed to little Kasos from the eastern side of Crete, about 35nm away. Here we rafted alongside an impounded sailing...

Putting point on the map. Mapping is a bit skewiff - trying to fix

Minoan Crete and Wild Country Fri 17th June 2016 We have traversed the length of Crete along the north coast, from west to east. Rethymno is another Venetian port with a great fortress on the headland and a harbour surrounded by cafes and shops. We hired yet another car, to drive the Idi Ori mountains and visit Phaestos, a well preserved Minoan site - incredible to think their artwork and building pre-date the classical Greek by a thousand years or so!...