Day 18 – Loutra, Kithnos

Tuesday turned out not to be as windy as forecast, maybe 15 knots, gusting between 21-22 knots, so we decided going to Loutra would be fine.   This decision gave us our second best sail of the holiday,  50 to 60 degrees off the wind, a bit tippy, but perfect wind so we skelped the 20 miles doing between 7 and 8.5 knots.

There is a Scottish word called coup, (pronounced cowp) which means to tip.  Our boat has a gauge which shows how much the boat is tipping, this is now called a coupometer.

It is the gauge of comfort on a passage of 3 hours plus.  A degree of coup in excess of 20 degrees is fine for a bit of woo hoo, hanging on for dear life with the boat on its ears, but once you’ve done this for an hour it becomes uncomfortable.  So after sailing for 30 mins with an excessive coupometer reading I reduced sail for comfort.  The boat speed did not decrease (boats go quicker more upright).  Had to do this again as the wind picked up, but had such a top sail. 😊😊😊😊😊😊

We got to loutra at about 4 ish and anchored up stern too with a tricky cross wind and not much space, but all was well.  We helped our chums in and once all the boats were tied up looked at Loutra village for the first time.  What a gorgeous cute little place.  The Cyclades just keeps serving them up.  So off we went for an aperitif at a bar just off the beach. Then back to the boats, shower, G and T party then dinner at a taverna with tables on the beach.  First thing in the morning  we went paddling in the hot springs at the end of the beach (a reminder that much of Greece is still volcanic) followed by breakfast on the beach.  You’ll notice most things happen on the beach at Loutra 😊😊

Before we left we made a visit to our 5th Chora, which like the rest was just stunning.

So piccies of Lotra

Piccies of the chora.

On to the sand bar next.

Yammas!