Day 3 and 4 - We FINALLY make it to Astipalyaia

Going to Astipalyaia has been a target for two previous sailing holidays in the Cyclades. The problem is the island is remote, it's difficult to get to be ferry, by air and by yacht. Sailing there from the Cyclades is tricky because Astipalyaia is a 40 mile ish sail south from Amorgos and whilst the distance itself isn't an issue the prevailing winds are. Winds in the Eastern Agean are generally northerlies so getting to Astipalyaia is usually a doddle but getting back can be more of a slog, or even as we've found the winds have been strong enough that we might end up being stuck there for as long as a week or more.

So here's our chance, the route we've chosen now going north around the top of Kalymnos gives us the perfect wind angle to go west to Astipalyaia - wind on the beam (or slightly behind) all the way, as the picture below shows, which is a dream for a long day sailing.

After enjoying Astipalyaia we're planning on going South East, probably to Nissisros, again not a problem as the wind should be either on the beam or slightly down wind - easy peasy.

And the journey across could not have been better, we had great wind all the way (15 knots ish), on the beam as forecast. Because of the distance (51 Nautical Miles) we motor sailed and kept the speed up at around 8 knots average meaning we arrived 2 pm ish, after a 6.45 start from Kalymnos, which meant we were well in time to get a spot in the harbour.

Was Astipalyaia worth it? WOW, WOW, WOW - get it on your bucket list, it is stunningly beautiful.

After a good night's sleep we hired a car and pretty much saw the island in a day.

Now here's a thing, hiring a car on a Greek island is strange, very cheap, in our case 35 Euro's and although the cars are pretty low end (sometime very low end and extremely tatty - see previous holiday blogs), they're functional (ish). What surprised us at first is that you just pay your 35 Euro's and take the car, no deposit, no credit card, no security, nothing, and in this case I paid in cash. So you could just steal the car right? Wrong, where would you go, the only way to leave the island is by ferry and would they let an island hire car on the ferry? I think not.

We had planned on staying on Astipalyaia for at least another day but it's clear there is a real risk of strong winds stranding us for anywhere up to a week (seen this before!) because the island is remote. So we're off tomorrow, early, to Nissiros to get ahead of the weather. Our next target - Symi.

I would have had loads more pictures had we stayed so just one more of the harbour at night and a couple more pictures of probably the strangest taverna we've ever been to at an idylic bay called Vathy (aren't they all!), with an indoor sheep wearing a nappy. Astipalyaia remains unfinished business.

Stay safe,

Yamas!

P.S.

We were moored next to a horrible gin palace called Rock in Astipalyaia, 82 feet, no picture, google it if you'd like to see it. Anyhow we were just enjoying our early morning coffee as the male crew of Rock were polishing the chrome. However they were too squeaky and were immediately shushed by the lead female crew member for fear of waking whichever owner. You should have seen the fear on the crew's faces!