Mykonos Marina, Thursday 8 September 2016

We decided that after two early mornings we would not set an alarm and just sleep in a bit.  So when we got up at about 8:30 we were a bit surprised to find the wind had completely changed direction and we were lying right next to a rib tied to a mooring buoy.  This was the buoy that Richard was concerned about yesterday in case a large boat should come back to it.  We must have dragged anchor during the night to get so close to it.  Alternatively we may have just swung oddly, bearing in mind that the wind had changed direction and strengthened.

Given the situation we decided to up anchor as soon as we could and make our way to Mykonos marina just outside Mikonos town.  You used to be able to moor in the old harbour, but now yachts are only allowed in the marina.

The trip to the marina should have taken us about 1 ½ hours, but that was not to be.  The weather forecast was for a northerly wind of about 7 knots.  We had to go north, but in such a light wind that would be fine.  But it wasn’t a light wind at all.  It built and built until we were going head on into a force 6!  It therefore took us just over 2 ½  hours to get to the marina.  When we got here it was difficult to know how to get mooring instructions.  The pilot book gave no telephone number or VHF channel for the marina.  So we just slowly went in.  In any event until we were more or less in the marina, it was too windy and rocky for me to put out the fenders and lines to moor.

At the last minute we saw a sign with a VHF number, but as I was about to call up someone clearly in charge started to give us directions.  He wanted us to stay in the entrance to the marina until a boat left the berth he wanted to put us in.  Not only that, but it was an alongside berth, which we were very pleased with.  The marina is a bit of a disaster place.  It is only half built and they have not maintained the moorings which had pick up lines.  As those lines are mainly broken boats mooring stern to have to put out their anchor, but there isn’t enough room to let sufficient anchor out and with the old pickup lines probably on the bottom there is every chance that you can foul the anchor.

So we were happy to wait, but things deteriorated.  Four boats all suddenly came into the marina and tried to get in before us.  Then the wind built up even more.  So when we were finally able to get to our berth it was very difficult.  I threw lines to the man in charge and others helping him and they started to rope the boat into place, but it went wrong and we hit the pier on the stern.  No terrible damage was done, but there is a nice little ding at the top of the back of the boat.  We were thinking of having some cosmetic gelcoat repairs done this winter, but it will now certainly need to be done.

So we eventually got into our berth and tied up.  The wind by this time was blowing 30 knots!  We have no idea why the weather forecast was so wrong, but we were very grateful we decided to come here directly instead of going to Naxos as we would probably not made it to Mykonos at all if we did that.

We have not yet been connected to electricity or water, but we will sort that out in due course.  After a light lunch we were anxious to get into the village.  We were going to walk (they say it is about 1 mile) and then saw that there was a half hourly bus, which we decided to take.  However as we waited for the bus we noticed that what they call a sea bus was on its way and we took that instead.  It is great; for 2 euro each you get into town from the marina in under 10 minutes.

We had a whole afternoon walking around the town.  Richard was here on a Scout Jamboree 53 years ago!  However, he says that physically it hasn’t changed much at all.  However, there are no more donkeys here (we have a photo of him on one here) and instead there are lots of posh shops.  So I did a lot of window shopping.  I got dragged into one jewellery shop where I saw a necklace I really liked.  However, despite high pressure salesmanship I could not bring myself to pay 5000 euros for another piece of jewellery.

We saw the windmills and what they call little Venice where we had a drink and watched the sun start to go down.  Then we had a very posh dinner at a gourmet restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet guide.  We find that everything here is twice as expensive as on other islands we have visited.  But we  both like the place and are enjoying ourselves.

We have to get up early again tomorrow because we have booked a morning tour to Delos.  One of the other reasons we have come here is to get to Delos.  We shall see if it is all it is cracked up to be.