Onboard the Andrea Cay: Meltemi Madness

After two months of pretty perfect boating weather, other than the 8-10 hours approaching Gibraltar, Posiden (now that we're worshipping the Greek gods) has cast down upon us the infamous Meltemi winds. Had we done a little more homework, we would have learned that our plans to visit the Cyclades at this time of year was destined for disaster. The Meltemi blows fairly steadily in this area from July through mid-September: continual winds at 20-40 knots from the north, subsiding not even at night, and they can last for weeks at a time. To get the full experience of the Meltemi, go to You Tube and check it out!

We had this grand plan to head due east these past few days and make it to Turkey (three, easy 4-hour cruising days), where we were going to spend 5-6 days, before heading back to Mykonos to pick up our next herd of guests arriving on Sept. 10.

So, from Aegina, we headed to Kithnos where we found a very good anchorage late afternoon, and the next day hiked to the top of some pretty steep hills where we were rewarded with very cool ancient ruins and incredible views out over the Med. We also spent a wonderful afternoon on a secluded beach. That night, the winds rose from 20 knots to 35 knots.

The next morning we set out for Mykonos, about 30 miles away. It was extremely rough, but we made it to an anchorage on the south side of the island, hoping to be protected by the hills in front of us. It was a long night: the winds were a steady 35-40 knots, gusting to almost 50. With both anchors out 250 feet, we still dragged about 200 feet overnight. We have anchor alarms of course, so John and Sean were up several times during the night.

Giving up our plan of heading further east and exposing ourselves to more Meltemi abuse, we headed straight south to the island of Paros, where we hoped to find a more protected cove to anchor in. The Andrea Cay does very well with a following sea, so with the wind on our stern, it was not a terribly uncomfortable four hours. Winds continued to be 35-40 knots though and the seas were really huge, which was a bit freaky. By noon, though, we were anchored once more and the winds at our anchorage had dropped to 15-20 knots, as Paros is a bigger island than Mykonos and blocked more of the wind.

Joc and Shaz, our new crew arrived the next morning (Sept. 3), having had to change their plans of meeting us in Mykonos, and flying to Paros instead. The good news is that the Meltemi is finally giving us a three-day reprieve, for which we are most grateful!

We had a day and a half to explore the island of Paros, which we did by tender and by rental car. The summer crowds are gone, so everything is very peaceful and quiet. Many of the places we have visited are frequented mainly by Greek tourists though, and unfortunately for these local island businesses, there has been a 30% decrease in tourism this summer due to the dire condition of the Greek economy.