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Published: June 24th 2023
Left Our Anchorage on Karpathos Early Again
as we are going to be crossing to Crete todayWe set sail on May 27
thfrom Fry at 6:06AM to head to Sitia on the island of Crete. In looking at the weather it looked like it should be an easy transit but would take about 8 ½ hours. The winds were much stronger than forecast and not in the right direction. Guess we shouldn’t be surprised. The waves kept building but Tsamaya can handle them. We had 2 sails up most of the time and were able to keep it between 30-60 degrees for part of the trip so made it in 8 hours. At times we saw 7 knots of speed which is definitely rare with us. We were a little overpowered at times when winds kept building so took in some sail. It was actually nice to feel like we were sailing as so many times the winds are not enough that we even heel – this time we definitely do that.
We knew that we would be looking for space on a concrete quay in the Sitia harbor, meaning that we would not have anyone to help with the lines. Unfortunately, the cleats here are large and very far apart which doesn’t make it as easy.
While I Was On Duty I Had a Visitor For Awhile
trying different locations before finally leaving Fortunately, a sailor from another boat already here came to help with our lines. We typically find that sailors are willing to help other sailors as you never know when you will be needing the help of others. The quay filled in by the end of the day with others that we had met previously in Fry that left after us. It was nice to touch base again with people that we had met on the dock before – a friendly group of sailors, one boat was from the Netherlands, another from Austria and the last from Israel.
As always, the first stop is the port police (Coast Guard) – everyone is so friendly and helpful. The two officers welcomed us to the island and told us about a local cheese only made in Sitia that we had to try. It is called Xygalo and we were told it can only be found in this city. We were informed that it was a creamy cheese spread. We mentioned that we had been introduced to a local cheese in Fry and they very loyally said that the cheese from Sitia was much better – we will definitely check it out
and if we like it find out early in our stay where we can buy it so we don’t run into the same problem as it Fry.
We originally thought we’d only stay one night, but the weather said otherwise. The other sailors on the quay agreed and we all actually stayed until Tuesday for a total of 3 nights. We found out that as this is a municipal quay someone would be coming by to charge us for staying. We check out places we are going to stay on a variety of apps and we heard that we would be presented with gifts when we pay. This was definitely still true. She provided us with a lovely gift bag containing products from this area – olive oil, honey, raki, tea and a guide to hikes in the area. For 3 nights we were only charged 20 euro + 4.80 taxes for our size boat (11.9 meter/40 ft - $27.80). What a bargain as the breakwall is providing excellent protection. It is amazing at those prices that they can providing you with the lovely gifts that we received. What a welcome! It is possible to get hooked up to
electricity and water, but you need to buy a card in town. As we didn’t need either, we didn’t bother.
We have been impressed with how the harbor has been kept up, even though we would like it more if they changed and put regular cleats in to tie up to as it would make it easier as well as allow them to fit more boats in. One day we saw a volunteer group of kids picking up all of the grasses/twigs that wash up regularly here and piled them up along the quay. The next morning early we were quite surprised to see a backhoe right next to the boat – not the normal thing to see, but we found out that they were using it to pick up all the piles and putting them in trucks to be taken away. The harbor also had a sign that listed numerous important numbers to know – this is not something that you see everywhere, but is something that would be great if other places adopt.
With knowing we will have extra time in Sitia, we quickly checked to see what was here to see. We of course saw
the beautiful church on the hill so why not climb up to take a closer look. There were definitely plenty of staircases to take you up, up and up again. We got up to the level of the church after numerous staircases, but unfortunately there was construction going on and the fenced in area around the church was locked, so no luck. At least we got our stair exercise in for the day. We found that there were still more stairs upward from the level of the church so figured as long as we were up this high, we should go a little farther. We found that there were numerous residential houses here with beautiful views of the harbor – no surprise there. We also knew from our reading that there were remains of a fortress so wandered over to see it. It costs 3 euro to enter which we did as know that the funds are definitely needed to help maintain these historic structures. There fortunately were informational sheets that explained the history of the place. It was said that locals had thought that this had been a castle in the medieval city, but it was actually the barracks
Lovely Gifts We Received and the Marina
was good in posting these emergency numbers of the guards, only one of many buildings that were within the walls of the medieval city. The walls were built during Byzantine times and the first repairs were done in 1204. When the Venetians were here, they made numerous repairs in 1303, 1450 and after the earthquake of 1508. Barbarossa, admiral of the Ottoman Navy invaded in 1538 and inflicted a large amount of damage. The walls were built up again in 1626 with guards posted here, but they withdrew in 1651 and the city walls were demolished. The Turks took over this area and made additions to the structures here which made their mark. We find that so many of the places that we visit have similar stories.
I had read that there was a Folklore Museum but was closed today, however, we were walking by and the door was open. We are glad we stopped in as the woman curator was full of information. All of the items on display are from donations over the years from community members. They still keep receiving more and work hard to incorporate all into the exhibits. Even though they do not have a large space, they did an excellent
job of setting up the various rooms into the kitchen, bedroom, living room and even included the workshop area. One thing that we commented on was that so many of the items we saw were ones that we have seen back in the US – really no big differences between what home interiors were like between Greece and the US.
We were informed that the economy here in Crete and especially Sitia was based on olive oil and the production of currants from the grapes grown here. She informed us that when the EU came in, they set regulations on the number of currants that could be produced which hurt the local economy as farmers had to switch to other crops. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find facts anywhere to back this information as I did find that currants are still produced in numerous areas of Greece. Folklore Museum which was well done and the person was full of information.
In the evening we went for a drink and appetizer of the local cheese. We enjoyed this one as well so made a point of going to a shop that sold local products and got a few
packages of it. We also have been ordering 500 ml of house wine at restaurants to go with our meals. We haven’t found one yet that we haven’t enjoyed. While in the shops we found that house wine is sold in 1 ½ liter plastic bottles with a screw top – sounded perfect for the boat so we bought one that said it was “probably the best local wine”. Believe it or not that cost us only 3.45 euros ($3.78) and we thoroughly enjoyed it – what a deal!
I am breaking the blog entries up into smaller time periods as trying to be able to get them posted whenever we are in a port with good wi-fi. We did purchase an e-sim this year for both of our phones for data which is working out great, but whenever possible I like to use “free” wi-fi to upload the photos on the blog to save our data for other needs such as google map when we walk around town and of course checking numerous weather apps and apps with information on anchorages and marinas. It also makes me feel that I have a sense of accomplishment quicker with getting
another blog posted as you can see this is from May and we are currently near the end of June so definitely behind as usual with timely postings.
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