I guess this is the cave trip. We're anchored here on the South Eastern tip of Milos in the Southern Cyclades in a little bay called Kleftiko. Kleftiko is a Greek beef stew so one wonders why this anchorage is called this way. But we don't care. We had a lovely night here under a full sky of stars with little swell and got to explore another set of caves here. This time, we could take the dinghy in and through! And yesterday, Rieke found another cave, the Sykia cave, where we stopped for another cave exploration. The weather is very calm, which helps with these shore side explorations! But a change in weather is forecast so tonight we have to find an anchorage protected from strong winds from the Southwest.

After Vathy, we stopped at two places on the island of Kythira. Kythira lies between the Peloponnes and Crete. The first harbor, Kapsali, had a very nice “Chora” up the hill. The chora is where people actually live - in this case, it was about 500 meters above the harbor! Great view down on Kincsem from the old castle above. No, we did not hike up but took a taxi. We had 37 minutes to explore the castle - 1800 closing time it said at the gate. And those greek castle guards are on Swiss time! 1800 sharp a car pulled up to the gate and 1801 that gate was closed! Well, he reopened it for Rieke and Benno who were a couple of minutes behind Christoph and me.

The second harbor on Kythira was Aulemonas. A very nice little resort place, really upscale. We found the harbor too tight, though, so reanchored off the beach to the West for the night, up bright and early for the long sail (motor) to Adamas, the main harbor on the island of Milos. The island is a huge volcanic crater with a big bay in the middle where the town of Adamas is located. We pulled alongside the North Eastern swim dock here - too many mooring chains and ripped mooring lines were lining the bottom. Luckily, the water was crystal clear so we could see what was going on. The harbor itself was full with boats that were here to overwinter or were being prepared to overwinter in the water. And then there were the “tripper” sailboats. 35 Euros for 10 hours on the water motoring around the island and seeing all the sights, lunch and open bar included. The “hammer” is down all day with a brief lunch stop at Kleftiko where we are now, where everyone jumps in the water and eats the provided sandwich. At this time of the season, only 2 of the 10 boats get enough people to sign up though and Friday October 27 will be the last day until the season reopens in May.