How many island is Kincsem visiting this year? The running count stands at 31 inhabited islands as of September 11. You might think why are we visiting so many - aren't they all the same? Not really, is the answer. We've seen just amazingly beautiful and lush places this year, with charming white houses with red tile roofs nestled among the hills. Yet now, we're in burnt rock country - the Cyclades are BROWN, with white shoeboxes without roofs everywhere. Correction: some shoe boxes are unfinished - just a dark grey skeleton of concrete, without walls. Reminders of the Financial Crisis.

Very little seems to grow on Mykonos, other than the acreage of burnt human skin. Yes, we finally arrived in Mykonos. Reading the various harbor pilots we use makes it sound like docking in the yacht harbor is a horror story, with the meltimi blowing, anchor chains getting stuck in lost mooring chains, and bumper car in the harbor. On top of that, the yacht harbor is right next to the cruise ship dock. Leaving Delos, we had no Meltimi, but a weak Southerly. Not enough to sail but we knew the next bout of Meltimi was coming, so we proceeded to Ormos Ornos, a large bay on the South side of Mykonos. It's a much better choice than the yacht harbor. Mykonos town is just a short bus ride away, an experience in and of itself.

Getting the anchor to hold in Ormos Ornos was not easy because of thick sea weed but we finally found a nice place right off a luxury hotel with a white chapel right next to it. Some six major motor yachts were there anchored next to it, together with a couple of 30 plus meter sailing yachts. We were treated to nice music from the chapel - there was a wedding going on. Interesting how the Greeks organize weddings - everybody in full Sunday clothes outside the chapel, on bright green grass (likely artificial) but the guys that set up the benches for the wedding party parked their dirty trucks right next to the benches. Nobody seemed to take offense, not even the wedding photographer!

Our own entertainment started at around 10 pm. We had just returned from dinner ashore and the Meltimi had started up again when I noticed that the boat seemed to have moved. Turning on the instruments confirmed that we were some 20 meter further South! We could not pay out additional chain since a 40 meter sailing yacht had parked itself right behind us. So up came the anchor and we re-anchored in deeper water with 80 meters of chain. No more moving! In retrospect, we had anchored right on a ledge with 7 meter water depth and with the wind shift, the anchor was now lying on a severe downslope, which reduced our effective ratio of chain length to water depth to something less than 3. Not enough for 25 knots, obviously! The downslope wasn't visible on the chart but it was clear on our depth sounder!

After the extra Absacker to celebrate the re-anchoring, it was time for the disco to start. The hotel was now pulsing it out at just astonishing decibel levels, particularly considering that we were now some 100 meters further away. I tried ear plugs - no dice. I tried the Bose noise cancelling headphones - better, but still clearly audible!! Well, no problem, the music stopped at 5 am.....

What else is there to report about Mykonos? We checked off all the sites, took the requisite pictures and had some mediocre food. Frankly, it was not as bad as expected, likely because there were less tourists here now than in the high season. The next morning at 5 am the charter sailboat next to us started playing (loudly, of course) "Aufstehen" (or "Get up"), some German electro piece, again overpowering the Boses. It was time to leave.