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Visiting Cyclades in July

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Alfa1234
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Visiting Cyclades in July

Mon May 15, 2017 11:19 pm

Hi Guys,

I'm planning a sailing trip from 1st till 15th of July in the Cyclades islands.  We plan to leave in Athens (Lavrio marina) and then sail to Kea, Kythnos, Syros, Mykonos (and maybe visit the ruins on Delos), Paros, Ios, Santorini, Milos, Sifnos, Serifos and then back to Athens.  This can be amended.

We plan on sailing in the morning (leave at about 8 or 9AM) and arrive around midday at our destination every day to avoid the strongest Meltemi winds in the afternoon.  Marina or harbour overnight stays would be the plan although we can grab a buoy or stay on anchor occasionally overnight if it's worth it.

Any tips, must-do's or general information would be greatly appreciated as I seem to be having a hard time finding good local info on the area besides the big tourist stuff.  Nothing is set in stone as we are just renting a bare-boat and can do whatever we want.  Must-do is Santorini because my wife absolutely wants to visit it but anything else can be considered.

Thanks!!
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Wed May 17, 2017 12:54 pm

Not in a position to recommend anything, all i would like to say is have a safe trip and enjoy to the fullest.
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arbusers
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Wed May 17, 2017 7:34 pm

Dont spend time in Lavrio, nothing to see there.
Syros: You could take a look at the town of Ermoupolis. Best beach to visit and swim is Galisas. You can eat in the fishtavers of Galisas.
Ios: Milopotas beach for swimming. The island had a great night life some years ago, but more calm now.
Santorini: Best island of all by far. Spend many days there. Eat in the very expensive restaurants with sea and sun view after 1930 at the edge of the cliff. Your girl is going to love you even more.
Milos: This island has the best beaches in the Aegean. Ask locals for more.
Athens: Dont spend many days there. You can see the Acropolis and that would be it. See the coffee culture in Glyfada. You could spend a couple of days in Cape Sounio and see the Milky Way.
You can find many alternative options in the Aegean and see things that you don't expect. Or, visit more mainstream choices like Rodos and Crete.
Enjoy.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Fri May 19, 2017 7:10 am

Thanks, we'll probably skip Syros and Sifnos to win a few days in Santorini in that case.

Lavrio is just the starting base...buying groceries and we're off.  Already seen Athens so won't spend any time there either.  :)
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 10:32 am

I remember sailing in the Aegean some 20 years ago. If your schedule is flexible you could visit Kasos, Karpathos, Fourni, Amorgos, Anafi. These are all hidden diamonds for an alternative way of holidays. On the other hand if you are a mainstream type you can visit the all time classic Crete. Bit far from your route but you are not gonna regret it.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 10:39 am

Flexibible yes...but adding 300km one way is not really possible on a 2-week sailing trip.  Boat only does about 10 to 15km/hour in decent wind.  ;)
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 11:00 am

If it is a 2 week trip you better stick with Cyclades and avoid Crete and the Dodecanese. You can always visit them in a next trip. If you have a local Captain in the boat you can discuss with him as well. Most of them they know places to go not for everyone.
I have some doubts about Mykonos. Maybe it is too much for me, but others are crazy and loyal fans of this island.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 11:13 am

No local captain, just me and my wife...so any info is much appreciated.  :)  Keep in mind we want to keep the daily sailing hours to a max of about 4 hours so we can't cover a great distance every day.

Mykonos is not a must do, but I heard some nice things about the small Delos island and it's ruins.  We could skip it and go straight to Paros.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 2:00 pm

http://arbusers.com/index.php/topic,3174.msg39671.html#msg39671

Delos is from 2:10 to 2:55. If you go alone you will not understand a thing. you might need to arrange a guide for Delos. Look at the rest of the video as well, you might find something interested to your tastes.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sat May 20, 2017 3:10 pm

Thank you for that, lovely vids.  We visited the Greek mainland and Peloponessos, along with Zakynthos a few years ago (3 week road trip) so most of it we've already seen.

The only problem with Santorini seems to be the very limited number of places to tie up the boat.  Apparently there is only 1 semi-operational marina which is always full of local catamarans used for day cruises.  I'll try and email them to see if it's possible to reserve a berth for a few days.

Regarding Mykos, I'll also mail that marina and ask if there are some local guides available to visit Delos.

Really struggling to find the marina info, prices and availability for a lot of the islands.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Mon Jun 05, 2017 5:39 pm

The sea is still cold. 2 heat waves (+35C) will be needed to bring sea temperature in normal summer levels.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Fri Jun 30, 2017 12:52 pm

Seems like those temps were there this week.  Thankfully a bit cooler as of this weekend.

Final itinerary:

Athens -> Kea
Kea -> Syros
Syros -> Mykonos
Mykonos -> Delos -> Pharos (2 days)
Pharos -> Ios
Ios -> Santorini (3 days)
Santorini -> Milos or maybe Folegandros depending on the wind
Milos/Folegandros -> Sifnos
Sifnos -> Kythnos
Kythnos back to Athens

Got a spot booked on a guided tour for Delos.

Very worried about the Meltemi winds because as of Tuesday they are predicted with wind speeds up to 35knots (65km/h) which will not be fun and is actually outright dangerous as it's just the 2 of us on board...not sure if we can sail through that.  If I don't come back to this forum in July and you hear of a Jeanneau yacht that sunk in the Cyclades with 2 tourists on board, you know what happened.  ;)
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:38 pm

Meltemi winds are only appearing in August, this is another kind of wind but indeed I see this Tuesday as a tough day for sailing.
Syros: Walk in the Ermoupolis, swim in Galissas beach.
Mykonos: Be careful with those that might grab your @ss.
Paros: Visit Kolybithres beach, spend time in Naoussa and not Paroikia. It would worth to visit Antiparos as well.
Ios: Swim in Mylopotas or Manganari beaches.
Santorini: Best island of all imo. Your girl will love you even more there.
Can't advise much about the smaller islands.

You ll be back, don't worry.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:34 am

Got back yesterday.  All in all a "so so" experience.  Beautifull scenery, extremely friendly people, great food...Santorini was fantastic.

However...I feel being taken advantage off and robbed by our yacht owners Axion Yachts from Kalamaki.

We got the boat, which was supposedly from 2011.  I immediately noticed something was "off" after we got it...but you are in a holiday spirit so at the time you let it go.  After a day of looking at the small paperwork in the boat I noticed it was from 2001. A search at the hellenic registry of small vessels confirmed this. 10 year difference!  That explains the many, many shortcomings and problems with it.  No inverter (unable to charge phones or laptops if not on shore power), batteries toast (after being fully charged they would work for exactly 2 hours if the fridge was on and you could sail with them with everything off besides the navigation for 3.5hours before the low voltage alarm would go off)...so basically the engine had to be running half the time if not docked at a marina. A bunch of other small things broken or missing...navigation system from 2001 with completely unupdated maps, lines chafed and worn, cabinets unable to close and lock (a nightmare when sailing because stuff falls out), parts of the shore power connection missing, same for the water connection (having to borrow this every time from neighbours while docked becomes a pain)...

A call to the company and they said "it's normal", don't worry about it.  And they assured me again the boat was from 2011 and I was simply making an error and the boat model was introduced in 2001, not this exact boat.  Complete BS but what do you do?

Upon returning to port Friday evening, their diver found "damage" to the rudder and keel so...before we could do anything about it the boat papers had been taken out never to be seen again by us.  The boat had been hoaled out of the water and I will be charged the repair damages (not specified) to my Neteller card (including an 380€ crane fee).  They have a €1800 deposit "blocked" on my card.  Any advice on getting Neteller to stop this from being charged and unblocking that money would be greatly appreciated.  I think this was their plan all along and they just found some nice unsuspecting tourists to pay for a crane fee and repairs that the old boat badly needed.  I did not damage their rudder or keel...the only way to do that would have been after hitting rocks!!

We did not even get out luggage out so...me and my wife had to get on a small ladder and climb 6m in the air to pack and then carry out our luggage down this ladder.  At 9PM.  After this was done they said, thanks and good luck.  You can find some hotels nearby.  We were supposed to sleep on the boat that night. Good luck...so they left us out in the dark with uncharged phones to fend for ourselves.  At this point I was screaming to their base manager about being a total dick but his understanding of English had all of a sudden disappeared along with any customer service, I was swearing I would call visa and get everything refunded but to no avail.  He even refused to drive us to a hotel and even refused to make a call to a hotel to see if there was some space.  We walked 1km to the first taverna (with our luggage) and those kind Greek people called a few hotels for us till we found 1 with a room and called us a taxi.  I've never been treated like that in my entire life and Axion Yachts based in Kalamaki should get their license revoked.

If anyone knows how to deal with Neteller about those charges which will undoubtedly be excessive, I will be very greatfull.  All in all, Greece was beautifull but the overall experience was not so great because of our terrible yacht charter company.
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Re: Visiting Cyclades in July

Sun Jul 16, 2017 11:57 am

Good to hear back from you, but sad to see that you had this kind of adventures that I m sure irritated you and your wife at a time when you needed to be relaxed. It is now too late, but it would be better to book your boats from big and well established companies. By visiting their web page, I conclude that this company is small, managing only 6 boats. In addition, it would be better to book boats using a broker such as incrediblue and others. They operate in the same way like trivago and booking.com but they offer boats and not hotel rooms. This creates an extra layer of safety for you as the accountability of the bot owner is now real.
Alfa1234 wrote: The boat had been hoaled out of the water and I will be charged the repair damages (not specified) to my Neteller card (including an 380€ crane fee).  They have a €1800 deposit "blocked" on my card.  Any advice on getting Neteller to stop this from being charged and unblocking that money would be greatly appreciated.
I completely understand they way that thing works, more or less it is the same like renting a car from Hertz or any other company of this type. Here is an important question for you: Did you sign any document accepting the damage to the boat? If your answer is yes, you will lose your 380 euros, hands down. If the answer is no you must contact NT and inform them that you do not accept any additional charge from that company. They will request from you to send that in a special e-mail, must probably you might be asked to sign a declaration for this.
As for the blocked money of 1800, this will remain blocked for some time. Last time I rent a car from Herz it was blocked for 1 month. When I rent a car from a b class company it was blocked for 3 months and then returned to my account. The money is kept for any damage you might cause to the bot. If you didn't sign anything accepting the damage, you have to inform NT again that you do not accept any additional charge, and at the end of this period, you will have your money back in full.
Very complicated matter, but the important thing for me is that they irritated you and your wife and missed a chance for some great vacation in Greece. Lets hope you get another chance soon.
Last edited by arbusers on Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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