Touring the Little Cyclades with the Uncanins

Kalantos probably isn’t the best place to pick up guests in Naxos. The taxi ride from the airport cost a small fortune but the upside was that the Uncanin clan got to see a fair bit of the interior.

Whilst waiting for the taxi to get to Kalantos – which was pretty much on the end of the road to nowhere, Dee and I decided to wash the boat. The fresh water arrived on the back of a truck and with no pump and just a hose, it took a bit of trickery to get the water onto the deck. At one stage we were filling buckets to get the job done.

With the new crew on board there was no reason to hang about in Kalantos, so off we went to Koufonisia. We thought we’d start with top shelf.

It was only 15nm across, but boy was it an eventful trip. As we hit the swell, Rachel hit the bucket and Danijela was starting to feel the effects of seasickness as well. Whilst all this was being dealt with a good dose of Sturgeon, we started to smell smoke. The smell was traced to a smoking solar panel. Washing the boat turned out to have some downsides as this must have contributed to shorting out the connector on top of the panel. So we disconnected the connector and isolated the faulty panel. Bummer. I’ve never heard of a panel catching fire and we had a look at the other four that were put on in Marmaris and their connections were all showing signs of corrosion.

As usual, it was blowing 30+ kts at Koufonisia when we got there. We anchored in the same spot and everyone enjoyed a swim before we set off to explore the chora, and check out one of the many restaurants.

After a couple of pleasant days it was time to move on and check out Iraklia, another of the Little Cyclades. The wind had died down and sailing between the islands afforded both more protection and brilliant scenery. We checked out one the bays at the bottom of Schionoussa along the way and did some people/boat spotting. These Little Cyclades are full of big arse private boats, as they obviously know the secret.

We pulled into the small harbour at the top of Iraklia, and decided the only spare spot was on the end of the ferry dock, which was vacant and okay. We swam off the back of the boat into the beach and explored yet another cutesy town, finishing off with another restaurant meal.

With a day to spare, it was time to head back to Naxos to explore one of its great beaches before dropping off the Uncanins.

For photos of Koufonisia, see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10204116125656307.1073741988.1620379103&type=1&l=3c0e8c28d8