"A SAILOR ON A RAINPOOL SEA"

(R L Stevenson)

Chios is a beautiful island. Nobody will argue it; buildings, landscape and people. This is where we started our 2016 adventure and of course, we read our travel guru, Matt Barrett’s, before going. I quote directly from Matt’s blog to maintain a little distance…

"Ahhh Chios..." a former soldier reminisced. "I had ten girlfriends there at the same time. We all did." It’s probably changed since then but the number of extraordinarily beautiful women walking the streets of Chios town at night was mind-boggling. If I was single and 10 years younger... (better make that 30 years younger), I imagine I would have a pretty nice time in Chios-town. Being there with my wife just made me feel old. Watching beautiful girls walking by dressed in their summer finest is just torturing myself. Still, is there anything more beautiful than a young woman dressed-to-kill out on the town on a Saturday night in Chios? Probably not.

Well, I thought, that’s a good start. Turns out that, through observation, I can confirm that he was right! (I'm too old to be taking photos of young girls so you will have to come and see them for yourselves!)

When we first arrive for our three months of sailing, we have to ‘commission’ the boat, which takes anything from 4 days to a week. You can see that the boatyard is not a place you would want to stay in! 

So, Sally found us a B & B called Spillia, which means fairies in Greek, where we could spend a few days prior to our departure with our friends Susie and Charles. We stayed in this magical place for five wonderful nights getting to know Kiriaki and Dimitri who restored and own Spillia.

The fairies, in this case, are brought to life in a charming video that Kiriaki and Dimitri have created using some of the girls that Matt and I have observed. http://www.spilia-chios.gr

Dimitri and Kiriaki are amateur historians and take the heritage that abounds in their town of Ano Kardhamyla high on the slopes of the mountain above the port of Marmaro very seriously indeed. Dimitri is deeply involved in the restoration of windmills and in the recording of ancient sites that are known to only a few people. His passion is restoration, which is something that he and I have in common and that replaces a common spoken language. We exchanged books and discussed our interests through Kiriaki whose English is excellent. I learned that the reason for the keel shaped roof is to accommodate the huge wooden crown wheel placed in a vertical plane above the small pinion. The arrangement requires massive power but is capable of spinning a mill stone of enormous weight very fast. 

It is Dimitri’s dream to create a museum for all the old artifacts that he has collected.

10 years ago, Spillia was a ruin. Crumbling walls and vaults that had caved in were all that remained of the little houses that were occupied perhaps 100 years ago. Using local skills, labour and materials, Dimitri and Kiriaki have rebuilt the structures to be the same as they were hundreds of years ago. I have photographed vaults under construction to show how it was done and to demonstrate that the ancient skills are still to be found. 

Each house that makes up the Spillia complex has been made into an en suite unit with kitchenette. It is thermally as well as spatially comfortable; tightly planned but cosy with outdoor areas for eating, reading and contemplating ones navel. We do a lot of all three!

The antithesis of Spillia is the boatyard in the bay of Tolos. We arrived to see seriously bad pollution surrounding our beloved boat; rusty pieces of boat, half sunken boats, plastic, polystyrene and wrecks of every description. Adonis is the king of one of the best examples of organised chaos that we have ever come across. I look forward to going back there next year, as, despite my initial misgivings, Adonis is a pleasure to deal with and did everything he was supposed to with enthusiasm and thoroughness.

Our boat is stored out of the water on the ‘hard’ every winter and getting 6.5 tons in and out of the water safely is not easy when you are using basic home made equipment. In sophisticated (and expensive) yards, a million Euro machine called a travel lift is used. Adonis uses a wheeled trailer that he moves using a 4 x 4 tractor along with some colourful Greek expletives and instructions to motivate his crew.

With the assistance of Susie and Charles, we cleaned and prepared Pegasus for the season and then prepared to launch. The launch was a somewhat awe-inspiring performance with feelings of horror, relief, disbelief and finally leading to laughter after Pegasus was plunged down the slipway to give her the momentum to clear another boat and come to rest, miraculously and safely, alongside a rusty old barge. 

We trust in Adonis; what else can we do?