Ios - tourist central

The Chora

 It had been awhile since we had heard American voices but that all changed when we reached Ios.  Suddenly, it seemed as though the entire population of NYC was on that island.  Who knew it was such a popular island?   It is a relatively small harbor but busy as can be with ferry traffic.  All day long lines of people were getting on and off ferries.

Church in Ios

Because of all the ferries the harbor is considered unsafe for sailboats.  The wake from the ferries has caused the masts of sailboats to collide more than once.  Several sailors have had their boats damaged in Ios harbor.  Due to those stories we decided to anchor at Myloplotas beach.  The beach was actually our second choice.  We were going to anchor at the end of the island until a fellow at Astypalea told us about the 59 knot wind gusts that funnel down the mountains at that anchorage.  We decided to add another hour to our day and go to the beach instead!

Talaria at Ios harbor

The next morning we took the dinghy over to the very touristy beach and called a taxi to take us to the port.  We needed some more camping gaz for our stove and thought we would just check out the port and see if it would be possible to go there. The taxi driver ended up being a very interesting fellow who was showing us fishing videos while driving on these mountainous, winding, narrow roads.  He gave us his view of where the safe spots were in the port.  After finding out where the harbor masters office was we walked around to see if there was anyplace we felt would be safe to tie up.  We actually did find the perfect spot and lucky for us when we went to see the harbor master that was the exact place he said we could tie up to.  How perfect was that!  Even though we would see some surge from the ferry we were in no danger of colliding with other boats.  Our plan was to use many, many fenders.

Church in the Chora

Once settled in the harbor we thought we might join the masses and take a ferry ride to Santorini as it was so close.  But it ended up being too windy to move the boat that afternoon and the next morning was the only available time for the ferry ride.  Instead we went to visit the chora (old town) of Ios and finished up some chores.  From Ios we are sailing to Kimolos - a very non-touristy Greek island.  My favorite kind!