Today we woke up at around 9am and followed through on our plan from last night--first order of business was to walk up to the church on the top of the hill dominating over the port. The walk only took about 15 minutes and most of the path was made of newly-restored cobbles and steps. Even though it was still quite early in the day, the temperature began to rise regardless and sweat soon kicked in. But it was all worth it--the view was gorgeous.
This is the church!
And this is the view from it--Oxalis is parked somewhere left.
View looking east where the town centre is.
Little satellite villages further inland
On the way back we stopped by a fruit market to buy some provisions for the trip. Once we got on board of Oxalis, we made a dash departure, for two reasons: first, we wanted to leave before the wind, which is against us, gets any stronger as the weather forecast foretold; and second, there was a medium-size ferry parking perpendicular to us and we risked it could crash into us while maneuvering. Luckily the Great Escape went well and we set course to Fournoi. The air distance between us and Fournoi wasn't great, but we first had to zig-zag our way against the wind all the way to the western cape of Samos, which took about 5 hours. Once freed from the unfavourable wind, our speed picked up and we approached Fournoi head-on. The whole area is a picturesque small archipelago--Fournoi is only one of many small islands in the area. As we made the final approach, the sun began to set and created a marvelous scenery.
Tomorrow we expect Lisa, Maurizio's girlfriend (now wife!) to join our formidable crew, so we moored on the side of the main ferry pier, so Lisa can literally jump from her ferry to Oxalis without even touching the ground (well, maybe if she gets a good push).
Once moored, Maurizio and I went to search for water nearby to have a shower (we took quite a few splashes of sea water today) but found none. So we decided to take an improvised shower on board, but our water pump stopped working all of a sudden. We had a simple polenta for dinner and then walked around the port town. Most of the town was new-built and we saw entire quarters which seem to only have vacation homes--only without any vacationers. But the main street fixed our appetite for Greek beauty--it was was beautifully framed by many trees on both sides, a rare sight in the sun-beaten Greece! After an evening ice-cream we all went to sleep in anticipation of tomorrow--one more sailor joins our ranks!
The main street