Paros Island

6/08/10 - Arriving on Paros we headed down to Punda Beach Club on the basis that there was no wind and from the advise from our Greek friend Yanis.  Many skantilly clad young ladies  later we decided to head off to find our place to stay for the night for some reason.  We headed to the North of the Island at a camp site at Santa Maria Beach.  The site has many younger people and many people playing bat and ball on the beach, they seem to love it over here.  The beach has a windsurf hire centre but as there was no wind only a few beginners were out practising.

Camp at Santa Maria 

7/08/10 - Headed over to Poundta on the SW of the island.  Met up with 2 French fellow windsurfers Damien & Sebastian.  I rigged the 7.5m +110L and sailed over to Antiparos just a short distance away.

Mat with French guys

Later headed into Naousa on the North of the island and discovered that this was the main place to party here, finally heading back at 5am we had had enough for the night as it started to drain on the resources at 8euros a beer in a small club called Leonardos.

8/08/10 - Yet another no wind day, Mat arranged to give a lift to some school teachers we met all from a school in Essex.  Not missing an opportunity to see how many school teachers can be fit into the back of Mat's van I took the below photo.

9/08/10 - Checked out of campsite Poundta 6m +110L patchy conditions,  BBQ with French guys and friend from Athens.  Here's some photos of the generally views at Poundta.  There are many Kite surfers here that tend to get in the way a bit admittedly.

Poundta Beach

Mat At Poundta Beach

Antiparos in distance

Sebastian

Mat, Me, Natassa, Sebastian & Dino cooking on 'Son of Hibatchi'

Wild Camping for the night at Poundta

10/08/10 - Woke feeling a bit flu like the next morning maybe due the salt air or the start of an illness.
Finally got to rig the 91Litre +6m.  I really liked the board and was surprised to find it comfortably took the 6m along with my weight, the conditions were strong enough to cater for this combination but later dropped off so changed to the comfort factor of the 110L being able to plane through the lulls in the channel.  Went to Naousa for the night going for our usual Gyros Pita's in the lanes from our newly found Albanian waiter 'Nikoli'  as we became such regulars here we would often be given free 'Alpha' beers here.

Mat and I at Poundta with me trying to get planing on new board

Wild camped at a beach between Naousa and Santa maria.

11/08/10 - Due to us both feeling ill we decided to check into a hotel - Windmill for a night (80euros)  I must admit a nice luxury.

no wind

12/08/10 - Checked into another hotel up the road 'Zefi'  and was welcomed by the manager 'Dimitris' and used the pool etc here for the next few days.

13/08/2010 - Headed to Parikia to take the ferry to Naxos to pick up my repaired board due to making a promise to teach someone some windsurfing.  Although this is not the ideal board to learn on I found if they were light enough and you could often get them up-hauling and on there way in no time.

15/08/10 - Headed to New Golden beach on East of the Island.  Finally, a decent piece of wind had arrived 30knots, so I managed to fully test out the 91L with a 5.3m North Ice sail with a few piece of small chop and even saw a Sea turtle swimming alongside - what a great day.  Later we headed into Naousa for a friend's 'Name Day' this is day in which the Greek's celebrate the saint from which their name comes from and tend's to have higher regard than their actual birthday.

New Golden Beach

Mat at New Golden

16/08/10 - Went on tour of island to find the best wind.  Golden beach did not appear to work so headed to the other side of the islanda Poundta and rigged 91L+5.3m.  Went into Parikia and saw our friend off leaving for Athens.

17/08/10-Found a serviced apartment for a reasonable price due to it going into the low season called Mitsi Studios just a short walk from Naousa town centre ran by a lovely lady called Maria and her family (check the link below for bookings), so checked in there and check out of Zefi.  Out to Santa Maria beach party that evening.

www.mitsiparos.com

Naxos Island

28/7/10 - Having been woken early by the local farmer in the taverna car park we set off to Mikri Vigla Beach, this is nice beach to the west of the island that has a windsurf/kitesurf centre and easy parking and access to it.  This beach is mainly dominated by Kitesurfers but there are still quite a number of Windsurfers.

Rigged a 6m +110L but found it was not enough so changed to the 7.5m +128L (perfect)

We met some other windsurfer there that told us where we can go for wildcamping and water supplies etc.  We ended up heading to Naxos town that evening and wildcamping of the fringe of town.

29/7/10 - Went down to a place know as the Laguna on St Georges Bay again on the West side just south of Naxos town.  This is a nice waist-shoulder deep area that has many windsurfers, luckily due to the immediately vicinity of the airport there no Kites are allowed-Great!  There are several centres here of which I found the Flisvos the more friendly and accommodating, they have a boards and equipment for sale at good prices - best to speak with Martin.  They also have a nice guy called Peter who did a good job of repairing some old quite bad damage on my Mistral Screamer nose for 100euros.

Laguna,Naxos

Laguna, Naxos

I went out on the 110L +6m which worked well until I was stung by something on my leg and seemed to just wipe me out for the next day.  Mat had the best sail later on with the 6.2m boxer +103L Kode.

We checked into 'Naxos Camping' that evening, a dirty campsite next to the laguna and reasonably close to town within cycling distance.



30/7/10 The next few days I have logged as drinking antics only so there must have been no wind as on the Monday I rigged the 9.4m Tushingham Lightening Mike has kindly lent me on my newly acquired 490 carbon mast and took it to the laguna on the 128L .  I was surprised in how little wind I could get it going in and I actually found it easier to gybe than some of the smaller rigs I sail.

We did mange to get some snorkelling in and I saw an Octopus and other delights, Mat took some photos of me below.

Snokelling in Pirghakia

3/8/10 - Went to a beach on the West side nr Kastraki, rigged 7.5m +110L & 7.5+128L.  This beach appears to pick up more wind than the luguna.  The conditions here were still quite flukey.

4/8/10 - Due to the optimisum of having strong winds and me starting to feel more confident on smaller boards.  I decided to purchase a new 2010 91Litre RRD LTD Edition Freestyle wave board with a 4m Neil pryde combat sail and 370cm X6 mast and Boom (140-190cm) inc extension and harness lines all in for 2000euros. I purchased this from the Flisvos centre near the laguna from a very friendly guy called Martin. I though this was a good deal considering the UK price for the board is around £1600 alone I also needed a new boom to cater for the smaller sails upto 6m and I have not been too impressed with the rigidness of the current MK 100% carbon boom I have plus the grip has be deteritorating rapidly.  Unfortunately it would be another week until I got to use the board but at least I was now ready for some good wind.

Later that day we setup Mat's awning on the campsite for some extra living space, I think mainling to try it out as it had not come out of the bag during the trip so far.

6/08/10 - Deciding that we were getting fed up of Naxos and having no wind with some slight persuasion for our friend John saying that the next island of Paros was a great place to be we packed up camp and got on the 11:30am Superfast Ferry to Naxos (50mins) 

To Naxos Island

After leaving Vass, we made our way to Naxos due to be swayed by many windsurfers we met on route on the Ancona Ferry.

26/7/10 -  Enroute we stocked up with 5 crates of Beers (Finkbrau) 7.50euros for 24 stubbies  and some food at the local Lidl  then Wildcamped overnight on Greek mainland between Patras and Piraeus(Athens).  Took out 128L Mistral Screamer and 6m for an evening sail on arrival.  Cooked BBQ chicken on the beach.

27/7/10 - Headed to Piraeus to book and get on ferry, due to porevious experiences we have learnt that this is the most efficient way but you take a chance that the ferry is overbooked.  Going to one of the many local agencies there we booked onto the 4:30pm to Naxos for 118euros each for 1person +Van

Blue Star Ferry Piraeus

After the noisey ferry ride that lasted around 6-7 hours we arrived in Naxos at midnight.  We found a local taverna towards the north of the Island and parked up for the night in there car park with a resident Turkey that scared the life out of me when going to use the bush facilies in the dark.

Club Vass

After speaking with the local taverna owner on the Greek mainland and finding out he used to windsurf and had high regards for Vassiliki, Lefkada we decided to head North there to check out the wind as it is 'only a couple of hours away'.

So leaving the next day we arrive there 5 hours later!   On arrival we have a coffee and see that the wind is coming in nicely.  We then proceed to find a spot to rig on the beach front.  For a change beach access here is very good, so having you own equipment was not a problem with many people wild camping along the beach.  We found a nice spot next to Club Vass and rigged up there. for me it was my 110L RRD FSW with my 5.3m North Ice and Mat on his 103L Starboard Kode and 5m Session sail.  We had a good sail up until around 8pm then went into the town for a great seafood meal.

After a hot night for Mat in his Red hot van and me happly sleeping in my Cool white van thanks for the marvels of the Thermostatic Fan Fiamma roof vent keeping things cool, we or maybe just I was ready for some windsurfing again.  The next day the wind came in late at 5pm 'Greek style'  we went out on the same kit and found that there were many lulls across the bay and having the extra volume in the board helped get out to the wind and stay on the plane across the bay,  I don't think I would have like to be on much less than 110L at the time.  After a good session up until 7:30pm we went for the curry + a pint (Mythos) at Club Vass next to where we camped - not bad for 7.50EUROS.

View from Club Vass Cocktail Bar

Speaking with Ollie Scott and Colin 'Whippy' Dixon from Club Vass they told us that Dave White was running a Speed week there from Monday, so we decided to hang around and book on.

So the next week went on as follows:

16/7/10 - 7.5m +128L from 5pm-7:30pm  followed by a BBQ with lots of punch at Club Vass.
17/7/10 - 6m Naish Amp +110L 1PM-3PM  then overpowered from 3PM onwards, Mat on 5.7m +103L

19/7/10 - Started Speed Week breifing at 11AM, looking around we spotted a familiar face from sailing in the UK, it was our friend Yoshi, so it was great to see him along.  Typically the start of the Speed week, there is no wind so I took out the 7.5m +128L and got planing some of the time.

20/7/10 - Had breifing. No wind,did not sail

Dinner Darling?

The true mess of life on the road

21/7/10 - Breifing and finally the wind came in, I was on the 7.5m +128L and soon bcame massively overpowered so changed down to the 6m +110L.

22/7/10 - 5.3L +110L ON/OFF conditions, entered the slalom race there on the 6m +128L.  When the race started there appeared to be no wind then by the end of the first run I went steaming into the Gybe full pelt and overpowered, missing this one and seeing it on the video camera later I then manged to get the next and witness that on the video also.  Then the wind just stops and I found myself downwind with a few others- until the next time hey.

23/7/10 - 5.3m 110L fully powered up.  I started getting a few more Gybes here as when going through the video Colin point out that I was not twisting feet enough even though I thought I was a t the time.  So adter a bit of muscle memory, Mat caught this one on camera with a bit of pre set up spin out.

spin out

And away - the joy of not having to waterstart :)

Yoshi at the end of the Week

Yoshi and Jack

Dave White - taking no prisoners

Let battle commence

Mat

Club Vass BBQ with punch that evening

Mat, Yoshi, Me (Tom) & Bruce

Bruce was a new recruit to windsurfing so we told him to make sure he gets his board Planing by the end of his first week - fair play to him he did it.  Well Done Bruce!

Tom, Yoshi, Dave White and Mat

me with Mr Colin 'Whippy' Dixon

Nico the Greek.  This guy was the fastest thing on the water 8.4m when everyone else was on 5m.  On this 3.2m day he went for a 6m

25/7/10 - Storming Sunday Went out on 5.3m +110L the wind really started to pick up and was well overpowered, changed down to a 4.4m.  The wind had really picked up at this point and it appeared to be something totally out of the norm, people were overpowered on 3.2m.  As my smallest sail at the time was a 4.4m I had to give it a go.  I was totally overpowered with the sail being ripped out of my armsmost of the time hanging on for dear life.  I did manage a couple of runs but had to admit defeat, I don't think it help having massive wind shadows as one minute I was fully mawed then the next I was try to find a gust on the 2 short runs I had, Quite an experience though.

26/7/10 -  Left Vass heading for Naxos

Ferrys (the joy)

The Ferry from Brac to Split was fine, lasting about 40mins.  Once in Split we booked our onward ferry to Ancona, Italy and had yet another overpriced lunch then spent 1 hour trying to book a ferry through a Greek website from Ancona to Patras entering the payment details and receiving a confirmation.  We took the ferry around 5pm and it got us into Ancona on an overnight for 6am the next morning, we treat ourselves to a scummy cabin in this journey.  With mat manging to bag another cabin due to dodgey electrics in our cabin, giving some people we met the key to the other one as they were due to sleep on deck otherwise.

Once in Ancona we had breakfast and decided to go onto Rimini further north for a night, we found Rimini very touristy and full of Dutch.  Riding into town we found a few bars and stayed out quite late then going for a 1.5hr wobbly ride back at around 4am with our direction disorientated.

The next moring we headed down to Ancona to check in for the ferry 'we though' we had booked on.  Getting to the ticket office showing our booking number we were told that 'this mean nothing' - 'You'll have to come back tomorrow.  Very frustrated we headed to a little campsite just outside of Ancona and watched the World cup final that night.

The next day headed back to the port and waited in line with all the other nationalities with lots of shouting and complaining going on but finally we booked onto our ferry for 5pm. 
During the time we had we decide to stock up at the local Auchen Hypermarket with 5 crates of beers, 3 crates of wine (1euro/bottle) and a couple of sun loungers at 13euros each.  These have all proved to be good purchases based of the cost of things later on in the journey,

Getting on the Minoan Lines Ferry took about 2 hours, it is hectic and no one seems to know what they are doing, with me being sent down 1 ramp then sending back up due to my van 'looking a bit too high'.  Once on deck we had to sleep on deck under the stars for most of the 22hour journey.  This was further help by being serenaded by some drunken Czech's until 4am  in the morning.  The final straw being when they sat next to us and sung, but with Mat telling them to F off and me calling them some other obscenities they seemed to get the message.

Arriving in Patras, Greece we headed down towards Athens for 30mins and parked up at a Greek taverna on the beach front and 'wild camped' (a term we have picked up on the way that means free camping really) for the night.

Bol, Brac, Croatia

After heading down from Lake Garda to Croatia, we stopped at the Island of KRK for a night at what seemed a bit like a gypsy camp with many static type homes.  The next day we headed to Split and took the ferry to Island of Brac.

Once on Brac we headed to a campsite just on the outskirts of Bol, This was a last night jaunttrying to find the place and then heading down some very steep winding roads that had been cut into the steeply graded face.

This as the view from where we parked at the campsite.

 Mat out sailing from campsite (small launch area) but we found that the area dedicated to windsurfing in Bol where the centres are had no where to park and take you own equipment.  Many people had trolley and lugged there equipment around 800m to windsurf there.  Although the Alhoha campsite only had a tiny shingle beach we took this as the best option as we were the only ones sailing there.

We managed to have 2 7.5m + 128L, 110L days and 1 6m + 110L , 103L day.  With me sailing over to HVAR with a slight wrist slapping from Mat when I returned :)

View from top of campsite

Nurmin the funny friendly campsite manager.

View of Bol, with the farest spit of land being the location for the windsurf centres.

We then headed to ferry port taking the ferry to Split, then ferry to Ancona, Italy.