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)