Páros Pároikía (Part 2)

Náousa   

In the morning BV seemed a little empty with just the two of us on board but we also realised that we were in the pleasant position of having no time constraints until the end of the season and flying home ourselves. The only restriction was waiting for the anchor windlass motor to be delivered and so we pondered what to do until then. The answer was to tackle one of our objectives for this summer, to qualify as PADI Open Water Divers, which we wanted to do before we sail over to the Caribbean next year. The course is a mixture of academic learning online with exams followed by practical exercises and dives in the sea. Nicky started researching dive schools on Páros and confirming that they would be able to run a course for us. We decided to use Xta-Sea Divers for our training, signed up for the online course through their website and booked the practical dives to start in a couple of days’ time. Xta-Sea Divers main office is Náoussa but they complete the practical training from a site at the northern tip of the island on Little Santa Maria beach.

Little Santa Maria   

The diving hut   

Blog writing become low priority and we switched all of our energies to swotting hard to pass the online exams ahead of the practical exercises. We cracked enough of the academic work to do the first practical confined waters dive which started us on a very busy schedule. During the afternoons went diving and in the evenings and very early mornings (when the internet connection is fast enough) did all the online study and took the various progress tests and the final assessment. Travelling up to Little Santa Maria beach also took time with a bus change at Náoussa. Sometime during the swotting we also got a message that, amazingly, the new anchor windlass motor had been delivered to Athens in just 24 hours and we wondered if it would arrive in Páros before we had completed the diving course.

Little Santa Maria   

It was a whole new world being able to breath underwater and we both really enjoyed the experience. Christos Montes, a highly competent cave diver, was our instructor and he took us through all of the confined water and then open water dives to complete our qualification. In parallel, and before we could start the open water dives, we both passed the online exams with full marks.

Just after our final qualifying dive. 3^rd from left is Christos Montes   

The 9^th August was a fabulous day. During our final qualifying dive we saw ancient amphorae on the seabed, lots of fish and even an octopus. After the euphoria of finishing the diving course we also got a message that the anchor windlass motor had arrived at Afros Yachting. The timing had worked out really well.

The old 1000Watt motor from the anchor windlass   

We’d finished our diving by lunch time so we spent the late afternoon fitting the new motor. At the same time we also fitted the new solenoid which Charlotte had brought out with her. The result was a fully functional anchor windlass which can now also be operated with a wireless remote control to wind the chain in or out. Previously the ‘out’ was under gravity and someone was needed on the foredeck to control the rate at which the chain went out or, indeed, to stamp on the ‘foot-stomper’ to make the chain wind in. This could make things a little tense in the latter stages of Med mooring in strong winds. [Ed: now, however, we have a whole new anchor windlass management technique to learn.  Obviously, there will be no tense moments though………!].

Having removed it, the old anchor windlass motor was definitely showing signs of its age. We decided that changing it at this point had worked out well. Not only had we been able to use the delivery time to complete the diving course, we’d also replaced it before it had completely failed and with no real dramas along the way.

With BV fully functional again we used the 10^th August to catch up on chores. With a choice of 3 laundrettes getting the washing done was easy and the well-stocked local shops meant that we could fill the fridge. After our longer than normal stay on Páros we wanted to get sailing again. The question was, where to go?

Our main consideration was the Grib files showed that the meltemi was about to blow strongly in the Cyclades. Out to the east or tucked into the Argolic or Saronic Gulfs the forecast looked to be much more civilised. We had planned to visit Rhodes at the beginning of 2017, on our way out of Marmaris but having now arranged to spend the winter in Kilada in the Argolic Gulf, it seemed more sensible to ‘tick off’ Rhodes this year. Events seemed to suggest that we should explore further east.

Pároikía, Greece