Kythnos Island, Greece
Not long after sunrise the Panorama passed by the north shore of Kythnos Island. The captain brought the ship into a well-protected and remote anchorage on the northwest side of the island. Kythnos is known locally as “thermia” due to the hot springs on the island. There are some spas in the area that take advantage of this fact. The local clay on the island was popular in the past for pottery and roof tiles that is characteristic for the villages on the island.
After breakfast the “spectators” or older guests made their way to the beach via Zodiac. Immediately following were the “competitors” or younger guests. The morning was filled with a variety of activities. First on the list was an archaeological or excavation challenge. There were three teams and their task was to excavate a small area, find the pieces of a shattered piece of pottery and reconstruct it to as close to its original form as possible. There was good success with this with varied final results.
This was followed many other events that included a long jump, javelin toss, discus throw, kayak relay and a swimming race. Our javelin was a mop handle and the discus a Frisbee but the idea was the same as in Olympic Games long gone past. Following the games there was time for everyone to swim on their own, wander the beach or take a short trek to the small chapel on the hill above our landing. Some of the guests chose to return to the ship via kayak while others swam back to the Panorama for lunch.
We departed our anchorage during lunch and found that the seas had built during our stay in the anchorage. The captain raised the sails and adjusted course to smooth the ride on our way across from the Cycladic Islands to the Peloponnese Peninsula. The crew kept the sails up as long as possible but as we made our way further to the west the wind and waves gave way to a light breeze and calmer seas. We cruised by the islands of Hydra and Spetses as we turned into the Argolic Gulf and approached the port of Nafplion, our destination for tomorrow.
