On the Beach in Lemesos, Cyprus

End of a great weekend with Jungle in the background.

We also stopped by this little beach side place.

Another lovely day and we toured a little of Cyprus with our friend.

Later that evening .... It's Barbeque Man! Damn your hide sir!

Well, it looks like someone got into the "whole Med thing". Water must be frigid!

Remember, always drink in moderation. No wait, never ... Oh, never mind.

Demitris demonstrates how to come out of the water in style. I show how to stand up in style.

Demetris shows up the next day with all the essentials for a good day at the beach. Starting with a full cooler.

There we are.

Back to the beach! We left our marina in St. Raphael and anchored off of this beach called Ladies Mile. Named from the fact it was on the British airbase and once only used by the British Governor's wife for morning strolls.

The ruins just look better now.

We visited the seasside town of Pafos, one of the oldest villages in the Med. It has been a strategic seaport on the southwest corner of Cyprus for thousands of years. This is location of the Temple of Dionysus. These tiled floors were part of a home built in the 3rd century - a relatively new model.

We had Demetris over for dinner - a great meal prepared by Jenée. Demetris supplied the wine(s)!

It's dinner time! Actually, this is our lunch. A wonderful seafood tray with mussels, calamari, shrimp, rice and fries. We're loving the food here.

Hitting the Town - Lemesos

We should be set for food for a while - but tomorrow's another day! Much more to come.

We went out for a traditional Cyprus dinner - and what a feast! The food and wine was the best we've tasted in the Med. and it kept on coming.

And the business is dong well. ETEX is the Auto Zone of Cyprus. The Theoharous father and son wholesale and retail auto parts with multiple stores throughout the country.

We've sailed half the world to meet up with my good friend Demetris. We'll be spending lots of time touring his beautiful island over the coming weeks. This place is unique. As mentioned before, Demetris and I met over 17 years ago in Austin while he was launching his business career. He graduated from college in Illinois (also a high jumper) and managed a couple of club/restaurants in Austin, TX. He traded in the US stock markets before moving back to Athens, Greece and doing the same a little over 10 years ago. Eventually, he worked his way back to Cyprus to help his Dad out in the family business ...

Jenée and I enjoyed an evening out at the St. Raphael marina restaurant. Check out the wild sun screens overhead.

Yassas Lemesos (Limassol) Cyprus

We sailed into the St. Raphael resort marina, where we will spend the next 6 weeks before we turn around and sail west. We are 70 miles west from Lebanon and Tel Aviv, Israel. We are about 90 miles north of Cairo, Egypt. Unfortunately world events (Somalia) preclude us from sailing south through the Suez Canal and Red Sea to complete Jungle's circumnavigation to New Zealand and ours to the Marshall Islands and Hawaii. We will enjoy our time here with Demetris and his family before our journey back in 2012. More to come from Cyprus. Yassou.

There is nothing as beautiful as a sunset at sea - almost nothing.

We also had memorable sunsets and calm evenings.

The old wishful saying for sailors is "may you have fair winds and following seas". That is exactly what we had on our trip.

We are enroute to Cyprus and the south coast town of Lemesos (Limassol). We look forward to meeting up with my good friend Demetris Theoharous. I knew Demetris from his days in Austin, Texas when we would ride Harleys together. For now we have three nights of travel ahead of us. The weather looks favorable for the 385 mile sail.

Yassou Santorini (bye)

It's not all play on these travels as there is always work to be done. Matter of fact, on this stop alone, the anchor windlass failed, we snapped three lines, blew out a fender, put a hole on our dinghy and broke a cleat on the starboard side - yikes. Jenée is carrying new fenders and lines back to Jungle. There is always something! Today we head out on our final leg for Cyprus. Yassou.

Did I mention it was windy? Either that or I'm married to Medusa and will turn into stone.

We strolled to Red Beach, pretty unique place.

This little guy reminded Jenée of her son Garrett. She misses her baby and will see him soon. Of course at 6'6", 260 he ain't such a baby anymore.

Of course do I catch it on film? No. Take my word for it, they were crashing.

That's Jungle's dinghy tucked away and good thing. The waves would occaisionally crash over these tables.

Around the corner we found this scenic little stop.

Time to go to the beach. My California bride's favorite thing to do. We took our dinghy out to this remote location. A little rocky, but very nice.

Quite the panoramic view.

Jenée's trained eye recording the sights.

Sitting atop of Oia.

This is the local garbage service of Oia. Probably the most photographed donkey around.

That doesn't concern us today. We're digging this place.

Looking to the south from Oia, we see the volcanic "plug" I mentioned earlier. We are looking from the north end of the volcano crater and we see 6 miles to the south. That is an incredible amount of earth blown into the sky. It wiped out and entire early Aegean civilization. By the way, the volcano remains active and we're anchored in the middle of it.

Back to our tour through the village of Oia (oh-ee-a) at the northern most point of Santorini. These old wind mills are found everywhere. The summer months bring the meltemi winds - very strong. They keep the temperature very comfortable, around 78 degrees.

We even had time for a pool side break.

A shot of a private residence. Mostly all is for rent or otherwise dedicated to tourism - the islands major business.

Here's something you don't see every day. Octopus and peppers hanging out of the restaurant.

Everything just drops right into the sea.

Everywhere we walk we find these great views.

Due to its wonderful reputation, Santorini turns out to be a major cruise line stopover in the Aegean Sea. That mound behind is the volcano "plug" that marks the center spot of the volcano from where it blew centuries ago. More on that later.

We found this great little restaurant (they're all great) for a private lunch. Jenée had a Greek chicken salad, I had a specialty lamb , peppers, potatoes dish. Fantastic. Not a bad view either.

We spent the day touring this beautiful island - called "the most romantic in the world". That works for me.

Touring the Greek Islands

The fact that there is a little beach right next door to the marina makes the Captain and Admiral even more happy. More from Santorini later. Yassou (bye).

The marina turns out to be quite nice - until the meltemi winds once again, picked up.

Unfortunately, we went to anchor and our windlass died. That's the electric winch that pulls the anchor up. Fortunately we found this neat little marina where we will hang out for our stay on Santorini. Obviously, Jenée's happy.

Lots of classic wooden boats in Greece.

This is the main chora (village) of Thira and we'll tour by motorbike tomorrow.

Much to see here. This is a waterfront church in the northern village of Ammoudi.

In the early morning light, we arrive Santorini. This is probably the most famous and picturesque of the Greek Islands. Since we are on a schedule to get to Cyprus, we'll make this our last extended stop.

So we sailed around to the southwest corner of Syros and this harbor in Finikis (pronounced just like it's spelt). Just after this sunset we got restless and decided to sail overnight again to the Island of Thira (Santorini).

The famous Meltemi winds kept us in Milos longer than we planned. When the winds backed off a bit we sailed overnight north 50 miles to the island of Syros and main port of Emoupoli. Nightime is a better time to travel due to lower winds and we like nights. Our plan was to catch up with the other Jungle (the previous owner Peter from New Zealand and his new boat). Unfortunately they were no where to be found and this harbor wasn't very good. Meeting up on sailboats can be tricky - weather gets in the way.

Jenée took this shot of the main port town of Milos - Adamas. We really enjoyed our stay here and met Fatty Goodlander, editor for Cruising World. We picked up a couple of his books - an interesting character and life story. Very funny.

We caught a beautiful sunset from the top side of Milos.

The beaches all have these mini cabanas which are reasonable and handy. Not to mention lounge chair side service.

Milos (Mee-los) is of the Venus de Milos fame, the sculpture of the armless beautiful woman. Jenée looks nice too. But go back and check out my picture - see?!

You want swimsuit shots from Greece - you got it. I'm feeling kinda tingly! We toured Milos and found this beach. The sand is of course of a volcanic origin. The water is crystal clear and I look striking!