Naxos town |
On 15th September we left Paros and set off
towards the neighbouring island of Naxos. Once we were outside the bay we tried
to raise the sail but the halyard jammed with the mainsail half up. After some jiggling we eventually managed to
pull the sail down again, but we were concerned, as it was the second time this
had happened and there was no obvious cause for the jamming.
A couple of hours
later we were tied up in Naxos harbour and had called in a rigger to help us. The
news wasn’t good, inside the top of the
mast there is a plastic ‘divider’ which stops the different halyards becoming
tangled. The plastic has split with age and the main halyard has tangled with
the topping lift. The long term solution
is to replace the plastic divider, but to do this we will need to have the mast
stepped (taken down) so it will have to wait until Sandpiper is hauled out of the
water for the winter. Meanwhile, the rigger untangled our lines and told us to
try and keep the lines tight to avoid the problem recurring.
The Portara |
Playing the tsabouna |
Timewarp - window of a village store |
Naxos is a big island with lots to see, so we decided to hire
a car. We really enjoyed our two days exploring the island, it's a fascinating mix
of remote inland villages which don’t appeared to have changed
much in the last century and modern resorts nearer to Naxos town which
have white sand beaches to die for.
One of our highlights was seeing the ‘Kouroi’, huge, ancient, unfinished marble sculptures lying on the hillsides where they were originally carved. Naxos is famous for its marble, which is still mined there today. In the 7th and 6th Centuries BC the island exported sculptures to other parts of Greece, famous examples include the sphinx at Delphi and the lions of Delos. Sometimes a sculpture would be almost complete when a flaw was found on it so it would be rejected and remain near where it was being worked on and these are the ‘Kouroi’ that can still be seen today.
...and its feet! |
The Kouros at Apollon, which is over 10 metres long |
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