Sirocco Returns

Once again the warm sirocco winds off the Sahara have been blowing at gale force (more than 50 knots) through the night. The captain has elected to keep us in port, and even the big ferries appear not to be operating today. For a second time our tour directors had to devise alternative activities.

Things were rough even inside the breakwater.

When we left the ship, we could taste the salt in the spray that was blowing over us, and the waves were breaking over the pier, and we had to try to keep from getting drenched. Things were better once we got into the narrow, winding streets of the old town -- the reason for building streets like this, that don’t allow a straight path for a wind tunnel, became very apparent. The old city builders were smarter than we imagine!

Old curved streets block the wind.

We were taken up inside the walls of the old Venetian citadel to visit the archaeological museum of Naxos. The museum is small, but has a rather extensive collection of Micean pottery and marble household goddesses/gods.

Marble ancestors(?) household gods/goddesses

We also toured the Venetian Museum, which is one of the houses built in the early 13th century, formerly the Venetian consulate, and still owned by descendants of the Venetian family (although there has been considerable intermarriage with the Greek population).

Well preserved Roman mosaic.

After lunch back on the ship, we boarded a bus for an island tour which our tour directors cobbled together in order to keep the group entertained while we are stranded in port. Our first stop was a marble cutting factory, where we saw huge blocks of marble being sawed into slabs of various sizes and thicknesses. Clearly they do not have OSHA regulations in Greece, as we were invited in, around all of the heavy equipment, without eye, ear, or breathing protection. Most of the workers didn’t seem to be bothering with such things either.

No OSHA regulations for marble cutting!

We drove on to the ruins of a temple to Delia (Artemis), the goddess of fertility, built in the midst of a fertile agricultural plain. The temple was first constructed around 600 BCE, fell into ruin, was reused in the 6th century AD as a Christian basilica, and fell into ruin once again. Some of the ruins have been partially restored in a German archaeological project over the past 15 years.

Temple of Delia.

We then visited a distillery where a local liqueur has been produced from citroen leaves by one family for well over 100 years. Finally, we visited the workshop of a local potter, who demonstrated his skill on the wheel and tried to hawk some of his more unique pieces. We returned to the ship about 6 p.m. to see that the wind had abated only slightly from earlier in the afternoon.

Greek potter demonstrates his skill.

Dinner was another very good one served on the ship. One of our group members celebrated her birthday with a special cake and serenade from the crew.