Well, what an eventful day today has been so far, woke in the morning, to reasonable calm, and at 6.00am the yacht one along from us left. Then around 7.00am the wind started to pick up, another yacht left, this time from inside the harbour, so I thought it would be good if we could move to their spot, as it was going to get a bit too crazy for comfort where we were. The French girls, then said they were going to move there, which I was a bit peeved about as I had told them about the gap, and said we would probably move. Then luckily, they put out an extra line, so they reckoned they were ok. We wasted no time, and cast off to move round, the wind was so strong by this point that it pushed us over our other neighbors, some friendly Brits, anchor chain, and dislodged their anchor. Anyway we got moved and into safety, then I walked back to the Brits to see if I could help them move as well, as there was another spot alongside, just big enough for them, plus I wanted to apologize for the anchor thing! So they moved safely, and just the French girls were left on that side of the quay. Wind came up yet more, and it really was looking impossible for them to stay there, their little yacht...a sunsail...was all over the shop, so eventually they moved and rafted up alongside another French yacht ( there are a lot of French here at the moment!!) on the inside of the same quay.
   As we were now all settled, time for some breakfast, then a walk.
I took the dogs and had the most exhilarating walk up and around the coast. Nature at its meanest yet best, angry sea, smashing on the rocks, spray in my face and the wind whistling round my head, the dogs and I walked down on the rocks close to the sea, and I think I can safely say that all three of us enjoyed it equally. It was just a shame Tom had chosen to stay on the boat, just to make sure things were all secure, I tried to film it but obviously made a cock up cause each piece of film is only a second long, I must have been pressing the wrong button on my phone!! By the time I got back to the boat a couple of hours later, the sun was out and I was boiling, Tom was washing down the boat from the red rain we had had earlier so I took advantage, changed into my swimsuit and had a quick shower on the deck, and was dry in a second because of the wind. Then we spotted a couple more struggling yachts making their way here. They both went to take their sails down, but one seemed to be having difficulties, and the genoa ( the sail in the front) was just flapping like crazy in the wind, the boat was bucking and rolling like crazy, and they couldn't get that sail in whatever they did. The other yacht had got in safely and had rafted up against the French girls. But this one was in trouble as it came in, sail still flapping, everyone on the quay...all the French, anyway!!....shouting and screaming instructions, nine people on the yacht looking shell shocked, as they came in with no control and smashed right into the quay whilst trying to throw tangled bits of rope and get fenders along the side. More shouting and screaming from the French, more tying of fenders, all of this you understand while the yacht is tossing all over the place as the wind and waves batter it. Eventually they managed to get a couple of lines tied, but it is not a very safe place to stay, but I left off watching as it started to pour with rain, Tom had tried to help, but as he said it was definitely a case of too many cooks, and he said that no one on the yacht seemed to have the foggiest idea about anything to do with boats, ropes, sea or sailing! I'll have a look a bit later to see if they have manged to get that sail in and maybe raft up somewhere within the harbour.
   The wind has come up even more since I've been writing this, and even we are moving a fair amount now, but we are very secure so no worries, all I can say is I am glad I took note of Poseidon's forecast and not of two Greek ones I looked at.. Meteo, being one of them, they had said it would be about a four today, but Poseidon had forecast a five from the East then building to a six and seven and changing direction.  So thank you Poseidon, I am so glad we decided to stay, and to move inside, and not attempt to get to Syros...tomorrow is another day, and so far it looks like it will be a perfect wind for us to sail there.