The Island of Tinos & its Hundreds of Churches

On the 23rd July we woke up to beautiful blue skies and a howling wind, again! Knowing we were going to be staying put for a number of days, we decided to chill out for the day, with the exception of a visit to the Port Police, clean the boat and try to source a hire car for a couple of days time, not that we had any luck, we were just told to come back at 7pm each day to see if they had one available for the next day, helpful as ever!

So what about Tinos… Our Pilot Guide describes it as a mountainous rugged island, wooded, with extensively terraced slopes, you would have thought for growing crops, but none were to be seen. We have found out that it is to stem the flow of water, when it rains, rather than it just flowing off the mountains into the sea.

The island was occupied by the Venetians for 500 years, establishing Catholicism here, and still to this day it is a super religious place with Catholic convents, schools and hundreds, no exaggeration, of churches scattered around the island, and apparently due to the discovery of the miracle-working icon of the Virgin in 1822, it is also now a place of pilgrimage for those of the Orthodox faith, more on that later!

Having cleaned the boat and ourselves, we ventured out in the evening for a wander and to get a nice dinner out, something more than a gyros! We found a beautiful looking place with an upstairs veranda overlooking the hubbub. But aside from the setting, that was where it stopped. The food was atrocious, mine totally spoilt due to over exuberance of salt, so it was sent back and we got seriously fleeced over our usual 1/2 ltr of house wine, normally 4 euros, here 28 euros! Hmmm, should have checked Tripadvisor first. After asking for the manager, he was too busy to see us, so were offered a 20% discount on the spot and decided to just pay and go. Still, the setting and people watching was great!

The following day we explored Tinos Town itself, and one step back from the front, found a warren of tiny alleyways, full of bars, cafes and restaurants. It is a downsized version of Mykonos without, thankfully, the chicness and posh designer shops!

Not what you think….

On our wanderings, we came across 2 curious things….

We also looked on curiously at the strip of carpet that ran the whole length of the road up to the church,which was some 250 metres away uphill, with people on their hands and knees, sometimes with bags on their backs, some better equipped than others with knee pads, slowly making their way up to the Church. We later found out that the pilgrimage entails going from the port to the church on your hands and knees to be cured of whatever ailment you had, although personally I suspect that many people had more pain by the time they reached it, and you would need to choose carefully who it was that you followed !

Despite all of our own ailments, we walked up there instead…

The Church of the Panayia

We did also watch people cheat…not sure how that would work in the eyes of God!

The Church was stunning, but very very busy… but then we had chosen to go and see it on a Sunday, when will we learn? There was the usual Sunday Mass, with the pilgrimages and numerous baptisms all going on at the same time… which brought out a few outfits perhaps not best suited to a heavily Orthodox environment!

Religion is also big business here, with the surrounding streets adorned with shops pedaling candles, giant candles, with many other religious artifacts, and yes we did succumb, to a candle that is, to light for family and friends, of the 2 and 4 legged varieties we have lost in our lives.

We then wandered back down to the waterfront and walked it’s length.

Returning to the boat to chillax and have dinner on board, mainly due to the Town’s festivities that evening as it was the feast day of Agia Pelagia. It is an important feast where the icon is taken to the Monastery of Kehrovouniou. Visitors and nuns arrive to honor the icon before it is taken back up to the church where it was found. They weren’t wrong, there were hundreds of people, and it wasn’t a Spanish style fiesta that’s for sure. Apart from the fireworks that were set off just from our bows, it was a quite a somber affair, no music or dancing, just the voices of the Priests. although us yachties did have a giggle. We had all been given flares by the coast guard to set off from our bows, but none of us understood exactly when that was meant to happen, well not until after. David set his off first, way too early, I have to say, on my instruction, and I would have followed suit had I not managed to pull the ignition cord away from the flare, durr.. nothing a bit of tape couldn’t fix..thankfully the others didn’t follow suit… then someone else started his off as the fireworks began and everyone else did follow his lead… wrong. It was not until the fireworks had ended, the mass had finished did the coast guards light and wave theirs, as the procession started to walk back up the hill to the Church. Oops!!!

The following day, with still no car available was another chilled one, the only productive thing being that we did actually manage to source a car for the following day, and of course a bite to eat….

So finally our field trip…. we set off early as we had a lot to do, including some provisioning, and had to return our little car by 7pm that evening. Our first stop was….

Kardiani

Located on the mountainside, actually built on the cliffside, so we had quite a few steps to negotiate, but both the village itself with its tiny alleyways and nooks and crannies plus the breathtaking view of the Aegean Sea was well worth it.

Next stop, Isternia

Also built in the hillside with amazing views and one cafe where we stopped for a freddo latte, as you do!

And further along the windy road…another church with its own windmill… we had stopped counting the number of churches at this point!

We then headed for the inland town of Pyrgos, famous for its marble. which we saw everywhere: in the streets, on the houses, door frames, fountains, churches and even the cemetery! The village’s main square where we stopped for a spot of lunch, was also very beautiful, quiet when we first arrived, full to the brim by the time we left!

Pyrgos

Suitably refreshed, we then headed for Panormos, said to be a charming and picturesque port with its many restaurants and taverns, I think however we have been spoilt over the years, as we didn’t stay long.

Panormos

But the views on the way there were spectacular…

We then headed for a place called Tarambados. There isn’t much there, except many dovecotes, what, you might ask, but I am serious, Tinos is renowned for its hundreds of dovecotes that became one of the island’s landmarks. These dovecotes aren’t just simple wooden buildings. They were built like true works of art by the inhabitants of Tinos and back in the days of the Venetians and the Turks, owning a dovecote was a symbol of wealth and power. Every Tinos family wanted their own! That’s why you will find so many on the island.

Tarambados’ Dovecotes

Our penultimate place to visit was Volax, famous for the unique landscape surrounding the village: many round granite rocks, of all shapes and sizes are laying in the valley! A few centuries ago, people used to believe these rocks came from a meteor shower. In fact, a very uncommon geological phenomenon created this magnificent scenery. Even the tiny village is famous for its basketry and we saw the locals hard at work here despite the hour of the day and the heat.

Volax

Our final stop before we headed back to fill the boot with heavy stuff like water, was a tiny ancient village of Falatado, said to be the second largest village of the island… not so sure, except the Church did warrant a large town!

So that brought our visit to Tinos to a close, all we had to do was wait for a suitable weather window to start the 2nd leg of our East to West Crossing of the Aegean amidst the record long Meltimi!

We had planned to leave the following morning but the winds were blowing at least 40+ knots in the harbour, and we discovered a problem with our gooseneck, the bit that connects the boom to the mast, held on by a pin and in turn is held in place by a very small screw… scary really that such a vital part relies on something so tiny. Anyway grateful that we realised before setting sail as to lose the gooseneck whilst sailing would have meant that the boom with the sail out and under enormous pressure, would become disconnected from the mast, and in all likelihood would have been both catastrophic, trashed the sail with any other boat part or person it came in contact with…. someone was shining on us!

Anyway the issue was that the screw would no longer tighten and we needed to have the gooseneck re-threaded and a larger screw fitted.. you need specialist tools for that, which we didn’t have on board so spent quite some time trying to find anyone on the island to help, without any luck!

The day wasn’t that dull, we did have some ‘entertainment’. Our Swiss neighbour, who had tried to tell us when to stop dropping our anchor when we first arrived and who had promptly ignored us for 6 days because we hadn’t taken his incorrect advice, decided to leave despite the winds and made a complete hash of it, hitting another boat in the process, thankfully not us, and then leave without so much as a word to the owner. Even the professional skipper on the boat next door stood shaking his head asking why such an inexperienced skipper would even consider going out in these winds. We don’t think he did any damage but we did find the contact of the boat owner and pass the boat name on to him just in case.

So back to our boom issue… without being able to fix the problem, and not wanting to leave in these conditions without a functioning mainsail, we decided to stay another night and leave very early in the morning before the winds picked up again and head to the island of Kythnos and the village of Loutra where we knew the harbour master was also an engineer and would be able to help us!

26th July 2022