A week in the Cyclades routed around the meltemi rather than against it — and why we usually sail south first.
There is a version of the Cyclades that appears in every brochure: Mykonos, Santorini, back to Athens. It is 260 miles, most of it into a force five, and it is why some guests come home saying they did not enjoy sailing.
Let the wind decide the direction
The meltemi blows from the north from late June to early September. It is reliable, which makes it useful — you simply plan to go south with it and come back on the two days it eases, or on the engine, in the early morning when it has not yet filled in.
That produces a route most guests have never heard of: Kythnos, Serifos, Paros, then the Small Cyclades — Koufonisia, Schinoussa, Iraklia — before turning north through Naxos.
“People ask for Santorini and leave talking about Koufonisia. Every season.”
The stops that earn their place
- Kolona, Kythnos — a sand spit with sea on both sides and a swim across the middle of it.
- Pori, Koufonisia — the clearest water in the Cyclades, and a cave you reach by tender.
- The Portara at Naxos, at sunset, from the water rather than the causeway.
None of these are secret. They are simply inconvenient by ferry, which in the Aegean is the same as being private.
