High and dry - Kos Marina

Sunday 14 September

Kos Marina 

We wandered into Kos Town with Sue and Andy on Wednesday for coffee, shopping and lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing on the boat before their evening flight home.  We were sorry to wave goodbye to them and had a very quiet evening on the boat.

We spent the next two days catching up with chores and enjoying the sunshine in the afternoon. There is always a lovely breeze here so not too hot in the sun despite it being 30 degrees at least each day.  Saturday is change over day for the charter boat companies at Kos marina and we spent early evening on Friday watching all the yachts come in.  It appeared to be complete chaos and very noisy with the marineros shouting at the skippers, at each other and anyone else who got in the way.  We even heard one of them on his VHF radio shouting Sequel's name a couple of times as we were obviously taking up charter boat space.

On Saturday we were advised that we should be ready to leave for the boat lift at 9.30 a.m. and then we were told the lift people needed another half an hour - but we left our berth and went and hovered nearby the lift while a boat was put back in the water.  We have decided to cut short our trip by about ten days.  This decision being a mutual one - non-contentious - there is not a problem - honestly. Our flight is at 1 p.m. tomorrow - Monday 15.

Getting some help putting the dinghy back on the front deck

Since then we have been doing the usual things that need to be done to pack up the boat.  Half the winter covers are on - we are waiting for it to be cooler later on today to finish putting on the rest - the engines, generator and outboard have all been flushed through with fresh water and the Captain is happily rubbing down and dealing with rust spots on the hull.  I have packed our bags and now at a bit of loose end so thought I would tie up this one.

We are looking forward to being home as usual and the Captain is especially happy as we will be able to visit the Southampton Boat Show which we haven't been able to do for the last four years.  He has a whole list of things he wants to look for and at. We also have lots to look forward to in the next few months starting with the wedding of the year on 27 September - have a little more time to get ready for it now.

Are we heading in the direction in which we are going?

Thursday 04 September

Kos to Patmos - Dolphins

The Freemans arrived late on Wednesday night and were immediately treated to a huge downpour.  It had been very hot and muggy all day so it did provide a little relief even if it was a slightly damp welcome.  We had decided to leave as soon as possible after breakfast, and after buying bread for lunch, to take advantage of a southerly wind.  We wanted to get as far north as we could while the wind was blowing from the south and then make our way back down the Dodecanese islands when the wind changed back to a north westerly, which is the predominant wind at this time of year and the one that brings the Meltemi, and would, therefore, be behind us all the way back down the islands.

We managed to leave Mandraki without any mishaps. I was anxious about crossed anchors but all was ok.  Before long Sue spotted two dolphins, which we have never seen in the Aegean, so it seemed like a good omen.

We reached the island of Patmos after a trip of six hours and the Captain elected to go into a bay across the headland from the main town of Skala.  We picked up a mooring buoy, which is so much easier than anchoring, had our first swim and then all four of us heaved the dinghy off the front of the boat into the water and the Captain and his new First Mate (have been demoted again) sorted out the outboard.

Ormos Grikou, Patmos

We set off for a taverna in the bay for our evening meal after celebrating our first day with a bottle of fizz provided by our guests and which helped Sue's attempt to get into the dinghy from the back of the boat go swingingly.

Friday 05 September

Marathi - why are pirates called pirates?

Went round the headland to have a quick look at Skala and decided we had made the right decision not to stay there and then headed for Arki, the next nearest island.  Really not very far and had a  quick peek into a small bay to decide it was not big enough for us and so we crossed to Marathi, an even smaller island very close by where again we picked up a mooring buoy.  The mooring buoys are usually provided by the tavernas along the shore and it is only polite then to eat in that taverna.  The mooring buoy we picked up belonged to the Pirate taverna. Another lovely afternoon and a swim before a much shorter trip in the dinghy to the taverna in the evening. The taverna had been packed all afternoon with passengers on a tripper boat, which slightly shattered the peace, but by the time we got there everyone had long gone and we ate on our own waited on by a swarthy old pirate.  The Captain kept telling us Effie's joke about why are pirates called pirates? Cant tell you the answer now as actions are needed.

The Captain and Crew

Saturday 06 September

Lipsos

Another fairly short trip, all trips about an hour and a half so far, to Lipsos where we dropped the anchor and tied up on the town quay. The Captain was very happy to find electricity available as by now worrying about Sequel's batteries which do not seem to be holding their charge.  The fridges have defrosted over night at least twice which if nothing else means the galley floor gets a wash when I open the door. We all loved Lipsi: small and neat, all white washed buildings and blue roofs and a beach where we whiled away the afternoon. I think we might all have been happy to stay two days but felt we needed to attempt to visit all the islands en route back to Kos.

Lipsi Village

Sunday 07 September

Leros

The Captain wasn't happy to have the crew sitting around idly so put Galley Slave Sue to work sewing a ripped canvas cover, along with a button missing off his shorts (thought that was a bit much but Sue seemed to be happy to pay her way). Meanwhile the new First Mate has been learning the ropes (literally) and has listened attentively to the Captain along the way - good lad! I have been able to put my feet up and read most of the time - very grateful to him.

Busman's holiday?

Had a quick look at Pandeli on the east side of Leros but no quay to speak of and still worrying about batteries not charging so sailed round the other side of the island to Lakki.  Berthed at Lakki marina with electricity available but having said that have almost said it all.  Most disappointing place with little or no character but famous for being the last decisive battle which the British forces lost in WWll and that the German forces won. We decided to take our life in our hands and get in a taxi to find a taverna back across the island in Pandeli (only ten minutes away) but only got as far as Vromolithos where we had an excellent meal with fabulous views across the bay and the same taxi driver got us back to the boat in one piece.  

Two thirds of Egg Sandwich Club

Monday 08 September

Kalimnos - Emborios

We were all happy to leave Lakki and the very noisy motorbikes and headed for Kalimnos but not before we stopped in the middle of Lakki bay to try to extract bits of black bin liner stuck in the port stabiliser.  Of all the islands we were the least certain of whether we were going to find a good place to stay but after a slight detour we found a bay lying on the SE of the island which we all decided was the best place we visited.

Again we picked up a mooring buoy with a dolphin on it this time. After an afternoon lolling about again(Book Club time) the boys set off to see what went on in the small village on the shore and Sue and I had a swim. The boys were gone some time having found it necessary to test one of the bars and later we all set off in the dinghy to the Dolphin restaurant to eat which was again set high up and we had terrific views across the bay lit up by a full moon. The only drawback was a swell coming into the bay and we (or at least Sequel did) rocked and rolled all night.

Tuesday 09 September

Kalimnos - Kos Marina

The Captain had decided to email the Marina to 'reserve' a place for a few nights and at last we received a positive response that we could return to the marina rather than the harbour. The trip took approximately four hours and we enjoyed sitting in the sun on the front of the boat (the galley crew, that is). The title of this blog comes from a remark made on this particular trip and the guest Galley Slave will probably never be allowed to forget it.  Apart from the first night the weather has been fantastic all week and we (that's the Captain and I) cannot believe that we could have had two weeks with our two different sets of guests this year and have had such good weather and such good company. 

We took the, no longer new, crew to our favourite place to eat in Kos called 'Never on a Sunday' and they loved it - so much so they paid for dinner!  

Wednesday 03 September

The last few days have merged into a blur of boats coming in and out, washing the boat again, little bit of shopping etc etc and now looking forward to Sue & Andy's arrival later on tonight.

I have totally lost count of the boats on our starboard side but do know that every one has been Turkish and big.  The Turkish thing is preplexing as I really dont understand why they want to come here when they have the whole of their own fabulous coastline.  In the harbour here we have once or twice, especially over the weekend, been packed in like sardines and, as I have said before, with a constant stream of people passing the back of the boat. What is the attraction?  Most Turkish people seem to chain smoke and being down wind of them means we have their smoke wafting over us.  To add insult, to keep their boats nicely air conditioned they leave their generators on all the time which are usually old and, therefore, added to the cigarette smoke is a strong smell of diesel fumes, and they are usually noisy. Aaaaargh! Apart from that we quite like it here - maybe that's why they do too? To be fair the Captain has asked them to turn off the generator close to our cabin window at night and they have. The first time he did have to threaten them with leaving our starboard engine on if they didn't and they soon turned it off, which was a relief as it would have been equally horrible for us if he had.

On Sunday our Italian crew were joined by three older men with a touch of the mafiosa about them, and probably one was the owner, but before their arrival they (the crew) had an incredible argument which lasted at least 20 minutes - I just wished I could have understood what they were saying. Unfortunately when they did set sail on Monday morning not only our anchor chain, but the (Turkish) boat on our port side's anchor chain, was over the top of their anchor chain which caused a certain amount of drama.  I was happy that they didn't start shouting at us too. I had to deal with letting our anchor chain out and back in again on my own as the Captain was talking to a technician about the VHF radio at the time. 

Monday morning chaos in Mandraki

The problem with the VHF has not been resolved as there is apparently not enough time to take apart the black box (VHF control unit - just been informed) where the fault probably lies.  The technician was able to verify that we are neither transmitting nor receiving a signal and we are so pleased that a new portable VHF is on it's way. A better inspection of the black box will be done over the winter - probably just before we return next April/May if anything like Turkish technicians.

Amongst other things having a VHF radio means we are able to communicate with a marina if we want a berth for the night etc. We had hoped on Monday to go back into the marina but although the Captain cycled back to see the Manager as arranged there was no space there. The Manager told him to see him again today but again there is no space.  We are disappointed despite the fact that we have decided we quite like it here. On Monday night we were particularly happy as being a quiet night of the week we did not have a boat either side of us.

The bikes have been very useful especially after discovering that there was a reasonably large Carrefour just on the outskirts of town, not too far to walk but too far to carry shopping back without extreme sweatiness and long arms (although I have always wanted longer arms).  The bikes are sitting happily side by side on the quay at the moment and have attracted so much attention.  At least two people have stopped to take photographs of them - ?!? - but have decided it could be a great ad for Brompton fold up bicycles and might just take one myself.

We actually had a cloudy start today and the wind has changed direction. The daily temperature has averaged in the early thirties but it does seem to have become slightly more bearable at night. Hoping it will stay fine for the Freemans. Oh no - now surrounded by Turkish gulets - massive one on our starboard side.  Captain has been planning trip back across Aegean and closer to home for next spring.