More Wanderings

Arki-Leros-Kalymnos

The forecast for leaving Arki was NW, and Windy, the app we have come to rely on most got it right again. We had a 12-15 kt breeze to sail with. I debated which side of Lipsi and Leros to sail down thinking I might get a better sailing position by going down the E side. In the end it all seemed to be pushing me down the W side and we had a great sail with an increasing following sea as the journey progressed. The next 24 hrs was due to have higher NW winds and quite a few boats were heading towards the shelter of Lakki and its marinas. I have to say that again I was delighted by Summertime’s fleetness of foot, if you can say that about a boat. Over the next several hours we bowled along at 6.5-7.5 kts and more surfing down waves. We reeled in and passed several yachts during the passage. The only boat that looked like overtaking us was a big Catamaran which started off a couple of miles astern but seemed to be making ground. I looked him up on the AIS and he was making 8.2 kts!!

I twiddled with various sail controls and points of sail to try to optimise my speed. Now I know this puts me firmly in a category of ‘very sad git’, but I really can’t help it. I have an app (SailfreeGPS by FredB on Playstore) on my phone developed by one of the guys on the Beneteau 423 owners forum that is really useful. It assists you in working out if changes to sail trim are helping or hindering. It does an averaging of GPS  speed and direction over a period of time. The period of time and the number of readings for the calculation is set by the user. This then gives a really useful graphical readout that shows if an action you have taken has increased or decreased your real world speed over the ground.

Anyway using this I managed to stay ahead of my pursuant until he gave up and turned off to his safe haven for the night in Lakki. It was not until then that we realised he was using a double foresail as well as his main. No wonder he was thundering along. Anyway I think that makes him just as sad as me.

Xirocampos moorings - good shelter

We carried on down to the S end of Leros and turned into the bay of Xirocampos. This long narrow inlet is well protected on all sides apart from the S and should be ideal to shelter from the predicted winds. It is an attractive bay with a small village comprising a couple of tavernas and the ubiquitous churches. The tavernas have laid moorings so we took one. Having had bad experiences with unknown moorings before, we swam down to inspect these and they are in good condition, well maintained with a huge concrete block at the bottom. First rate.

Looking S from Xirokampos, S end of Leros

We went ashore for a light meal at the Taverna. I was a bit disappointed that several other boats using the moorings did not go to the Tavernas. I reckon if they are going to the trouble and expense of laying these moorings it is only decent to visit them, even if just for a drink and a chat.

Church at Xirocampos

We spent that evening and the next day listening to the wind whistling in the rigging. It is not yet blowing scary stuff but I think this is the beginning of the Meltemi establishing itself.

Someone had a vision here

The Meltemi is the wind that blows N to S throughout the Aegean during the summer months. It usually starts in June, blows fiercest in July and August and relents over September and usually finishes in October. Usually. It also has a day/night element to it, reducing at sunset but it can often blow continuously for days and weeks, often force 6 and 7, sometimes 8. In the area we are now in it is mostly NW and W in direction as it curves around the land masses. It is what makes sailing here so interesting, and a bit scary for the initiate.

We received some bounty from the sea in the shape of an orange toroid, or a life ring. It was attached to a Man Over Board beacon that had discharged its smoke cartridge. We took the opportunity of retrieving it as a MOB practice under sail and managed to collect it on the third pass. Triumphantly we brought it aboard and instantly regretted it. The residuum from the smoke beacon made the most horrendous red mess on the deck. It looked like the scene of a massacre and took ages to scrub out. Every lotion and potion in our cleaning armamentarium was used to get it off. The ring came from the Hanjin Pioneer which we looked up on the AIS website. She is a heavy bulk carrier that was well past our location and at the S end of the Suez canal. There was no mention that it had been deployed for a real MOB though I doubt one of these can turn to retrieve one very easily. Hopefully it had just fallen off. Anyway it is now resplendent on our stern.

Rugged Kalymnos

The following morning we set off down the W side of Kalymnos which lies S of Leros. Again there was a perfect sailing breeze from the NW and we horsed it down to the S of the island, gybed through the channel at the bottom and round to the E side. We moored in the tiny harbour of Vathi. This lies up a high narrow ravine. There is a small mooring station at the top end where the width of the inlet is only about 30-40m. A man wearing a huge sponge on his head started giving instructions from the shore. Given Summertime’s reversing proclivities it took me some time to get the approach right under the stern gaze of the captains left and right standing on their bows indicating where they think their anchors are!

I am going to have to come up with a strategy to counter this particular form of passive aggression. Spongebob -  the man with the sponge on his head, was not an hallucination as I first thought. Kalymnos was historically the centre of the Greek sponge diving industry. These brave souls used to dive down with a heavy bit of stone to gather the sponges and later used air compressors and hoses which were hardly less dangerous. They then moved on to early Scuba gear and now the island is inhabited by a population of men of a certain age crippled by the bends. So the sponge hat has a sad history attached.

People use fresh water to clean boats!

M noticed that the two boats next to us had moored well out from the harbour wall. I swam down to have a look at our depth to discover our keel was only about 0.5m from the rocky bottom. As Vathi is a regular spot for tripper boats from Kos there was likely to be significant ferry wash in the morning. So we did likewise and moved as far out as we could and used the dinghy as the method of getting ashore.

However despite the berthing issues Vathi is a spectacular little place not to be missed. The little valley that meanders inland from it is fertile and well irrigated and is the main centre for citrus growing in the region. It is a hidden gem, since the island looks completely barren from the sea. A meal at Poppi restaurant was rewarded with a sweet of caramelised orange peel …. beautiful.