Summertime Voyage

It was a bit noisy in Vathi, with the late night party running into the early morning cockerels. So we left the following morning for a short sail round to Kalymnos town. Adopting the position We were hovering around looking for a berthing spot when a fellow signalled to us and indicated that the berth next to him was free. Very neighbourly! At that point a large chap appeared and started trying to wave us away with loud invective. Nice guy however continued to quietly and calmly indicate that we should come in where he had shown us. So in we went. Excellent museum on Kalymnos. Had wind powered directions. We got lost! Our helper had a friendly Scottish voice and told us that the waver and shouterer was a restaurant owner who was trying to reserve space for tripper boats to feed at his restaurant, and we should pay him no attention. So we didn’t. Aesculapius. God of surgery. Looks like an old colleague. Came up in a fishing net! Dean and Jan, our new neighbours were proud owners of a v...

Samos is a large island, but less afflicted by tourism than Kos and Rhodes. We moored up on the town quay of Pythagorion, the main town on the South coast. There is a lot of history here, as there is almost everywhere round here. But Pythagorian is quite special. It has been a major town since the earliest inhabitation of the island by Ionians around 4000 years ago. X2+Y2 = H2 Most noticeably Pythagoras was born and lived here, but there were other notables including Polykrates and Eupalinos. Polykrates was apparently quite a good guy and a revered leader who developed the community on Samos in a very positive way. However he was eventually crucified by the Persians for his troubles. It is often better to be a cruel and bad leader. The good guy always seem to get the rough end of things. No good deed remains unpunished. Eupalinos' Tunnel Similarly there were extraordinary building works performed by Eupolinos in around 600BC including a phenomenal water system involving hidden aque...

Following a peaceful night at anchor on Leros, we had a quick morning dip and then set off NW towards Patmos. The wind had a bit more W in it today so after half an hour of motoring we were able to sail the rest of the way close hauled. Leros to Patmos Half way between Leros and Patmos someone has put a pair of small islands and associated reefs. They are quite tiny and at the normal passage making zoomed out view on the Chartplotter it would be easy to miss them. Fortunately we didn’t miss them, or is it that we were fortunate that we did miss them? Hard to tell sometimes. Patmos approach also requires a bit of attention with various rocks and shoals about. We berthed safely. Although it is a managed harbour with a kiosk and Port Police, there is no-one to help with berthing. So we were planning a leap ashore when a nice local chap appeared and took our lines. In previous trips it has almost always been the case that those lying in the cockpits of the boats adjacent will usually sprin...

We sailed all the way to Tilos from Symi on a brisk North Westerly doing 6-7 knots hard on the wind the whole way. There were a couple of other boats on the same trajectory and I am pleased to say we acquitted ourselves very well. Symi to Tilos to Kos Tilos is a very attractive little place with purple bougainvillea cascading over the houses and walls in the approach. There were about a dozen boats anchored in the bay, but we motored into the harbour to take a look. Surprisingly it was very quiet with only four yachts moored there. However it is not a very attractive harbour made mostly of high concrete walls and black rubber rubbing strakes and tyres that can make a terrible mess of your hull if you come into contact with them. Tilos harbour So we went out to anchor. We dropped the anchor and motored back on it to test the holding. M’s body language indicated all was not good. We were clearly dragging. So up came the anchor with a clump of weed on it. Suddenly the windlass stopped lif...