Leros and Kaylmnos Island

Lakki, Leros 

From Patmos we headed to Leros and spent a peaceful few nights at anchor. This was a very social anchorage with sundowner's each night with a different nationality as we met Brit, Aussie and American couples who had a range of experiences from sailing in the Med. We enjoyed the social contact and chance to meet with like minded people and share experiences of the joys and frustrations of being in the Med and yacht ownership. 


With a big blow forecasted for the next 3-4 days we then moved to anchor in Port Lakkí, Leros and were fortunate to secure the last town quay berth. The town quay is surrounded by several large buildings from the Italian occupation when the bay was the Italain Naval Base. During the 1930's the Italian's built some of the biggest underground arsenals on Leros with some of the tunnels now a War Museum and a Military Park with army vehicles, a F-104 aircraft and various armament objects.

While in Lakkí, we used the time for the inevitable 'odd jobs'. With access to unlimited non-potable water from the local coastguard taps we washed the teak decks with salt water and then rinsed with fresh water and caught up on all the personal washing. Leanne hand stitched the mosquito net for the companionway and found a local laundry that offered sewing services and was able to have the seam's sewed. Hopefully there will be no more 'dive bombing' by mossies in our cabin in the wee hours of the morning. We then moved to another anchorage in the south of the island; this was a popular,and peaceful, spot with 20-30 boats in their most nights. 

St Savvas Monastery

Our next and last stop in Greece was the town quay in Póthia, the capital and main port, on Kalymnos Is. Kalymnos is a rocky island with three mountain ranges and is quite rugged. The town is wedged between two mountains with the town quay pavements lined with cafes, domed Italianate buildings and the silver-domed cathedral of the Holy Christ. We walked to the Saint Sava monastery perched high on the hill above the town and learnt that only nuns live in this monastery. It was stunning with picturesque views across the islands.  

Which one to buy...

Kalymnos is famous as the 'Sponge-Divers' island with this being the main source of income to the island until the mid-80s when a disease decimated the sponge crop. Now there are only a small number of boats still harvesting the sponges.  We couldn't leave without buying some sponges - apparently they can last for 10 years, I guess we will find out.  

Summer has arrived with the humidity and temperatures climbing each day now and we find ourselves wishing for a cloudy day or some rain. We can now appreciate the need for a siesta as it is too hot to be moving in the afternoon sun. While we have enjoyed Póthia, and meeting more Aussie yachties, the main disadvantage of being on the town quay is the local band that starts playing each night at 2100hrs and shuts down at 0200hrs. The first night we thought it was pretty cool eating dinner on deck enjoying the ambience - after three successive nights we would prefer no band and a good night's sleep. At least we can sleep in so we shouldn't complain!
 
After several hours of visiting local police, port police and customs our passports are now stamped out of the EU and we are ready to depart to Turkey.

Some more photos from Kalymnos.

Landmark Hilltop Cross in Kalymnos 

Entrance to St Savvas Monastery

View from inside the Monastery grounds

 

Patmos Island

Skala Harbour, Patmos

After seeing Maree and Colin off on their ferry it is now back to just the two of us which did feel a bit strange for a few days. However we quickly recovered with a 12 hour sail from Naxos to Patmos Is a distance of 70NM. We are now cruising in the Dodecanese group of islands which lie against the Turkish Coast and are strategically important with a turbulent history. The Dodecanese Islands were finally included in the Greek State in 1948 after centuries of rule by the Crusaders, Ottomans, Italian’s and then occupied by Germany during WWII.

Novel sun shade

Although the plan was to spend a few days at Patmos the notorious meltemi winds have arrived and it has been 30kts during the day gusting to 38kts at night. The constant wind is frustrating but at least the sun is shining and temps are in the high 20s. We spent one night at a beautiful anchorage with crystal clear water – the only disturbance was a superyacht about 1/2 mile away starting up their band at 2030hrs!  At least you know you are in good location when the ‘big boys’ are there.

St John's Monastery

We then moved into Skala town quay which is the  main port and town on Patmos, spending six days waiting for the wind to die down. Skala has been a lovely town for an extended stay with a beautiful harbour with the fishing boats, ferries and lots of visiting yachts and an impressive fortress like monastery built on a ridge line overlooking the bay. The island of Patmos is known as the Jerusalem of the  Aegean and is reputedly where St John wrote the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse) in AD 95 – living in a cave to achieve this. Patmos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with over 40 monasteries and chapels dotted along the maze of white narrow lanes. The most impressive is the St John monastery, an imposing 11th century fortification that resembles a byzantine castle which dominates the skyline, and is one of the most sacred Christian sites in the world. The fortified walls of the monastery were built because of the threat of pirates.

Three Windmills, built in 1588, are alongside St John's  Monastery and were impressive to think how the 12 sails were manually set for the wind direction and speed. The windmills are frequently seen around the islands and were essential to the food production of the island for several centuries.  These windmills had been restored, with one in use grinding wheat into flour.  

Our time in Patmos was productive with a couple of days polishing the GRP , polishing the interior wood /stainless and John removing the linoleum in the two heads.  In between there is the constant source of entertainment watching boats arrive and depart.  One of our 'neighbours' snagged another boat's anchor and an old mooring line on departure. This happens frequently on the Med mooring where you have to drop your anchor and reverse into your berth.  It was obvious the owner's (Italian) had no idea on how to extract themselves from this predicament and in the process blew there windlass circuit breakers (and didn't know how to reset them!). After about 15mins of watching John and our other neighbour (Turk) went out in their RIB to assist.  An hour later after resetting the windlass winch and cutting away the mooring line and dropping the neighbours anchor  the problem was resolved and no doubt international relations improved.  

St John's cave entrance

Now that we are closer to Turkey we are seeing more Turkish flags and our ‘neighbours’ for the last few nights have been Turks – who were most helpful in giving us some ideas of the good anchorages to visit along the Turkish coast.  We are both finding it a bit strange now as we don’t have any fixed plans!  Up until now it has been sailing to reach Gib in time for winter and then to make Athens in time for Maree & Colin's arrival.  At last we have no schedule or time constraints so we are now finally cruising.  We are planning to spend another 1-2 weeks in Greece and then cross into Turkey (and be out of the EU for a couple of months).  

Thankfully we have not been affected by the Greek financial crisis, we still have unlimited cash withdrawals from the ATMs. The Greek’s are limited to E60 per day and the banks are only allowing pensioner’s E120 per week withdrawal. Tourism has been affected as the local businesses on Patmos have advised numbers are significantly down.  We are finding the Greeks friendly, helpful and honest people – the island lifestyle looks idyllic but it would be increasingly hard to make a living. 

Below are some photos from Patmos.

 

The Non-Sailor's Perspective

First sailing lesson begins... I am John's sister (Maree). My husband (Colin) and I have joined John & Leanne for 6 weeks sailing around the Cyclades in the Greek Islands and Leanne has asked me to do a blog from a "never before sailed" point of view.  This is our first time on a yacht and we have found Sabbaticus to be a lovely boat.  Lots of light and space John & Leanne have worked very hard to bring the yacht up to a very good standard and it is looking great. We have found the boat quite spacious and I love the big wrap-around windows in the main salon. They make the whole yacht feel airy and light. We have our own cabin in the forward part of the yacht, with ensuite! Very spoilt. (We do have some bruises on elbows and knees from climbing into our bunk and also moving around in the head). Colin learning to helm (steer) We have been surprised as to how much cleaning there needs to be done on the yacht. Every time they go out the salt spray has to be wiped off all the windows and stainless steel and the sailing gear has to be cleaned of salt spray, including their jackets, leggings etc. this all takes considerable time on first arriving in port and every couple of days in port, especially after wind.  There is also much work to be done before leaving port. Leanne goes through all the cupboards and shelves and packs anything that might move around. The seats in the salon have to be covered so we don't sit on them with our wet weather gear. Washing lines have to come down and everything on deck packed away and hatches closed. The dinghy has to be re-secured either behind the boat or up on it's rack and the sun covers over the cockpit dismantled. There are no early starts. We usually get away around 10am.  Too hot to eat inside We have "anchored off" quite a few times so food supplies have to be thought about in advance and Leanne has become very creative in making something up with whatever is available.  Colin & I have cooked a few meals and each time have found we have had to adapt the cooking methods to suit our power source. It can get confusing with gas, generators and the inverter. I am never quite sure what to use. Dog bowls when it gets rough Now to the sailing. Yes we have still to obtain our sea legs fully. There has been a little bit of up-chuck but we have had some quite nasty squally weather at several different times (definitely not usual for this time of year. A bit of baptism by fire. We have experienced a couple of calm beautiful sailing days, one very rough day and one day with up to 40 knot winds - at least on that day the trip was short as we managed to get along on the sails so fast.  Unfortunately the horrible wind gusts have followed us all the way and they have several times made it unpleasant staying on board. We don't feel seasick as John takes great care getting comfortable anchorages but it does mean we cannot enjoy going on deck and have to sit around reading downstairs if we stay on the boat. We try to go ashore and enjoy the towns (out of the wind) as much as possible. John and Leanne eat out of dog bowls when sailing in heavy seas as they have rubber grips on the bottom which stops the bowls from skidding around. Enjoying breakfast underway Colin and I try not to go below at all when underway as it is too uncomfortable. We have found the best place to be is sitting outside at the stern. It is lovely there in the sun with the wind in your hair and the view all around can be spectacular. It is also the best place to see where we are going and what is happening all around.  Still no fish! Colin and John have also tried fishing most days, but without success.  We haven't seen any fish at all except tiny wee sprats and we haven't seen anyone else catching any either. When under sail in heavy sea we have to remain in the cockpit as it is too dangerous out on deck. At these times John & Leanne are pretty busy at the helm and working on the sails and Colin & I try to keep out of the way.  When leaving and entering port Colin helps with the lines and securing the dinghy. He has had some knot tying lessons from John and is also securing the fenders and helping with the anchor. We have learnt there is a lot more to berthing at a marina and also anchoring out, than we thought. We have to berth in the marina stern to the wharf. John does very well and is becoming quite adept at this but no two moorings are ever the same. We have found that watching other yachts mooring and leaving port is a great source of entertainment, especially the charter yachts. Some take 3 or 4 shots to get their anchor right. And they can get it tangled with others and there is a lot of shouting between yachts. Everyone is very helpful about throwing lines and this is especially good when the wind is blowing your yacht into the wharf or another yacht as you are trying to back up to the wharf. John has found it is always wise for him to be on deck when someone is coming alongside Sabbaticus to moor. The perfect way to cool off We have enjoyed some lovely sunny days with little wind and have made the most of them. We have enjoyed some sightseeing trips to caves and little bays in the dinghy and have enjoyed several swims a day - some on the lovely sandy beaches and some off the boat which is really great and the water is lovely. Time to ponder your navel... Well, that's all my thoughts on sailing so far.  It's not your usual holiday - more a great adventure and John has managed to give us several surprises along the way.  It has been a wonderful opportunity to join Sabbaticus and an experience we will never forget. We are most grateful to John & Leanne for having us onboard.