Sabbaticus Travel Log: 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.