Kos to Samos

We left Kos and had a lovely sail up to a small bay on the west side of Pserimos. We had to beat all the way as the moderate wind was on the nose but the sun was shining, the sea was calm and all was right with the world.
Fiz caught us up an hour or so after we moored having first gone to the wrong bay. We didn't see much, mainly because there wasn't much to see other than rocks, shrubs, goats and clear blue water. Had dinner together and then an evening of Bridge.
Next day we motored up to a Xerocambio - a bay on the south side of Leros. A nice deserted little anchorage with excellent holding and good shelter except from SE. We tried to sail the couple of miles round to the small town of Pandeli the next day but with no more than 5 Knots of wind  it was hard to make any progress so up went the Iron Topsail.
The port was full of fishing boats (as expected) but the anchorage off the beach to the south was adequate. We anchored off the (closed) taverna. L took the dinghy with Bill and Lynn to the town and did some shopping. The town is very pretty and, once you have done the 15 min climb to the old town, the shopping is excellent.
Thursday, the forecast was for a North Westerly to build all day starting at around 3 early in the morning, 5 at midday and 6+ in the afternoon. We decided to get away at first light to beat the wind.
Bit of a mistake! When we left the shelter of the bay, the wind wooshed up to a near gale and we were hit by 2 Metre waves. The original plan was to go to Patmos but after 2 hours of battering we had had enough and diverted to a bay on the south end of Lipso. This turned out to be a good choice. It was almost deserted but it was very sheltered, with beautiful blue water and excellent holding. We stayed tere for 3 days waiting out the wind – and Fiz braved the weather on the last day so we had good company, an excellent meal and a good game of Bridge.
We left on Sunday morning and motored round the Southeast corner of Lipso, having plotted the route on the Navionics chart and checked on Google Earth. The chart showed a wide 10M deep channel inshore of the largest island and Google earth confirmed it by showing a ferry route going through. Imagine our horror then when we suddenly spotted a just-awash reef 2 boat lengths ahead of us! Luckily we were still on motor so I jamed her in Reverse and we stopped, backed off and went round the long way. That's the closest we have come to disaster in 4 years though. I'm still shaking.
After that, we had a nice sail over to Agathonisi which turns out to be a little gem. We anchored in the harbour as the whole of the quay (except for the ferry bit) was occupied by a warship. After the ferry came and went, followed by the warship going off on patrol all was calm. There is a tiny village, several tavernas a surprisingly good mini-market and a beach. The harbour is so clean that the beach is inside it.
And tomorrow its off to Pythagoreaon on Samos from where we are intending to visit ancient Ephesus by ferry....