Thasos

From 25 miles away to the East, all you can see is strange white hills on the horizon. It's only when you get a lot closer and the rest of the island looms out of the haze that you realise they are relatively small. Closer still, and with the aid of binoculars, they suddenly resolve into enormous marble quarries. Apparently, the highest quality marble has been quarried here for 3000 years and shipped over most of the Eastern Mediterranean.
We made landfall at Gramvoussa - a lovely secluded little bay with good holding on sand open to the South and East. We just chilled for a couple of days. During the last night an Easterly blew up during the night blowing in a swell and giving us a rather uncomfortable few hours. Nothing dangerous though.
We decided to go clockwise round Thasos to the main town. Took us 3 days. We looked at Aliki but there was too much grockle and we moved on. We later heard that we missed a treat as it is lovely. Guess we'll just have to live with the disappointment :-) We went on to a bay on the South West tip - just north of the point and had a lovely evening swimming and eating. There was a reather strange beach bar in the trees which went on all night but was very quiet and with rather cool sort of music - sort of hippy.

Next stop was Thasos Town. This is a pretty little place with good provisions - including Launderette with free water & electricity on the quay. Apparently it is scheduled to be completed next year and then will be charged for. The Port police showed no interest in us. The harbour is excellent & safe harbour with masses of space. No sign of Hydrofoils and all the ferries dock outside so no wash.
We met Alain & Anne on Odyssey - one of 3 French boats. There was also 1 German yacht, our yacht plus 5 or 6 Motor boats (all Greek).

The ancient harbour was the naval harbour in classical times. Apparently the new one is built where the ancient civilian port was located. No sign now. The ancient harbour is very well preserved. It is full of fishng boats though, and the ancient walls are just below the surface so even if a yacht could find a space, it would have to take a line ashore. Nightmare!
There is a lovely walk ashore up to the ancient amphitheatre. It's well preserved and still in use. The main gate is locked but everyone goes through a hole in the fence 50 yards above it. Great place to watch the sun set.
Large parts of the ancient city are still there so the old town is fascinating to walk around.
The museum is to die for. One of the best we have seen in Greece. The collection is excellent & well presented but the thing that stands out is the huge effort that has been put into explaining the context and history - in Greek, English and French.

After the museum, we walked east along the shore, past the grockle beaches to the point. There is a very nice, classy little taverna there with good service, reasonable prices, a superb location and it offers free beach chairs to customers

Samothraki & NE Aegean

Samothraki is a unique island. It's tucked right in the North East corner of the Aegean, washed by the waters of the Black Sea coming through the Dardanelles and battered by the summer Meltemi. The island is one huge extinct volcano - steep all the way round with heavily forested slopes and a high rocky peak.

Unfortunately, it isn't the friendliest place for  a yacht. There are only two harbours and no anchorages. he main harbour is a nightmare - choked with fishing boats leaving the only viable mooring being side to on the outer mole. This is high rough concrete and a nasty swell comes in with norherlies and westerlies. We decided it was too dangerous for us and went to Therma. The small port there is almost completely empty and very safe. It has absolutely no facilities. The entrance is badly silted up but the silted area is buoyed and there is a reasonable channel left with 2.5M minimum depth. There are a few supplies and tavernas in the village about 2K inland and also a hot mineral baths - which unfortunately were closed when we were there.
The buses only do the school run and there are no taxis or hire cars so we felt a little trapped. We tried going round to the port in Rosa to hire a car but it was extortionate so we passed & went back to Therma.

We walked round the village one day. The next, we took our bikes to the Fonias river - about 5 Km east. Unfortunately, Lindsay's got a puncture after 1K so she had to walk.

The river itself was well worth the trouble. After a lovely 30 minute hike, you reach the first swimming hole and waterfall. Thee are many more further up but its a bit of a climb and with the long walk back in prospect, we gave it a miss. Pity!
There is a taverna by the road bridge where we had a beer but they were distinctly surly. Not recommended.
We don't feel we really did justice to Samothraki.

Fanarion
Next port was Fanarion on the mainland. It's quite an attractive little town with an excellent harbour, friendly locals & port police (who only charged us €4.00 for 2 days),  A garage in one corner for fuel and free water and electricity. There is a butcher, baker, fish shop, a couple of very small supermarkets and not much else. The town has a slight air of a place that is on the downward slope.
We swam on the town beach straight behind the quay. In the evening we ate out ( a treat once every few weeks and went to what looked like a nice fish taverna - a big blue building by the harbour with views to die for. Sadly the food didn't live up. Everything seemed to be heavily battered and very greasy. Not recommended. After 2 days we moved on to Porto Lagos.










Port Lagos.
If Fanarion is on the downward slope, Lagos has hit rock bottom. The huge dusty commercial quay stretches miles with no visible activity. Most of the shops are boarded up. There small taverna and a mini-market.
The  harbour is excellent - very safe. We went stern too between trawlers and were the only visiting yacht there.
By contrast to the town, the port police have a brand new high-tech office manned by at least 10 policemen headed by an officer with 4 stripes (regimental sergeant major?) Goodness knows what they all find to do.

There is an amazing monastery in the middle of Lake Vistonidas on artificial islands jined by causeways. It is entirely Greek - no tourist infrastructure and obviously very holy. We did the half hour walk (assisted by a start in the dinghy up to the first bridge). Well worth the trip.

On the way back, we dropped into the bird sanctuary that occupies the south side of the harbour. There was a very active colony of Egrets and Herons nesting in the trees with a gang of crows trying to pick of eggs and young. The ground was covered with empty (presumably hatched) egg shells. There were also quite a lot of dead young and sadly this poor little chap. We put him in the shade but there wasn't anything else we could do so we had to leave him to his fate.




We were intending to leave on Sunday Morning, after a lie in, for Thasos. At 0600 we were woken by engines, banging, clattering and shouting outside. A huge market was taking shape on the quay above us. The whole town came alive! The market was excellent so we stocked up  with provisions. Even the local fishermen were flogging their catch off the boats. Delicious sea bass for supper.

Disaster!
Well that should have been that - and we should have gone to Thasos about 20 miles away. We had a light but pleasant breeze which pushed us along at 3 Knots on a calm sea for a couple of hours - all very relaxed and pleasant. Suddenly I realised that we weren't towing the dinghy. Panic! We don't normally tow it but I had just fixed one of the attachment points and the glue still had to finish curing.
Unfortunately neither of us could remember when we last saw it. Lindsay had thought she saw something odd floating in the distance an hour earlier but I had foolishly poo-pooed it as just a fishing buoy.
We retraced our track with two binoculars scanning the horizon but saw nothing. We flew into Port Lagos to see if it was on the beach but no sign.
We left the harbour and were just about to retrace the track again when I heard Rosa di Venti being hailed on the VHF. It was the Port Police at Fanarion - a fisherman had retrieved it and handed it in.
When we got there, I went round to the police (kindly driven in the heat by Linda - who we met fishing on the quayside) and there was Tinker. I was so pleased to see her.

It turned out that the smart policeman on duty had spotted the label "TT Rosa di Vent", checked up in his file and found our papers from 3 days earlier. We had registered our destination as Port Lagos so he phoned them and found that we had checked out heading for Thasos. He phoned them but we had not arrived. Just then he got a call from Port Lagos - they had seen us come into the harbour and go out again. Apparently they whistled at us but we didn't hear. Knowing we were close, he tried calling on the VHF and the rest is history!

All's well that ends well.

Limnos

On the way over to Limnos, we noticed that the sea changed colour from the usual Mediterranean deep blue to green. A west-going current of about a knot also appeared. We think all this must be due to the outfall of the Back Sea.
We made landfall after a longish passage at an anchorage in Ormos Moudrou. This is a huge, completely sheltered gulf that was used in the Gallipoli campaign to house the huge allied fleet. These days it is deserted and forgotten - almost entirely agricultural.  The countryside is rolling green hills often with tor-like rocks on the top - very reminiscent of mid Devon. We just chilled out there for a couple of days and then moved on in two hops to the capital - Myrina.

The first destination was a tiny bay called Ormos Thanos. There were no facilities but it has good holding, good swimming and lots of peace and quiet. Rosa was colonised by a tiny fish that resembled a Gobi. It quite happily walked up the transom out of the water and then walked back in several times.

The capital, Myrina, is a lovely little town. Full of winding pedestrian streets with both useful shops and seriously up-market establishments all packed in together. There is no tourist hassle, it's very Greek.
The harbour is free at the moment - although work continues rapidly to complete the paving and provide water and electricity. We are told that they will charge when it is complete but only modest public quay fees. We were completely protected on our first night there but next evening a truly enormous motor boat (really a small ship) came right next to us. We thought we would be kept up all night with partying and generator noise so we decamped and anchored in the harbour. Big mistake - we were rolled around all night by a ground swell that can penetrate that far in.

During the previous day we took a walk up to the Genoese castle which is free, spectacular and has wonderful views. Well worth a visit!

So early next morning it was up anchor and on to Samothraki.

Lesvos

Lesvos is a really special place. We will be back another time to explore it further.

We made landfall at Apotheke which is a tiny village near the mouth of the Gulf of Killini. There is nothing much there except peace quiet and one vey low-key taverna catering to a few locals. The anchorage is excellent and we just lazed there for a day.







Our next stop was Plomari. This is a pretty little town with a Turkish flavor. The only mooring option is stern to on the town quay. This seemed well sheltered and the anchor held well. I wouldn't like to trust the boat on her own there though. L went shopping and amazingly heard a screetch and there was a Little Owl on a telegraph pole. We had an excellent meal in the Taverna right on the quay and then wandered round town to find an ice cream. The port police were the most officious I have seen in Greece - although nice enough with it. They checked my passport - presumably looking for an unclosed Turkish Visa and demanded a receipt from my previous port of call.












After Plomarion, we went round to Mitilini, the capital. This is a bustling little town with excellent shopping - mostly in the bazaar-like backstreets at the end of the harbor. We stayed in the Marina which is now fully functional - if more than a little empty. We could have stayed side-to in the inner harbor but since the marina was only €19 for our 10.6M boat, and is quiet and has lazy lines, we thought it was safer to stay there as we intended to hire a car the next day to be proper tourists.

We spent the whole day seeing the Eastern half of the island. First stop was Agiasos - a lovely mountain village full of winding streets, friendly people and very few tourists. We were even given bread, wine and Tahini by three lovely women in honor of 30 days of risen Christ! The monastery and especially it's church is impressive but unfortunately, the museum was shut.





Next stop was the hot springs at Polychnitos where we wallowed in toasty warm healing water in an ancient bathhouse.Very relaxing! The springs themselves come out at over 80 degrees C. You can wander around to you hearts content - no fences, no Nany State - if you want to boil your head, you can!

After lunch of fresh sardines (local specialty) at Scala Killini we started to wend our way back. Suddenly we came upon a stork nest - complete with mum and baby - on a chimney. And then blow be down, in quick succession came upon a flock of Flamingos and then a family of Avocets. Twitcher Heaven! Finally after a stop at Liddle (yuk) we fueled-up from the local garage and finished off a perfect day with a quick hand of Bridge.


After Mitilini, we headed for Mythimna. The harbor was chokka so we anchored off and had a rather rolley night serenaded by disco music until dawn. The place actually looks really nice and the disco would be easy to avoid so it will repay a visit another time. Unfortunately, Tony and Anne were on a bit of a mission to get to Sigri where we are to part the ways - they going back south to Crete and we going on North to Limnos - so we didn't have the chance to go ashore.

Had a lovely gentle sail along the North coast to Sigri. Its a very small place and looks distinctly out in the wilds. The huge beach is empty but buoyed off for swimmers and the quay is just a concrete lump. We opted to anchor but only with considerable difficulty. There is a lot of weed and a lot of the patches that look like sand are actually flat rocks. The Anchor bit at the fourth attempt. After an excellent final meal and another good game, we said our goodbyes and after a good calm night, slipped away at first light on the 11 hour passage to Limnos.

Chios and Oinousa

We arrived at 1500 at Emborio which is a lovely sleepy little hamlet on a beautiful sheltered inlet on the southern end of Chios and dropped anchor. There is plenty of room for several yachts and the bottom is hard sand so it was perfect. Fiz was already there and had cooked a meal so we had a lovely evening followed by a couple of rubbers of Bridge. It was so nice that we decided to stay the next day and ended up staying three. The tiny shop is useful for necessities. The tavernas are nothing special but good for a quick meal out or a cold beer or both.
While we there, an extraordinary boat came in. It looked like a sailing catamaran but had no mast. When it left, I figured it out. The whole bridge deck was covered in about 40 large solar panels. These charge batteries and the boat is propelled entirely by electric power. It is heavily sponsored and apparently has been all round the world!






Argosea caught up with us on Monday and we all set off for Chios Limani the next day. It is a huge ferry port too with yachts in one corner, stern-to on a concrete quay. In the event, the ferry only caused a little movement so all was well. We hired a car between th 6 of us and used it to get fuel gas and provisions. Potable water is available from a tap in the flower beds. The town looks really interesting but Fiz wanted to get on so we didn't have time to do the tourist bit. It'll be well worth coming back another time. The restaurant behind the yacht quay, balled Bel Aire, is truly excellent and very reasonably priced too. They have an excellent menu, well cooked, good service and a lovely location. What more could you ask?

In the morning we sailed up to Oinousa, a small island at the Northeast corner of Chios via the partly completed marina. The marina is a graveyard of old fishing boats, ferries and tripper boats but there is still plenty of room for a few visiting yachts. There are no facilities and it's in the back of beyond but it is safe and free.
In the early 20th century, Oinousa was populated by lots of rich shipping magnates from Athens so there are lots of huge mansions and a college for training ships officers - presumably under the beady eye of the owners. Since then it has fallen on hard times and many of the mansions have fallen into decay. There seems to be a bit of a renaissance recently though as many of them are being renovated. It's a charming little place with narrow winding streets, lovely views and one of the nicest policewomen we have met. She spent some time processing my papers helping me practice my terrible Greek and then later turned up with her old school textbooks as a present for me! The electricity seems to be free but the island is very short of water so that isn't available.
For reasons unknown there is also a huge stadium. Maybe it is something to do with the College which is still functioning. It is certainly too big for the tiny population of the island.








We said goodbye to Fiz and stayed an extra day with Argosea. On Monday we set off on the 35 mile hop to Lesvos.

Postscript to Samos

Oh dear - they didn't leave us alone. 10 minutes after I wrote the last post, they turned up in a borrowed fishing boat to tell us there is a ferry due in one hour and we are right in its path. So move!
So back to the quay. We decided to try mooring alongside as there was plenty of space. After fussing around with chains, ropes, planks & fenders for an hour, we settled down to wait for the ferry. What a nightmare! It came in at high speed and then instead of dropping an anchor it continuously ran its propellers against its mooring warps to keep itself off the quay. It then left again at high speed.  All this set up a horrific slop which, if we hadn't been so thorough would have seriously damaged Rosa. As it was we ground large chunks out of the board and tore a couple of fender covers. All ths despite also shoving hard on the shrouds from the quay. And then two hours later at 23.20, it came back and did it again! We won't be going back to Karlovasi.



We left at 0630 for Chios and had a nice gentle passage, over half of which was under sail. On the way, we saw a large warship approaching from one direction and then realised there was a submarine on teh surface in its path. We expected a rendezvous but in fact, the warship (which turned out to be Turkish) steamed past and shortly afterwards, the sub submerged. I took some rather surreptitious photos.

Pythagoreon to Chios

After a day spent working, shopping, doing the laundry, etc, we set off on the longish trip North to Chios. We had very little wind and what there was was on the nose, so we motored through the Samos Straight where Greece is no more than 1 mile from Turkey. This bit of water has an evil reputation as there are often strong currents and overfalls. We saw nothing however and passed serenely through. Then it was round to the isolated bay of Asperokhorti. This was slightly rolley with a Westerly wind although it would have been perfectly sheltered in any other.
The bay had warm, crystal clear turqoise water and nothing but a few fishing boats. Late in the afternoon, a young man built like Adonis took out his fishing boat. The macho image was slightly tarnished by the fact that it was a pedalo! Didn't stop him from catching fish though and I guess it gave his legs a workout.

Then it was on to Karlovasi - just as an overnight before the 10 hour trip to Chios. The harbor is enormous and seems to be the main ferry port for Samos. We moored stern to on the huge concrete quay and L did some shopping (very poor apparently).We were warned by a German Lady to loosen off when the ferries come in as they were now on the hard having a large amount of transom damage fixed - caused by wash.

Just after that a West wind got up that pushed us sideways hard. The anchor was well set - but the bottom must be soft because it kept slackening off and putting us back to the quay. After a lot of ineffectual playing with lines and chains, we gave up and taking L's suggestion, anchored in the North West corner of the harbor. Much safer! I just hope the port police leave us alone.

Tomorrow we're off at sparrow fart to Chios.

Samos and ferry trip to Ephesus.

We arrived in Pythagoreon on Samos on a lovely clear day - the first really warm day of the year. The village is lovely - good shopping, excellent Tavernas and a huge harbour where you can choose to tie up to the town quay or to anchor out off the beach. We decided to anchor while we went to Ephesus as the anchorage was not crowded but was very sheltered and has excellent holding. The town quay, which is curved, has a high probability of anchors getting tangled which would be a disaster if we were not there to fix it.
From the pilot book, we had expected to be able to get a ferry to Kucedasi in Turkey direct from the harbour. It turned out that this has not been the case for some time - but we were able to buy tickets in 'Yacht Services' and arrange a taxi to pick up the ferry in Vathi. The cost of the trip was €75 per person for ferry, coach, guide & entrance to Ephesus with another €10 per person Turkish port tax collected as we got off. The taxi was €20 each way. It wasn't a cheap day but was well worth it. Pythagoreon is a much safer place for a yacht than Vathi.

We were picked up by Aris, a friendly local taxi owner, and taken to Vathi where we kicked our heels until 8.00 when we were allowed through customs onto the Samos Star - our high speed ferry. It whisked us at 25 knots over to Kusedaci in Turkey where we docked beside 3 huge cruise ships. The sea was flat and the journey very comfortable. We had €10 'port tax' extracted (this isn't a visa so the fact that we already had paid-for Turkish visas counted for nothing). Our passports were swapped for a boarding card and we were free to find our coach. Due to a cock-up on the counting front in Greece, we had one too many passengers for the bus so had to wait 20 minutes for a larger one - much to the frustration of Net - our Turkish guide.
After 1/2 hours drive we were there. The cruise ships and probably other tourist repositories make for a very crowded site. Even that couldn't spoil the impact of the place. Even L couldn't call it a 'pile of old rocks'! We were guided from the entrance at the top of the site beside the Odeon (smaller theater), down the ancient main street, to the huge main amphitheater. As we walked we saw very impressive and well preserved ruins which really give a feeling for the size and magnificence of the city.

Here are just a few pictures....

Temple of Hadrian

Library of Cercus

Amphitheater

After Ephesus, we were a captive audience at a nondescript but mercifully cheap restaurant and were then cast loose in Kusedaci. Once we had run the gauntlet of the waterfront bazaar (full of men who all seem to know your home town and have an irresistible desire to sell you a leather jacket) we reached streets full of laid back, friendly Turkish shopkeepers. Having bought loads of apple-tea (unobtainable elsewhere) and chewing the fat for 1/2 hour, we made our way back to the port and back to Pythagorean. After a nice meal in a Taverna, we fell into bed.

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....

A few days on Kos

Even though we have been here before, we have had  a very useful and enjoyable stay on Kos. We expected the Marina to be expensve and planned to go into the old harbour like last time. However it only cost €21 per night with free water and electricity so we stayed here all the time. Excellent value!
Selas in the marina are an official service center for Ocean Safety life-rafts. We had ours done at their very impressive facility by an obviously competent technician - who spent over an hour showing us every detail of the raft and its contents. It wasn't cheap at €300 but we felt it was good value.

We spent a day with a car visiting the sights. The Asclepion is very impressive. Surprisingly well preserved (and a bit tastefully restored). It isn't actually where Hypocrates practiced as he died 30 years before it was constructed but its very atmospheric nevertheless.

We drove the mountain roads to Zia where we had a very interesting and reasonably priced meal at the Olympia Taverna - despite the place being a tourist trap.

After that it was the big surprise of the day - the castle at Paleo Pili. This doesn't seem to be mentioned much in guide books etc but it was amazing. A rocky peak which already had a nascent castle in it has been conjured into an impregnable fortress by the addition of a few walls here and there. Its a bit of a scramble to get up there - but well worth it (and completely free). From the summit there are stunning views of Northern Kos and across to Kalimnos, Pserimos and Turkey.













The last visit was to the huge fortress built by the Knights of St. John. The exterior walls are very well preserved and very large. Unfortunately there appears to be nothing of interest inside - It is completely overgrown and there do not even appear to be much in the way of ruins under the vegetation. A further dampener was put on the day by meeting a starving dog on the road. L desperately wanted to help it but we felt unable to do so as there is no possibility of it coming with us on the boat and the most likely outcome if we had let it in the car would have been to have to abandon it again when we sailed away. L spent ages when we got back to Rosa, trying to get the local dog charity interested but to no avail. Apparently they are overwhelmed by stray and abandoned dogs.

We stayed around relaxing for a couple more days waiting for a strong Northerly to die and will now set off today for Pserimos.

Nisiros & on to Kos

We put the Spinnaker up in anticipation of a gentle blow to Nisiros. In the event, we had a couple of sessions where I thought the wind was strong enough and deployed it but they only lasted half an hour and we had to take it in again in favor of the iron topsail! L reserved judgment and looked smug.
Of course the moment we reached the Island, up came the wind.
We got into the large harbor to be greeted by a huge flotilla of 20 yachts crewed by Ukrainians and Russians. There were no spare spaces at all. Fortunately, they took pity on us and we & Fiz took a place along side one of their boats.
On Wednesday, L spent hours scrubbing the decks while I did some work. Overnight it blew up an un-forecast hoolie and dumped volcanic grit all over the nice clean decks. It's enough to make you cry.

We set off from Nisiros on another promise of a gentle waft to Kos with a following wind. Well follow us it did but not exactly gently. We had gusts of nearly 30Knots and sustained winds well over 20 knots. We put up a single reefed main which swept us along for an hour or so - and then the wind died to 10 knots. We shook out the reefs but didn't really trust the weather so avoided the Spinnaker - which was fortunate as an hour later 20 knots suddenly came in again. We put in 2 reefs again - and in an hour - guess what?
Finally gave up sailing 40 minutes short of the marina.
We're not great marina people - but I have to say, Kos marina is really impressive. Nice clean facilities, friendly staff and for our 10.6M boat - €21 per night with free water, electricity and WiFi. Instead of the planned 1 night we will stay 3 maybe 4 and take the chance to explore the Island by car with Bill and Lynn on Fiz.

Spinalonga to Astipalia

Spent a calm and very boozy night at anchor in Spinalonga lagoon with three other boats also from the Marina. In the evening we all piled onto Fiz where Bill & Lynn were extremely generous with nibbles and Pimms. Very civilized! We didn't need to eat afterwords.
At 1600 on Friday we set of on the 80 mile passage to Astipalia. The forecast was for moderate westerlies with clear skies so we were looking forward to a gentle overnight sail.
We hadn't reckoned with the Cretan Goodbye! The winded gusted up to 30Knots off the mountains of Capo Agios Ioannis. The sea was very confused and distinctly lumpy. Not having our sea legs yet - I lost my lunch and was distinctly delicate for a lot of the voyage.
We made very good time to Scala on Astipalia. We were just anchoring to pull back onto the quay when disaster struck. The trip-line on the anchor got wrapped round the bow thruster, jamming it, and the anchor wouldn't go down as it was hung up by the line. All in a small crowded harbor with a fair wind blowing.
I managed to get control and we went back out to sea where I cut the rope from the dingy. Managed to anchor back in the harbor without the bow thruster. I'm going to have to dive to free it this afternoon.

Orf we go

Well we made it. After a wonderful winter in Aghios Nikolaos - Crete, we have cut the ties and sailed North to Spinalonga Lagoon. We had company of three other boats - all good friends - and gathered on Fiz for a huge dose of Pimms and lots of nibbles. What a way to start the summer!
Tomorrow afternoon, we start the long haul up to Astipalia and from there to Kos.