Arki (Dodecanese group 21st September 2010 We left Samos early and had 15-20kts from the NW-N then NE for the 23nm sail ducking round the corner at the bottom of Arki ino the first looking calm spot, stayed one night. We could see Patmos in the distance, it was a bit of a rolly night and decided to move on to the next anchorage till the blow passed, which is known as Port Stretto. There were a couple of other yachts and quite a few out sailing which we had not seen much of in the past few months. The anchorage gave good shelter from all but the south but this is where they had the noisiest goats in Greece, they had the biggest bells round their necks most times it really not bad to hear but at dawn it was not so welcoming, they were so loud and so many that I did take a video to capture the sound - one day I will work out how to embed it into the web page!
Patmos 23rd September We motored across to Patmos a whole 12nm entering the port and doing a reckie before deciding it was too busy and small so anchored in Melo Bay. It was then only a 20min walk to Patmos Harbour. Again this bay was open to the south, but weren't expecting any southerlies for a couple of days. Graham and I walked into town to explore - as you do - by now the hectic tourist season was almost over so the place was peaceful. Frequent ferries run to and from Samos and other Greek Islands.
Patmos has a large monastry (prime RE) right at the top of a hill overlooking the town. It is the monastry of St John who was banished to Patmos by Emperor Domitian. The fortified walls of the monastry were to keep out the Saracen pirates. Patmos is the spiritual center of the Greek Orthodox church.
Luisa and I took a taxi from the anchorage to the monastry the following morning at 8.30 and were back on the boat by 1045 - the views were great, the museum reputed to be the greatest museum in the Aegean has many precious artefacts of the Byzantine and post Byzantine period, the people that worked there were not forthcoming with information entrance fee to the museum was 6eu. Wandering around the narrow cobble streets in the vacinity of the monastry was more interesting, the bakery had fresh bread and cheese pies. So back at the boat the southerlie was showing its existance so we took off to Lipso 11nm away.
We anchored near the fishing boats that were on moorings another Australian boat arrived and invited us for drinks, turned out they werre from RQYS in Brisbane, Jim and Corola yacht called Koza, we jsut settled in to a good old natter when a fishing boat arrived to relay a message from the port authorities to say that a ferry was due and we all had to move! We felt it was a bit extreme but we moved around to a small bay just big enough for a couple of boats, the next day we went ashore and ecplored - as you do - very small town/port and decided to move on to Leros after lunch.
Leros 25th September 2010 We anchored on the north of the island in Partheni in an all weather anchorage. The bus runs hourly on the hour to Panteli. The hard stand for Lakki marina is here next to the airport. Needless to say we had a few visits to the extensive chandlery in the hard stand area. We walked across to Blefoutis another large bay protected from the south and took the bus to Panteli and went exploring - as you do.
After a few days relaxing and catching up with friends on Scotia we motored (bouncy trip) down to Lakki harbour and anchored just off the town, there is a convenient concrete jetty to tie up the dinghy and you are right in town. Leros marina is accross the bay with a large hardstand area and travel lift for catamarans. Lakki marina is nearer to town but not enclosed in a wall just bow tie to dock. It was a noisy place, the popular pasttime for the young was doing wheelies on their motorbikes along the foreshore up and down up and down! The town had several supermarkets,hardware shops, vegetable shops, chandlery and 2 computer shops and a very reasonably priced liquor store near the cinema. We did coast walk to the museum which was in the Italian built tunnels, it was well worth the visit, and returned to town taking the road past the museum up the hill ending up at the back of Lakki.
We met up again with Helmut and Luisa from Snowgoose who had hired a car for a couple of days and took us round the island, we went to Kastro of the Virgin Mary (Panagia Kastrou) that towers above the island's capital Platanos. It dates back to the 11th century, and was a stronghold for the Knights of St. John, had lunch in Pantelli then up to Gourna Bay to see the church on a rock joined to the land by a concrete path.
The weather was threatening to turn southerlie so we returned to Partheni, Snowgoose to Kusadasi via Partheni and Scotia went to Simi. We enjoyed Leros it had an interesting diverse history and was greener than most other islands.
