INSTALLMENT 4

Monday 1 May 2006 - Leros

We departed Kos at 9am after picking up fuel near the marina (129 litres @1.04 Euro/litre for diesel) and headed for Leros. Motored all the way against light head winds.
We anchored at Lakki in the town basin for 20 Euro, and 5 Euro for Port Police (social fund?).

Mussolini made Lakki his summer retreat in the 1930s, and the local Greek population took to the hills and moved the capital of their island from Lakki to Plantonos, which is still bigger and brighter today than Lakki. There were a few Italian tourist boats around and we rather gathered that the Italians are still fond of Leros! They were keen on hiring motor bikes, and if you couldn’t hear the bikes coming you could certainly hear them talking! Actually the local Greeks seem to drive like the Italians too with speeding down the road, and tooting and waving frequently.

The Italians left many art deco buildings in Lakki, but the Greeks don’t seem to have taken care to restore them really.

We took a taxi over to the castle at the top of the hill above the village of Plantanos and the fishing village of Pandeli. The castle was closed however there was a spectacular view over both sides of the island, and a great long stairway leading down to the town, 234 steps according to the kids. The little town meandered around the hills with small, narrow streets, and cute stone houses, and we walked around for a while. As usual on these islands, everything shuts down at 2pm and reopens after 5pm. We found a bus about to leave so we hopped on, happy to see where it would take us. It turned out to be the school bus, so we spent an hour tripping around the island picking up and dropping off kids to take them home for lunch! They enjoyed practicing their English, and we greatly enjoyed the tour with the driver pointing out all the places of interest! Our kids noted the driver smoked about 4 cigarettes during the trip. The Greeks and Turks seem agreed on smoking being a perfectly OK pastime – busses, taxis, supermarkets, and every official’s office. We finished back in Platanos and we found a wee taverna near the water for pita souvlakis. We decided to walk the 3 kilometers back to the boat, and Jamie and Oliver counted all 4,272 steps back to Lakki!

We elected to stay one more night, and left early the next day heading for Patmos.

Wed 3 May – Patmos

Arrived in the port town of Skala to find Duetto anchored in the harbour. This was the Kiwi boat that we first met in Fethiye last year, and then ran into the crew in a restaurant in Istanbul. We seem destined to keep finding them, and whilst they seem friendly enough they have politely resisted our invitations to come aboard Aurelia.

There is the Monastery of St John at the top of the hill above Skala,. There is a cave on the hill below the castle where the Book of Revelation was written by Saint John, so there tend to be a few pilgrims visiting the island, and the monastery/castle is clearly an important site for the Christian church. We took a taxi up to the Monastery and walked through the little town of Chora which was built around the castle walls. It is like a Greek version of a Cornish town – winding small roads designed to disorientate marauding pirates (and tourists) on their way to the castle! The dozen or so chapels in the Monastery are extremely ornate and there is a museum containing some important relics and much jeweled hardware. M was fascinated by an ornate book of bound leather dated AD600, written by a guy called Mark. We chanced upon the Monks quarters by mistake (some painters had left the gates open) and noticed their simple living areas, immaculate in presentation. We didn’t dare go into the rooms, but the doors were all open.

We found a path going down from the Monastery back to the town (2 km). The smell of Jasmine, and herbs again was to be found in abundance. We went back to a restaurant we had visited the previous evening for souvlaki – but it was not open for lunch. The evening meal had been lovely, and the lady running the restaurant was delightful. Chris had endeared himself to her the previous day and been given Easter eggs. The lengthy hug that she got in return was quite a surprise!

Getting to Patmos we saw a lot of military boats, army on land (and at Kos), and air force in the sky. They certainly spend a lot on letting the Turks know they are here. When sailing between the islands and Turkey at one stage we had a Greek navy gun boat on port side and a large Turkish cargo ship running parallel on the Turkish side of our boat, as our course happened to lie up the invisible dividing line in the ocean.

We left Skala on Wednesday morning and zigzagged around a few of the beaches on the island. Most of the island (like most of the islands we have seen so far) is barren, rocky and very hilly. Typically the houses are white with blue trimming, just like the postcards! They seem to have maintained their traditional look really well, and I wondered if the government was subsidizing the paint colour to help! Fishing is also a very important part of the island economy, especially in the smaller ones that don’t attract so much tourism.

Friday 5 May

After leaving Patmos we sailed over to Lipso, a smaller, much less touristy island 10 miles east of Patmos. The ferries were coming into Lipso as we arrived. All these Greek islands are extremely well served by the ferry services, and I imagine this is part of the plan to endeavor to sustain the populations on the island from a strategic as well as economic perspective. Turkey is so close to most of these islands, and the feeling we get from the Greek population isn’t one of warmth towards their neighbours.

At Lipso we moored on the jetty at lunch time and had a wonder around the small town. The kids played at the local playground, and we stopped for a drink at the bar by the water. It was somewhat noisy as they are dredging the harbour, and building on one side of the port town, and the place felt a little dusty and dirty. At 2pm most things closed, and it feels like everyone has left, and that was what we felt like doing to, so we cast off and headed for Arki.

Arki is a smaller island about 9 miles to the North of Lipso. The tourist book had noted that Lipso wasn’t a tourist island, and this was code for, there is absolutely nothing to do here. Lipso was OK, but it really didn’t beg for us to stay. I was somewhat apprehensive that Arki would be worse. It is smaller, with only 45 people living at Port Augusta, and felt like a million miles from everywhere. Interesting that you can still get cell phone coverage at all these locations!

We had a look at a bay that was recommended by some English sailors, but the wind whistling through really didn’t appeal and so we headed up a narrow long creek to Port Augusta. There were a few fishermen untangling their nets, and a little ice cream shop on the pier. We decided it was sheltered, and as it was getting late we had better tie up for the night. There were two little tavernas on the bay and a handful of houses. We had a quick walk up the hill, and found their power was supplied by 2 dozen solar power generators at the top of the hill. Also we found walls made of stone without mortar – Mike in particular was fascinated by this. Everything was closed, and we retired to the boat for dinner. We had wanted to put the kids to bed and go back to a taverna to mix with the locals, but insomnia with the vertically challenged stopped that idea!

In the morning however we went to one of the tavernas and ordered omelets. This involved a few trips to the kitchen and chats with the cook about the details with much arm waving and descriptive signing! The little village really was so charming. A couple of stone houses built right on the water had their fishing boats moored at the front door, and another had lovely flower pots around the outside. The Greeks are into gardening a bit more than the Turks! We stopped and chatted to one of the fishermen who was mending a net beside his boat. Apparently there a two children on the island, one is the teacher’s child, and they are here to educate the only other child on the island. It makes you think about how much the government is putting into sustaining life on these islands; Trevor Mallard would have a nervous breakdown! The fisherman told us that 35 years ago the island had a population of several hundred, but they have all but drifted away. We told him that it reminded us of Stewart Island – and that like Stuart Island we considered it to be a special place. He said that he considered the island life was a paradise for those who know what life is really about.

The three islands in this group were somewhat forgotten in the division of land between Greece and Turkey in 1922, and it wasn’t until well after the Second World War that the islands passed from Italy to Greece. Apparently when the Italians left Lipso and Arki and another nearly island they burned all the public documents including the land ownership papers. So now the Greek government owns the land, and anyone who wants to build a house there has to get the permission of all the existing residents. One way to control the tone of the neighbourhood I guess.

Reluctantly we left Arki – it really was a fabulous place. Absolutely nothing to do, so relaxed, and real grass roots existence, and so charming.

Saturday 6 May - Samos

Departed at 1240 and motored 2 miles out and then went on beam reach all the way to Pythagorion on the southeast side of Samos, arriving at 4.30pm. Not surprisingly, Duetto was in the harbour again! This town was named for its famous son – a mathematician that really left his mark. There were some significant engineering feats achieved here in ancient times, including a 2.4 x 2.4m tunnel through the mountain extending for 1.6km in order to bring water to the port.

We had quite a bit of communication with the Parkers trying to work out how we were going to rendezvous with them. This resulted in our decision to go back to Turkey on Sunday to see Efes and Pammukale before returning to Samos to meet up with Lynne, Geoff and Holly on Thursday morning. We were to meet up on the Wednesday (Jamie’s birthday) but Olympic Airlines are striking that day, so it is to be Thursday morning instead!

Sunday 7 May – Samos to Turkey, Kusadasi

We spent all morning trying to check out of Greece (being a Sunday the customs lady seemed to be reluctant to show up) and we gave up and took a taxi over to the main town of Samos to sort out the Parker’s flights. Finally after lunchtime we had all the paperwork done and we set off out of Samos. Samos incidentally looks fabulous, but we will have another go at getting a better look at it later this week. We had another north westerly wind, force 5-6, and enjoyed another beam reach to make the 22 miles to Kusadasi in 3 hours. Occasionally we hit 10 knots with only a reefed genoa, and when the breeze reached 35 knots we were pleased to be able to simply wind it in some more. A pod of dolphins raced over to say a brief hello. S’s shrieks of delight nearly caused the skipper a heart attack, given the challenging conditions, but it was a thrill for us all to see them. We had a bit of an eventful arrival into the marina with strong 30 knot cross winds, and three enthusiastic, overly helpful Turks assisting. Despite their efforts we managed to tie the boat down without damage to paintwork or pride! In fact, at the post mortem briefing we gave ourselves points for not losing the plot, and getting a tricky situation under control. We will have to finish off the customs/immigration and all the paper work in the morning. I can see why so many foreign boats travel with two sets of transit papers for both countries, however we have decided we don’t particularly want that kind of excitement for now. A bit more of this red tape holding us up, and we may change our minds!