Thursday 29^th June saw us leaving Patmos for Samos.
It’s just a 27 mile or so sail to the NW, a relatively short passage but seemed to be the day for continually having to alter course:  for the superfast Patmos Ferry, a British yacht motoring with no one on watch, two LBC’s, and finally a pair of trawlers dragging a complete fish farm half a mile astern of them.
We arrived in Pythagorion mid afternoon, it was blisteringly hot anchored stern too the harbour wall. Including water and electricity very inexpensive at 10 Euros. I am writing this blog retrospectively and on our subsequent visit to Samos it had decreased to 8 Euros – a massive difference from last year in Italy where the average Dick Turpin was 50 Euros per night.
 
You are so close to the Tavernas you could almost read the menu which makes it very interesting having your evening shower, if you can imagine! I don’t want to be too graphic. However it’s great for people watching. Us watching them watching us.

Pythagorion harbour front

Gyros night
Samos is in the Eastern Sporades and is the closest Greek Island to Turkey 1 mile from Cape Mykale . The town was named Pythagorion relatively recently in 1955 in honour of Pythagoras who was born on Samos, formerly it was called Tigani meaning frying pan , which is self explanatory once you have seen the shape of the harbour.
The closeness to Turkey means quite a few boats visit and they seem to have an interesting approach to anchoring. I have never seen so many crossed anchors, its chaos, and apparently Symi is far worse, we won’t be going there.

Anchor Chaos in the morning
The French gang arrived here too and again we went out for dinner, this time they split up into Girls & Boys. Louise had to use her pigeon French, but it is getting better.

Many years ago I came to Patmos with a couple of mates, one of them, Ewan, had a pal whose sister was married to a Greek and they lived on Patmos. We visited them and the Greek husband whose name now escapes me had a Scottish / Greek accent and his favourite curse was “Diddy”. For those of you of a Southern persuasion,”Diddy” can be thought of as “Tit” for example “You’re just a couple of Diddies” As I near Patmos I can’t help remembering this.

Well, we had our first indication of the difficulty of trying to sail Northwards in the Aegean . A direct course to Patmos from Leros is roughly 17 miles, say 3 and a wee bit hours sailing. It took us 6 hours 45 minutes, we could’ve put the engine on, but it was the first short distance for ages. So we tacked back and forth.

There are a number of anchoring options in Patmos and for the first two days we chose Ormos Meloyi, although its a bit of a row in

 

Ormos Meloyi

after which we moved to Ayios Yeoryios and again met up with Nicolas. This time he had more French friends in tow – Jean Francois & Claude(ette).We had lunch with them in the taverna ashore. Louise had previously invited Nicolas for dinner on Camira and she extended it to them as well. You should have seen her face when Nicolas told her Jean Francois was a chef, who incidentally had the British Royal family stay at his hotel in the past. It’s apparently true that the Queen mum could put away the Gin! Louise’s Lasagna however was a sucess

Lunch and dinner on Camira

Funny but expensive over £1,000 wee dog in the Taverna

The next day a massive catamaran arrived with even more French pals. “C’est bon n’est pas?”

We were left to ourselves after a couple of days so we just continued to chill

This was the final push to convert Louise, who admittedly did love the place IN SUMMER.

I think I failed miserably when it took 40 minutes up and down steep hills (Past the nearest supermarket to the marina – about a mile!) to walk to Pandelli, in the blistering heat without water.

The lunch was good though, as was the setting. I am sure we will come back and anchor in this or a nearby bay later in the trip.

Shirley Valentine

  

Close but no cigar !

Whilst still in the Marina bar, our motor scooter was delivered, no request for payment, said we could sort it out later, 15 Euros for a day, and it had arrived the night before, what a service. I was loving this place.
Leros is not a big island. I have attached a wee map for information. Our trip was basically counter clockwise: from the Marina, (Lakki), to Pandeli, Alinda, Partheni, Gournes, and finally Xerokambos .

Pandelli is a touristy town, but nicely so. The shore front tavernas sit on the beach in sight of the fishing boats, really picturesque.
            
Pandelli
We climbed up above Pandelli to the castle and wind mills, some of which have been converted in to letting properties.
 
Wind mills & taverna above Pandelli
     
The Fortress
On the way back down we watched some crazy American mountain bilkers hurtling back down steep steps into the town. These guys weren’t in their twenty’s or thirty’s even!

Easier going down I imagine
After Pandeli we headed to Alinda & Partheni

Taking your donkeys for a walk, Leros style
and finally back South to Xerokambos with views across to Kalymnos.
  
Neigh lad thats Turkey
I have to admit I was taken by the island and I thought Louise might be coming around, so I suggested walking back to Pandelli one next day for lunch knowing she likes exercise and likes food even more!

Captain Chaos here again:

The passage from Siros to Leros is approximately 104 miles past Mikonos and into the exposed windy channel West of Ikaria. The Melteme (A strong Northerly prevailing wind) blows fiercely through this especially in July & August, F5 / F6 the norm and F7 on occasions. The forecast looked reasonable so we decided to leave at 23:00 to time our arrival in Leros late afternoon / evening the following day.

Ikaria is a huge precipitous slab of rock, west of Samos. The mythological origin of the name comes from the legend of Daedalus & Icarus who tried to escape from Crete on wings made of wax and feathers. Icarus flew too high, the wax melted so that he fell into the sea near Ikaria.

Through the night it was a bit of a motor sail, but from 07:00 hours we had a sleigh ride for a while- surfing down the waves with only a reefed foresail. We passed Nisos Bouvais a big lump of rock in the middle of the Aegean about half way across.

Nisos Bouvais

We berthed in Leros Marina at 18:00 it was very busy with boats but we had reserved a space. This is without doubt the best showering & toilet facilities in the Med so far, truly 5 stars. It was boding well for a winter stop……………………….

Leros Marina

The Sunday was a bit overcast and after catching up with our sleep we went for an explore.

I quite liked the first impressions but Louise thought it would be too quiet for a winter. I suppose in hindsight she is right, a bit like Dunnoon on a wet weekend, though I also like Dunoon! Anyway I digress.

We took some pictures of Lakki town to eschew later and that night we were invited out to dinner with another couple of boats who do leave their boats there for the winter but not living aboard. They also thought it would be quiet. Looks like I was on a loser.

 

Lakki town surroundings & the Marina bar

I hadn’t fully given up and suggested we hire a scooter the next day to further explore the island

It was a 35 mile motor sail to Nisos Siros other than a half hour sail when we were lucky enough to be visited by dolphins.

Visitors

We anchored in Ormos Finikou, which has a wee main street with a couple of nice taverna’s, a supermarket, butcher and baker, all the necessities in life.

Anchorage & Camira in distance

We met ashore (again!) in another of Nicolas’ tavernas; he has a few he’s visited over the last three years of cruising this area – nice having your own personal guide with good recommendations.

Nicolas said we must go to Ermoupolis. Gordon wasn’t keen to leave the boat, this time, so the next morning he rowed me ashore and I caught the bus to Ermoupolis.

I liked it! Busy but not overly touristy , it’s a place that seemingly doesn’t need to rely on it. It has a nice front where there were some large motor yachts moored but not a lot of yachts. The town was really nice, lovely shops and boutiques. I took a walk up to a couple of the churches where there were some great views. The St Nicholas church was very nice, the other, the name escapes me, was a bit plainer but the Priest was very nice and offered me a seat in the church to recover from my climb up and a break from the blistering heat. I didn’t get to the very old village further up the hill, it was way too hot!

Ermoupolis

I did however, find a hairdresser’s and decided to nip in and have my colour and a cut. For once this wasn’t an ordeal; the girl was from Athens and spoke great English. I felt like a million dollars when I came out, white hair gone and back to blonde, well for that day anyway. Living on a boat on anchor has its downside, one of which is no electricity so no hairdryer or straightner’s. Hence the lion king hairstyle as I call it that I’m normally sporting. Can’t believe we didn’t even get a picture of it other than tied back before getting in the sea to cool down, it is hot, hot, hot!

Post Lion King look

We nipped on board Syeni, Nicolas’ boat for a quick beer and to say cheerio to him.

Spartan Beer

We’re heading to Leros next and he’s going to Patmos, but we’ll catch up later. We want to go and have a look at Leros with a view to wintering there.

Well, heading into the Cyclades now

    

Leaving Poros at 0730

We left Poros heading to Nisos (Island) Kithnos with a full mainsail. Motored for a wee while as the wind had dropped.

Colregs, we are stand on boat……I dont think so !

Then it started to pick up a bit. In fact it picked up quite a bit, at one point reaching a steady 30 knots and gusting a lot higher. All in all a sporty 10 hours to Kithnos averaging a steady 5.5/6 knots. There were times when we wished we had put in a reef as the sea was a bit confused but on the whole it was a great days sailing.

Got windy out of the lee of this rock , perhaps the windmills should’ve been a hint?

There are a couple of places to anchor. It was a bit crowded in Colona and Fikiada bay our original destination so we ended up in Ormos (Bay) Apokriosis. Lovely! Nothing here except a taverna on the hill which I don’t think was open and two beach bars, one of which also seemed closed.

 

Apokriosis Bay, Kithnos

Nicolas arrived about an hour or so after us and anchored nearby.

We had a quiet night.

The next day Nicolas invited us for our usual Ouzo aperitif. He got his canoe out and picked me up to go ashore . Gordon had to swim there and back as we hadn’t got the dinghy out. We quite like the canoe he got it in Decathlon , Syracuse, so maybe this winter ?

  

Entente Cordiale

The beach bar was lovely, lots of unusual tables, swing seats, all with a nautical theme of course. I think  we eventually headed back to our respective boats after three or four Ouzo’s….in the afternoon as well! 

  

Beach Bar

Lovely day! We’ll definitely come back in here sometime, so peaceful.

 

Dusk

That’s us now in the Saronic Gulf, the main islands here are Poros, Spetses Hydra and Aigina. We are only visiting Poros this time as we need to start thinking about getting across the other side of the Aegean before the Meltemi (a fierce Northerly wind) starts to blow full tilt.

Leaving Ermioni

Poros is built on a volcanic peninsula and approaching the town by sea is meant to be one of the most beautiful in Greece. It is quite touristy and easy to get to from Athens so there are ferries coming and going all the time, but nevertheless, it is still lovely.

Approaching Poros

Nicolas had managed to keep us a spot next to him in front of The Sailors Taverna. We got in on our second attempt, the cross wind here is pretty strong plus there is also a current flows through the Poros Strait from W to E making it a bit trickier.

Poros town harbour walkways

We ate out the first night in a nice taverna tucked in out of the main thoroughfare then headed to a bar where we ended up having probably one too many. Next night I had invited Nicolas to ours for dinner. Might have been better to leave it till a day when I was feeling a bit fresher. Anyway, we had a nice night and a bit of a laugh at Gordon’s explanation of the four elements that are the building blocks of the human body. How Davy Crockett and Buffalo Bill are part of this I’m not sure. But Gordon and Nicolas seemed to know or at least think they knew what they were talking about. The next morning clearing up, a bottle of gin and a few bottles of wine had been consumed. That must be where they came into it !!!!!! 

We moved to Neorion Bay the next day (Sunday), about a mile round the corner, but not before listening to a Greek Orthodox church service broadcast externally and very loudly from the church 50 ft away from our berth. It lasted a full two hours , not to be missed , with a hangover.

It’s meant to get a bit windy so we think we’ll be better out of the Strait and sit it out on anchor for a day or two before moving on to the Northern Cyclades. It’s raining and we have thunder and lightning.

We awoke to  sunny skies on the Monday but on checking the weather we decided to wait a further day on anchor before setting out. Looks like Nicolas has decided that too , we can still see his boat in the distance.

Today was swimming and updating the blog and generally chilling. We plan to set off for Kithnos tommorrow on the 1st leg towards Leros, all things being favourable with the forecast in the morning.

As I finsh the blog ,our decision to stay another day seems justified – its gusting fiercly now and we a blowing about a bit .

Time for another swim

On leaving Kiparissi it was a decision as to whether we keep going further into the Aegean or stay around the Peloponnese, it is a lovely area to sail and it’s very quiet. However, we decided to keep going and we’re heading further out into the windy Aegean where it’s fairly common for force 6 – 7’s to spring up from nowhere. Should be interesting!
Ermioni has been recommended to us by a few people and rightly so. We had two days here which were quiet other than watching some of the charter boats coming in. Honestly, it provides hours of endless entertainment, I wonder how some of these people manage to get a boat. In saying that, the conditions and cross winds do make it quite tricky coming into places. It’s just they all seem to arrive at the one time and then think they won’t get in so throw the anchor out anywhere and start reversing in, sometimes with hilarious consequences. Crossed anchors are the norm here, in fact the couple on the boat next to us Hugo and Rena, laid theirs over ours. Hugo seemed quite confident he hadn’t, but Gordon was pretty sure he had. Yep, on leaving, there was Hugo’s anchor caught up in ours. No harm done and easy enough to sort out but I believe some places it’s like spaghetti junction. Spetses and Hydra are two of these places, so we’re giving them a miss.
  

Anyway, we had a nice couple of days here, got the laundry done, and stocked up on food and wine at the Thursday market.
Nicolas, has been in touch with a gentle reminder that if we are heading East it’s best to get across before mid to end June. This is when the Meltemi can start kicking in and can get a bit hairy crossing the Northern Cyclades. So our next stop is Poros where we will hopefully catch up with him and it’s my turn to have him to dinner.       

Motor sailed fifteen miles to Kiparissi. The batteries needed a bit of a charge  and the winds were light. We thought we would take a look at Kiparissi and if we didn’t fancy it carry on to Porto Heli. However, it looked beautiful so we tied up onto the town pier. After a bit of maneuvering to keep off the bit where there was a ledge we got settled in, or so we thought!

A beautiful place which is quite unspoilt it sits in a bay surrounded by some spectacular mountain scenery.

 

We had a wander and found the supermarket so got some provisions and some paint to redo the metre marks on the anchor chain. By the time we got back to the boat it was starting to get a bit roly and uncomfortable, but not unbearable. So, off comes the anchor chain onto the quay to be marked up and left to dry.  By this time the boat was really on a roll but secure enough so we headed off for dinner in a great wee taverna in the town.

We left the anchor chain out drying and headed off to bed. By 3.30am the boat was pitching and rolling like a cork on the water. So there we were in the middle of the night trying to get the anchor chain back in the locker and making a hasty retreat. Anything was better than sitting there listening to the fenders being crushed and rubbed up and down the rough harbour wall. All it would take was for them to start popping and the side of the boat would be mangled. As it happens some of the coach lines did get rubbed off. Shame, it really is such a lovely place, maybe we’ll go back sometime, just not in a boat.