The plan today, Saturday 19th Sept was to head south to the island of Kalymnos, but the weather wasn’t favourable so we sheltered in Xerocampos in the south of Leros.
We had been here before and used the buoys put out by the taverna owners, but now they had all been lifted as a result of an incident with a boat that had been left long term and the Swiss or German owners had gone home. It had parted / dragged from the buoy it was on and had caused damage to itself and other boats, so as a consequence the Hellenic Coastguard ordered that all the buoys be lifted.
It was now only possible to anchor. But Greece being Greece I imagine the buoys will be back in place sometime soon!
The original planned route was direct to Chk Flag/ No. 5
We ended up spending two nights in Xerocampus (3)
On Monday morning with Lily lodged in the Stak Pak –the bag that holds the sails when you are not using them we set off for Kalymnos.
Louise & I had been here on holiday a while back and really liked it but unfortunately it doesn’t lend itself to sailing or rather berthing. It is a large lump of granite for the most part with little shelter except in the main port of Pothia , which as I say we loved , but not with the boat! Alternatively an anchorage on the west side Emborious which is where we are headed now looked favourable – just need to shift the cat to get the sails up ! If there’s wind ?
Chk Flag after way-point No. 5 is our ultimate destination today
It didn’t happen. After a nice motor through dramatic scenery for 6 miles or so we managed to pick up a buoy in Emborious bay. Nicolas being on his own finds this more problematic so once we were secure I swam over to his boat and helped him – it was worth it got a cold beer in payment!
Well yes – we are eating again! at the beach taverna.
You can see it’s getting quite a bit busier now –this tends to happen the closer you get to the main charter base of Kos and in addition the large number of boats based in Leros.
Emborious beach taverna & it seems my nephew is successfully branching out with his “Paradise” franchise in Greece.
It was a rolly old night & just plain uncomfortable so we cut short our plans to stay and the next day headed off south to Vlichadia a little inlet at the bottom of the island.
Planned passage for the day Chk flag after way-point No.7
Pictures from the passage numbers (3) to (5) between Telendos & Kalymnos. The villages on both sides look lovely.
It was 12 miles down to Ormos (Bay) Vlichadia where Nicolas had managed to anchor already. There was another , looked like semi-permanent boat also moored, so it was proving difficult for us to find a suitable spot in shallow enough water. After half an hour and five attempts we gave up trying and decided to head the further twelve miles to the small island of Pserimos.
Now 12 miles is nothing in your car but at 15:00 in the afternoon, bilin’ and thinking you had finished for the day and looking forwards to a cold beer it certainly saps your resolve to keep going for another two hours. I bet your hearts bleed for us !
However sometimes the fickle Poseidon can be just that & he gave us a lovely downwind sail for the rest of the afternoon to Pserimos.
Nice downwind passage for the afternoon
At roughly way-point (1) a Greek Day Tripper heading back to Kos came speeding past us. It reminded us so much of holidays gone by . They were having a fab time and stopped all their dancing to shout over and take pics of us and especially Lily who was a big hit , lol. Wish I had thought sooner for the picture it would’ve been cracker – we could almost touch them !
Day trippers having fun
At 17:00 we dropped the hook in a lovely empty bay on Pserimos. It is now definitely beer o clock.
Think you deserved your beer. Yet again beautiful pics.
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