Small passage plan today was 13.5 miles then another 4.

Ever since our first crossing to the Aegean which tracked a bit further south than here, people have said “Oh you should have visited Koufenisia”. So given we were so close, that was the plan. There are in fact two islands Kato (Lower) Koufenisia and Epano (Upper) Koufenisia.

The main village is on Epano Koufenisia, which has a small harbour and an anchorage off the village outside the harbour.

However on reading the reports on Navily (An app with reports from other sailors) we decided to give it a miss. The harbour is reportedly difficult to find a space in, the anchorage suffers badly from the wash of big ferries which arrive and depart 24 hours a day, and the tavernas / supermarkets are just OK and a bit pricy. We are finding that in the Cyclades.

Additionly I quote from the official pilot book – “Anchor in the bay in 3-5m, clear of the ferry turning area. Reasonable shelter from the meltemi but there is always a residual swell which causes yachts at anchor to roll horribly”

Eh no thanks!   Maybe later in the season, if we are still nearby, and we might get a place inside.

Not to give up entirely however we headed for Detis bay (No.2 on the chart) on Kato Koufenisia via the islands of Karos & Andikaros.

I see from the log we arrived at 13:30, dropped the anchor, had a swim, lunch, got the cockpit cushions out intending to spend the night here. It was very pretty and the water crystal clear.

Well by 16:00 we had had enough! – we were rolling beam on continually with the swell and this was then exacerbated by the wash coming in from the ferries passing way out in the strait. Lily was actually sliding from one side of the cockpit sole to the other, lol.

Time to leave! A quick look at the pilot book seemed to offer a solution on the nearby island of Skhinousa just under 4 miles away, let’s go.

As we were leaving a Greek day charter boat arrived with 9 people on a day out. It was a wee Moody 28. The Greek skipper’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw us and was waving & mouthing across to Louise “Me Moody, you Moody”. It would’ve been nice to talk to him but the anchor was up and we were off .

Just after 17:00 we were anchored in Almyros Bay on Skhinousa. It was night and day, what a relief we would sleep that night after all!

We ate on the boat that night just happy with our move.

Looking through the binoculars I thought I could see what could be a taverna in the distance.

– I’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot of taverna visiting in this year’s blog I hope the missus isn’t taking advantage of my newly started monthly pension! I shall need to review my spreadsheet closely.

I could see the top of what looked like a couple of “palm leaf” type umbrellas you would find round a pool. Louise got her Google maps and trip advisor going and sure enough the pictures had a pool & shades not unlike what I was looking at.

Double bonus, we hadn’t expected a taverna. That was tomorrow’s adventure planned then.

Taverna spotted just over that hill by the wall

Next morning and Lily preventing the dinghy launch as it’s her shade !

There was a little jetty close by so no need for the engine that night. Off we set to the taverna.

Turns out it’s a little hotel complex and was completely full, mostly Italians. It’s still their annual holidays and I think Italy shuts down for two or three weeks and they all pile across to Greece where it’s cheaper.

The meal and the service were very good but yet again not cheap. Think we will have to revert to Gyros Pitas & a beer!

The walk back in the dark was fun.

Next day we headed around to Myrsini the main town and port to provision the boat.

It’s quite a small anchorage.

There was one other boat already at anchor and as we were busy anchoring behind him a French yacht decided to push in , he just hovered about basically getting in the way . He was about a foot away from us ! Anyway tempers frayed and eventually he had to move away elsewhere. As a result our anchor was not in as well as I would have liked . On diving down it was lying on it’s side. It was calm so we decided to take the risk however it meant one of us staying on the boat.

Quite a small space which later filled up even more

I think I can count on 2 fingers how often Louise has rowed the dinghy and this is one of them. After an exhausting hike up to the Chora to the supermarket she then did a grand job rowing back .

The intrepid missus pugwash

That night we were surrounded by a massive catamaran and motorboat, but our chain held. When the ever present ferries arrived – Karma – the Frenchie got told to move to let them in.

03:00 a.m. ferry arrival

When all’s said & done we were glad to leave in the morning

In the afternoon we ventured ashore for a wander around the alleyways, botanic/ herb garden and harbourside of Katapola.

Louise had found a highly recommended restaurant which she tried to book, but they didn’t take bookings rather you just turned up and if no table was available you were put on a list and given a seat by the shore side to wait.

Luckily when we arrived after our explorations and a beer there was still a table available, just! and it was quite early for Greece.

I secured the table while Louise visited the nearby supermarket.

It was the quickest ever shopping trip I can remember. I didn’t even have time to finish my sneaky beer! I am sure it was on account that I wasn’t with her, lol. For those of you who haven’t enjoyed the shopping experience with Louise each aisle has to be visited and all shelves minutely examined. On this occasion it seems the fare on offer was extremely poor and very little of it at that (probably all those Athenians).

Not so the restaurant- it was nothing short of fabulous. Louise got Orzo Shrimp & a selection of 3 sausages for me that Desperate Dan would have struggled with. We both want to visit it again if we go back that way, weather permitting.

Assorted pictures from the afternoon in Katapola

The restaurant – does it look to you like she is enjoying ? Answers on a postcard to …………

and so to bed – well at least until the big ferry arrives at 03:00

Only 7 miles or so today. Firstly to visit the cove with the ship wreck then on to Katapola, the main port / village on Amorgos.

The wreck itself is hard to see until you are quite close.

The cove & wreck of the Olympic.   The one showing on our chart plotter is another submerged one

Ormos Katapola is a deep bay with sheer cliffs dropping into the sea. The small village is a pleasant relaxed spot and the harbour quite secure though we chose to anchor in the buoyed off area out of distance of the massive ferries that visit here 24 hours a day, just off the beach.

Approaching Ormos Katapola

At anchor and an Athenian boat even smaller than us with a 6 month baby aboard !

This particular Saturday afternoon it took over 3 hours just to load the cars of all the Athenians returning home onto the ship, and there was another at 03:00 a.m. I am convinced the island must’ve risen by inches afterwards!

She was tiny compared to the beast that arrived at 03:00 a.m.

The easternmost of the Cyclades apart from the small islands of Kinaros & Levitha. It is mountainous dropping sheer into the sea in places. Most of the island is burnt barren rock though inland the valleys are cultivated in places.

For film buffs the island is best known for the setting of Luc Besson’s film “The Big Blue” and the rocky cove just east of our 1^st anchorage holds the wrecked coaster Olympia which figures prominently in the movie.

For me I am in awe and very wary of this island as there can be severe gusts and very big seas on both the NW & SE sides. Today is flat clam

Approaching the SW of Amorgos

We were heading for Kalotaritissa an enclosed bay on the SW to anchor for our 1^st night. A lot of the bay is taken up by fishing boats on fixed moorings so not a lot of scope for free swinging but being so small we can usually creep in closer than most and we found a spot anchored in 3 metres.

During the day it’s a popular beach with a beach bar but in the evening it’s very secluded and quiet. The water is crystal clear.

Today’s passage was just over 35 miles / 7 hours and on the way we passed a big turtle about a third of the size of Camira , unfortunately we were too late for a picture.

Today was a motor job just 15 miles North up to Vathi, a landlocked inlet on the NE tip of the island.

Views of Vathi anchorage & Camira at dusk

It’s a fishing harbour and has a canteen type taverna run by Maria.

Maria is a good age and her mother seems to be chair ridden on the balcony. The sons are the fishermen but do little in the way of help in the taverna.

Maria does all the cooking but you set & clear your own table, help yourself to beer, wine etc from the fridge in her kitchen. You then select your meal from the menu, give it to her and she then shouts you when it’s ready …..”Louise!!!” and you go up an collect it . It’s brilliant.

The hard working Maria & her kitchen

We ran into Michael (of bus stop fame) here, now with his wife. She was a lovely gentle character and a delight to talk to. They had arranged a driver from their hotel to bring and collect them. God only knows how the car gets down the track. If you look back at our blog of a few years back we had to turn back on our hired scooter!

The meal itself was good but the experience itself was the major fun of it all.

Strangely the fishermen seem to have a penchant for teddy bears?

We only stayed the one night which is just as well as the cockerels start hollering about 03:00 am and drove Louise batty – well battier than she already is. Being deaf in one ear sometimes does have its advantages, I just buried my good ear in the pillow, lol

Early rise thanks to the Cockle Doodle Doooing !

We spent a week in Maltezana, sampling the other restaurants. There are quite a few and some, though not all, have learned how to charge.

One of my favourites was Tassos’s grill, very simple traditional predominately lamb & goat restaurant – you can see the menu grazing in the field below you as you have your dinner. It was also reasonably priced and the wee Greek woman was great.

Tassos’s Taverna Mmmmmm

Strangely, or perhaps not, (as the Greeks do have a sweet tooth and love pastries) there was a very popular Mille Feuille cafe. We only halfed one over coffee so much to Louise’s annoyance that after dinner the next night she went and bought another as a cary oot for the boat!

Aye well a picture and a 1,000 words etc

Our least favourite taverna was the one below, the food was good but very overpriced and the service abysmal. In addition the old geezer in the 2^nd picture below – no not me ! – seemed to take a shine to Louise – lucky her eh, lol.

Ton & Ginic time

Laundry day involved getting the 11:00 o clock bus into Skala Astipalaia to a self service laundry. It was all quite straightforward as we had met Michael on the bus, a holiday maker who with his wife were ferry hopping around the Greek Islands, who knew exactly where it was. We had coffees with a view of the fort while waiting then armed with clean laundry provisioned up for the return bus at 13:30. Result in my book!!!

Waiting for the bus scenes

Scala Astipalaia

On returning to the dinghy however one of my wooden oars had disappeared. It seems unlikely that it could have come loose and even more unlikely that a Greek would’ve nicked it. I fervently hope it did accidently escape as I wouldn’t like to think a fellow sailor was off with it. Again it was just as well I had fixed the outboard. I also had a spare plastic pair on board.

Galling though that in 10 years nothing untoward has happened to us despite reading stories about others experiences with dinghies, outboards etc going missing.

Although Astipalaia is technically part of the Dodecanese, it’s exposed position close SE of the Cyclades makes it look & feel Cycladic.

Route planning in the Cyclades is really a matter of going East or West. Anyone who has sailed there will know that getting back through the islands travelling West against the meltemi is the problem.

How to do this (our direction) is a much debated point. One thing is clear – going East through the Cyclades is infinitely preferable to going West when the meltemi is blowing, so it’s for this reason we are taking the opportunity to go when the winds are not blowing full strength (hopefully).

35 miles west of Nisiros, Astipalaia, called Stampalia in the middle ages consists of two mountain ranges joined by a long slender isthmus. When approaching it appears to be two islands. The coastline is much indented and offers a number of safe anchorages. The Greeks call it the butterfly island because of its shape.

Approaches from the pilot book

Until the Romans & later the English suppressed piracy in the Aegean, the island was a natural lair for pirates to pounce on merchant shipping.

In antiquity the island was famous for its seafood & fertility. Pliny praised its mussels and the surrounding seabed was supposed to have the best sponges in the Aegean. Today little of this is evident – the land mostly barren or scrubby, the mussels nonexistent and the sponge divers go to the African coast.

All that said it’s one of our favourites having visited it on our 1^st trip across to the Aegean after wintering in Kalamata on the Peloponnese. On that occasion we initially arrived in Skala Astipalaia, I remember in very windy weather.

This time we were headed for two small bays Matlezana & Skhinounda. The latter being the favourite as the wind is a bit less here and also a has a very good fish restaurant with a modern twist we had wanted to return to on the shorefront. However as luck would have it, uncommonly, we couldn’t get our trusty anchor to hold there. So after 8 hours underway we finally dropped anchor in Maltezana Bay, just around the corner.

The two anchorage options

Another good days sailing only using the engine for departure and arrival.

Maltezana Anchorage

Camira from the shore .. glad I fixed that outboard !

That night however we did walk over to the restaurant and saw other boats anchored, so maybe we were just unlucky on this occasion?

The short walk over to the restaurant in the other bay

We enjoyed the meal but felt that the service had slipped quite a bit, but not the prices! Think they are now living off past glories. Louise enjoyed her meal but mine was just OK, Ah well.

The Holy Grail

The above picture may not mean much to you – but when you are starved of fresh water for showeriing etc the above is a godsend, especially this year as we don’t have our resident water maker & tanker Nicolas ! We were able to fill up our water jerry cans at will .

Glamorous life this sailing…… no ?…… lol …….ask Diane

On the Sunday morning, having sadly declined the “Greek night out” we set off for Ormos Kamares, a bay on the south end of Kos, which offers good protection from the meltemi. In addition it will give us a better angle in the prevailing NW winds across to Astipalaia.

Planned passage to Astipalaia via Kamares on Kos

As you can see it’s only about 12 miles across to Kos (Waypoint No.2) so a couple of hours and a wee bit maybe? No such luck with the wind on our nose it took us just 10 minutes under five hours to beat to windward. It was a good sail however and we were in no rush. I see from the log book we set out in 8 knots of wind and finished in 29 knots with a reef under sail along the way.

We stayed in Kamares for 3 nights visiting a recommended local taverna and investigating the posh all inclusive hotel just down the road near  the islet St. Nicholas. Walking through immaculate lawns & grounds of the five star hotel made us both pine for an air conditioned cat friendly room for a week. With its own wee pool it would set you back 1,600 euros, a bargain eh ?

Kamares bay anchorage

By accident we found the taverna we were looking for on the 1st attempt

I also decide to take the outboard apart & get it working, easy enough normally, but not so much on a rolling boat. Anyhow task successfully completed we now had motorised transport ashore…… just as well it turns out ….see later post!

My dad was an engineer, some of it must’ve rubbed off !

Old faithfull “patchy” now with engine, woohoo 

Initially I wasn’t keen on the resort of Kefalos (in Kamares bay), but Louise said it would grow on me and indeed it did. It would be a good place to pick up visitors to Camira, flying into Kos.

On the 18^th August we were up at dawn to set off to Astipalaia a trip of 30 miles or so.

Kamares bay at dawn

Leaving Kamares on Kos, with the flower pot man !

Again I take this opportunity to update our blog whilst currently (6th September) being meltemi bound in a bay in the North of Paros, where it looks like we might be for a while yet!

Anyhow I am getting ahead of myself.

We had left Kalymnos on the Wednesday 4^th August our ultimate destination being Nisiros, of the volcano & James Bond fame. We spent the Thursday night anchored in Pserimos and headed off the next day for Nisiros.

The planned route to Nisiros

Nisiros is also a favourite last day stopping off point for the charter boats returning to Kos, so best avoided on Thurday’s / Friday’s. However 3 miles NW of Nisiros is a wide bay on the south coast of Nisos Yiali which offers some shelter from the meltemi. The holding is fantastic, the anchor completely disappears into the sandy bottom.

The island is scarred by extensive quarries but after 5 o clock all work shuts down and has (for me at least) some charm. It was here I met my chum from Pakistan who had floated out on his rubber ring after his work shift to say hello and “tap a fag”. We don’t smoke so unfortunately he had no joy there. Turns out he was from Rawalpindi, where I had stayed when I was 4. He has been working heavy excavation machinery, trucks and loaders for the last three years on Nyali. Don’t know if you can see the tiered levels in the pictures with the long drop offs below. Think you must need a steady nerve. After amiably passing 20 minutes or so chatting he set off paddling ashore again, presumably for his tea.

Nisos Yiali

Next day we chanced Nisiros harbour in the hope of a space and were quite lucky. The prices like everywhere in Greece have rocketed but we managed to secure a reasonable deal for 4 days. The plan being to clean ourselves & the boat. There are laundry & proper showering facilities here and Louise tends to get to a “Grubbiness threshold” after which it is dangerous to continue on passage.

It was also nice to allow Lily some time free ashore off the boat ………………

We visited Ellenis & Aphrodite tavernas as it was still too hot to cook.

I am always reticent about leaving Lily out after sundown but have recently been persuaded to do so as she seems to return to the boat and just wait for us. This was the case on the Saturday when we came back – she was on the boat, but seemed very quiet. The next day she wouldn’t let us near her so it was impossible to determine the cause of the discomfort – an injury / poison or just out of sorts? However she got no better so the plan was for Louise to take her on the ferry back to Kos to a vet & I would stay with the boat. The weather was wild however & it was not certain the ferry would run, so we decided to!!

A vet appointment was arranged for the Monday evening at 17:00. We just made it getting into Kos marina at 16:30 after a very lumpy and tortuous sail to windward in steady 30 knot winds gusting sometimes to 37. We were reefed down as far as we could be, and even with a scandalised main were getting a battering. It was no fun.

Anyhow the vet advised it was as well we had come, it turned out possibly a cat or small dog bite and it was infected. She knocked her out, drained the wound and gave her antibiotics. She slept it off that night and was confined to quarters on the boat for the next three, to recuperate

Wabbit! , sleeping it off

We visited a couple of our favourite eateries here and Louise took the opportunity to get her hair done (again!) …

The 2nd hairdo in as many weeks , Hrummmmph!

… before, after 4 days in Kos, we set of back to Nisiros via Nyali yet again, to use up our “credit” that the harbour master had very kindly extended for us .

Nisiros from the anchorage in Nyali

Lily eyeing Nisiros in the distance presumably planning revenge

No sooner had we tied up than Lily the wonder cat tries to jump onto the stern of the boat next to us and ends up in the drink! She was out the water in a flash though, straight away up the wall in seconds. She was then forced to have a fresh water shower on Camira.

Drookit & not a happy bunny!        Neither am I that’s my bed, lol.

That’s her now down to 5 lives left and my BP up another few notches.

While in Ellenis again the young waitress and waiter invited us out with the rest of the Greeks after closing for a drink which was lovely but we had to decline as it would be well past Louise’s normal bed time and an early start to boot.

OK so “cat astrophe” over the voyage is resumed.

A bay on the south side of Ak Poundha. Although this bay appears suitable the holding, rock covered by a thin layer of sand and weed is bad. Two tavernas have laid a number of moorings for customers. The bay is surrounded by spectacular pitted cliffs with just a flash of green grass and a few houses at the head.

You can go mountain walking here but the heat just now is reaching 39 and sometimes over 40 degrees, so you’d have to be crazy.

It was nice to be somewhere new. We ate in the taverna twice and had a beer in the beach cafe just to fill up our water jerry cans.

It can be busy with charter boats on the first and last days of the weeks hire as it’s an easy hop to or from Kos. It was reasonably quiet when we visited and it seems quite popular as a beach day out for tourists from other parts of Kalymnos