Nicolas had arranged to sail to Astipalaia from the Dodecanese where he had had guests out for the summer. Whilst in Patmos he had made friends with a French / Australian guy – Thomas. Thomas was also coming to Astipalaia on his own boat, where he would be joined by his partner Albert (also French).
Albert & Thomas
Sylvie, Nicolas’s sister was flying in as well. It was all set for fiesta time – we did not realise just how wild it was going to be!
It all started innocent enough. We had all hired scooters for a few days and headed into town to meet up with other Australian sailors, a Pilot & Stewardess from Quantas who were travelling the world on their boat with their young children.
Lunch in town
That night we all decided to visit a local restaurant in Maltezana called 7Asteria, not far from the anchorage. It was owned & run by Elleni & Costas. We were the only diners but some family members had been visiting and were still there partying. Costas and Elleni had obviously had a few and were up for a good time. After we had all eaten the wine and ouzo began to flow – the two young Australian kids were bedded down inside the restaurant on mattresses. Greek music was ramped up and the dancing started , Costas dressed up in some sort of plant clothing with a hood and began spraying us with what we think was water but could easily have been ouzo wafted on large ferns. Plates were smashed – now illegal in Greece – and at some point he swiped all the house wine off the table to replace it with “good bottles”
He had bag pipe music that he loved and that went on at some point with Louise, Diane & I attempting to demonstrate some sort of highland jig.
Unfortunaely we were all so drunk we have limited and poor pictures of the antics!
Albert decided to get up on the table and strip – our sides were splitting –and so were our heads the next morning.
Costas had to give ne a ride down to the anchorage on the back of his scooter as I fell off mine trying to get it off the stand!
The next day when I walked up to pick it up he had the same bagpipe music blaring as soon as he saw me coming up the hill about a mile away.
We donated our big Saltire for his restaurant that now has pride of place on his wall.
Costas & Elleni
A wild, very wild, night , great Greek hospitality and a load of fun. I will remember them fondly for many years to come.
We didn’t know it at the time but the rest of Diane’s holiday was to be spent in Astipalaia, 10 days in all. She is a right Jonah with the weather. We kept checking for opportunities to scoot across the 30 odd miles to Kefalos bay on Kos where she could easily have got a taxi to the nearby airport but there was absolutely no chance with any forecasted breaks in the weather. 30 miles is just the short hop to number 2 below! In the end she got the overnight ferry with Albert which roughly follows the full charted passage to Kos town at the other end of the island.
She was transported to the ferry terminal on the back of my rental scooter – luxury holidays are us eh?
The ferry was by all accounts very plush so at least some recompense and comfort at the end of her holidays and she had Albert keeping her amused all the way, not to mention an open invitation to his house on Patmos.
