Wednesday 4th June 2025
We left at 08:30 in calm weather just a zephyr.
After looking at the forecasted winds & weather we had discounted trying to get up to Lesbos at this time. It’s a wee bit disappointing but perhaps we may be able to go later in September?
The alternative plan then was to go south.
We had thought as far as Crete (170-190 nm) but after talking to Bob & Andrea who are based in Aghios Nikolas we decided against that as well. They have been waiting three weeks to try to get North to Kos where a small flotilla was heading, including Barbara, George & Mike for Mike’s 60th birthday bash later in June. We were invited but even my liver wouldn’t keep up! I think from memory about 10 boats are heading to Kardamilla for a week’s celebrations.
In the end we decided on Symi, down to the south east very near Turkey. Although we could possibly get stuck on Crete with a strong Meltemi blowing straight down the Aegean from the north of Greece, there is a bit more shelter from the islands over at Symi allowing us to get back northwards.
Today however we were heading just under 25 miles down to Patmos.
Overall passage
Detail of the sheltered bay at Livadhia Geranou
By 09:30 the wind had got up a little to 11 – 12 knots which allowed slow progress but a pleasant enough sail to Livadhia Geranou, a favourite anchorage of ours at the east end of Patmos. I see from the log we arrived at 14:15, 15 minutes shy of six hours underway.
Mt. Kerkis on Samos on our way to Patmos
It is a big lump of rock! and is responsible for the fierce katabatic winds at Ormos when the meltemi is blowing. It can be seen from Patmos & the other distant islands.
You can see from the chart above that Scala Patmos (Patmou) the main town was a wee bit away from our anchorage. Normally we would travel in and out in taxis but their prices have rocketed so we considered a longer term scooter hire which would be far cheaper and give us some flexibility to visit areas of the island we hadn’t before.
We planned to stay a while as the timetable was such that we had the house booked from 17th July so enough time to leisurely sail around the Dodecanese.
We thought we would need to visit Scala to arrange the hire, however to our surprise when we phoned the guy he arrived in a car picked us up , took us back to the main drag and sorted us out with an almost new bike. He also said at the end of the hire just to leave it at the taverna and he would arrange to pick it up. Brilliant service no ?
A few panorama shots of the anchorage , the last from the taverna.
What a view eh?
