Back in the Dodecaneses

On the Quay at Symi

Back on the island of Symi to be more precise. And Symi is my very favorite Greek island. One of our favorite places anywhere as a matter of fact. But why, you say? Ahh grasshopper, many reasons! As a man I am accused of being visually oriented. I like stuff that looks good. Few places are prettier than Symi. The island has the usual craggy and sparsely vegetated Aegean aspect surrounded by the clearest and bluest of seas. Its thinly populated with most of the inhabitants clustered in Symi town itself. There are a few lovely isolated anchorages but what really makes Symi special is the town itself. Its terraced up the sides of the mountainous little bay which forms its harbor. 

Views of Symi town

Masonry homes with red tile roofs painted in light shades of yellow, blue and brown amongst the bare stone. Narrow nearly vertical passage ways between the homes. Bougainvillea, olives and figs growing alongside and overhead as arbors. From the ultimate heights above town the view is simply magnificent. And the town remains unspoiled despite an active tourist trade. It retains its "flavor" and, compared to some island towns which now could be anywhere after  thirty years of mass tourism,  its a haven. 

The sweet streets of Symi

There's no airport on the island and its unlikely, given the terrain, to ever have one.  We stopped here on the way north last spring, anchored in Pethi, and took the bus to town. This time we're fully 'documented' and on the quay in town itself. This evening we'll check out of Greece, our ninety day visas are up, and head back into Turkey. With maybe a stop or two on the way.

Temple of Hera, Samos. One free standing pillar remains since 560BC

Our last update was from Samos at Pythagorion. We stayed there ten days exploring around and killing a little time until Janet's sister Susan and her husband Jim could come over from touring around Turkey a little and meet us. Of course the day they were to catch the ferry from Kusadasi to Samos was the day the Greek government and the Turkish ferry company decided to escalate an old pissing match over new taxes and the Turks cancelled the ferry indefinitely. Perfect timing! There  were enough permutations of this silliness that I won't go into it all but they did arrive after only a thirty six hour delay and we were happy to have them aboard at last.

Vineyards on Samos

We rented a car and drove around Samos for a couple days prior to their arrival and with them. Samos is a beautiful island. It's like most Aegean islands but written large with higher mountains and more vegetation and lots of vineyards inland. There are truly beautiful mountain villages.

Jim, Susan and Janet on Patmos

View from the monastery

From Samos we had a smooth trip over to Patmos which had been a major goal for their visit. Patmos is another airport less island. The port of Skala is nice enough and the island is barren/beautiful but the real reasons for visiting Patmos are the Chora (village) and the Monastery of St. John above the port and the cave of the apocalypse where St. John wrote the Book of Revelation while being banished there in 95AD. 

Monastery of St. John, Patmos

Patmos is almost a Cycladic town in  the cubist white washed homes with blue trim. In the chora itself there's little evidence of foreign influence and its a quiet and beautiful place with lovely views. The monastery is a massive fortress built in the 11th century which still has an active population of about a dozen monks and much of it is closed to the public. Of course the chora was built around the fortress/monastery as protection against pirates.

Interior of the monastery

We anchored out the second night in Patmos at a nice spot and had that most rare of Aegean experiences, a nice anchorage and we were the only boat there all night, amazing!

Skala village, Patmos

From Patmos we had a nice thirty mile broad reach down to Kalymnos and the anchorage at Emborios. Kalymnos a very rugged and precipitous island with little vegetation anywhere, starkly beautiful. We had a mooring for once. As a matter of policy I don't trust moorings so I did a quick little snorkel to check this one out before we spent the night. Turned out there was a massive new chain from the surface buoy down to a concrete block that weighed at least ten tons. Very nice indeed.

Emborios anchorage, Kalymnos

Jim and Susan had to catch a flight out of Kos the next afternoon so we departed early and motored in calm conditions to the marina at Kos. We had time for nice lunch at the marina and they were off to the airport and a flight to Athens and then home. It was very nice to have them aboard but the time was too short.

Broad reach to Kalymnos

For those of you contemplating a little time in the Dodecanese I will say the marina at Kos is the best we've encountered all year and the prices are very reasonable, especially when compared with what the Turks charge just across the straits at Bodrum or Turgetreis. The marina has all the amenities and is well run and a very nice place to spend a little easy living time.

Asklepion of Hippocrates, Kos

Unfortunately Kos is that other side of Greek island tourism in that it's almost totally lost its identity. It's completely flavorless, as a friend said, it's been neutered entirely. You can walk the streets of Kos and have to look twice to know you're not in Puerto Vallarta in the winter or Skagway in the summer. Once tourism reaches a certain level it seems to devour identity and masses of 'all-inclusive' weekend travelers wonder the streets looking at each other shopping the same shops they would anywhere else in the world.  The last day we were in Kos there were sixty four flights in from northern European destinations. There are things around Kos worth seeing, the castle is excellent and the Asklepion of Hippocrates is lovely and serene, but Kos town is an example of what not to let happen to your beautiful city.

Inner keep of the castle, Kos

We had another motor in nearly calm conditions to the island of Nisiros where there is a very nice small anchorage. Its a sweet and unspoiled island. We had the best swimming to the trip on the other side of the breakwater from the quay. The visibility was more than 100 feet and there is a nice drop off into deep water and the best fish population we've seen this year. Unfortunately our visas are running out and its time to get to Symi where we can take care of the formalities. We'll see Nisiros again next year.

Palon harbor, Nisiros

So we're happy to be back in Symi. It's Saturday and the ferries  dropped off about two thousand people a couple hours ago. I'm sitting in the cockpit of our boat watching them stroll back towards their drop off point. Another couple hours and they'll be gone somewhere. Symi has managed to enrichin itself a little  yet retain its soul. Good for Symi, I wish them and all the Greeks, who are amongst my favorite people,  the very best.

Cat on the menu, Samos

Love to all,
Bill & Janet

PS: Any of these images can be viewed full size by double clicking on the photo.

Pythagorion

Pythagorion

Food poisoning! Yetch! We're on the quay in the village of Pythagorion, the island of Samos, Greece. Lovely place. Two nights ago we ate at a  recommended restaurant and had a lovely meal, well served, with friendly cats begging under the table. I had Kokinnsto, which is a rich beef stew in a red wine sauce. Absolutely delicious, memorable. Shortly thereafter I was praying to the porcelain goddess with all the other symptoms as well. It took another twenty four hours to feel human.  Janet was fine, her Moussaka was harmless. I'll never be able to order Kokinnsto again.

The quay at Pythgorion

Pythagorion, named after Pythagoras who was born on Samos, is the main yachtie hangout on the island. Of course there are a number of nice anchorages and we spent three nights anchored out at Posidonion, which is a classic Aegean spot. Vathi is the main town on the island but the bay there isn't well protected from the the Meltimi (the prevailing north wind this time of the year) and few boats want to get beat up in Vathi. Here there are about twenty five boats on the quay and another dozen anchored out. Its costing us six Euros a night and so far no one has said anything about charging us for shore power or water. What luxuries. We have nice neighbors, a Brazilian couple to starboard and Canadians from Montreal to port. Pythagorion itself is a touristy place but its nicely done and pleasant enough. 

Janet and friend, Pythagorion

Once off the main drag the town has character and the usual recorded history going back at least three thousand years. The island of Samos has always been a rich and influential place in the eastern Aegean. Polykrates brought the place to prominence in the 5th century BC until the Persians invited him over to a little diplomatic meeting where they crucified him. The rest of the history is similar. Samos played a major part in the Peloponnesian War and  throughout the centuries, including the Greek War for Independence, has always been a very involved place. Physically its a big mountainous island with some agriculture inland, some very good white wines and great rugged beauty.

On the quay at Mandraki

The last blog post was from Psara. From Psara we did a short passage twenty miles east to the island  of Oinousses just east of the northernmost point of Chios. The town there is Mandraki. What can I say? Another beautiful quiet mountain side village? Yes, but this one is a little different in that  a few of the wealthiest ship owning families in the world call it home. There are some truly regal mansions on that mountainside. There's also one of the nicest maritime museums we've seen with one of the best collections of ship models anywhere outside the Smithsonian. The town is very quiet and I don't think we ever saw more than twenty people during a day. 

Lovely, quiet, Mandraki. Chios in the distance.

However, there is a rather nice yacht club near the quay, open to the public. By about midnight the place is blasting away with Greek boom boom music and it doesn't stop until six in the AM. Incredible! One night I went up just to see what was going on and the place had 100-200 Greeks between the ages of 25 and 45 having a very good and very loud evening out. There are only about 450 people on the island, supposedly, and no nightly ferry service. Where these folks come from and where they hang out during the day is still a mystery.

Chios countryside

From Mandraki it was ten miles down to the 'marina' on the island of Chios. I say 'marina' because although it is a well constructed and secure facility it was never completed and sits untended and completely empty except for the concrete quays. No one watches over the place and there's no charge for being there so naturally cruising yachts come in and tie up for a secure, and free, berth. Its only about a click into the the main town of Chios where there's another poorly protected harbor so the 'marina' is the place to be. We rented a car for a couple days of driving around Chios where there are some of the most interesting medieval fortified villages we've ever seen. 

Village scenes, Chios

Much of the island is stark and barren mountain after mountain with tiny villages set back from the sea. The town of Chios was leveled during a huge earthquake in 1855 so its relatively modern in appearance and not so charming but with a population of thirty thousand it had some amenities we hadn't seen for some time including English language newspapers available for purchase.

Chios Town

It was pretty bleak and barren at the marina so we moved a few miles to the Emborios anchorage at the very SE tip of the island. Emborios is very nice and as sweet as the 'marina' was bleak and barren. A couple nights there and we were ready for the major passage to Samos.

Anchorage at Emborios

  This is sixty five miles from Emborios to Posidonion and by Aegean standards a major event. The forecast was  for a nice breeze on the beam building through the day. It worked out to more wind than that, 25-30 knots backing around to almost astern so it made for a fast and boisterous sail around to the east end of Samos where we dropped sail and motored into Posidonion. 

Posidonion anchorage, Samos Strait and Turkey

 So we completed one permutation of a circumnavigation of the northern Aegean. We last were in Posidonion the 4th of June when we were headed north along the Turkish coast and decided to make a little 'undocumented' visit into Greece. This time we were legal and stayed three nights before moving here to Pythagorion.

Table beggars at Posidonion

The end of the season is in sight. We have family arriving in a couple days. Jim and Susan Tighe, Janet's sister and her husband, will join us for a few days and we're looking forward very much to the visit. We'll move into the Dodecanese with them and visit Patmos with out much of a set itinerary.  Our Greek visas are good until the 22nd of September so then we've got to go back into Turkey. We'll get back to Marmaris, put the boat on the hard and be home by the 15th of October. That's the plan!

Small world, Corona in Mandraki

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

The Sporades, Part 2.

Look Close

We arrived in Skyros with a bang. Or maybe it was a "crunch". Whatever descriptive term used it was loud, sounded horrible, and was the first damage we've suffered at a result of the "Med tie" method of docking used commonly in the Mediterranean, and thankfully, nowhere else. Dropping anchor and backing in to stern tie to a concrete quay is the most common permutation. That was the case in Linaria, the port town on the island of Skyros, the largest and most southeastern of the Northern Sporades group. 

Linaria Harbor, Skyros, from Kavos Bar

 Of course the wind was blowing strong on the starboard bow as we backed in and although they have laid mooring lines (rather than anchoring) there was no one to help carry the line forward. I was standing off a few feet from the quay trying to keep from getting blown sideways into the concrete, reversing back and forth, when I got too much power in going back, the ZF transmission won't shift unless its at idle RPM , and by the time the shift occurred the Hydrovane mount made firm, very firm, contact with the quay. Expletives deleted. Anyway there was no hull damage but the very strong Hydrovane  mount was bent and a large stainless bolt broken and the Hydrovane shaft bent. All this can be fixed and luckily we're not using the Hydrovane on these short Med passages. As is sometimes said in aviation, the only really serious damage was to the ego. My personal status as a Med tie guy has slipped considerably just when I thought I had it pretty well down.

Taking the waters, Kira Panayia

The abrupt arrival in Skyros came after a nice sail down from the island of Kira Panayia where we spent a very nice night anchored in the southern bay. This was   the only place we've seen in the Aegean with no sign of human habituation, other than boats, and it was lovely. Prior to that we'd spent a few days in Patitiri, the port of the island of Alonnisos. We were a little disappointed with Patitiri, it seemed a rather soulless place to process tourism. Even the magnificent site of the village above the port seemed somehow less than satisfying and after a couple days we left the island.

View from above Alonnisos

So after Alonnisos and Kira Panayia we "arrived" at Linaria in Skyros. And Linaria was quite nice. There's really not much of a village there, just a few tavernas, shops and a couple markets but the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming. The actual town of Skyros is on the other side of the island on a mountainside above the sea and is spectacularly beautiful. 

Lobster spaghetti in Skyros

We rented a moped and did the island tour. We walked the steep pathways of the town and in general enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. In Linaria on a cliff above the anchorage is our  favorite bar in the Aegean. This is "Kavos" and  is a series of platforms on a rocky cliff leading down to the water. The drinks are good, including the first and only decent chocolate milk shake I've found in the Med. The music is nice, varying between the Grateful Dead and  Strauss, and it is a great place for a swim off the lowest platform, a warm shower on the rocks above and an icy Ouzo to watch a great sunset over the Med. 

Kavos Bar, Linaria

Most evenings a ferry arrives and whenever a ferry arrives Kavos cranks up the music to about 150db and plays the first movement from Strauss's "Thus Spoke Tharastrula" better known as the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey". Given the circumstances this is very cool and a great piece of music while the ferry maneuvers for landing is enjoyed by everyone. The other nice thing about Kavos, they turn the volume down at night so you don't listen to boom, boom till the wee hours. 

Street scenes, Skyros

We stayed in Linaria a week enjoying the island and then waiting for the Meltimi to calm down a little before doing the "passage" over to Psara. This Meltimi has been blowing for weeks and shows no sign of quitting until September so we waited until yesterday, the 20th, when it seemed there might be a little less wind, and headed over on the fifty-five mile sail. All in all it was fine. We had twenty to twenty five knots a little ahead of the beam and four to six foot seas, closely spaced,  on the beam or a little ahead. We put two reefs in the main, set the stay'sl and a little genoa and did about seven knots all the way. We could have gone faster but this was a comfort compromise and it was fast enough. It was  rolly and wet but we're getting pretty soft after all this Aegean sailing. Going hard to weather would have been much tougher.

Psara

So now we're in Psara, a small island about ten miles west of Chios (or Khios) and  this is technically the "Eastern Sporades". Psara is mountainous, barren, bleak and beautiful. There is one village and about four hundred and fifty people on the whole island. The only foreigners other than ourselves we've seen are a very nice Italian couple on another cruising boat. There are a few tavernas, a very small market and a couple very interesting looking churches, neither of which has been open yet while we were around.

Psara harbor

Psara has a typical Aegean history. Occupied since Mycenaean times its been the scene of periodic slaughter, massacre, annihilation, etc, etc. The last big one was fairly recent. Psara has always been a center for sea faring (sometimes considered piracy) and was one of the first islands to revolt during the Greek War of Independence around 1821. They gave the Turks (the Ottoman empire) a bad time until finally the Turks managed to land and kill every man, woman and child they could find. A very few survivors made it back to mainland Greece. As a follow up Constantine Kanaris, a young Greek naval officer from Psara, took a fireship along side the Turkish flagship as they were celebrating this victory and a much larger slaughter on Chios. Kanaris managed to blow up the Turkish powder magazine and kill the Turkish admiral responsible for the killings and two thousand other sailors. Kanaris and his crew escaped to survive the war and Kanaris was eventually elected Greek Prime Minister six times.

Tomorrow morning early we plan on heading over to the northeast of Chios to an island called Nisos Oinoussa. We'll get the early start to cross the ten miles over to the Chios channel before the Meltimi has a chance to fill in. We plan to anchor at the small town of Mandraki,  which all say is quite lovely,  and spend a few days before heading down further onto Chios itself.

Lunch on board

So  we will have completed a loop around the northern Aegean. It almost feels like going home to be back in the Eastern Sporades and the Dodecanese. We're looking forward to being out of the Meltimi, this wind gets very old, and to seeing some very nice places on the way south.

Latest candidate, cats of Greece

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

The Sporades, Part 1

Janet's off on a little photo safari to the town of Skopelos. Bernie and Di just took off on their bikes for the village of Glossa and I'm 'home alone' trying to stay out of trouble. That's not too hard here in the tiny harbor at Nea Klima on the island of Skopelos. About the worst I could do is make some bull move doing boat jobs but my little tasks so far this morning have been a success and its time to write.

Loutraki Harbor, Glossa above

We had a nice sail down from Nea Skioni in the Halkidiki about a week ago. We left motoring and not expecting any decent wind. So when it began to pipe up a little from aft the port beam I rolled out the genoa and thought we'd just motor-sail for awhile. Low and behold, the wind kept building and we had a lovely sail under genoa alone at 6-8 knots  to  Loutraki Harbor on the island of Skopelos in the Northern Sporades. Lovely place with the village of Glossa on the mountainside above the bay. First LIght III (Bernie and Di) were there with their son Simon and his girl friend Noelia. We went up to the village exploring, hiked the hills and took the bus to the main town on the island, also called Skopelos. All very mellow.

Street scene, Skopelos

The Sporades, technically the "Northern Sporades",  are an island group off north central Greece that are not what might be what comes to mind when thinking of "Greek Islands". They are rugged and mountainous with ancient mountain villages and more modern coastal towns and ports. But these islands are heavily wooded with lovely pine forest. Where the forest has been cut back there are olive groves and occasional viniculture. The Sporades are a little west of the mainstream of Meltimi winds. Summers are a little less hot than further south and we've had warm days and cool nights  with nice breezes that are prefect for sleeping on board. From the fall of the Roman empire until almost modern times the islands were a notorious pirate hangout. So the villages were away from the shore on high defensible positions. They are very picturesque places with narrow lanes between white washed homes with tile or slate roofs, cool and shady, with views to die for. 

Street scene, Glossa

  The coastal port towns are equally lovely once you get away from the tourist scene in larger places like Skiathos and Skopelos towns. Its  amazing that you can be in the midst of tourist bedlam on the waterfront in Skiathos and walk a couple hundred yards back into the village and never know the other world existed. Rather nice.

Janet in Glossa

We did take the boat over to Koukounaries Bay on the island of Skiathos. Interesting change of scene to say the least. Skiathos is sometimes flogged as the "Greek Riviera" island. We visited twenty years ago and could recognize nothing. Bus loads of eastern European tourists are now ferried over from the mainland and then bussed to the beaches. They spend an afternoon, thousands of them packed onto a lovely beach,  watching each other turn red, swimming a little and participating in every form of motorized water sport while listening to absolutely deafening Bulgarian (?) rap from huge boom boxes at the beach kiosks. It was so bad it was fun to watch. Luckily as the sun sets the beaches immediately empty, the hoards disappear into their busses, and quiet descends onto the bay. Actually not bad at all.

Koukounaries beach

We did have a bit of a cluster getting off the hook the next morning. When we set the anchor on arrival we  hooked up very solid. I snorkeled the anchor. The water was crystal clear and I could see we were wedged under the edge of a large sheet of rock which looked like ancient dead coral growth. We definitely weren't going to drag but I thought we might have a little problem on departure. Yes indeed,  it wouldn't come up and we tried  about every angle and trick we knew. Finally I free dove the anchor, it was only about twenty five feet, and could move it a little towards the one direction which had made no sense but might work. Next try we got it freed and up and we were outta there for the town of Skiathos a few miles to the east. So far I've never had to get out the scuba gear to free an anchor, may that good luck continue!

Skiathos, away from the madding crowd

We dropped the hook off the yacht quay at Skiathos and went ashore for a few hours. As described above, tourist chaos on the waterfront and a lovely place once you escape into the town itself. But not a place we wanted to stay so we pulled anchor and moved back over to Skopelos to anchor off the village of Nea Klima. And that's where we are now, a very lovely spot. There is a tiny harbor here and a breakwater which seemed a little suspect shelter wise. We anchored out for a couple nights in a nice spot. We took the bus into Skopelos town and explored some more. 

Church above the quay in Skopelos

We swam in great water. We enjoyed the very laid back local atmosphere. Yesterday we decided to come to the quay and I actually hooked up shore power for the first time in months. The port facilities  are free of charge, very unusual, there is usually a small charge. And there is water and electricity and showers on the beach a few feet away. The small quay is pretty tight and the daily show is watching boats arrive and get stern tied without catastrophe. Interesting variety of boat handling styles to say the least. So far, no actual deaths witnessed.

Yacht pontoon at Loutraki

So the plan is to move on tomorrow. Bernie and Di will head east and south towards the gulf of Volos and then down the inside passage between Evia and the mainland. Their daughter is coming in later in the month and they want to do some of the Cyclades with her. We'll head northwest to the next island of Alonnisos and explore there a few days before heading down to Skiros, the southern most island of the Northern Sporades. In a few weeks we'll cross back over to the eastern Aegean stopping at Psara and Kios before going  down to Samos. We have family coming into Samos on the 10th of August and we're very much looking forward to having them onboard.

Loutraki sunset

Its been great cruising with Bernie and Di the past few months. We'll miss them but in early October we'll be back together  in Marmaris, Turkey. Hopefully we'll see Sabbatical III and other friends there before we all head for home.

Janet's "Cats of Greece" album candidate

Please stay tuned for "Sporades Part 2" . Love to all!

Bill & Janet