On to Astypalea in the Dodecanese Islands
Saturday7th May...
Linda - A disagreement today about our destination. I wanted to go to an anchorage on Nisos Schoinousa even though it was only 8 miles away. Dean wanted to go to Astypalea which was over 50 miles away. We ended up going to Astypalea. It took about 9 hours and the weather was fine, in fact not windy enough at times! It feels like a long day and we are quite tired. Tonight in Astypalea (they call it the butterfly island because it looks like one), we are on the town quay for a change. Stern to the quay with our anchor out. There wasn't much room to manoeuvre but we (Dean) managed it somehow.
Thumbs up and thinking positive on the crossing
Rocky islets on the west coast of Astypalea island
The castle as we approach the town quay
Here we are now
Well protected on the quay tonight
So, as this blog title shows, we are now in the Dodecanese. An archipelago of 12 (of course) islands. We've said goodbye to the Cyclades. Now we have only one big crossing left to get to Kos, and then it's a breeze to Turkey. But for now, a few days to spare around Astypalea.
Linda - You know the routine by now Thesee Followers...... A day off from sailing = sightseeing = lots of photos..
Just us and the neighours first thing this morning
Climbing upwards in search of the castle
The traditional Astypalea windmills
One is now a library
Me and the windmills
Next, the castle if we can find it
Lovely whitewashed homes and tiny streets
...and views everywhere
Still looking for the castle
Not here
Church, not a castle
Another Church
Aha, the castle, but how do we get in?
No idea
Let's go this way instead
It's more nice views
Nice windows and walls
Three boats on the quay now
Panoramic view
Flowery steps
Back down in town we found the Port Police and got our transit log stamped. That should be the last stamp before we exit Greece in Kos.
This afternoon we got plugged into electricity. You don't know how excited that makes us feel. Dean can use his coffee machine, the batteries are full, plentiful hot water for showers, can use the microwave for dinner (jacket spuds), and did all the washing in our washing machine. Toothbrush is charged, so is the vacuum, and Dean got a haircut. Maybe we should use the toaster too? We have water. Dean spent a couple of hours washing down the decks, everything was covered in salt. We've not had access to running water since we left Aigio. Tomorrow, we'll fill the water tanks and that should do us until we get to Turkey.
A lovely surprise later, we were invited on board the new neighbour's boat for drinks. I was sure that I recognised the name of the boat, Knotty Girl. Turns out they spent some time in Gosport at the same time we were there. Thanks Knotty Girl for your hospitality, we hope to see you again soon.
Monday 9th May...
Linda - Well this is my second attempt at today's blog. I had almost finished when the computer shut down and I lost everything that I had written. So here goes, again.
We decided to stay here on the quay in Astypalea for another day. Off we went in search of the entrance to the castle, and we found it!
The sign says it's up here
Yes, here's the entrance
Castle of Chora?
Chora means 'town' in Greek, and is often used as the name of the main town on an island, following the common practice in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town.
Nice views from the windows 😀
Of course, there's a Church here inside the walls
Flowers, Castle, and Church all together
The main area where it all happens/happened
Someone put a floor in this part
That's me up there
Scary staircase
After our ramble inside the castle, we walked back to the windmills from yesterday, and then took the road towards the next bay south of here. It wasn't long before we found a nice looking cafe with a marvellous outlook, and stopped for coffee and a bonus chocolate croissant.
Lovely view of the 'Chora' from the cafe
Lovely flowers
Lovely seating area
I'm not surprised it was called Buenissimo
Traditional houses with different coloured shutters.
Red, Yellow, Blue, Green
Even though it was road walking it was pleasant
And we found a friend, or the friend found us maybe
When we arrived we had a quick walkabout, some nice bars, but very quiet at this time of year.
A boat in the anchorage off the beach
Stony beach but still scenic
And so by midday we were back at Thesee to find we had a new neighbour. This is where the afternoon's events begin. The neighbour had dropped his anchor so close to ours that he was almost on top of us against the quay. He had left his boat with our stern shore line entangled in his outboard engine propellor! We had no choice but to slide along the quay to the next bollards. When he came back we told him what we had to do, and he only went and did the same thing, and next thing we know our shoreline is entangled in his outboard propellor once again. Unbelievable.
He didn't even realise until Dean tried to protect our line with some plastic tubing. Then he told us he only had 20 metres of anchor chain out (we have over 40 metres out). This is obviously why his boat kept being pushed onto ours. After first moving his outboard out of the way he finally decided to re-anchor and try again. It's been very gusty this afternoon. Well oh my God! As he drove forward he basically rolled all along Thesee as the wind was blowing. We both had to fend him off, he nearly lost his flagpole, and then he just missed our bow. Next thing, his keel is stuck on our anchor chain and then his propellor catches it. His wife was trying to lift their anchor and when it came up, they had hooked our chain and lifted that with it. You can image the verbals being offloaded by Dean as we watched in horror.
With Dean shouting at him and telling him to drop his anchor and motor forward, they finally got free. Then they came and anchored the other side of us, which was 100% better.
This had been going on for about 2 hours. Not long after, another boat came in next to us, here we go again. Fortunately it wasn't such a big issue, but it still took Dean ages to help them with the shore lines whilst I was fending them off Thesee.
After that, a catamaran came in nextdoor but one and he had a right old game. Helpful Dean was there once again to help the harbourmaster with the lines, it must have taken at least 45 minutes. The afternoon has flown by. The harbourmaster also works at the local bakery shop, and he's just brought us some gifts to say thankyou 😀.
Linda - The alarm clock was set for 6am. We were up and ready for departure before 7am. It was calm and we departed the quay raising the anchor to perfection. I don't think we even woke the neighbours. Our perfect morning was very short lived. As we crossed the bay, the wind was far more than forecast, at a steady 15 - 18 knots. It was quite a shock for this time in the morning, but we decided to carry on to the end of the island to see what it was like past the headland on the south east corner of Astypalea.
As we got past the corner, the sea swells were much bigger than big. It was only supposed to be 0.8 metres, but we soon decided it was too rough and turned back. After all we were trying to do a 6 hour crossing. We returned half way back down the island to an anchorage called Analipsis. There was no shelter anywhere from the wind, but 3 boats were already here so we dropped the anchor and it held well. It's 8pm now and the wind has only just abated. I guess you could say that today we ended up with Plan D. That doesn't happen very often. How annoying, and it's our Wedding Anniversary too!
Here were the plans depending on which heading we could get...
Plan A - Kalymnos anchorage - 38 miles
Plan B - Kos anchorage - 36 miles
Plan C - Nisyros quay - 40 miles
Plan D - Return to Asypalea and anchor - 10 miles
It's been quite boring as we don't have a lot to do on the boat, but Dean did find the root cause of his water leak. He removed the water pump and found that the seal was a bit crusted up and causing the leak. So now it's all been cleaned and put back together.
The water pump under the floorboards
The nasty seal
Plan D anchorage tonight
Not a lot here
Looking out to sea
It looks like we shall have to wait until Thursday before we can leave as there are more winds due tomorrow. Good job we have plenty of time to spare before departing Greece.
Wednesday 11th May...
Linda - As we thought, one more day here in the anchorage at Analipsis. Today's weather was pretty much spot on to the forecast. I really can't get my head around why yesterday's weather was so way out.
This morning we were up early and trying to find things to do. The sea was flat for most of the day, only a couple of hours wind late afternoon. By 9am I had cleaned the oven! Dean was getting stuck into giving the cockpit table even more TLC. It's now as smooth as a baby's bottom. Well it looks like it is anyway. I'm only saying what I can see, because I wasn't allowed to even touch it. He then finished it with two coats of teak sealer. He has to be careful with the rubbing down because the teak layer is thin and getting thinner all the time.
Carefully does it
Dean thought it would be a good idea to take a couple of screen shots of the (windy.com) weather forecast for tomorrow, so that you can see how we plan our journeys. This is the app that we generally use as it's in map form and easy to follow.
So the next picture shows at 9am tomorrow morning we should get 11 knots of wind (gusting 14 knots, not shown in this photo), from a north westerly direction. We will be crossing from Astypalea (the butterfly shaped island on the left, to either Kos (the long island), or hopefully Kalymnos (the island above Kos), or even Nisyros (the round island below Kos). It all depends on what heading we can make with the wind direction. It looks like Kos might be the best bet, as Thesee likes to sail with wind on the beam..... let's wait and see.
The next photo shows the expected sea state. It says 0.5 meters every 3 seconds. Let's hope it's about correct, as I don't fancy facing that big sea swell again.
The next blog post will be called 'Hello Kalymnos'
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