Thursday 24th August...
Linda - Well, Well! You learn something new every day. Today, after studying one of our navigation apps I found out that we are in the Carpathian Sea. I had to check this out, and indeed we are, in fact it's the name given to the sea area east of the Cyclades, and in between the North Aegean, and South Aegean. So there.
Today we are on our Dodecanese island number 14..... Arki or Arkoi. A short 8 mile hop across from Patmos, and WE SAILED! This made one of us VERY happy. I have to admit it was a nice sail, close hauled with 10 knots of wind. Did I just say nice sail?? What's coming over me?
Finding a place to berth stern to took almost as long as the sail across. It's very busy here, a tourist hotspot. Yes, I know we are all tourists. After a good look around we found a spot to tie to shore and had to do it twice because the first time the anchor didn't hold.
We're on the south end of Arki near Tiganakia Beach. There's a number of islands surrounding the area with shallows in between. Too shallow for Thesee, so this afternoon we went exploring by dinghy.
Tied stern to shore
Our port side stern line
The shallows. Look at that water !
It was quite annoying back on board because there are absolutely loads of 'tourist' boats going past us really fast and causing a lot of wash which makes us roll about. Also, there's a lot of very large fancy motor yachts here, some that want to tie up really close to you. Tonight there are still a lot of boats here, but most have left. I have no idea where they have all gone to. There's nowhere around this island which can accommodate such big yachts except for tying to shore.
Around tea time we became elated when around 20 goats came by along the shoreline, all the adults with bells. The sound was beautiful as they clambered up and down the rocks, and the cute baby kids too. They're so fascinating to watch and the sound of their bells is a welcome change from the neighbours loud music.
Some of the goats
Friday 25th August...
Linda - Every now and then we find a tiny piece of plastic on the galley worktop. Dean always tells me to keep it because at some point we'll find out where it came from and he can fix it. Today we found a very small piece of plastic, and we soon found out that it had broken off my collapsible cake cover thingy. I use it all the time, mainly to keep flies off hot/cold/defrosting food. It's so handy, I hate the flies. Dean tried to glue it at first, but of course superglue glues everything except what you want it to. After some thought he disappeared into his workshop cabin cave and re-emerged a while later with a tiny piece of wood which he had crafted into the relevant shape required, and made the whole thing as good as new.
Cake cover all good to go once more
The hand crafted wooden piece in situ
Dean's also been outside polishing some of the stainless steel. He noticed that there was some salt water rust damage appearing, and so nipped it in the bud before it gets worse.
The forecast afternoon winds came this morning, and the afternoon was fine. Our stern to shore spot worked well. We waited for the onslaught of tour boats to arrive like yesterday, and waited, and waited, and waited. The anchorage was extremely quiet, probably because it's Friday and that seems to be holiday charter change-over day. However, we did have about 5 large boats descend upon our little anchor spot and all tied to shore for the afternoon. We nearly had a heart attack when this huge yacht decided he was backing in next to us. Name: Victoria A. Flag: Malta. Their shore lines were massive, about 2 inches thick, and once they had tied up, one of their shore lines was lying directly across ours and touching/rubbing our poor little half inch line. This would chafe away at our poor little line in no time. Dean made his thoughts known to the Captain, who agreed to come out and wrap a small rag around one of the lines where they crossed. Note: Rag no bigger than a hanky!
Victoria A
Tonight all of our close neigbours have gone. There's about 5 or 6 boats anchored round and about the other parts of the anchorage, but we are pretty much alone.
Saturday 26th August...
Linda - Same island, new location. In fact only two miles travelled this morning to our new spot at Port Augusta, Arki. Don't get me wrong, it's not the kind of 'port' you would imagine. The quay only has spaces for about 6 decent sized sailing yachts. We didn't think we'd be lucky enough to find a space, however as it was so quiet last night we thought the quay must be quiet too. We turned up at 8am to find about four places to choose from. This was our Plan A, so Plan B (Lipsi) & C (Leros) were not needed. I've been getting panicky just lately about the winds, they're so unpredictable in this area at this time of year, so a chance to tie to a quay is great news for me. Also, Dean was eager to see this little place after reading good reports, so to find an empty berth was a win win situation.
There's not a lot here, two tavernas and one cafe in the little square. It's so cute and there's also a small area of the port which has little handmade model boats in the water. Here's some pics...
Views from Thesee. This is the main square.
The other taverna
Model boating pond
One is a spaceship!
Locals boats
Taverna number 1
Little Chapel
Mid afternoon we took a ten minute walk over the hill to a beach for swimming. We even took our deck chairs. They haven't been out of the aft cabin for roughly three years. As soon as Dean picked them up to carry, the carry straps disintegrated!
Blue Thesee at the top end of the row on the quay
Gorgeous views of the sea colours
Nearing the beach
Is Dean really asleep on the beach, or just pretending?
There's no charge for berthing on the quay, but it is polite to eat in one of the tavernas to support the local community. So we did!
Our favourite, half litre of red wine to go with dinner
P.S. At the beach i went in the sea and swam too. What do you think of that then?
Linda - A few boats left and a few boats came. All in all, not everyone got a berth but most did.....eventually. It was yet another hot day. We took a walk, even a mini ramble across to the other side of the island (near to where we berthed stern to, the other day).
Starting our walk from the model boats
Thésée from the other shore this time
Climbing up to the main chapel (and boat!)
Looking down to one of the nearby anchorages
....and another anchorage
Close up
Nice gateway
Descending to the east side of the island
Goat pen??
Sunny Sunday ramble with sun hat, and sun dress
The waymarker (with saucepans) to the beach
This way to Tiganakia Beach
It was a tiny path
Arrival at the tiny sandy beach
We debated getting the boat back, but decided to walk it
Nextdoor, a pebble beach
No swimming today, but having a great time on our walkies
Back at the chapel
Mini chapel, how cute.
Almost back now
Quite a number of tripper boats came in today beside us. We are on the end of the row, right next to the daily cruise boats dock. Tonight we ate at taverna number 2, another lovely night out in Arki. But i'm still hot!
Monday 28th August...
Linda - Our last day in Arki, so we climbed up to the tiny Church which sits on the high point of the island. It was only a short scraggy ramble uphill to get these fantastic views of the surrounding islands..
Arrival at the tiny Church
Looking back to the main town
Who's that?
Windy today
This is the east side of Arki. Not a lot going on down this coast.
West side, looking towards Patmos
Down on the quay, Thesee first one in line
An easier route back once we discovered there was a road
Gorgeous setting for a home
Rooms to let? Not sure.
Dinner tonight at Nicolas's taverna
Tuesday 29th August...
Linda - After 5 days on the idyllic island of Arki we said bye bye. And for the first time in quite a while we were heading south! Why? Because very soon (next week), my very special friends are coming to visit 😊 Yay!
Out there, the sea was lumpy after the last few days of wind, but today not enough wind to sail us over the bumpy seas. We were heading 15 miles south to an anchorage on Leros Island called Alinda. It's a massive anchorage so no need to worry about getting a space, although the holding can be a little mediocre so we made sure our anchor was well dug in. It's a nice bay with a BIG castle, we were here about two weeks ago, so you know this already.
But this time we went ashore to do Dean's favourite pastime.... getting the transit log stamped. It was a bit hit and miss whether the Hellenic Coastguard office would be functional or not. We were in luck and they told us the office is only manned during the summer months. So, to do this we obviously had to dinghy ashore, then afterwards Dean dragged me up the big climb to the castle overlooking the bay. I think it's called Panteli Castle, and it also houses the Church of Panagia (namely the Church of the Virgin Mary)....... surprise surprise.
It was a long slog upwards for me, half way up walking on the road, the other half to the top was 125 steps. It was well worth it though, the castle and church were beautiful, and the views to die for.
First views of the castle as we arrive
Going ashore by dinghy
Pretty esplanade
On the climb, looking down into the town
Bit further up
Time for a look down, Thésée out there in the distance
The start of the steps
At the top. Inside the Church
Fantastic painted ceilings
Such vivid colours
Inside the Castle, nearly at the top
Here's some views
Views of Panteli (a popular anchorage)
Windmills in the foreground, and looking south
Nearby headland
Panteli again
BIG flag on top of the castle. It was windy up there.
Looking north
Picturesque castle walls
Looking west over Agia Marina
More castle walls here
A wonderful door into the castle
Going down now we meet a cat colony
Reasonably well fed. The tiny black kitten liked Dean.
We arrived back at 7pm, and as we have a whole chicken defrosted Dean slapped it onto the BBQ. Dinner's going to be late tonight, so we filled in with Beer, Cider, and Crisps.
Linda - We were due to leave Alinda today, but our friends Tracey & Steve (S/V Dusk) turned up and so we ended up staying another day. But first, a walk ashore. As soon as we disembarked the dinghy we came across the elegantly looking Bellenis Tower Museum, housing historical and folklore artefacts of Leros.
Bellenis Tower Museum
Restaurants along the beach front
Welcoming entrances
Artistic invitations to dine here
Lovely hotels
Cafes and Restaurants all along the seafront
Perfectly clear water for swimming
A sign just for me
Could be anywhere in the world
Beautiful houses
....and gardens
We went for dinner with Tracey and Steve to one of the beachfront restaurants. I ordered pizza (a change from chicken). It was the most humongous pizza I've ever been served.
The most rare event occurred this evening, a Super Blue Moon. It was quite spectacular, because from where we were eating it looked like the moon was sitting on top of Thesee's mast. In other words, an anchor light!
Thesee's new anchor light 😊
Moon rising higher above Panteli castle
Thursday 31st August...
Linda - Must move on now 20 miles south and back to Kalymnos quay. Yes, the meltemi god is due to give out his best again for the next four days, so under duress Dean has agreed for us to go into hiding in Kalymnos....our bolt hole.
Kalymnos east coast
This photo taken from Thesee
The next blog post will be called 'Start of our last month of this sailing season'
