Some More Little Islands

After leaving Fournoi we spent the next week doing island hops to three more small islands in the Dodecanese; Agathonisi, Marathos/Arki and Lipsi.

We had a fantastic sail from Fournoi to Agathonisi.  For once the wind predictions were correct and we had a perfect 10 knot wind from the NW for our 26nm ESE sail.  Bliss. 

 

Looking south from Megalo Chorio, Agathonisi

The harbour consists of about a dozen buildings with a Mikro and Megalo Chorio on the north and south hillsides.  These little islands are quaint and each has its own character but we puzzled at how they can be viable.  Everything must be brought in by ship, including water.  Each island has several ferry companies which come to drop off or pick up a handful of passengers and drop off supplies.  There is no industry except for a bit of tourism but these islands are well and truly off the beaten track.  Then in Agathonisi we saw a warship come in, complete with lots of guns, torpedoes and missiles as well as lots of Coast guard vessels. The penny finally dropped, duh!  These little islands are maintained for their strategic purpose.  They are only a few miles from Turkey and the Greeks and Turks are still not the best of friends.

Ferry coming into Agathonisi

Warship docked

View from the Taverna

We spent about 4 days in Agathonisi (population 185) as we waited out yet another blow.  We went to Agathonisi as on the charts it looked like a bullet proof anchorage for the northerly meltemi.  Unfortunately the east and west coves were fairly narrow and we found out the harbour in the middle was affected by katabolic winds coming down the hillsides making for a rolly anchorage.  After a bit of trial and error over the few days we did manage to find space in the western cove and carefully monitored our swing on anchor with the GPS.

Pebble map of Agathonisi

Our final safe anchorage

The second day, before the blow truly set in, we moved into the main harbour and anchored there as there was more space to swing.  The next morning the little harbour was a hive of activity.  First a ferry came in to drop off half a dozen people, then a water carrier tied up to the dock to await a second even bigger ferry which offloaded big trucks.  Meanwhile five of the seven yachts moored to the pontoon were preparing to leave complete with the usual dramas and tangles of crossed anchor chains.  In the middle of all this two large Turkish motor yachts came in and anchored quite close to us.  As I was making sure the motor yacht wasn’t swinging too close, a Swiss flagged boat, which had anchored with a line ashore, was in strife.  The skipper had fallen out of his dinghy as he was untying the line from a rock on shore.  He managed to swim back to the boat but his dinghy was blowing out of the bay.  Bob was taking a shower at the time and as I called to him he jumped into action, quickly pulled on some shorts, hopped into the dinghy and raced off to rescue the other dinghy which was surprisingly quickly going out to sea.  The Turkish grandmother on the motor yacht was applauding and calling out what a ‘real’ sailor my husband was and so brave, I must be so proud, etc.  Now I am trying to shrink Bob’s head back to normal size.  Sadly I didn’t think to take pictures of our brave hero in action but Phoebe produced a medal (actually a rubber ducky on a ribbon) for him ‘in recognition of his heroic dinghy rescue’.

The winds eased and after two days on the boat monitoring the anchor we needed to stretch our legs.  We took a nice walk to the other side of the island to a little harbour filled with fish farms.  On the way we saw the usual herds of goats (we had two meals of goats over the 4 days – excellent, the island speciality) and saw an abandoned MSF (Doctors without Borders) refugee camp.  Apparently this little island had been inundated with refugees last year but there wasn’t a single refugee to be seen now.

Goats and abandoned MSF camp

Our next destination was Arki (population 54).  The anchorage had a lot of weed and was not good holding so we picked up a mooring ball across the channel off another island called Marathos.  I had some great snorkeling here.  There was a huge school of anchovies stretching the length of the shore and I just slowly swam through them.  A real treat.

 

We took the dinghy across the channel to Arki, a funky little place of a few tavernas (one with model boats in a mini harbour), a really nice upmarket clothing store (something you would expect to find in Paddington, not an isolated island of 54 people), and a few houses serviced by a supermarket that might open at 5 pm but maybe not.

Model harbour

Arki waterfront

After two nights in Marathos, we went to Lipsoi (population 800).  We were intending to go to an anchorage on the northern part of the island that looked good for the predicted southerly blow.  This is the weather pattern here - a few days of meltemi where you need to find a sheltered anchorage followed by a few days of no wind followed by a couple of days of good sailing wind then back to too much wind and finding a hidey hole.  But once again what looked good on the charts was not so in reality.  The coves were narrow and poor holding.  We should have guessed as Rod the God (Rod Heikell who writes the pilot guides for this area) did not mention these north western bays.  We moved on to Lipsi main harbour and although open to the south has a side bay that offered good protection.

 

Lipsi harbour

Before the blow set in we took a long walk essentially circumnavigating the southern half of the island.  Phoebe had found the track on the internet but the description didn't quite meet the reality.  It was termed a moderate walk but the path for much of the way was little more than a goat track, not well marked and went over quite rocky ground.  Still I really did enjoy the walk.  It had some very pretty scenery and although a bit more rugged than some walks we have taken of late was a lot easier than others we have been known to do.  The main destination was One Tree Beach (Monodentri).  It is amazing that anything can grow on these barren rocks.  The tree was supposed to sing in the wind but it was quiet when we visited, despite a good breeze blowing.

Monodentri Beach

Listening for the tree to sing to us

A stone church instead of the usual blue and white one

 

Back in the village for a much needed cold beer.  In the anchorage Shiraz had arrived, cruising friends we all met in Marmaris.  Looks like some hot games of Mexican Trains are in the offing for Songster, Three Sheets, and Shiraz.