Leros

We spent a week on the pretty island of Leros anchored in the very pleasant harbour of Lakki.  

The harbour of Lakki.  The marina on the left is where we will keep Songster for July-August

We had a few repairs to do and some business arrangements to make, as well as the usual sightseeing.  The first repair was to the main sail.  The sail had ripped at one of the reefing cringles in the big blow going to Levithia.  The cringles were not well reinforced so we had the rip repaired and the other cringles re-inforced.  It was a straight-forward repair for the sailmaker and he charged us a very reasonable amount. 

The repaired and re-enforced reefing cringles

Our other repair was to reattach the outhaul cable which had come undone inside the boom.  This required drilling out rivets to get access to the boom interior, replacing the bolt that had broken, reattaching everything then re-riveting the end of the boom to the shaft.  Bob could have done this repair but we didn't have all the equipment we needed on hand and would have had to go hunting for the bits and pieces in the hardware stores.  So we decided to have the workshop at the marina in Lakki do the work.  They did a good job but it cost about double what we thought it would.  Such is life.

Taking the boom by dinghy to the workshop

Major chores done, it was time to see some of the sights of the island.  We hired a motor scooter and set off to explore.  Like many of the islands in the Dodecanese group, Leros has a history of occupation by the Ancient Greeks, the Knights of St John, the Ottomans, Venetians, Italians and a strategic battlefield in World War II.  The Italian influence is especially strong on Leros.  In the early 20^th Century, Mussolini injected large sums into the islands for public works, including a naval base.  Many of the building bear the distinctive Italian Rationalist architecture that Mussolini favoured.  I have to say that I prefer the traditional blue and white Greek Island buildings.

One of the old, and now derelict Italian buildings

Our first stop on the scooter was the Castle of the Virgin Mary (Panagia Kastrou) overlooking the villages of Pandeli, Platanos and Agia Marina which make up the capital of the island.  The castle was built in the 11^th Century by the Byzantines then taken over by the Knights of St John in the 14^th Century.

The capital of the island

Castle of the Virgin Mary on the hill

The walls of the castle

Painting of the icon in the castle chapel

View from the castle

Local traffic obstacles

Windmills

We passed by a Commonwealth War Cemetery where over 100 British and Canadian servicemen are buried.  Most had died when the HMS Intrepid was sunk by German bombs in September 1943.

Commonwealth War Cemetery

A few days after our scooter tour of the island we thought we would explore the War Museum.  Google maps had the location on the other side of the Lakki harbour.  We thought this would be a pleasant 3.5 km walk to the museum and headed off.  Past the marina we entered the grounds of the old psychiatric hospital, apparently with a rather sordid past.  Then we came to a migrant camp Last year the island was inundated with migrants coming in on dinghies from Turkey.  We noticed a few Syrians in town and here was there temporary home.  It looks as if they have freedom of movement during the day as they were walking in and out of the gates.  The police guards seemed very relaxed.  

Migrant Camp

Finally we walked all the way to the Navy base and still saw no sign of the War Museum.  We asked the guard who told us the museum was on the opposite side of the harbour near where we had started are walk!  Thank you Google maps. 

The next day we tried again.  This time initially going to the site indicated by Trip Advisor, which was also wrong.  We asked some locals and the museum was another kilometre further down the road.  When we got there it was closed.  This was definitely not to be.  

We consoled ourselves with a cold beer at a harbour side cafe and made plans for our next destination.

 

Our First Month at Sea

After Levithia we made our way to Leros which will be the subject of a future post.  But first, a month ago today we left the marina at Marmaris.  That deserves a bit of a recap and reflection.

Our first 30 days

In those 30 days we have sailed 223.5 nautical miles – not a great distance but a good start to the season.  We visited two Turkish harbours; Bozburun and Knidos, and have been to eight Greek Islands, seven in the Dodecanese group and one in the eastern Cyclades.

We have done more motoring than we would like as the wind gods have not been that cooperative.  We are learning some of the tricks in sailing in this part of the world.  The notorious meltemi winds build from the north and northwest and must just be waited out.  As we are generally travelling north we need to time our passages when there are more southerly winds.  This is alright as it gives us time to explore islands but at other times we must leave sooner than we want to catch the next weather window.

We are learning more about how Songster handles.  She is a relatively heavy boat so fairly sea kindly and doesn’t bob around too much.  We still are working out the best sail configurations for the various conditions in order to get a well balanced sail from this little ketch.

We have five more weeks of sailing before I must leave Greece for awhile to renew my visa.  Then we will put Songster in the marina at Leros for a six week rest while we do some land travel in slightly cooler climes.

 

Kalimnos and Levithia

It was time to drop the mooring lines from Kos Town Harbour and make our way to Kalimnos to meet up again with Reg and Phoebe.  As the winds were not predicted to start until late morning, we took our time getting ready, had one last iced Freddo onshore and motored out of the harbour a bit after 10 am.  

We rounded the headland on the northern tip of Kos and decided to poke our nose into the harbour of Psérimos, a pretty little island just off the coast of Kos.  This tiny island of about 2 by 3 miles in size has only a few houses and is mainly a stop off for day trippers on gulets from Kos.  Now early in the season the harbour looked quite inviting but come July – August it would be quite crowded until late in the afternoon when all the gulets went back to the main island.

The tip of Psérimos with a ferry zooming by - That is Turkey in the background

We continued to motor sail to Vlihadia, a snug harbour on the southern tip of Kalimnos.  There was an empty mooring ball and the smiling welcome of Three Sheets waiting for us.  We moored – so easy – rested and then had a great dinner with our Canadian friends at a nice tavern ashore.

Quiet Vlihadia

Many of these islands are rocks and goats but definitely claimed by Greece

 

It was to be an early start the next morning for our 25 nautical mile passage to Levithia as the winds, although from a good direction, were predicted to get a bit gnarly by about 3pm and we wanted to be tied up in the bullet proof harbour of Levithia before then.  So we left Kalimnos just before 7 am, earmarking the island to return to for further exploration on our trip south in the autumn.  The heavy winds set in a good 3 hours before predicted and we had quite a ride.  There were gust to 30 knots and heavy seas with breaking waves.  I was at the helm for the last half of the passage and it took every ounce of concentration and strength to keep on course.  It was a good experience to know how the boat handled in such conditions but I don't plan to voluntarily go out in those conditions again.  When we arrived in Levithia the harbour was filled with others with similar tales and worse.  At least we had the wind behind us which is more comfortable than beating into the wind as some had done.  That really would have been quite awful.

Bullet proof harbour but waves crashing at the entrance

Lots of whitecaps even after the wind has eased

So after a stiff G & T, lunch and a Nanna nap we were ready to go ashore for dinner.  Levithia is a very special island.  It is inhabited by just one extended family, who do a marvellous job farming the rugged terrain.  This is a rare sight in these islands, most of which are barren, rocky outcrops denuded of trees by the over-grazing of goats and poor land management.  The island is only accessible by private yacht and the family caters for its visitors by providing top class mooring and fantastic home cooked and raised dinners for the yachties – On the menu were goat and lamb that were running around outside the gates.  Grandpa was cooking over a fireplace, the sons were waiting on tables and taking orders and Grandma and daughters were in the kitchen.  During the meal they came out to announce the winds for the next few days for everyone.  There were Finnish, Austrian, Greek, French, Canadian, British, and German sailors represented.   

Kid goats frolicking

Future dinner outside the gates of the taverna

 On the half km walk back to the anchorage after dinner, the full moon came out reflecting the boats lying peacefully at their moorings – Magic.

Full moon over the anchorage

Levithia is another island to which we definitely want to return.  It was a magically little island and we would like to go there again to spend a few restful days walking around and enjoying the hospitality of the family.