The problem with light winds is that you have no cooling breeze, so the last week has been sweltering.
We came back to Lakki for shopping on Monday 23 June and tied up on the town quay. That afternoon a brand new Hanse 575 on a skippered charter came in alongside us. Just as they reached the quay a cry rang out 'the anchor has gone'. It turned out that the anchor chain had not been tied on, so the chain all just ran out. £300,000 worth of boat and they didn't even tie the anchor on! The skipper phoned for a diver, but he was off training, so Simon put on his weight belt and jumped in to tie a rope to the chain so that they could recover it - it was only about 6m deep, so not any problem. Once he was back aboard three large gin and tonics were thrust into our hands.
On Tuesday morning we motored round to the south of Leros and picked up a mooring buoy in Xerokampos, where we spent two days, swimming from the boat. Soon after we arrived Lin heard a loud hissing noise from the engine room. One of the hoses to the watermaker had sprung a leak - the reinforcing wire had broken so that the pipe ballooned and burst. Luckily Lin found it quickly and Simon was able to put an old non-return valve on the end of the pipe to stop it leaking. That afternoon we put the outboard on the dinghy and it would not start. Simon took off the carburettor and cleaned a lot of gunge out of it and switched from the external to the internal fuel tank, and it still would not start, so he had to row to and from the shore. Next morning Simon started to walk over the hill to Lakki to get a new hose for the watermaker- luckily he got a lift after about twenty minutes because it was sweltering, and he got a taxi back and fitted the new hose. But that was not the end of the story.
On Thursday we motored (no wind) down to Paleonissos, on the east coast of Kalymnos. We had passed it many times, but never been in because it is open to the south and the pilot says it gets strong gusts with a north wind and it is bad holding, but friends had told us that there are now laid mooring buoys and two tavernas, but you only see them once you get round the corner and go up the fjord.
We picked up a mooring buoy
and it is an idyllic place, beautiful colours and towering mountains (600 metres on one side and 300 metres on the other).
Soon after we arrived, Lin noticed that the water pump was running - Simon had not fixed the new hose on tightly enough and it had fallen off, water gushing into the bilge. He refitted the pipe, this time with the Jubilee clip really tight, but we had lost a lot of water!
We went up to the taverna for a beer at lunchtime and they told us that the fishing boat below had just brought in a catch, including three small lobsters, so we reserved a lobster spaghetti for the evening, which was delicious, with Symi shrimps to start with, and not ridiculously expensive. The son of the taverna owner had a ten-day old goat as his pet, which he was bottle-feeding.
In the afternoon we walked along the southern edge of the fjord - Lin and John along the coast,
while Simon scrambled up to check out the climbs, in the vain hope of persuading Sam to come and test his mettle on them.
On Friday morning we walked a couple of kilometres up the road to see the view and almost drowned in sweat. On the way back we stopped for fresh orange juice at Nikolas's taverna, a couple of hundred yards back from the beach. Nikolas is a one-time sponge diver and diving instructor who had been born in the stone croft across the road from his taverna and had taught Greek in London for a few years before returning home. He showed us his photo album and told us what a paradise it had been ten years ago, before the road, electricity, water, tavernas, the beach cafe and mooring buoys had arrived. Lin bought a Mediterranean sponge from him after he explained that the America sponges, that he also sold, would not last seven months.
We spent a quiet afternoon, mostly in the sea, which is now too warm, as the wind went round in circles and the boat did likewise, tying its mooring line in knots.
We left early on Saturday morning, visiting the beach that we had seen on our walk and admiring Sikati cave, a climbers' paradise with its stalactites and stalagmites
and returning to the Lakki town quay because the wind is forecast to get up again.
Just after we arrived the coast guard boat came in, towing a small (about 8 metre) Russian-registered yacht.
It turned out that they had picked up two young Russian men trying to smuggle twenty five Syrian refugees, who had been crammed in the saloon of their yacht and were now on board the lifeboat. The coastguard told John they had stopped the yacht because it was so low in the water. They must have been very naive to try to land their refugees in Leros, where there are no deserted beaches on which to drop their cargo and get away, which is why the traffickers prefer Agathonisi or Farmakonisi.
The coast guard seemed to be treating the refugees, men, women and children, very well, but the Russian men objected to being handcuffed as they were led away.
No sooner had the costguard dealt with the people traffickers than they went out again to a large cruise ship anchored just outside the bay to bring back a sick passenger, who came back with very smart doctors, nurses and friends to be whisked off to hospital.
That evening we had the devastating news that John Belgrove, Jade and Kai's other grandfather, had died of a cerebral aneurism. John had a full and happy life surrounded by a close family, but we will all miss him very much.
Now we have a couple of days to pack up before we all fly back to England on Tuesday.
We came back to Lakki for shopping on Monday 23 June and tied up on the town quay. That afternoon a brand new Hanse 575 on a skippered charter came in alongside us. Just as they reached the quay a cry rang out 'the anchor has gone'. It turned out that the anchor chain had not been tied on, so the chain all just ran out. £300,000 worth of boat and they didn't even tie the anchor on! The skipper phoned for a diver, but he was off training, so Simon put on his weight belt and jumped in to tie a rope to the chain so that they could recover it - it was only about 6m deep, so not any problem. Once he was back aboard three large gin and tonics were thrust into our hands.
On Tuesday morning we motored round to the south of Leros and picked up a mooring buoy in Xerokampos, where we spent two days, swimming from the boat. Soon after we arrived Lin heard a loud hissing noise from the engine room. One of the hoses to the watermaker had sprung a leak - the reinforcing wire had broken so that the pipe ballooned and burst. Luckily Lin found it quickly and Simon was able to put an old non-return valve on the end of the pipe to stop it leaking. That afternoon we put the outboard on the dinghy and it would not start. Simon took off the carburettor and cleaned a lot of gunge out of it and switched from the external to the internal fuel tank, and it still would not start, so he had to row to and from the shore. Next morning Simon started to walk over the hill to Lakki to get a new hose for the watermaker- luckily he got a lift after about twenty minutes because it was sweltering, and he got a taxi back and fitted the new hose. But that was not the end of the story.
On Thursday we motored (no wind) down to Paleonissos, on the east coast of Kalymnos. We had passed it many times, but never been in because it is open to the south and the pilot says it gets strong gusts with a north wind and it is bad holding, but friends had told us that there are now laid mooring buoys and two tavernas, but you only see them once you get round the corner and go up the fjord.
We picked up a mooring buoy
and it is an idyllic place, beautiful colours and towering mountains (600 metres on one side and 300 metres on the other).
Soon after we arrived, Lin noticed that the water pump was running - Simon had not fixed the new hose on tightly enough and it had fallen off, water gushing into the bilge. He refitted the pipe, this time with the Jubilee clip really tight, but we had lost a lot of water!
We went up to the taverna for a beer at lunchtime and they told us that the fishing boat below had just brought in a catch, including three small lobsters, so we reserved a lobster spaghetti for the evening, which was delicious, with Symi shrimps to start with, and not ridiculously expensive. The son of the taverna owner had a ten-day old goat as his pet, which he was bottle-feeding.
In the afternoon we walked along the southern edge of the fjord - Lin and John along the coast,
while Simon scrambled up to check out the climbs, in the vain hope of persuading Sam to come and test his mettle on them.
On Friday morning we walked a couple of kilometres up the road to see the view and almost drowned in sweat. On the way back we stopped for fresh orange juice at Nikolas's taverna, a couple of hundred yards back from the beach. Nikolas is a one-time sponge diver and diving instructor who had been born in the stone croft across the road from his taverna and had taught Greek in London for a few years before returning home. He showed us his photo album and told us what a paradise it had been ten years ago, before the road, electricity, water, tavernas, the beach cafe and mooring buoys had arrived. Lin bought a Mediterranean sponge from him after he explained that the America sponges, that he also sold, would not last seven months.
We spent a quiet afternoon, mostly in the sea, which is now too warm, as the wind went round in circles and the boat did likewise, tying its mooring line in knots.
We left early on Saturday morning, visiting the beach that we had seen on our walk and admiring Sikati cave, a climbers' paradise with its stalactites and stalagmites
and returning to the Lakki town quay because the wind is forecast to get up again.
Just after we arrived the coast guard boat came in, towing a small (about 8 metre) Russian-registered yacht.
It turned out that they had picked up two young Russian men trying to smuggle twenty five Syrian refugees, who had been crammed in the saloon of their yacht and were now on board the lifeboat. The coastguard told John they had stopped the yacht because it was so low in the water. They must have been very naive to try to land their refugees in Leros, where there are no deserted beaches on which to drop their cargo and get away, which is why the traffickers prefer Agathonisi or Farmakonisi.
The coast guard seemed to be treating the refugees, men, women and children, very well, but the Russian men objected to being handcuffed as they were led away.
That evening we had the devastating news that John Belgrove, Jade and Kai's other grandfather, had died of a cerebral aneurism. John had a full and happy life surrounded by a close family, but we will all miss him very much.
Now we have a couple of days to pack up before we all fly back to England on Tuesday.
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