To Arki and back

On Sunday May 22^nd we set off on a bike ride, but Simon’s Brompton pinged twice – two more broken spokes. He dismantled the wheel, took out the old spokes and threaded the new ones through, only to find that they were two or three millimetres too long. The wheel had obviously gone out of shape – a job for the bike shop.

On Monday 23 May there was no school because Anna had a cold and a temperature, so Lin went over to offer English conversation to any of the kids who wanted it. She talked to Mohammed, who had been sent to Patras, which he hated – they were more or less locked up in a building with dreadful food. Some of them had been there for eight months, but Mohammed managed to get back to Leros. Then she talked to Nagm, thirteen years old, who is here with her two younger brothers and her parents. They had fled from Deraa to Jordan four years ago. (Deraa was the original centre of demonstrations against Assad and was then besieged by the army with the first large scale loss of civilian lives). They had then gone to Istanbul, through Syria, and come across to Chios by boat before being transferred to Leros, first at the hot spot and now in Pikpa.

At four o’clock we went up to Pikpa to say goodbye to Antoinette, who is leaving tomorrow morning, but she was not there. The kids were at a bit of a loose end – they begged us to take them to the sea. Simon went to pick up the bike wheel, and met Antoinette on the way. She was looking for basil because she had got some of the women organized to cook a Syrian meal. 

Simon promised to bring some basil up to Pikpa. At the bike shop the wheel was fixed. ‘How much is that?’ ‘Nothing’. At first the bike shop man refused to take any money, then grudgingly said ‘two or three euros’, so I gave his wife five.

Coming back we met Avida, Mohammed and his grandad fishing on the quay, between very expensive yachts and a rusting freighter. They had caught loads of fish! 

We went for pizza in the evening and on the way back met Avida and a group of refugees coming back from their fish barbecue on the beach. They gave us one little barbecued fish.

On Tuesday morning Simon fitted the new connection to the hot water tank and it did not leak! We left for Arkhangelos about 11 but there was absolutely no wind so we motored all the way, anchoring behind Frank and Lin who had come up before us. We rowed over to Stigma tavern to have a beer and see Dmitra and her family. Our Christmas card and photos had eventually arrived and they had put them up on the board. As they had no postal address we had addressed the card to them in Partheni. The post office had phoned them to say they thought this was for them, otherwise they were going to return it. They now have a PO Box in Partheni. Maybe this will make it easier for us to put them on Trip Advisor! Will and Ann-Marie were there having lunch, having come up from Lakki the day before. They had given Dmitra four Scots Pine seedlings last year, which were doing well in their pots, waiting to be planted out. Lin had her first swim of the year – a short one as the water was still cold.

After dinner at Stigma we had a roly night with a bit of swell creeping into the anchorage.

We set off for Arki on Wednesday morning. After getting the anchor up we hoisted the main, then unrolled the genoa in a nice westerly wind. Simon immediately noticed that the genoa was falling down. He rushed forward to get it under control before it fell in the water, then tied it up so that it would not blow away. When he had hoisted the genoa he had obviously not done the snap shackle at the head of the sail up securely enough so it had come undone, releasing the sail. Although there was a decent wind, at a solid Force 4, with only the main sail on a close reach we did not have enough to power through the waves, so we motorsailed up to Arki, arriving about 11. We were greeted warmly by Nikolas and all the family – they had come back from Poland the week before Easter. They have done a lot of painting in the taverna, fitted new table cloths and replaced an old tree with new sunshades, so it is even more attractive. Nikolas played football with his kids, Alexandros and Eleni – he had been a very keen footballer in his youth, playing for Patmos. Eleni is only fifteen months but already becoming confident with the ball.

In the afternoon we walked round to the town beach but did not swim. When we got back the wind had fallen enough for Simon to go up the mast and retrieve the genoa halyard and then for us to hoist the genoa, making sure the snap shackle was properly attached this time. We then had drinks with Frank and Lin and dinner at Nikolas’s, the two Lins having kalamari that we had watched Nikolas preparing in the afternoon. The next evening we complimented Nikolas on the excellent kalamari and he revealed that this was not fresh – his dad caught loads of Kalamari in the winter. They froze it in 4 kilo bags and defrosted it in water and cleaned it when it was needed. He told us that if anyone claimed their kalamari was fresh at this time of year they were lying – you could not catch kalamari before the end of June.

On Thursday morning we walked round to Tiganaki and had a swim – Simon’s first. It was freezing when we first got in, but lovely when we got used to it. Frank phoned later to ask where we were – they had gone the wrong way. They came for a swim then we walked back and had a beer at the taverna by the anchorage. The old couple who ran it were in Leros for dentists and opticians, but their son served us with beer and very generous mezes. In the afternoon Simon replaced some of the old MC4 connectors on the solar panels, one of which had come apart. The net result was that the panels showed no output at all. Simon  thought at first that a fuse must have blown so set about searching for the fuses, taking everything out of the deep aft locker and failing to find a fuse anywhere, the conclusion being that the panels are not fused. The only other sensible conclusion was that the new connectors were not connecting. On Friday morning Simon dismantled the connectors, botched up the connections and all worked once more. On Friday afternoon we went over to the town beach for a swim – not quite as cold as at Tiganaki the day before. In the evening we went for dinner at Nikolas and Simon and Lin (Frank’s partner Lin) shared a large Lavraki (sea bass) that Nikolas had caught with rod and line at the end of the harbour a couple of nights before.

We planned to sail down to Lipsi on Saturday 28 May. We got up early to the sound of the water pump humming, which suggested that we were out of water, which proved to be the case. This was surprising because the tanks had been at least half full the day before. The bilges were full of water because there was a leak somewhere and the tanks had emptied into the bilge. We set off for Lipsi, just after Frank and Lin, at 7.45 and ran the bilge pump, which took about half an hour to empty all the water out. We then got the sails up and had a good sail down to Lipsi, arriving just before 9. Once we were tied up Simon emptied and dried the bilges, then we filled up with water and Simon found the source of the leak – a connection had failed by the base of the hot water tank and one hose had come out. Simon managed to get the old T connector off and Frank gave him a replacement, which he fitted, but when he opened the stop cock it leaked like mad, so we still had no hot water.

In the afternoon we went for a walk round the bay to the East. On the way we encountered a man driving into town, followed by a horse, which the man was encouraging while leaning out of the window. On the way back we saw the horse cropping the grass in a field on the edge of town. In the evening we went for dinner at Manolis’s new restaurant. His old restaurant, in the little town square, had been rented from his uncle, but now he has bought and renovated the oldest house in Lipsi, a large neoclassical building on the side of a steep hill which in the past has variously been a home, a prison and a post office. Manolis has restored it beautifully, taking four years over it, and it now looks like a very posh restaurant on three floors down the hillside, with two terraces, but the menu and the prices have not changed (yet??). We had a very good meal.

On Sunday morning we left Lipsi a bit after 9 to sail down to Lakki. On the way Lin practiced her man overboard routine so as to be able to recover Simon if (when?) he falls in. We got to Lakki at midday and tied up in the marina, in time to go for lunch at Poppy’s. In the afternoon Simon did various little repairs and in the evening Argiris came to look at the leaking T connection. It turned out that Simon had fitted it correctly, but the connection was faulty. Argiris promised to order us a new one on Monday morning.

On Monday morning, May 30, Lin went off to help Anna in the school for refugee children. Simon mended the puncture on the Brompton, but when he put the wheel back on the tyre went down again – the puncture was a small hole on a seam – so he took the wheel to the bike shop to get the bike man to fix it. In the afternoon we put the outboard on the dinghy. It started, but immediately stalled – another thing to fix!

While the wheel was in the bike shop the new T connector arrived. Simon fitted it and it worked, so we now have hot water! It turned out that one of the O-rings in the connector that Frank had given us was displaced, which was why it leaked. Having fixed the water system Simon cycled off to get the wheel back, but the bike shop was still closed for siesta. When Simon got back he reached in his pocket for the purse and it was not there. It must have fallen out of his pocket as he cycled along. He immediately retraced his route, not more than a minute or two after he had lost the purse, but there was no sign of it. Someone must have seen it fall and immediately picked it up. It is very unlikely that it was a local, indeed there were few if any locals about, just two groups of tourists sitting in cafes. Fortunately Simon had taken the cards, driving license and some money out of the purse just that morning, but still we had lost 200 euros. Not so bad if it had gone to an impoverished local or refugee, but it almost certainly was appropriated by a tourist. When he went back to get the wheel a little later the bike man had repaired the punctured tube but had also put in a new tube – ‘a new tube is better’ he said. He wanted three euros, but Simon insisted on giving him five.

On Tuesday morning Simon took the carburetor off the outboard and checked it, but it all appeared to be clean, so he went to the outboard man who agreed to come and fetch it at 4 o’clock, if we moved the dinghy out of the marina, since he is not allowed to work in the marina (Lefteris later said it would be no problem, but we moved it anyway). When he fetched it the outboard man asked if we had drained the carburetor for the winter – of course we hadn’t, so maybe that was the problem.

Before lunch we cycled along the coast to a beach beyond Merikhia to swim. In the afternoon we met Omar coming back from the beach. He said he had not been able to swim because of the waves (no more than ripples!) and warned the younger children who passed on their way to the beach not to swim. In the evening we had an excellent meal at Ostria – the first time we had eaten out without anybody else!

The situation in both Pikpa and the hotspot is getting increasingly tense. There have been thefts in Pikpa – two young Afghans had 120 euros, their last money, stolen and the kitchen had been broken into twice and all the baby milk taken. On Tuesday evening about 100 refugees, from babies to old people, came into town from the hotspot (a good half hour walk) and milled around for an hour or so before going back.

The swallows have arrived - they seem to love perching on out genoa sheets!

We are still waiting for our new instruments to arrive. They were due to be delivered on May 27, but we are now Wednesday 1 June and according to the tracking there is a ‘connection delay, recovery actions underway’, which presumably means they have lost them. Eventually we found that they are in Rhodes and should come tomorrow. Lin had school in the morning while Simon pottered around doing jobs on the boat – drying the bilges to find any more water leaks, derusting and painting the nuts on the keel boats and the engine mounts, patching up the storm hood and so on. The problem with the outboard is a mystery – the outboard man has cleaned it all up and it still does not work. He suspects there is a faulty valve somewhere at the heart of the carburetor. If that is the problem we will have to get a replacement part from Athens. In the evening he called to say it was fixed – the problem turned out to be a bit of dirt causing the float in the carburetor to stick.

At midday Argiris came down to the marina with his wife to say goodbye – it turns out that the family are off to Rhodes where Argiris has been offered a job in his old profession as a plumber – his old employer even came to Leros to look for him to offer him the job, so they are off to Rhodes where they have rented a house in a village inland – all they can afford at 300 euros a month.

After lunch and siesta we set off to cycle to Merikhia for a swim. Simon was pedaling sedately up the hill when Lin shot past, legs spinning like a dervish. For the first time the sea was not cold so we had a really enjoyable swim before cycling back for tea.