On Wednesday 27 July Simon drove up to the airport to meet Becky, Andrew, Kai, Charlie and Bobby who came in on the early flight.
They were exhausted after flying from Birmingham overnight, so we left immediately to motor up to Lipsi, where we tied up on the quay. Charlie helmed brilliantly out of Lakki harbour, but then they all slept all the way up.
Lipsi was quieter than usual - plenty of room on the quay - but not nearly as quiet at Leros. There are a lot of people with second homes on Lipsi and many of the tourists are regulars, so they are not as affected by the scare stories in the press. In Lipsi we went to the beach on Wednesday afternoon and on Wednesday evening we had ouzo time
before going to a very good dinner at Nicos's taverna. We stayed in Lipsi on Thursday, again a day on the beach and dinner at Manolis's new taverna, which is in the most beautiful neoclassical house in town.
They were exhausted after flying from Birmingham overnight, so we left immediately to motor up to Lipsi, where we tied up on the quay. Charlie helmed brilliantly out of Lakki harbour, but then they all slept all the way up.
Lipsi was quieter than usual - plenty of room on the quay - but not nearly as quiet at Leros. There are a lot of people with second homes on Lipsi and many of the tourists are regulars, so they are not as affected by the scare stories in the press. In Lipsi we went to the beach on Wednesday afternoon and on Wednesday evening we had ouzo time
before going to a very good dinner at Nicos's taverna. We stayed in Lipsi on Thursday, again a day on the beach and dinner at Manolis's new taverna, which is in the most beautiful neoclassical house in town.
It was still windy on Friday, so we motored up to Arki in a solid force 5-6 wind. Charlie hid under the storm hood, which was Kai's favourite place when he was little.
Kai, of course, played Pokemon Go. He had found a load of ocean Pokemons as we sailed up to Lipsi and a load more in Lipsi. He could not find any on the way up to Arki, but found loads more in Arki. This is obviously uncharted territory for Pokemon hunters.
In Arki we got a place on the quay. After a couple of boats left and one more came in there were only four boats on the quay and none at all came in on Saturday - apparently the port police in Patmos had forbidden any boats to leave because they said it was too windy. Nikolas is very worried - July has been incredibly quiet, with many fewer yachts and tripper boats and not many bookings for his rooms. Saturday was especially quiet with so few yachts. Barbarossa was meant to bring 60 trippers from Leros for lunch, but cancelled because of the high wind. He is hoping that August will be better - at least they have got quite a lot of room bookings.
The ferry from Patmos to Lipsi, Lampi, which is the island's lifeline broke down in Arki on Wednesday and the passengers had to be taken on to Lipsi by fishing boat. They have had an engineer coming and going from Leros. It was finally fixed on Saturday evening, but they could not leave until the Port Police had checked it and Saturday was too windy for the port police to come from Patmos. Eventually a policeman and diver came midday on Sunday to inspect the boat.
It passed the test and set off for Patmos, ready to resume normal service on Monday.
We had lunch at Nikolas's taverna on Saturday and Charlie played happily with Nikolas's son Alexandros.
Nikolas's dad, Christos, has added to his toy marina, which the kids love and the adults admire.
On Saturday afternoon Nikolas's cousin caught a Galeos, a toothless shark, and a baby Galeos. Nikolas skinned it by the sea as a little crowd gathered round to watch.
After lunch Charlie went swimming off the boat with Lin. He won't take off his arm bands!
In Arki we got a place on the quay. After a couple of boats left and one more came in there were only four boats on the quay and none at all came in on Saturday - apparently the port police in Patmos had forbidden any boats to leave because they said it was too windy. Nikolas is very worried - July has been incredibly quiet, with many fewer yachts and tripper boats and not many bookings for his rooms. Saturday was especially quiet with so few yachts. Barbarossa was meant to bring 60 trippers from Leros for lunch, but cancelled because of the high wind. He is hoping that August will be better - at least they have got quite a lot of room bookings.
The ferry from Patmos to Lipsi, Lampi, which is the island's lifeline broke down in Arki on Wednesday and the passengers had to be taken on to Lipsi by fishing boat. They have had an engineer coming and going from Leros. It was finally fixed on Saturday evening, but they could not leave until the Port Police had checked it and Saturday was too windy for the port police to come from Patmos. Eventually a policeman and diver came midday on Sunday to inspect the boat.
We had lunch at Nikolas's taverna on Saturday and Charlie played happily with Nikolas's son Alexandros.
Nikolas's dad, Christos, has added to his toy marina, which the kids love and the adults admire.
On Saturday afternoon Nikolas's cousin caught a Galeos, a toothless shark, and a baby Galeos. Nikolas skinned it by the sea as a little crowd gathered round to watch.
After lunch Charlie went swimming off the boat with Lin. He won't take off his arm bands!
There was high drama at about 5 o'clock. Simon slipped and fell from the passarelle, grabbed on to something to stop himself falling in, and came up pouring blood from a gaping wound on his arm (don't look if you are squeamish).
Everybody gathered around, Becky bound up the wound with towels and teatowels and Andrew rushed off to get advice from Nikolas, who had just got back from a family trip in his motor boat. He immediately brought his motor boat alongside us, got Simon and Becky aboard and headed off for Lipsi at 16 knots, phoning the doctor and arranging a taxi to pick us up at the jetty in the bay at the north end of Lipsi. We got the taxi to the clinic, where the doctor was waiting. He was a locum from Syros who had only been on Lipsi for two days. He blanched when he saw the wound. He obviously did not have much experience of such things and took Becky's advice. The tendons were all OK and there was not much bleeding now, so they decided that it just needed stitching, otherwise we would have had to go to Leros (I guess by helicopter!). Becky offered to stitch Simon, but she was shaking so much that she asked him to take over. He did the first four stitches, but he did not know how to tie them properly, despite Becky giving advice, and they all fell out, so Becky took over and tidied it up with 25 stitches, which took about an hour and a half. At the end the doctor was very modest, he told Becky she was an incredible nurse and said that she had been the doctor and he the nurse. He proudly photographed the stitched up wound, with Becky in the picture so we don't think it was to add to his CV. Meanwhile, back in Arki, the drama had created a community of the various yachties. Kai was an absolute star, calming everyone down and sensibly going over all the possible courses of action.
Everybody gathered around, Becky bound up the wound with towels and teatowels and Andrew rushed off to get advice from Nikolas, who had just got back from a family trip in his motor boat. He immediately brought his motor boat alongside us, got Simon and Becky aboard and headed off for Lipsi at 16 knots, phoning the doctor and arranging a taxi to pick us up at the jetty in the bay at the north end of Lipsi. We got the taxi to the clinic, where the doctor was waiting. He was a locum from Syros who had only been on Lipsi for two days. He blanched when he saw the wound. He obviously did not have much experience of such things and took Becky's advice. The tendons were all OK and there was not much bleeding now, so they decided that it just needed stitching, otherwise we would have had to go to Leros (I guess by helicopter!). Becky offered to stitch Simon, but she was shaking so much that she asked him to take over. He did the first four stitches, but he did not know how to tie them properly, despite Becky giving advice, and they all fell out, so Becky took over and tidied it up with 25 stitches, which took about an hour and a half. At the end the doctor was very modest, he told Becky she was an incredible nurse and said that she had been the doctor and he the nurse. He proudly photographed the stitched up wound, with Becky in the picture so we don't think it was to add to his CV. Meanwhile, back in Arki, the drama had created a community of the various yachties. Kai was an absolute star, calming everyone down and sensibly going over all the possible courses of action.
We expected that we would have to stay overnight (Becky said that at home Simon would be kept in overnight and put on IV antibiotics), but Becky phoned Lin, who by then was eating in Nikolas's taverna, to ask if someone could come and pick us up. Lin said she could not ask Nikolas to come out again, but he told Lin that they were not too busy and Carolina could look after things. He grabbed the phone and told Becky he would order a taxi and meet us back at the quay. The taxi arrived, we dropped in at the pharmacy for a tetanus jab and antibiotics (only 17 euros - the doctor did not even ask to see Simon's EHIC card), and drove back up north where Nikolas was waiting at the quay, getting us back through heavy seas (wind north 5-6) just before 9pm.
Simon is now bandaged up, so no swimming for a month, and so far all is well - the big risk, says Becky, is infection, so we need to keep within range of Leros. If Becky hadn't been with us we would have been in deep shit, because the doctor could not have stitched Simon up, so I guess they would have had to take him to Lakki.
To be continued
To be continued
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