Back to Leros

We flew to Athens from Heathrow on Tuesday 25^th April and stayed with our friend Lena for two nights. Lena was as hospitable as ever, but is very worried about her situation, with repeated cuts to her pension meaning that she is struggling to make ends meet and deal with her health problems. She gave us a copy of her latest book, a reprinted collection of her journalistic articles on the junta. Unlike many of our friends, Lena had stayed in Greece under the dictatorship and kept working as a journalist, ending up in jail for her pains.

On Wednesday morning we visited a Syrian family with whom we had become friends in Leros last year. We met Mohamed and Mayson and their oldest daughter, Nagm, in Omonia and they took us by bus back to see their flat. 

The other children were all still in school, but Nagm had left the school because she did not like it – she did not think she was learning much and she was constantly teased because she did not speak Greek, but was hoping to move to a language school, where she would learn Greek more intensively. Their home is a large flat, sparsely furnished, which is owned by the woman upstairs and arranged for them by the Greek charity, Praxis. While the owner is away for a month they are looking after her cat. They have six months leave to remain, until the end of May, but had no idea what would happen to them then. Mayson did not like it in Athens, she would much rather be in Leros, because she never meets anyone. Their other friends from Leros are in a camp on the other side of the city. Mayson wanted us to stay for lunch, but we had already arranged to meet Nikos to go and see Lena in hospital, so we could not stay, but luckily Nikos was held up, so we were able to see the other children when they got back from school.

We took a taxi to the hospital, where we met Nikos outside Lena’s room. Lena’s nurse was giving her some treatment, so we went to have coffee with Nikos in a café next door, where we also bumped into Lena’s daughter, Natalia. Lena had lung cancer about twenty years ago. A couple of months ago she had backache, which turned out to be caused by the return of the cancer, which had now reached her spine. She had had chemotherapy and now moved to this hospital, where she was going to have radiotherapy. Nikos reassured us that she very much wanted to see us and she was obviously delighted when we went into her room. Hugs and kisses were forbidden, but although Lena looked desperately ill, she was till the Lena we know and love, with big smiles lighting up the room. We did not stay long, because we did not want to tire her. We walked back towards Syntagma and got the tram back to Lena’s.

At this time of year the only flight to Leros is at 7.30 in the morning, so we had to get up at 4.30 on Thursday and get the airport bus a bit after 5. The flight to Leros was uneventful and Kostas and Katerina were waiting for us at the airport with our hire car. Summer had arrived the day before – until then it had been cold, cloudy and sometimes wet, but now we had sun and blue skies for our first week.

Mia Hara looked as we had left her, except that the tarpaulin over the cockpit had blown away in the winter gales. No sooner had we opened up, got our luggage aboard, gone to the office and fixed up the water and electric than Sue visited from the neighbouring yard, Artemis, where she and Steve had been living on their boat since January. We arranged to pick Sue up at 12 to drive into Lakki to do some shopping and see old friends. Like all visitors, we are always sure of a very warm welcome when we come back with hugs and kisses everywhere. We met Frank and Lin and, of course, Sue for a beer and chicken club sandwich at Poppy’s then took Sue back to Artemis, where we admired the amazing job that Steve had done repainting their hull, so the boat looked like new. We went back to Mia Hara and started work, putting on the bimini, getting the sails out, putting on the main, fixing the lazy jacks (and Simon had a siesta – too much beer at lunchtime). We ate aboard in the evening - pork burgers from the Australian butcher, and green beans, and collapsed into bed early.

On Friday 28^th we worked all morning on the boat, Lin sorting out below and Simon stripping and rubbing down the woodwork in the cockpit ready for varnishing and derusting the anchor chain. At teatime we drove to Pandeli to see Al and Kitty in their new apartment hotel – Asterias. It was great to see them and to see how many good ideas they have got for the hotel, but they are going to find it a lot of work. The hotel is in a fantastic location, above the beach with wonderful views. The rooms are clean and rather IKEA spartan but they are already adding their own touches. It is a perfect place to stay if you want peace and quiet, down steps to the beach and a row of very good tavernas. We drove Al and Kitty in to Lakki for us all to shop at the greengrocer and for us to pick up the storm hood which we had dropped off at Yanni’s for repair the day before. He had done a brilliant job for a very good price. We then drove over to Gourna to have an excellent dinner at the Gourna fish tavern before we dropped Al and Kitty back in Pandeli and drove home to bed.

On Saturday 29^th April Simon put on the first coat of varnish and we then drove over to Lakki and round past Merikhia to Katsouni to walk up Patela “mountain”. The walk was on a wide stony track, first past the remains of a wartime Italian anti-aircraft battery, then at the top an Italian barracks, a big gun emplacement and a restored aerophone, a kind of acoustic radar to warn of approaching planes. It was a visit to Patela that supposedly inspired Hammond Innes to write the Guns of Navarone – though the British triumph in his book and the movie was in reality the last major defeat the British suffered in the war. The view from the top was amazing – we could see Levitha and Kouneli and in the distance even Amorgos and Astipalea.

On the way down there was a terrible smell, which turned out to be a dead goat rotting away in a gully. Back in Lakki we did some shopping, Monday being the bank holiday. At the greengrocer’s we met Catherine de Greer and Valkis, who has got Greek asylum and lodges with Catherine. Catherine told us that they were desperate for volunteers at Pikpa. Apparently First Reception, part of the Ministry, had put in their own paid staff so that there was no need for volunteers, but the paid staff had all left because they had not been paid. There was not too much to do because the refugees more or less looked after themselves, but volunteers were needed to supervise meal times and to sort out any problems the refugees had. We also met Amjad, who was still on Leros, though his fiend Imtiaz had gone to Athens.

We went to the marina to see Anna – more hugs and kisses, especially when Anna told us that she was pregnant with her second child. Then more beer at Poppy’s before driving back to the yard to have lunch on the boat. In the afternoon Lin cleaned below, while Simon painted the anchor chain and spent ages trying to sort out the anchor light which was not working, without any success. The mystery is that when you switch on the anchor light the anchor light does not come on, but the masthead tricolour light goes off. Everything is normal from the switch panel to the socket at the foot of the mast, so investigation at the top of the mast is called for. We cooked liver and bacon and cauliflower for dinner.

On Sunday April 30^th, after more cleaning below and another coat of varnish, we went to Stigma at Arkhangelos for lunch with Patrick and Margaret, Sue and Steve, and Frank and Lin. We had arranged for Georgios to pick us up in his motor boat at 12.30 – he was dead on time. 

Again many hugs and kisses from Gerogios, Dimitra, Evropai and Tassos and a very good lunch – with eight of us we could share lots of different starters and then have Georgios’s Sunday special roast pork. When we got back it was down to work again, Simon polishing the hull and Lin cleaning the galley and polishing the stainless steel up top. After a big lunch we just had scrambled egg for dinner.

Monday May 1^st was a bank holiday and we spent all day working on the boat. Simon finished polishing the hull and then spent ages trying to fit a new track for the storm hood. Eventually he realised that the new track was larger at the base than the old one, which was why it would not fit. The only solution was to put the sound part of the old track back and cut off part of the base of the old track to make it fit. Meanwhile Lin got on with cleaning and organising below. Since she has had her cataracts fixed she can see so much better that she can see all the dirt that she had not noticed when we laid up! For dinner we had tuna pasta and rice aboard.

On Tuesday May 2^nd we spent the morning working on the boat, Lin polishing and organising below while Simon did the next coat of varnish, cleaned the propeller and derusted the keel. At midday we picked up Sue to go shopping in Lakki and we drove over to Xerokampos to walk some of the way up Mount Skoumbarda, meeting a sentry goat. 

Again there were wonderful views, down to Xerokampos and across to Kalymnos, with Turkey in the distance. After a beer and sandwich at Poppy’s with Sue we went back to the boat for an afternoon’s work, sorting out all the ropes and cleaning the dinghy. In the evening we went for dinner at El Greco in Pandeli. Such a contrast with the high season, when the bay is full of big Turkish yachts and restaurants full of rich Turks.

On Wednesday 3^rd May we worked on the boat, polishing and greasing the prop, scrubbing down the decks, Simon fiddled with the anchor light but made no progress. We had bacon and egg aboard for dinner. On Thursday we did the final jobs ready to launch on Friday, antifouling the keel, finishing the cleaning, stowing etc. We went for lunch at To Steki in Alinda, where Dimitri greeted us like long lost friends. On Friday morning, May 5^th, we were up very early to be ready to launch. The crane arrived at 8 am 

and we were on the water by 8.30. No leaks and the engine worked so we set off for Arkhangelos, 

where Lin had her first swim. 

We went to Stigma for a beer and a snack at lunchtime and back for dinner in the evening. We were the only customers. Dimitra and Tassos had already gone back to Leros and we spent a long time talking to Evropi and Georgos, Evropi giving Lin a Greek lesson.

We left Arkhangelos to motor down to Lakki (no wind) on Saturday morning, May 6^th, and tied up in the marina alongside Patrick and Margaret. That evening we went to Dmitri’s at Vromolithos for dinner with Patrick and Margaret, Sue and Steve and Frank and Lin to celebrate Franks’ sixty-fifth birthday. We had some drinks on the terrace but it was too cold to eat outside.

On Sunday we did odd jobs around the boat and ate on board – we continued with cleaning, organising and repairing all week. We went to Pikpa in the morning and saw Ann, who briefed us on our duties giving out lunch when we go next week. Simon went up the mast twice during the week to try to solve the anchor light problem but made no progress. It is very difficult to reach the top of the mast from the bosun’s chair because you can’t get high enough.

On Monday May 8^th we went to Pikpa from 12 till 2 to help distribute lunch. There are fewer people at Pikpa now. There was very little for us to do because Ghalia, who is volunteering full-time, had it all under control. Ghalia seems much happier now that she has something to do. 

The food is now provided by the army, so there is no longer any support for local tavernas. If an army marches on its stomach, the Greek army must be in a pretty sorry state!

The refugees are now basically managing themselves, with the volunteers, apart from Ghalia, just being there in case there are any problems. We were just observing how much calmer and less tense it was than last year (the bad boys have all left), when there was an outburst in the building. An Afghan guy, who apparently is often making trouble, had been told by Galya and then Matina that his family could not have their lunch in their room – about the only rule left at Pikpa, that everybody knows, because otherwise bits of food get left and rats come in. He picked up a chair, came out of the building and kept hitting the door to the yard with the chair, breaking all the glass and part of the frame. He then came right out into the yard and smashed the chair to bits before going in to get another one.  Some of the refugees tried to calm him down and led him to his room. Matina called the police, but he ran off before they arrived. He was arrested soon after. No doubt the police will be much more diligent in dealing with him than they were with the fascists who went around on their motor bikes clubbing and knifing refugees three days in a row last week, leaving twenty refugees needing hospital treatment with two or three with serious injuries. The police released the refugee and Matina got his family transferred back to the hotspot. Everybody knows who the fascists are and the police called eight of them in, but did nothing. 

On Tuesday May 9^th we went to see the hub, which is an education centre funded by Ekho, UNHCR and Mercy Coirps, that had been an initiative of Keith and Louise last year. The place was humming, with a wide range of very well-organised classes and enthusiastic volunteers. We met Anna Karanikola, with whom Lin was teaching last year, and Anna was very excited by her English lesson groups.

On Wednesday we helped Ghalia distribute lunch at Pikpa, but a lot of the refugees only took the bread because they did not like it – it was just a bowl of undercooked lentils. Lin taught some of the children to knit.

In the afternoon we went to visit Tuba’s family, who are now living in the flat that Mhammad and Mayson had last year. We had tea and delicious rice pudding, then they came down to the marina to look at the boat. 

The twins borrowed our bikes. 

They enjoyed seeing the boat and we promised them a longer visit with drinks etc when we got back. In the evening we walked over to Pandeli (45 minutes) to have dinner at El Greco with Al and Kitty and their friend. We got a taxi back, who charged us double fare ‘because it is the middle of the night’ at 11.30 pm.

On Thursday we did the usual jobs and had dinner in Ostria with Frank and Lin. On Friday we ate aboard and on Saturday we went to To Petrino with Simon and Christiana, where we all had delicious Bon Filet. Despite the enormous portions all but Lin managed to eat it all, Lin bringing her leftovers home in a doggy bag.

On Sunday we helped Ghalia give out lunch at Pikpa. More people have gone to Athens, so there are only about 60 left in Pikpa, although lunch comes for 85. A lot of families had gone to the beach for picnics and a lot of those who remained did not fancy the fasolakia, so most of the food went to the kitchen, where people can have it later if they are hungry. After Pikpa we met Jad and Julie for lunch. Julie has just finished her book on the battle of Leros, which we had promised Frank as his birthday present. It should be out in October. We had dinner at Costa’s with Frank and Lin and said goodbye as we planned to leave early next day, although the forecast was for quite a lot of wind, which gave Lin a sleepless night!