Family Holiday

Lin, Becky, Andrew, Charlie and Bobby arrived at Kos marina late on the evening of Thursday 9th August. We left first thing on Friday morning to motor up to Palionisos. We passed Sue and Steve, who were anchored in Kos bay, and Simon then fell in while getting the dinghy onto the davits, to the great amusement of everybody as they cried 'man overboard!'. We motored into a Force 4 headwind, which made Andrew feel pretty sick and Charlie also felt sick in sympathy. We got to Palionisos in plenty of time for people to go to the beach cafe for burgers and for an afternoon of swimming. Kai taught Charlie to jump off the boat, overcoming his fear of the dark water, and Bobby swam off the boat in his armbands.

We had dinner at Kalidonis and next morning, Saturday, motored up to Lakki into a Force 5 headwind, which Andrew did not enjoy!

Arrived at Lakki marina

In Lakki we went in to Lakki marina, though we now had a contract at Evros, because it was much more convenient for getting in to town. We spent two nights in Lakki. We had lunch at Poppy's, Becky and Andrew took the boys by taxi to the pool at Crithoni paradise, we went by taxi to Gourna beach

and Kai took Andrew and Becky out for dinner for their promised burgers and exotic beers at Persiana, which the rest of us had spaghetti bolognese on the boat.
On Monday we motored up to Lipsi, again into a moderate headwind, where we got a good spot on the quay. We took the little boys to the beach in the afternoon, where they really got into swimming! In the evening we went to Manolis' for dinner.
We spent three days in Lipsi, where the beach is perfect for the little boys - gently shelving, warm water and a sandy beach, with some shade under the trees for us. The little boys had a great time swimming

and making sandcastles.

Bobby staked his pitch by writing B for Bobby on the sand.

We had promised the boys a pizza, but it turned out that the pizza place had closed down, so instead on Wednesday we had giros at the very good grill on the front.

On Thursday, August 16th, we again motored into a moderate headwind to get to Arki. Charlie drove beautifully all the way,

 though Bobby looked a bit apprehensive!

We tied up on the quay next to Sergio and his family with whom Simon, Lin and Kai had spent a couple of weeks sailing around four years ago. We spent four days in Arki, where Charlie and Bobby played with Nicolas's children, Alexandr and Elena, spending a lot of time on the little beach, swimming

and climbing on the rocks.

Charlie and Alexandr climbed over to the next little beach, where they had fun throwing stones into the sea.

Bobby swam through the bridge under the little landing stage

and Charlie learnt to row the dinghy

and the kayak.

On one occasion Bobby walked into the water off the little beach without his armbands. As he got further in he stretched his arms out in front of him and it was obvious he was going to try to swim. He lifted his feet off the bottom and sank. Simon grabbed him and he spluttered 'I sank to the bottom' and laughed, quite unconcerned

On Saturday we said goodbye to Sergio and his family, who were off to Patmos for shopping as they had run out of supplies.

After they had left Bobby walked up to the farm with Lin and Simon,

where we saw sheep and goats,

chickens

and two big pigs.

In the afternoon Charlie rowed round to the little beach for a swim.

On Saturday we all went round to swim at the town beach.

Becky went fishing, with no success.

After four days chilling, swimming and eating well at Nikolas

it was time to move on. On Monday we had a gentle downwind motorsail to Arkhangelos. Bobby had a good swim off the boat,

but Charlie had suddenly lost his nerve, probably because Kai had pulled him in.

We had a big lunch at Stigma.

In the afternoon we motorsailed down to Lakki. The little boys were very tired and slept.

where this time we parked in Evros and had cheese omelettes aboard for dinner, though Charlie, Kai and Andrew walked into town after dinner for a giro.
On Tuesday 21st we got a car. Lin stayed on the boat while the rest of us went up to the castle and then down to Pandeli to swim.

In the evening we went for dinner to the pizza restaurant and brought back enough pizza for breakfast and lunch the next day.

On Wednesday we drove to Merikhia because Charlie wanted to visit the war museum - last time he had been too scared of the tunnel and ran out. Kai, Becky and Simon stayed on the beach until the others had done the museum.

After lunch we went back to Pandeli for more swimming. Bobby swam miles out in his armbands and Simon and Kai raced him back - Bobby won.

We then went back to Crithoni for the boys to swim in the pool. We went to Poppy's for our last dinner. The boys loved her swinging chairs.

On Thursday 23rd August we drove over to Agia Marina for Becky and the boys to get the catamaran to go back to Kos to catch their flight home. As we drove down the road past the ferry quay to the car park we were confronted by a huge track that had only inches to spare coming down the road towards us. 

A policeman got all the cars to back up out of the way before the truck could pass. We then had gyros for lunch at the excellent grill on the quay.

Lin went to check the ferry and, when she came back, fell flat on her face on the quay. Two men jumped up to help her to her feet, then Kai and Andrew rushed forward to bring her back to the table. She was battered and bruised, having sprained her wrist and got nasty grazes on her elbow and knees. A kind couple at the next table gave us water to wash Lin's wounds, while Becky went off to find a pharmacy to get some dressings, and disappeared. Lin was panicking that Becky would miss the ferry, but she reappeared in time and in any case the ferry was almost half an hour late, so everyone got off OK.

We met Jad and Julie in the cafe by the ferry terminal and drove over to lunch at Dimitri's (To Steki) in Alinda before driving back to Lakki and collapsing, exhausted, before having a very good dinner at Skipper's, the marina restaurant.

We had a really enjoyable two weeks family holiday, though it was a bit of a squash with seven of us on the boat, especially at night when it was very hot. Kai and Andrew usually slept in the cockpit and Charlie and Bobby with Becky in the forepeak. 

The boys were brilliant in the water. Bobby was completely confident in his armbands, swimming off the boat in deep water, swimming a long way from the beach, quite fast. Charlie swam really well without armbands, but was not too confident swimming a long way out in the deep water.

Every morning about six we would hear the patter of little feet and Bobby would arrive 'gran, I want to do a wee". He would go and do a wee, soon learnt to flush the loo himself, of which he was very proud, and then would want gran to read him Peter Rabbit.