Sam and Alice came on the Blue Star from Kalymnos, where they had spent a week climbing, on Sunday night, September 23rd. The weather forecast was for strong winds building from Tuesday, so we decided just to have a day trip to Arkhangelos on Monday and then stay in the marina with a hire car.
On Monday we motored up to Arkhangelos in a light northerly wind - Alice's first trip on a yacht. There was a bit of a sea, but it did not bother Alice.
We anchored off the taverna in Arkhangelos
and swam from the boat.
The taverna looked very quiet, so Lin swam over and saw Dimitra. Georgos and Evropi had set off on their motor cruiser to Naxos for the start of their holiday, leaving Dimitra and Tassos to run the taverna. Evropi was sick on the way over - a week later they were still stuck in the little harbour on the southeast of Naxos, sheltering from the wild weather.
We had lunch in Stigma
and then motor-sailed back to the marina in a flat sea.
On Tuesday our car arrived at 9am. We drove up to the castle,
then over to Liskaria beach, past Alinda, where we lay on the sunbeds and swam.
before lunch with Dimitri at To Steki.
After lunch we drove over to Gourna, where we chilled for the afternoon, but did not swim because a chilly wind was getting up.
Wednesday 26th September was the 75th anniversary of the sinking by German bombers of the British destroyer Intrepid and the Greek flagship Queen Olga, which marked the start of the Battle of Leros. In the morning Lin and Simon went to the laying of wreaths on the Intrepid memorial, which happened half an hour later than schedule because the granddaughter of Albert Poulter, the last living survivor of the sinking of Intrepid, and her wife had overslept. Albert Poulter, now 92, was stooped but mentally completely alert.
He laid a small cross in memory of the last man he spoke to before he abandoned ship, who had died with the vessel. Quite a few of the people at the ceremony were people whose fathers had been in the battle. Nick Jellicoe had been into Tilney's cave, the British headquarters in the battle, and told Simon how to get to it. It is not the cave mentioned in our last post.
We all went over to the ceremony to commemorate Queen Olga at 11, which was much larger than it has been in previous years. There was a warship anchored out in the bay,
an honour guard
and a military band.
Albert impressed everybody with his singing along to the Greek national anthem.
There was a succession of dignitaries laying wreaths, though fewer than planned because the flight and ferries had been cancelled due to the bad weather, including Vassilios Magasianos, a survivor of the Queen Olga, and Albert Poulter, who turned after laying his wreath and saluted the crowd, to great applause.
The dignitaries then walked down to the ferry quay, where they (including Albert) boarded another, smaller, warship, the gunboat Krateos, which went out to lay a wreath over the wreck of Queen Olga.
After the ceremony we drove over to Xerokampos, where we had lunch at Aloni, and chilled on the sunbeds, but again not swimming.
In the evening Lin and Simon went to an event in the cinema, at which various people were to speak about the battle of Leros. It started with half an hour of welcomes from various dignitaries, followed by the talks. Nick Jellicoe spoke about his father, who had commanded the SBS in the Battle of Leros, but just detailed his career, saying almost nothing about Leros. This was followed by a presentation by an Italian who was obsessed with aerophones - the listening devices to identify incoming planes, that preceded radar, of which one on Leros has been restored. Then a German historian read from the recently acquired diary of a German military doctor, which was mostly an account of his time on Kalymnos. Then Julie Peakman gave the only relevant talk, giving the story of some of the combatants. She was also the only speaker who kept to the ten minutes allowed. We left at the start of a presentation of the battle of Leros in the German press and missed a talk by another obsessive about all the gun batteries on Leros.
Fortunately we had left the dinner cooking, so we managed to eat not too late!
Thursday was cloudy, with rain threatening, so we decided to go for a walk to the monastery of All the Angels, a rather ugly modern monastry overlooking Gourna Bay, with the ancient church of Saint Peter, apparently built on the ruins of an ancient Christian basilica.
We walked back down the valley to Merikhia and then back to Lakki.
We had arranged to have dinner with Al and Kitty and Kitty's mum at El Greco in Pandeli, but Kitty and her mum were stuck on Kos as the ferries had all been cancelled, though they managed a day trip to Bodrum, so we had dinner just with Al.
Sam and Alice were flying out to Athens on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, the wind had dropped, before the Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane) came in at the weekend, so the flight was not cancelled. We drove over to Pandeli in the morning, which was completely empty - not a single boat anchored off, where usually it is packed (there was one charter catamaran in Vromolithos, who soon left).
We walked round to the quay, where we met Kyriakos working on his boat. His mother had just died, with the funeral the day before, for which his sons had come over from Denmark. We then had a leisurely lunch at Pirofani before driving out to the airport. Sam and Alice checked in early - there were quite a lot of people waiting to go standby after the flight cancellations, most of whom were disappointed.
We walked down to the Partheni jetty
then back to the airport, where Sam and Alice boarded and flew off.
We really enjoyed having Sam and Alice, though it was a pity we could not get more sailing in. They were glad to have a quiet time after their strenuous week's climbing.
After they left we were all closely following the weather forecasts to see the track of the Medicane, which at one stage was threatening us with torrential rain, gale force winds and worse. The marina was completely packed with yachts looking for shelter, with queues outside to get in. In the event the medicane tracked northeast and we got off very lightly.
We now have our final week getting the boat ready to leave in the marina before we fly to Athens on October 7th and then home. There is still a lot of rain forecast, which makes it hard to plan the washing, but we have plenty of time.
On Monday we motored up to Arkhangelos in a light northerly wind - Alice's first trip on a yacht. There was a bit of a sea, but it did not bother Alice.
We anchored off the taverna in Arkhangelos
and swam from the boat.
The taverna looked very quiet, so Lin swam over and saw Dimitra. Georgos and Evropi had set off on their motor cruiser to Naxos for the start of their holiday, leaving Dimitra and Tassos to run the taverna. Evropi was sick on the way over - a week later they were still stuck in the little harbour on the southeast of Naxos, sheltering from the wild weather.
We had lunch in Stigma
and then motor-sailed back to the marina in a flat sea.
On Tuesday our car arrived at 9am. We drove up to the castle,
then over to Liskaria beach, past Alinda, where we lay on the sunbeds and swam.
After lunch we drove over to Gourna, where we chilled for the afternoon, but did not swim because a chilly wind was getting up.
Wednesday 26th September was the 75th anniversary of the sinking by German bombers of the British destroyer Intrepid and the Greek flagship Queen Olga, which marked the start of the Battle of Leros. In the morning Lin and Simon went to the laying of wreaths on the Intrepid memorial, which happened half an hour later than schedule because the granddaughter of Albert Poulter, the last living survivor of the sinking of Intrepid, and her wife had overslept. Albert Poulter, now 92, was stooped but mentally completely alert.
We all went over to the ceremony to commemorate Queen Olga at 11, which was much larger than it has been in previous years. There was a warship anchored out in the bay,
The dignitaries then walked down to the ferry quay, where they (including Albert) boarded another, smaller, warship, the gunboat Krateos, which went out to lay a wreath over the wreck of Queen Olga.
After the ceremony we drove over to Xerokampos, where we had lunch at Aloni, and chilled on the sunbeds, but again not swimming.
In the evening Lin and Simon went to an event in the cinema, at which various people were to speak about the battle of Leros. It started with half an hour of welcomes from various dignitaries, followed by the talks. Nick Jellicoe spoke about his father, who had commanded the SBS in the Battle of Leros, but just detailed his career, saying almost nothing about Leros. This was followed by a presentation by an Italian who was obsessed with aerophones - the listening devices to identify incoming planes, that preceded radar, of which one on Leros has been restored. Then a German historian read from the recently acquired diary of a German military doctor, which was mostly an account of his time on Kalymnos. Then Julie Peakman gave the only relevant talk, giving the story of some of the combatants. She was also the only speaker who kept to the ten minutes allowed. We left at the start of a presentation of the battle of Leros in the German press and missed a talk by another obsessive about all the gun batteries on Leros.
Fortunately we had left the dinner cooking, so we managed to eat not too late!
Thursday was cloudy, with rain threatening, so we decided to go for a walk to the monastery of All the Angels, a rather ugly modern monastry overlooking Gourna Bay, with the ancient church of Saint Peter, apparently built on the ruins of an ancient Christian basilica.
We walked back down the valley to Merikhia and then back to Lakki.
We had arranged to have dinner with Al and Kitty and Kitty's mum at El Greco in Pandeli, but Kitty and her mum were stuck on Kos as the ferries had all been cancelled, though they managed a day trip to Bodrum, so we had dinner just with Al.
Sam and Alice were flying out to Athens on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, the wind had dropped, before the Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane) came in at the weekend, so the flight was not cancelled. We drove over to Pandeli in the morning, which was completely empty - not a single boat anchored off, where usually it is packed (there was one charter catamaran in Vromolithos, who soon left).
We walked round to the quay, where we met Kyriakos working on his boat. His mother had just died, with the funeral the day before, for which his sons had come over from Denmark. We then had a leisurely lunch at Pirofani before driving out to the airport. Sam and Alice checked in early - there were quite a lot of people waiting to go standby after the flight cancellations, most of whom were disappointed.
We walked down to the Partheni jetty
then back to the airport, where Sam and Alice boarded and flew off.
We really enjoyed having Sam and Alice, though it was a pity we could not get more sailing in. They were glad to have a quiet time after their strenuous week's climbing.
After they left we were all closely following the weather forecasts to see the track of the Medicane, which at one stage was threatening us with torrential rain, gale force winds and worse. The marina was completely packed with yachts looking for shelter, with queues outside to get in. In the event the medicane tracked northeast and we got off very lightly.
We now have our final week getting the boat ready to leave in the marina before we fly to Athens on October 7th and then home. There is still a lot of rain forecast, which makes it hard to plan the washing, but we have plenty of time.
