Life with Jade and Elliott

We spent another day chilling in Palionissos after Frank and Lin had left, feeding the ducks.

We left Palionissos on Tuesday, June 23rd, to sail down to an anchorage on the east side of Pserimos, but when we got in the wind was blowing quite hard so we decided to go straight to Kos marina, where we were picking up Jade and Elliott on Thursday evening. As soon as we arrived Simon went to find an engineer to look at our overheating engine. He came that afternoon, checked everything over and took out the heat exchanger - problem solved, it was clogged up with debris from the impeller that was destroyed in April last year!

He took away the heat exchanger to clean it and brought it back next afternoon. He also changed the coolant, telling us that we should only use Yanmar coolant.
Simon got a lift to Lidl with an English couple, who had a rented car, and stocked up for Jade and Elliott's visit.
Jade and Elliott arrived on Thursday evening - having spurned the Resorthoppa transfer we had booked for them, they shared a taxi and arrived, starving, about 10.30pm, so we took them straight to the marina cafe.

We were parked next to a Polish charter boat, who had arrived noisily the night before and now kept us awake till 1 am talking very loudly.
We had to leave the marina on Friday morning, although it was still very windy, because they needed all the spaces for returning charter boats. We set off at 8 o'clock and motored up to Palionissos in strong wind and big seas, with waves breaking over the deck - Jade did not like it! But our overheating problem was solved so we could make a good speed.
Jade and Elliott soon got into their sailing routine, playing with their phones

and sunbathing.

As we passed Kos town we heard an American boat radioing to the Greek coastguard that there was a rubber dinghy with about twelve people in it, paddling towards the shore.

We got to Palionissos by 11 and went to the beach bar for beer, burgers and kebabs. In the evening we ate at Pothitos's taverna, with beautiful views of the anchorage and the evening sun on the cliffs.

Next morning we motorsailed up to Lakki, where we had booked a place in the marina. As the forecast for Sunday was Force 7 northerly, we decided to stay two nights in Lakki and hire a car for the day.
Everyone is suddenly very worried about the crisis. People had been queuing all night at the cash machines, which soon ran out of money. The butcher told us that he is having big problems with supplies. The wholesaler has to pay cash in advance for his meat, but he has a cash flow problem. A taverna owner told us that he had problems paying for his meat because he had to pay cash, but he could not transfer cash because the banks were not working, so he just had to send it in an envelope.
We got the impression that there will be a massive NO vote in the referendum. Some people said that they had not decided how to vote because they had not seen the question, but a lot of people, even conservative ND supporters, say that 'we have had five years of it and we cannot take any more'. There have been a lot of cancellations of holiday bookings. A big rally of RIBs, which would have brought over 1000 people to Lakki over two or three days has been cancelled, as has the tour of the islands by Athens doctors, who travel round in their RIBs treating people for free and staying in the islands.

On Saturday evening Simon drove Jade and Elliott up to the cafe in the windmill on the ridge above Pandeli.

On Sunday we drove Jade and Elliott round the island to see the sights (mostly the beaches at Xerokampos and Pandeli) and went to see Sue and Steve, who had just arrived in the boatyard. Sue had forgotten to get any euros, so they only had 20 euros. Fortunately we could ask John to bring some out for them when he comes on Friday.
At Pandeli Jade not only went into the sea, despite her fear of sharks, she even swam a couple of strokes!

On Monday, June 29th, we motor-sailed up to Lipsi in another strong northerly wind, arriving at midday. There were only a couple of boats on the quay when we got there. It turned out to be Jade's least favourite place, not least because it was windy and cloudy so no good for sunbathing or the beach, but Lin needed to do some washing because water had got into the forepeak on the drive up from Kos and soaked all the bedding.
We left Lipsi on Tuesday morning to motor sail up to Arki, where we arrived at half past ten, again to find it almost empty. Nikolas told us that there had been very few boats the last week or more, which was a complete mystery because we would not expect sailors to be put off by the talk of crisis.
Elliott bravely dived into the harbour

and he and Jade rewarded themselves with ice creams.

After lunch in Nikolas's taverna,

in the afternoon we went to the beach, which was almost deserted.

We left Arki early on Wednesday morning to motor sail back to Lakki in light northerly wind, arriving about 11 and picking up a hire car for the day. Jade wanted to go to Crithoni Paradise so she could swim in the shark-free pool, and Simon and Elliott had disgusting burgers. We then drove over to the windmill cafe for a drink before coming back to the boat. Simon drilled out the fitting for our new bow anchor light, burning up two drill bits getting through the stainless steel.
On Wednesday evening Elliott treated us all to a steak dinner at To Petrino. Jade and Elliott thought they were the best steaks they had ever tasted. We had planned to go to a concert after dinner, which was to have been in the castle but was moved to the school in Agia Marina, but after dinner we decided we were all too tired to have a late night.
On Thursday morning, July 2nd, Simon drove over to the airport to pick up John and we went straight to Poppy's for breakfast. Then we all drove over to Agia Marina to put Jade and Elliott on the catamaran to Kos to get their flight home.
After a club sandwich

they got on the catamaran

and sailed away

We had a really enjoyable week with Jade and Elliott and all wished they had come for longer. Elliott was really interested in the sailing. It was a pity that there was either too much or too little wind to give him a proper sailing course.

Our Southern Tour

Our Southern Tour was not quite as momentous as that of Deng Xiaoping in 1992, but I am sure that it was much more enjoyable.

We left Lakki at half past eight in the morning of Wednesday, June 10^th, expecting a good wind to sail the 20 miles west to Levitha. In fact there was very little wind to start with, so we motored for the first hour. As we came out of the harbor we were passed by a Greek warship leaving its base. An hour later we met a similar (the same?) gunboat coming the other way. This one was the Navmachos.

Once the wind got up we had a good fast sail the rest of the way to Levitha

We got to Levitha at lunchtime and in the afternoon went for a walk up to what everyone calls the pirate castle, but judging by the stonework it was probably originally an ancient signal tower to relay from island to island.

On the top was a cairn with a goat skull

And a good view of the farm

And the anchorage (we are the boat on the left).

Simon found it a bit of a struggle scrambling up and down the steep scree and clambering over the rocks with his stick, but made it in the end. When we passed through the farmyard it seemed that there was nobody but an old man there, so we decided that we would probably eat on board rather than in the farm’s tavern. Our decision was confirmed when two large Italian chartered catamarans with about twenty very noisy Italians parked behind us and went up to dinner there.

A favourable forecast meant that we decided to leave the next morning to sail the thirty miles down to Astipalaia. We left at 6 in the morning and had a very good sail downwind, arriving in Astipalaia at lunchtime, where we got a space on the new quay.

That evening we got a text from Simon and Christiana to say that they were going up to Nissiros the next day. Since this would be our last chance to see them and the forecast was good we decided to sail over to meet them.

We left at dawn on the morning of Friday, June 12^th, to find another (the same?) gunboat anchored in the bay, with the sun rising behind it.

We had a very good fast sail the forty miles to Pali on Nissiros and again arrived at lunchtime, just after Simon and Christiana, with whom we had lunch at one of our favourite tavernas, Afroditi, where we were welcomed like old friends, particularly as Simon and Christiana really are their close friends.

 

Panoramic view of Pali harbour

Mia Hara in Pali, Afroditi on the right

Pali town beach

Simon and Christiana left next morning as they had to get to Leros to pick up new batteries. They had come up from Tilos, where they had been parked next to Frank and Lin. Frank and Lin had told us they were staying in Tilos for a few more days but, just as we were planning to set off to meet them there, they sent us an email to tell us that they were on passage to Pali, where they arrived at lunchtime, so we all went off to Afroditi again for lunch and a few beers.

Lin did a lot of washing in Afroditi, which was then dried naturally.

On Sunday, June 14^th, we hired a car for the day with Frank and Lin to drive around the island. It turned out that the car hire man, Mike’s, daughter was going to Warwick in October to read English and Creative Writing, having just graduated from the English school in Athens. We told him she must be a very clever girl, which pleased him no end.

We had all been to the volcano, which is very hot and sulfurous, so we skipped that bit and drive round to Nikia, a very picturesque village on the rim of the crater, with great views. 

Frank and Simon walked up to a chapel on the top of a hill above the village, with even better views.

 We then walked around the village, getting back to the car just as two tour buses disgorged their loads of day trippers from Kos.

Mike had told us to take a road to drive up to a wonderful panorama. We found the road, drove up and found that it was the same chapel that Frank and Simon had walked up to earlier.

We then drove back to Emborios, on the other rim of the crater, much of which is still in ruins from an earthquake in 1931, and stopped at the natural sauna on the edge of town.

With lunchtime approaching and Frank gasping for a beer we drove to the main town, Mandraki, where we had lunch by the sea. After lunch we went to the fairly new archaeological museum, which is beautifully laid out with very information panels. The Byzantine collection downstairs was closed because they could no longer afford the staff. Irini, who now works in Afroditi, her family’s tavern, told us later that she had worked in the museum, which she had loved, but now Maria, the curator, is the only remaining member of staff and has to do everything on her own.

After the museum, and getting more reserve cash from an ATM, we drove up to the ancient fortification walls, which have recently been very well restored and are very impressive – we were the only people there, apart from one young man who was leaving as we arrived and chided us for driving as he had walked up (in the heat) from Mandraki.

Lin on the walls looking across to Giali (settled in prehistoric times, now a giant quarry)

reconstructed tower with original stones

Frank and two Lins at the ancient city gate

Mike had insisted that we should see the sunset from Mandraki, but as that was not until 9 pm and we were already hot and tired we went back to Pali and handed back the car. Soon after getting back on the boat Simon realized that he had left the ipad in the car. When he went back to Mike it turned out that he had already rented the car out to another British couple, but he told us not to worry, they seemed very honest. Simon tried the find my phone up, which reported a couple of hours later that the ipad was back in Pali. Simon went along to Mike’s, but as he passed Afroditi Krysanthi called out that she had the ipad – Mike had left it with her.

Lin and krysanthi

We had lazy days on Monday and Tuesday, reading and swimming and working through the menu at Afroditi. Frank and Lin set off on Tuesday on their journey north. We decided to go down to Tilos on Wednesday, June 17^th. When we said goodbye the night before, all our friends in Afroditi, Nikos, Krysanthi, Irini and Tsambika, said goodbye with hugs and kisses and gave is a two litre plastic bottle of their house wine and a little bottle of ouzo.

We left Pali at 7 on Wednesday to sail the twenty miles down to Tilos in a moderate north wind, arriving at 10.30. There was plenty of room in the harbor at Livadi, but when we picked up the lazy line a gust of wind caught our bows and swung us round so that Lin had to drop the line before her arm broke. The same happened the next time, when Simon could not hold the line. The wind dropped a bit and it was third time lucky, Simon holding the line and then winching it in. 

The next morning, Thursday, June 18^th, we got the bus to Megalo Horio, the main town on the island. The bus was packed, mostly with walkers, but Simon’s hip is not up to ambitious walking, so we just walked around the town, 

Megalo Horio from the bottom - a steep climb to the castle at the top

first up steps to the top of town, then down to find an art gallery, advertised as being 100 metres down the road out of town. The streets were lined with very impressive displays of flowers.

It was certainly a Greek 100 metres to the art gallery, and when we finally got there we found it closed and locked up, so we walked back up to a taverna, with wonderful views, for a beer before getting the bus back. 

We had dinner in a taverna in Livadi that Frank and Lin had recommended, but we probably chose the wrong things because it was not a very good meal.

The forecast was for moderate winds on Friday, increasing over the weekend, so we decided this was the time to go back to Nissiros, which we much prefer to Tilos because it is friendlier and, in Pali at least, less touristic. We made our usual early start, only to find that the wind was much stronger and more northerly than forecast, making the trip one into a wind on the nose and quite big seas, so we decided to motor. The engine was overheating, so we had to keep the power down, which meant that we were sometimes only doing 3-4 knots into the seas. We eventually got to Pali at 11 and got onto the quay without any trouble, though as the wind got up in the afternoon a lot of boats had difficulty getting in – one which had been swept alongside onto the quay was taken over by a gullet skipper.

The wind got up through Friday and Saturday, so we did not swim until a lull on Saturday afternoon, but we walked up for a view of the harbor from the headland. 

Simon checked over the raw water intake to try to cure the overheating. He found a small hole in the end of the intake hose, so cut the end off and refitted it, hoping that would be the cure.

We met a British couple who were reaching the end of their sailing years, though they were only 73. They had spent six years sailing round the world, but were now finding it very stressful sailing short hops in steep short seas and getting in to tricky harbours.

On the Saturday evening before we left Pali we were again showered with kisses and gifts – another bottle of ouzo and a scarf for Lin that Tsambika had made over the winter.

We left Pali just after six on Sunday morning, having been woken by the next door gullet leaving, intending to go to the anchorage on the east end of Pserimos. We had a good sail on the wind for an hour or so, then the wind did so we motor sailed with just the main. The wind got up again, howling round the point at the southeastern end of Kos, so we kept on motorsailing. Once we got round Kos we found the wind decreasing, but on the nose, so we dropped the main and motored. Since the wind was less than forecast, but was expected to increase over the next two days, we decided to go directly to Palionissos. We texted Frank and Lin to let them know our change of plan, in case they were intending to meet us in Pserimos, but they texted back to say they were on passage to Palionissos. We arrived after forty miles, mostly driving, to find that the last free buoy was reserved for us – lucky we had phoned ahead. We picked up the mooring and Frank immediately radioed to suggest going ashore for a beer, which we did, Simon supplementing his with a super burger from the beach bar. During the day new charter boats flooded in, some anchoring and some going away to try their luck elsewhere (the holding here is notoriously bad).

On Monday morning Frank and Lin called to say that they had decided that they would go straight up to Leros before the wind got up tomorrow. At lunchtime we rowed ashore to pick some more wild sage and have a beer in the taverna.

Another little trip

After a few days cleaning the boat of Sahara dust we left Lakki on June 1st and motored up to Arkhangelos in no wind, using the conditions to swing the compass, which we have never done before, finding big deviations in the ship's compass, though the hand-bearing compass is pretty accurate.
We anchored in Arkhangelos, which kept on filling up during the day. Usually a lot of boats leave in the afternoon, but today nobody left, so there were eighteen boats anchored in the small bay, which usually has only a handful of boats in it, though Dimitra in the taverna told us that in August they sometimes have 50 boats there.

We had planned to eat at the taverna, but it had been packed at lunchtime because it was a public holiday and we thought it would be packed in the evening so we ate on board. Instead we went the following evening, when there were still as many yachts, but few ate at the taverna.

We set off early on June 3rd to sail up to Arki, but the wind died after an hour or so and we had to motor. We went on the quay at Arki, which was very quiet. Nikolas pointed out Dimitra's boyfriend, his cousin Spiros, and told me to go and tell him that I bring kisses from Dimitra. He looked first surprised and then pleased! We spent the next three days on Arki, chilling, swimming, reading and meeting new friends. We collected more thyme to add to our wild herb collection, thyme, oregano and sage (collected from Palionissos).

Nikolas's dad has renamed his model boat that was Varoufakis, so it is now called Poseidon. Nikolas felt that the crisis would not really affect them too badly, because they always had fishing and their vegetable garden, but he felt very sorry for people in Athens. His dad went rowing around us in his fishing boat with its long oars.

We had planned to go to the anchorage on Friday June 5th, but the wind was getting up so we decided to stay on the quay. Our German neighbours, a very nice couple with two small girls in a Swan 42 (a racing yacht hardly set up for family crewing - flat decks, no spray hood, no bimini) had planned to go to Agathonisi, but got a message that Agathonisi was swamped with refugees - 300 had just arrived, so they too decided to stay another day. While we were there they had their anchor pulled up three times by other yachts. The third time a large charter yacht came in, laid its anchor across ten other yachts and just as they reached the quay their anchor chain ran out - it had not been tied on. Fortunately for them the harbour is very shallow, though the water is murky, and they were able to recover it.
We sailed down to Lipsi on Saturday June 6th, mainly to do some washing at the excellent laundry. As usual the wind died and we had to motor, though we needed to charge the batteries anyway. We walked round to the further beach for a swim - the water is colder now than it was a couple of weeks ago - where we met Sally. She had come to Lipsi as the Laskarina rep in 2001, married a local and stayed. We have met her before in her brother-in-law's shop. She and her husband used to grow vegetables, but have now planted vineyards and established the Lipsi winery, which has been very successful, with their wines now having a national distribution. Lin bought some new flip-flops and a blouse.
We motor sailed (again very little wind) down to Lakki on Sunday June 7th and went back in the marina. The costguard boat came in soon after we arrived, crammed with refugees. The majority looked to be Syrians and Afghans, but quite a few looked to be Somali. The port police yard is now absolutely full of refugees. A little later a coastguard RIB came in towing a very large rubber dinghy. They lifted it out onto the road, tied it to the back of a car, and dragged it along the road to dump it with all the others in the Port Police yard.
Everybody in the islands knows about the pernicious and mendacious article in the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3099736/Holidaymakers-misery-boat-people-Syria-Afghanistan-seeking-asylum-set-migrant-camp-turn-popular-Greek-island-Kos-disgusting-hellhole.html), which has received wide publicity in Greece, and they are very worried that it will lead to a big drop in tourism. We have tried to explain what the Daily Mail is and that these claims have been widely refuted, but that is not much consolation.
On Monday we cycled round to Merikhia for a swim and went for an excellent dinner in Ostria restaurant with Richard. I took the IKEA/Raleigh bike to the bike shop for a new gear cable, because the old one had seized over the winter. The bike man replaced the cable and lubricated the brake cables within the hour. They charged me 3 Euros. I said 'that is ridiculous', they said, 'is that expensive?, I said 'no,it is too cheap' and gave them 5 Euros.
We are planning to set off on a Southern Tour on Wednesday, to Levitha, Astipalaia, Nissiros and Tilos before getting to Kos to pick up Jade and Elliott on 25th.

Another year begins

We flew out to Athens on May 5th and stayed a couple of nights with Lena. Talked to Nikos about the Greek situation - he is strongly against a default because it would lead to chaos which would open the door to the right, an argument which I find convincing because it is clear that Syriza's hold on power is quite precarious. But my fear is that they will end up with the worst of both worlds - an unplanned default, chaos and a resurgence of the far right.
We flew to Leros on election day, May 7th, and went to bed as soon as we saw the exit poll results. And of course things have only got worse since, with Cameron off the leash and Labour MPs deciding that their problem is that they are not Tory enough. Surely if people are going to vote for the Tory programme, they will vote for the real thing, not for a pale imitation?
Anyway, we are away from it all for a while. We spent five days in the yard, meeting up with friends, cleaning the boat and doing some essential maintenance. We had a car for the first four days so could go around Leros, where we were greeted with hugs and kisses everywhere we went - it is so good to be back. Refugees are pouring in every day, but they are still met with Greek hospitality. The local population give clothes, food and money even though so many of them have nothing themselves, and they do not complain about having to wait in the hospital because the refugees' medicals have priority. One change this year is that refugees are flooding in to Kos and Samos. Apparently in the past, because of their good relations with the Turks, the Turkish police stopped traffickers from going there, but obviously money talks!
We launched on May 13th - the travel lift arrived at 7.45, but fortunately we were ready.

We went onto the buoy off the yard, but it was too windy to hoist the genoa, so we motored down to Lakki, surfing on the rollers. We stayed three days in Lakki marina, but they are doing a major reconstruction of the marina building so there are no facilities for now, and Anna has had to make her office under an umbrella on the quay.
On May 16th we motored up to Arki - no wind - where we found that Nicolas and Carolina had come back from Poland with a new baby!

Carolina had told Becky last summer that she was pregnant, but otherwise was not announcing it. Maria has recovered from her brain operation, but is taking it relatively easy - she even closed the taverna over the winter. Nicolas's dad spent the winter making more model boats, including one named after Varoufakis, the Syriza Finance Minister, though he is now not so sure!

We had a lovely relaxed few days in Arki, even swimming (earlier than  usual),

and the sea is surprisingly warm. We also had some gentle walks, Simon hobbling around with a stick because of his deteriorating hip. The school in Arki

this year has one pupil and one teacher! There is plenty of property for sale.

If you don't fancy that one, there is a whole island, Strongilo, for sale just off the main island (actually it is a lump of scrubby rock) for 2.5 million euros. Nicolas told us that his uncle had kept his goats there for many years, but somebody had just turned up with a piece of paper that supposedly confirmed his ownership and had put it up for sale (so there would be big lawyers' fees as well!).
On May 21st we motored across to Agathonisi (again no wind) to see our friends there. Refugees there have even landed on the town beach. Maria has a problem with her legs - she had an operation over the winter, but is still in a lot of pain, and Voula was away in Samos for the day to see the doctor - she had a bad cut on her finger. Agathonisi was very quiet - only two other boats at first, though more came in later. They have had a difficult start to the year, with few visitors apart from the refugees, and are hoping that things will pick up in June.
On May 22nd we sailed (!) down to Lipsi in a good breeze to do some washing at the best laundry in the region. We had a warm welcome from Manolis and had a good dinner at his taverna. The next day we went down to the anchorage off Arkhangelos and had lunch in the taverna there, again a very warm welcome even though we had not been since the year before last. We had planned to stay, but the forecast was for an increasing south westerly wind, so we went down to Lakki for the night, where we met up with Richard, who had launched after three weeks in the yard.
On May 24th we left Lakki, intending to sail to Levitha, but there was too much west in the wind, so instead we went south to Palionisos,

where we spent two days on a buoy, chilling and swimming.
We came back up to Lakki on May 26th, where we went back into the marina. Richard was still here, meeting up with his friend John, and we had an excellent dinner with them at Ostria.
That night we had thunderstorms and torrential rain and woke up to find the boat thick with Sahara dust that had been dropped with the rain. Everybody spent the morning hosing down their boats, but with more rain forecast there was no point in doing a thorough cleaning job yet.
We will stay in Lakki a few more days because of the variable weather, and up to gale force winds forecast for tonight, so that we can catch up with odd maintenance, repair and cleaning jobs.