Dodecanese, Kos and Autumn
Posted at 4:21 PM, Oct. 9, 2009
It has been over 3 weeks since re relaunched Savarna at Kos after two months on the hardstand. Great marina complex but the hardstand was obviously a dusty place while we were away and a heavy rainfall just before we returned converted all the dust to mud. The relaunching went smoothly with the 100 ton travellift meaning that we do not have to release the forestay or alternatively demount the radar post off the stern to accommodate the draft and give sufficient height for the lift.
Sophie at Kos marina looks after us like family and is fantastic – I am not sure how the place would operate without her. She organised us an apartment above the marina offices for when we returned and kept in touch with the sailmaker to ensure the various repairs were effected in time. On the sailmaker (his details are on an earlier blog posting) he turned out to be very good. His attention to detail and his enthusiasm in wanting to explain precisely everything he had done and why showed a thoughtfulness in his approach that I think is to be applauded. Good guy and I would certainly use him again.
We arrived in Kos on a Monday night, launched the following day and spent the rest of the week cleaning the boat and getting sails and bimini etc reinstalled. One of the slides in the mainsail battcar system had broken and I brought a new part back from New Zealand. That was the simple part – removing the bottom section of the mainsail mast track to enable me to install the new car proved a major. In the end after successfully removing one bolt and breaking the next (and with about 6 more to go) I called in Babis the local engineer/fix it up guy we had previously met and effected a redesign with the help of a metal cutting saw. All now working very well.
The week was also memorable as a consequence of a very active social round largely because we met up with Paddy and Carolyn from Christiane who we had met very briefly earlier this year after they had just arrived in Kos following a 15 month trip from Sydney. They are great fun and we spent several enjoyable evenings with them. Carolyn is also related to Ted Peacocke a fellow kiwi yotblogger. On the Friday night we also caught up with Brenda and David from Bandit, when they arrived in the town basin, a New Zealand yacht we have met up with several times over the last year.
Town square in Kos
So finally on Saturday 19th September we did the “proper” thing and cleared out of Greece, sailed the 10 miles or so across to Bodrum, parked up on the marina there and paid an exorbitant fee to enter Turkey. It is required to use an “agent” now rather than clear in yourself and the fee charged by the agent on the marina at Bodrum is outrageous at EUR197 including the transit log. The agents fee was EUR140 of this - at Datca we found the agent there charged EUR30 and at Kusadasi the marina act as agent and charged EUR50. So all I can say is if clearing in at Bodrum find an agent other than the one within the marina complex.
On the evening of Saturday 19th “Bodrum Transfers” delivered son Jason plus Emma, along with Hugo and Sabine. The latter being our 2.5 year old grand-daughter who we had not seen for over a year. She is certainly a livewire, very inquisitive might be the polite way of expressing it, and for her age has an impressive grasp of English and can conduct very detailed discussions. As fresh northerlies were forecast for a few days we figured we may as well head south to Datca about a 30 mile sail – it was a fast sail topping out several times at over 13 knots in a heavy rolling sea from astern which is always designed to establish who the survivors are - so Sabine had her one and only chuck up (over Jason) and after that well and truly established her sealegs. An exhilarating sail for some! This time around we did manage to successfully throw an anchor in the harbour, dropped the dinghy in and explored ashore. Nice beach adjoining the town and Sabine and Hugo had plenty of swimming. We then cleared out of Datca (being Turkey) and sailed the 10 miles across to Symi which is a favourite spot – no room on the town quay so we anchored in Pethi, the next bay over the hill from the town. Spent a couple of nights here but also scored a spot on the town quay, next to Bandit as it happened, the following day to clear into Greece. The advantage of Pethi was that there was plenty of opportunity for swimming off the boat and it is a pretty nice bay.
Jason with Sabine
Sabine - she likes the water.
So from Symi it was pretty much a couple of weeks of revisiting old haunts as we beat our way northwards towards Kusadasi where Jason and family were planning to leave the boat. So a good sail back up to Kos, overnighted in the marina. Then to Vathi, the fiordlike small harbour on Kalymnos – where we met Austrian yachtsman Gunter and his delightful daughter Rebecca (hope she had a good birthday Gunter!) and from there to Pandeli on Leros where we met up with and had dinner ashore with Vera and Daniel (aka Olive Oyl and Popeye on Yotblog). Had a most enjoyable night with them ashore and always interesting to meet internet friends!
Greek fishing village - just like the brochures
Northerlies still prevalent and the next night we spent at Lakki on Leros, on the west side of the island where we had not been before. A good anchorage until the coastguard screamed at us to move the next morning – so we did so immediately! Had a solid beat to Patmos with one reef in the main and wind in the low 20’s gusting to 26/27 knots. Good powerful sail regularly clocking 8.4’s unless the helmsman missed a wave. Got onto the town quay at Patmos. The following day Pam and I hired a scooter and explored the island (and later Jason and Hugo – who couldn’t stop smiling also headed off).
Motormower style around Patmos!
Jason and Emma bussed up to the most impressive monastery we have come across to date (reported in previous blogs) and we took the opportunity to catch up on a few chores.
Hugo the water boy!!
All well on board, Sabine and Hugo are really enjoying their first sailing holiday and apart from one heavy rain squall early one morning we have had fine, and reasonably warm weather – temps in the 23 – 26 degree range I would pick. By and large plenty of wind so the diesel consumption is running at a low level. In fact in the past 5 days we have only run the engine 5 hours – genset getting some use to keep batteries charged though.
Getting several emails about slack blogging performance so will get another posting up very soon.
Cheers