Kusadasi back to Kos
Posted at 10:36 PM, Oct. 17, 2009
Finally cleared out of Turkey at Kusadasi, with a few delays as there were several cruise ships in town that were also clearing in or out. We were fortunate in that we had southerly winds to get us the final 20 miles into Kusadasi that by the time we came to leave were back in the north. We had planned to visit Ephesus (famous ruins, Virgin Mary supposedly spent her last years here etc) but Pam was not well so Dr John (not the piano player) headed off into town for some anti-biotics, which are easily obtainable in Greece and Turkey i.e. no prescription required.
John enjoying the handlebars in a fresh southerly.
Before we arrived back on Savarna we spent a delightful few days with Alice and Volker in Leipzig. Also met Volker’s parents for the first time. Lovely city, flat, hundreds of trams and unknown before we arrived home at various times to Bach, Wagner, Mendelssohn, and Goethe (who wrote Faust here). We have plenty of pictures of us posing under statues.
Posing with Bach - he wrote a new cantata every Sunday for 23 years for the cathedral.
Also visited nearby Dresden – the old town is full of history and well worth the visit. The new part of town is where the British bombed the hell out of the place – the futility of war!
Keith, guide Anna, Pam, Buarnt, Christiana and Volker with statue of Mendelssohn in background.
Back to cruising – after Kusadasi it was back to Pythagorion on Samos to clear back into Greece. The police asked if this was the last time I was going to check in! Back into the marina for a couple of nights and the day we spent there we rented a car and drove up to Manalotes, the mountain village, for lunch. Blowing hard from the north again and we thought the meltemi winds would have disappeared by now?
Manolates for lunch - waiter, Keith,John, Karen, Jack
From here it was a tight reach in a westerly to Marathos where we were one of only three boats on the moorings for the night. Goat stew, curry goat or roast goat did not really appeal this time round so we adjoined to the pirate’s lair for a few beers to show some support and then dined aboard.
Savarna at Marathos - Keith takes Jack for a burn
Weather warmish (mid 20’s) and still swimming in water temperatures of around 22/23. The following day we had another quick broad reach across to Patmos where we again tied up on the town quay so that John, Karen and Jack could get the bus up to the hugely impressive monastery. Patmos has a number of well sheltered bays on its southern side and we anchored in one of them behind a small island in about 7 metres – great spot and good swimming.
From Patmos it was another sail across to Lipsi on the island of Lipsol and anchored under the small church in the north eastern corner of the bay before moving into and anchoring off the town for the night. This is a small town we think has a lot of character and worth spending some time wandering around the alleys and streets. It is apparently still run out of Patmos and the religious history must have permeated Lipsol as sitting in the cockpit we could count at least 14 churches and the population cannot be more than a 1,000 or so!
The following day we had a quiet sail to the northern end of Leros and were quietly sailing into the bay called Parthoni and did notice that the airport runway rose from the waters edge. As we got a few hundred metres off the end of the runway, with no other boats or activity in sight, we spotted a fire engine roaring down the runway with lights flashing and the siren going. A quick turn to starboard was our response which appeared to get 10 out of 10 as they turned away. A few minutes later an Olympic jet emerged from nowhere and landed. So we ended up in the next bay ( Plakoudhi) which had a number of holiday homes on its shoreline and a few power boats at anchor – the first bay we have seen like this. It could have been in New Zealand. A flat calm night resulted.
Typical bay on a Greek island, fishing boat and Savarna in background
From Leros it was a 24 odd mile sail to Vathi on Kalymnos (the sponge island) and again we scored the spot anchored off and stern to the jetty for the night of Monday 12 July. On checking the forecast (windfinder.com) we found a 983 low over the Adriatic and a few places in the Aegean with up to a force 9 forecast. Fortunately Vathi is very sheltered and when we ventured out the following morning it was with a reefed main and a quick sail for the 15 miles back to Kos with nothing over 25 knots and reaching until we reached the north eastern of Kos and turned into 35 knots for the last couple of miles back into the marina – actually dropped all sail and motored. In the last 6 days we have only run the motor 5 hours so plenty of sailing and also plenty of generator to keep the batteries up.
John, Karen and Jack jumped into a nearby hotel for their last night on Kos and then the ferry to Bodrum for them while we spent a solid couple of days winterising the boat. Wrapped up a couple of full dyas work with a dinner with Sophie from the marina at a local restaurant owned by second generation Cretians. Babis a local engineer we met during our last visit to Kos is looking after the boat in our absence - he seems like a good guy and reliable.
That’s it for the 2009 season. Next year brings the East Med Rally which we will join in early May somewhere around Bodrum or Gocek in Turkey.
Cheers