Chapter One: BACK TO GREECE
We’d thoroughly enjoyed our exile in Turkey and had a great sail from Datça back to Symi. Outside Gialos port we tried to call the harbour master, but nobody answered the VHF. Peter took us in anyway, and eventually a marinero came to see us as we were hovering around. He showed us where to go and attached our long line to a mooring buoy. But not only was he then useless at taking our stern lines and guiding us in, he was also living up to his online reputation by being incredible rude, and finally abandoned us altogether halfway through the mooring procedure.
Luckily the Immigration officer made up for the marinero’s shortcomings and was a delight to deal with – all two minutes of it! We popped into the Kritikos supermarket for spirits, returned to Cordelia for lunch, and headed to the nice lady at Customs after Peter had filled in the online form. 15 minutes later we had our new Transit Log with which we headed to the Port Police. They stamped our new crew list, which completed the check-in procedure.
After an uncomfortable night on the quay with the light of the street lamp beaming into Cordelia we were keen to leave. At 8.20am we slipped our mooring and untied the knot that attached our line to the buoy.
At 9.00am there was enough wind to unfurl the genoa, and for 40 minutes we had a decent ride in the gusts. Then, all of a sudden, the wind disappeared, and we had to motor for the rest of our journey. It was warming up and a few other boats were also enjoying the conditions. We were chased by the ferry and moved out of the way before we got into Panormitis. There was plenty of space in the anchorage, and we found a sandy patch in 6.5m.
The wind kept building up in the night and Peter kept anchor watch as the big gusts pushed Cordelia from side to side. We had one boat particularly close to us, but their anchor held well. Another ketch, however, dragged, then stopped just behind us. In the morning our close neighbour left together with some other boats, but ferries and excursion boats arrived aplenty. We tried to relax in the sunny cockpit, but found it difficult in the windy conditions. In the afternoon our close neighbour returned and became an even closer neighbour. The boat that had dragged in the night finally re-anchored after it had dragged again, more boats came in looking for refuge, and Cordelia was still swinging around her anchor.
The wind finally blew itself out, but despite the improved conditions we stayed on board until we were ready to move on.
Chapter Two: A HOLIDAY ON VOLCANO ISLAND
The cockpit was still damp when we weighed anchor at 8.00am, so we wore our waterproof salopettes. We also had some clouds, consequently it took a while before things dried out. We got the sun once we’d passed the little islands off Symi’s West coast and as there was no wind we soon heated up and shed the long trousers. It stayed windless, and we had a gentle motor towards Nisyros.
Peter contacted Stavros, as advised on Navily, to inquire whether there was room in the harbour for us which he confirmed. About an hour out we had to alter course for a ferry to Rhodes, then continued towards our destination. Ingrid prepared lines and fenders and had just finished when the wind picked up to 25 knots. Peter didn’t fancy mooring up stern-to in these conditions, but we thought we’d have a look anyway. Stavros called us to let us know he would be ready, and this, together with the land now providing some protection from the wind, reassured us.
Stavros welcomed us from the harbour wall and told us to keep close to the breakwater as the entrance hadn’t been dredged, then he sprinted ahead on his motorbike and showed us our berth. He instructed us where and when to drop the anchor, guided Peter safely in-between two yachts, and took our stern lines. And this wasn’t even his job! He had a car rental company, and we’d be sure to rent from him when we were ready to explore the island. He also explained that the harbour, water and electricity were all free, so we made good use of them. The wind kept building up, but we were nicely tucked in and safe.
The next day we hired a car from Stavros for two days, put the destination into the “Waze” app, and found our way out of Paloi. The road was good and empty and took us up to Emporio where we found the little cave known as “Sauna” due to the heat from its volcanic activity. When we entered it was so hot that Peter’s glasses and the camera steamed up.
Time for the real thing! Peter drove us along the mountainous road with many bends to the Stefanos Volcano, with 300m in diameter one of the largest hydro-thermal craters in the world. We walked down into its caldera with smoke coming out of numerous fumaroles.
The smell of sulphur filled our nostrils, so we made our way back out and carried on further up to two smaller craters. These were cordoned off, as the gas they emitted was too dangerous to go near. We had a good look and were amazed by the out-of-this-world landscape.
We were in need of fresh air, so we reversed our route. Two big coaches came the other way, and Peter avoided them by driving very close to the mountain’s edge. At the junction we turned towards Nikia, a charming mountain village with great views to the volcano’s caldera. We had a little walk around, ascended the steps to the chapel, then sat down at “Porta” café for a snack and frappés.
Thus refreshed Peter took us in the little Seat Mii all the way down and towards Moundraki. We didn’t stop there but turned off up a narrow road to the Paleokastro. We walked around the castle grounds and on top of some of the walls from the 4th century BC, then called an end to being tourists. Peter drove us back to Paloi where we had a stroll before we returned to Cordelia.
We packed our walking sticks, Peter made sandwiches, and we were off in the car again. We took the road towards Moundraki, turned left and followed the bends and hairpins up to the monastery. We parked outside and picked up the path to Prophet Elias Chapel. The trail was well maintained and marked and led uphill in a nice gradient.
We passed a couple of ruins, walked through woodland, admired the terraces on the slope opposite ours, had a little rest, and finally emerged at the lower chapel. This was situated amidst a large compound within stone walls and a ruin (a basilica?) on barren and rocky ground.
We continued after a look around and soon reached the upper chapel and the top (698m). The views down to the coastline and out to sea to the other islands were fantastic and worth the effort.
The path carried on to a viewpoint over the caldera, but soon the blue dots that marked it disappeared and we took a wrong turn. We flushed out a flock of chukar partridges before MapOut got us back on track (not that there was much of one). Peter took pictures of the surroundings before we retraced our steps and scrambled back up to the top.
After a rest for lunch at the chapel we started our descent. We were glad we had our sticks for balance and support of our knees as the path seemed steeper on the way down than on the ascent. We had intended to make this hike a round tour, but when we were at the turn-off Peter, who’d scouted it out for a short distance, found it overgrown and prickly. We decided to forego the sensation of scratched skin and the sight of any potential ancient ruins along the path, and instead followed ours all the way back to the monastery.
Peter drove us back downhill, but this time turned into Moundraki where we parked at the harbour. We strolled through the tourist centre with shops and bars and restaurants, walked along the very pretty esplanade placed on lava rock, and returned to a café for frappés and much needed water.
On our return journey we filled up with petrol at the only (unmanned) fuel station on the island after we’d sussed out how to work it (Google Translate helped). We parked the unlocked car with the keys in the footwell, returned to Cordelia for a cup of çay (= Turkish tea) and watched the quay fill up with charter boats. Ingrid reserved us a table at the Aphrodite restaurant where we enjoyed a very delicious meal later in the evening.
On our last day we took a walk along the coastal road out of town. We passed the local sandy beach, benches, various buildings and interesting pumice formations. We got as far as to the corner of the headland from where we could look over to the round basin of an artificial lake. On the way back a police car going the other way blew its horn and the policemen gave us a friendly wave. We met them again while we rested on one of the benches overlooking the sea, and once again we had the tooting and the waving.
Peter had seen on the map that there were ruins of a Roman thermal bath in the area, so we followed the directions and after descending the few stairs we found some tepid water in a cave. Next to it was a quaint little chapel from 1871.
Further down the road we came to a huge edifice of which only the stone-clad shell was left. When Peter researched it he found out that it was a spa hotel from the early 1900s. However, it was closed before WWII and stripped. When we returned to Cordelia we slowly prepared for departure on the next morning.
Chapter Three: RETURN TO LEROS
We got up at 6.30am, had breakfast, disconnected the electricity cable, and slipped our mooring at 8.00am. The little wafts we encountered outside the harbour came from all directions, so we had no use for the sails and motored.
Just under an hour later we’d passed Gyali island and moved along a rolly sea towards Kos. Peter put out the fishing rod and did have a bite later on. However, the fish on the end of the line was small and it let go when Peter tried to reel it in. The sea state worsened around Cape Krikellos and shook Cordelia from side to side, causing a few rattles down below. When the wind settled into a southerly direction around Kálymnos we unfurled the genoa a couple of times, only to put it away soon afterwards as it didn’t like these conditions and was flapping in protest.
We did eventually manage a good hour of motorsailing on the genoa with the wind and swell/waves from astern. This took us nicely to the entrance of Portolago where we furled away the genoa and retired the fishing rod. After checking out the vacant spaces in the anchorage we settled for one in 5m and dropped the hook. With an average speed of 5.5kn we’d arrived at Lakki at 3.30pm, 7½ hours and 41.5NM after our departure.
Peter immediately began to extract the warm engine oil. We had a cup of çay with a few biscuits while this was going on. Ingrid kept out of the way until the oil pump had gotten nearly 10l out of the blackened liquid, then we refilled it with the golden new stuff. Peter also changed the filter, then tested the engine by starting it. It was tickety-boo, so the first job of the winterisation process had been completed successfully. Cleaning the sump was a job for the next day, so was filling up the tank with 20l of diesel from our container.
A grey day full of rain delayed our preparations for the winter as we stayed below to keep out of the wet, but on the next day we pumped up Buddy and attached the outboard. We had two trips to the fuel station to fill up our container and subsequently the tank, and another trip to pay a visit to the supermarket for provisions. It was still raining on and off, and in the night we had one of the most spectacular thunderstorms we’d ever encountered.
It started at around 3.30am, and soon the sky was illuminated by a firework of lightning. The thunder kept rolling in until it was exploding right above us and was nearly simultaneous with its flashing companion. The lights went out in town, then it began to rain. The deluge turned into hail that was smashed against Cordelia by the wind. It found its way underneath Buddy who was stowed upside down on the foredeck, and through the hatch below him, and dripped onto Peter’s side of our bed. Cordelia was turning and heeling in the bigger gusts, the noise was deafening, and there was pandemonium all around us.
Peter got up to keep watch and stuck his head out of the companionway every so often to check the elements and our surroundings, while Ingrid stuck hers under the covers. This end-of-the-world scenario seemed to be going on forever, but eventually hail was replaced by rain, the wind eased and the lights in town came back on. At 5.30am the worst had passed, and as it quietened down so did we, and went back to sleep.
The wind was forecast to change to South-West in the coming days which would have made our anchorage untenable. We therefore decided to take up our winter berth early and headed for the marina. We took care of our waste water tank before we entered and continued the winterisation process as soon as we were moored up.
The next few days were filled with dealing with the bureaucratic processes for suspending the transit log and getting Cordelia ready for her haul-out. When we took off her sails we discovered that the mainsail was in bad shape and would not survive another season. Something else to take care off during the winter period! We were allocated an afternoon slot for the lift out, and Cordelia was moved to a temporary place on the hard. We spent the next two days on board to make sure she was safe while we left her for the winter.
