Dropping Anchor in the Dodecanese

In the afternoon, we left the town of Astypalea and sailed around the island to visit the bay, Vathy, on the northeast of the island.  We quickly sailed on a beam reach to the southeast corner where we were then caught in the eddies before finally reaching the wind again and continuing on our course.  Arriving just after sunset we were lucky to have a bright moon to guide us down the narrow channel that opened into a lake-like bay.

The next day, the Meltemi was beginning to blow again, but not at its full strength so we had a perfect course to make our way east.  We had fun tacking north around Astypalea into the already-growing waves before bearing away to make around 7kts with a reefed main.  Within a few hours, Kalymnos and Kos came into view and we decided to head for the small island of Nera just outside the port of Kalymnos where we took a line ashore in view of a small chapel.

In the night, we were joined by the lone inhabitants of the island, mice, that made their way across our shore lines and enjoyed munching on our cucumber. Unfortunately, we had to take them with us for two days as we continued on that day to Pserimos.  The wind had increased so we were informed that the harbor in Kos was full with sailors not wanting to navigate out in the conditions and the short trip to Pserimos was a great mid-way stop on our route.  However, the gusts were too strong for the amount of sail we had up so instead of changing sails for the last mile we used the motor to head straight into the wind as we entered the well-protected anchorage on the east of Pserimos.

The following day we set off after an early breakfast to Kos town to drop off Larissa at the ferry port.  On Kos, we were able to get ahold of some mouse traps and do a big refill of groceries which were nicely delivered by the supermarket that was a little over a kilometer away from the dock.  Once everything was packed away again we continued on our way to Gyali.

The Meltemi was now blowing hard again, but while we were sheltered a little from Kos as we made our way downwind on its eastern coast we were tempted to put up more sail.  Thankfully, we decided to wait it out and were quickly speeding toward Turkey at 9kts.  Trying to get on course at a broad reach proved a challenge as the wind gusted over the island at over 40kts.  Luckily, the wind decreased again, as we expected, after getting past the corner, and we were able to head for Gyali.  Arriving in the dark, we dropped the anchor behind this interesting island, which has an operating pumice quarry on the west side and is made up of primarily obsidian on the east side.

The next day was spent relaxing at anchor until the evening when we made a short hop over to Nysiros.  The sheltered harbor in Pali was a great place to visit the rest of the volcanic island.  We spent two nights here delighted by all that the island had to offer before making our way back to Kos with Pia who also joined us for a few hours of sailing.  The small port of Kardamaina, near the airport, proved an ideal place to prepare for a big crew change. Here we said goodbye to Lenni, Heli, and Pia and welcomed Regina, Franci, Vivi, Sonja and Fenia on board.