Lesvos and south...
Well, when we got back to Lesvos, very little seemed to have changed. Yes, there were still queues at the cash machines, but there seemed to be an acceptance of things and there were no problems in the shops, cafes or restaurants. In fact, we were surprised to see that many of those eating out were still Greek people rather than tourists...life goes on!
Our American friends, Dave and Miranda, flew down with us to Greece for a few days on Zaffina. We were stuck in port due to wind for the first couple of days, but explored in our little hire car and found the most gorgeous port on the north of the island, a beautiful, traditional village with a massive castle crowning the hill above.
Back on board, once the wind had died, we took to the high seas, although not without a little disappointment as the thrusters had packed up again which meant manoeuvring would Zaff would be more difficult. We opted to head for a deep inlet about an hour from the marina and found a beautiful anchorage with just a couple of houses in sight, calm turquoise waters and a few goats on the hillside to fill the air with the chiming of their bells. There we stayed for 24 hours, just swimming, chatting, sunbathing and then enjoying a candlelit dinner in the cockpit; it really was idyllic.
We decided to find another anchorage the next day and moved deeper into the inlet (it was almost a small inland sea) and dropped the hook opposite a tiny port we'd seen whilst driving. Frank and Dave went ashore and came back to tell us girls that they'd enjoyed a fabulous fresh orange juice and a coffee, at which point we immediately sent them straight back to get a take away orange for each of us! The cafe had run out of oranges, but not to be put off, the waitress jumped in her car, drove to the next village and bought some more! It was worth it!
The wind came up a little later in the day and we thought we may get more shelter in another spot, so again we moved. Without the thrusters, Frank had to hold Zaffina with the throttles whilst I swam and tied the rope on, but unable to see so clearly what was happening behind the boat (the thruster control is in the cockpit, the throttles on the flybridge) he couldn't see that some coils of rope were still nearby as he altered our position - result: rope around the prop. To make matters worse, the calm water that we had been seeking had suddenly chopped up, so I swam back to release the other rope before we had to cut the one now coiled onto the propellor shaft. We decided to go back to our previous anchorage, as there was a boatyard near the small port and hopefully we'd be able to get help, but when we went to move, there were horrible vibrations from the now taut piece of rope that was still attached and then a sudden release of tension...something had happened under water, but goodness knows what.
Fortunately we found a couple of guys to help us when we reached the port; one dived below Zaffina and came back to tell us the rope was now around both props! We were horrified, but after half a dozen dives with a knife (boy could that guy hold his breath), he'd cleared the whole lot. We stayed in situ for the night, not wanting to go through the whole procedure of re-anchoring, and it turned out to be calm and beautiful - why on earth did we move in the first place?
By now it was Friday, and Dave and Miranda were due to leave on Saturday. We woke to an amazingly calm sea, and longed to stay out until the last possible moment, but we'd also had problems with the invertor on the fridge (as usual, not one but three things sent to try us!) and the engineer was due in at 2pm, so sadly we glided back into the port of Mytilene on the dot of 2, in readiness for his visit. He turned up at 11 o clock the following morning. Grrrr. We had spent the entire afternoon and evening gazing out at the most perfect conditions and quietly boiling on our berth in the port.
Dave and Miranda departed for their long haul back to Texas; it had been so great to spend some real time together, as our previous get togethers have always been brief, a couple of days at the most. This time we had had four days overflowing with laughter and chat, not divided by our common language, but thoroughly amused by the subtle and not so subtle differences. Hopefully it won't be donkeys' years until we meet up again!
After another day in port due to the high wind, we set off towards Samos where we were meeting our next guests. Conditions were okay, not brilliant but not too bad, as we moved south, at times amazingly close to the coast of Turkey. We opted to stop for the night at a tiny island that we'd never previously heard of: Ionoussa. Apparently the biggest shipping magnate in Greece lives there, and we strained our eyes to pick out a mansion of suitable proportions but there was no evidence of such magnitude. After an afternoon at anchor we decided to go into the port, and were lucky to find an easy berth (with no thrusters it had to be) on the quay, and Frank brought Zafffina in beautifully. I was ready to jump ashore to tie on, but fortunately a random passing stranger took the ropes, saving me the need to leap off the side deck whilst we were still manoeuvring into position.
The town - village really - was so sweet without a hint of tourism to the place. We wandered around, climbing steep steps up to the church, which was more of a cathedral and enormous for such a small place, and then ate on board before going ashore for a drink after dinner. When Frank went to the port police the following morning to pay for our berth, the official there chatted with him for a while, looked at our transit log and commented on the number of places we'd visited, and then said he wasn't going to charge us for the night! You have to love the Greeks!
We left Ionoussa early the next day, expecting a calm trip down to Samos, but the further south we went, the windier it got and we ended up having a not so enjoyable journey. To the west of Samos is a channel that we had to negotiate and we were shocked by the size and intensity of the sea as we went through this last stretch of our trip. Ahead we could see a distinct line in the water where the calm sea resumed, but until we got there, it was an uncomfortable ride. Eventually we hit calm water and turned eastwards towards our destination, but before we had time to relax, things chopped up again as we were crossing a wide bay. And so it went on: calm for a short while, then choppy and windy again, on and on. We nosed into various bays in the hope of finding shelter and were about to give up and go into port when we decided to try one last one, Poseidonos - and hit the jackpot! Not only beautiful, but calm...here was the anchorage we'd been looking for.
As we dropped the hook, I looked around at the other boats and to my amazement saw Threshold, the American yacht we had last seen in Sardinia! We waved frantically at Steve and Karen, with whom we'd had drinks and shared stories five years ago, and by that evening, we were sitting in their cockpit, sharing a glass of wine and catching up on the intervening boating!
We moved to port the following day and in the late afternoon, Benjamin, Frank's grandson arrived, with his lovely girlfriend Nancy. Again we were port bound for a couple of days due to the wind, but it didn't matter too much. We hired a car and explored, returning to lovely Poseidonos by road and enjoying it just as much, simply lying on the beach and jumping into the sea when too hot. The little town of Pythagorio, a short walk from our marina, was also a favourite, with a lovely town beach, fun shopping and a choice of restaurants, many of which just put their tables and chairs onto the beach for the evening, so guests can dine with their feet almost in the water...and we did!
Once the forecast was better, we moved on, down to Aganithos, where we were confident of finding good shelter. Wrong! We tried almost every anchorage on the island before returning to one of the first bays we'd seen and again we were lucky - although it seemed less than sheltered as we approached, once we were fairly close in, it proved to be probably the best place to be, with just a small breeze finding us, which was more of a blessing than a nuisance, with the temperatures now soaring.
The next day we were on the move again, this time to Lipsi, a tiny island and gorgeous (again). We anchored off a pretty beach, intending to dine ashore in the evening, but by the time it go dark the wind was up again so Frank and I opted to stay on board whilst our guests had a romantic dinner a deux ashore. They came back raving about the place, so we returned the following evening, which was Ben's birthday, and had a fabulous meal there. By now, we had moved Zaffina around the corner to an anchorage near the small town, which proved to be extremely pretty. When we got back there after our dinner, there was Greek dancing going on in the town square and we joined the throngs watching the locals in their colourful costumes enjoying their island traditions.
We had one more island to visit before returning Ben and Nancy to Kos, where they would fly home from: Leros. Again, we tried a few anchorages before opting for a place not too far from town where we tied onto some rocks near the shore. In the evening, we took the dinghy across to Leros Town and decided to walk from one side - at the bottom of a steep incline - to the other, ie up, over the hill and down. The two halves of the town were both pretty, and after cocktails in a chic bar, we had dinner under the moonlight at a restaurant on the beach. Not willing to make the same walk again, we got a taxi back to the port! Out of the whole week, that was probably our calmest night - although it had been fun, B and Nancy had had the windiest of weeks on Zaffina, and without the thrusters, we'd spent most nights at anchor with noisy waves slapping the hull, but there were no complaints!
We reached Kos after a good trip down from Leros, the last stretch of which was, finally, calm! The port staff were excellent as we came in, knowing that we had problems, and pretty soon we were tied on, side-to, on the quayside, and there we stayed for two weeks after B and Nancy departed!
The faulty thruster parts had to be returned to Italy for repair and that meant a long and frustrating wait. For the first few days we moved into a hotel and enjoyed being pampered; we would have stayed there longer, but although the hotel was excellent, the food was second rate and disappointing. We hired a car and explored Kos from top to bottom, finding some glorious beaches and hidden coves and generally getting to like the island more and more. It wasn't brash and loud as we'd expected, and parts of it were still beautifully wild and undeveloped, although with plenty of choices of places to go and things to do.
Finally, finally, the thrusters returned and were fixed, the bills (marina, engineer, cleaners, oil change etc etc) paid and we were off. I'd wanted for ages to get to Symi and finally we were on our way down to this utterly charming island. We considered going into the beautiful port - it really is sensational, elegant Italian style architectures, houses rising up the hillside, everything colourful and well maintained, churches and towers dotted throughout - but instead went round to a nearby bay, Pedo, to drop anchor. And that's when the thrusters failed again.
To say we were mad, disappointed, gutted, was an understatement. Numerous phone calls followed, but eventually we decided to stay for a few days and then return to Kos for the work to be done (again) whilst we're back in Jersey next week. So here we are, still in Pedi, and it is just glorious. The weather is cloudless and very very hot, the scenery is beautiful, the sea is calm until 4pm and then it blows up until about 7, and we're loving it.
But our time in Greece is drawing to a close. Next stop...hopefully...Turkey!
