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AUTUMN CRUISE 2021

RHODES TO LEROS

12 November to 3 December 2021

We are now back in Moor & Dock’s boatyard at Partheni in Leros, having returned from Kastellorizo and Karpathos on our Southern Dodecanese cruise. This Blog covers the final part of our return trip from Rhodes via Astipalia and Kos to Leros boatyard.

Route taken on our Autumn Cruise of the Southern Dodecanese

RHODES

After taking over two days in Rhodes [Blog 3] to resolve our diesel-bug problems, with the invaluable support of Sabri Ibrahim, an experienced Sudanese marine engineer and his invaluable diesel separator pump, we ‘relaxed’ for a couple of days before continuing our return to Leros.

Diesel separator pump pipe extracting contaminated fuel 

from the main diesel tank under the pilot berth

Before we began ‘relaxing’, we were turfed out of ‘our’ berth and asked to move over to the other side of Mandraki Harbour. ‘Our’ berth was supposedly a ‘private’ one that was required by its Turkish owner (with, as usual, a US-flagged boat) who was returning that day. As it happens, our new berth was more conveniently situated, right next to the centre of the town.

Mandraki Harbour

Given our central location, we treated ourselves to a take-away gyros from an excellent local fast-food joint. The chef’s knife was long and razor sharp! Gyros are made of solid slices of pork (not from compressed savoury mince as in a Turkish doner kebab)

Rhodes, or Rodos as it is known in Greece, is by far the largest island in the Dodecanese – one of the twelve principal islands close to the Turkish mainland. It has always been an important trading centre in view of its location in relation to Asia, Africa, Greece, Turkey, and Italy. Under Turkish rule from 1522, and Italian rule from 1912, Rhodes, together with the other principal eleven Dodecanese islands, only joined the modern Greek state (founded in 1832) in 1947.

Dodecanese Islands

The island’s historic legacy is a wonderful blend of architectural styles and culture. The Italians, while motivated by Fascist ambitions, nevertheless deserve credit for much of the reconstruction, excavation of ancient ruins and construction of many of the public buildings that exist today. More recently, the EU has contributed significantly to the infrastructure within the Greek Islands.

By far the largest settlement on the island, Rhodes City straddles its northern headland and is in full view of Turkey, less than 15 miles away. Interestingly, the14^th century Ancient City of Rodos was almost twice the size of the modern city and held double the population.

A view of the northern tip of Rhodes where the city of Rhodes is located 

Like Kos, Rhodes is a fertile giant. Traditional agriculture, while still important, has however been displaced in terms of its percentage contribution to the island’s economy by a tourist industry focused on beaches and nightlife. Given its excellent climate and facilities, it is now being promoted as an all-year-round holiday destination. While overcrowded in the summer, it is, out of season as now, a magnificent island. Having said that, we didn’t see many obvious overseas tourists.

The fortified enclave known as the Old City was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 and is one of the best-preserved Old Cities in the world. Again, the Italians deserve credit for this work.

A section of the defensive city wall viewed across the inner harbour for local boats

One of the many labyrinthine streets in the Old City. 

Note the arches designed to support buildings during earthquakes

Some of the many stone projectiles launched by catapult at the City from ships 

during the Great Siege of Rhodes by Turkey in 1522

The northwest coast of the island is ‘relatively’ uninhabited since it faces the prevailing northerly winds. The east coast is well protected and therefore has a more temperate climate. Sprawling towns and resorts have been built up along beaches. Some, such as Faliraki (once named the most dangerous holiday resort in Europe), are best avoided.

Lindos, however, some 50 miles south of Rhodes, where we anchored four years ago, is almost too good to be true. A classic Greek village of whitewashed cube buildings clings to the hillside with a castle-topped Acropolis above and a crystal-clear bay and sundry crescent beaches below. Even the sandy seabed in the well-protected anchorage in the bay provides perfect holding.

Lindos Bay viewed from village above

Lindos village, fort and Acropolis seen from anchorage

ASTIPALIA

We left Rhodes at dawn to catch a favourable 24-hour weather window for our next passage – to Astipalia. That island, shaped like a butterfly, lies 100 miles west of Rhodes, well out into a remote area of the Aegean Sea.

Route from Rhodes to Astipalia (on our way back to Leros)

Although the island has some reasonably good beaches in spectacular locations, its relative isolation, lack of nightlife, limited ferry services, and inter-island-only airstrip have to date conspired to deter foreign tourists. This probably accounts for the island’s popularity with Greek holidaymakers who constitute 90 per cent of all visitors. Even so, the island richly rewards walkers, campers, and history buffs – and of course cruising yachtsmen.

Astipalia

Although included in the Dodecanese group, architecturally, geographically, and historically Astipalia belongs in the Cyclades group of islands. Its white cubist houses, Chora, castle and windmills, plus its barren hillsides, are typically Cycladean. On a clear day, one can see the Cycladean islands of Anafi and even Amorgas, although no single Dodecanese island is within sight. Through a quirk of history, Astipalia was included in the Dodecanese Island group. At the Peace Conference in 1832, following the Greek War of Independence, Astipalia was mistakenly positioned in the Turkish Dodecanese because an out-of-date map was used when drawing the new boundaries!

We arrived from Rhodes off the south-east corner of the island and had to navigate our way in a moonless night west along its south coast through several unlit islets and rocks to Skala, the island’s principal town and port. The harbour is set in a deeply indented, steep-sided bay.

Skala Harbour viewed from the Chora

We decided not to risk mooring in the shelter of the inner harbour because numerous fishermen’s lines were strung along the quay and buoys, some semi-submerged, lurked in the harbour. We had no wish for a repetition of the incident in Finiki when a rope fouled our prop. We therefore ‘parked’ on the ferry dock, expecting to be woken up by the Port Police and told to move when the Blue Star ferry, due at 0300 hours in Astipalia, arrived. As it happened, we were not woken up and slept through to 0800 hours!

ID alongside on the old ferry dock with the outer wall of the inner harbour 

and part of Skala town in the background

Only when we looked around in the daylight, and then asked someone, did we realise that the ferry dock was no longer in use, other than for smaller inter-island ferries, which arrive during daylight hours. The enormous Blue Star ferries now dock at the new ferry port of San Andreas, 4 miles away on the north coast. Presumably the locals and Blue Star ferries feel obliged to use it, having persuaded the EU to finance it, regardless of the fact that the prevailing wind is from the north.

San Andreas ferry port in the middle of nowhere

Since there can, for a smaller yacht, be quite a swell on the old ferry dock, we moved next morning into the inner harbour which is far better protected from wind and fetch. There we anchor-moored stern-to on the quay with the help of a German cruising couple who took our lines. They had been caught in Astipalia by the Covid lockdown and had overwintered there. They know and like the island well, to the extent that they remained there after the lockdown was lifted.

ID anchor-moored on the inner harbour’s breakwater quay, looking west at Skala’s small gravel beach, quayside houses and shops

The buildings of the Chora on the hilltop cascade down to meet those of the fishing port of Skala. Today they constitute one town, interlinked by a maze of narrow streets and one central road. The Kastro above the Chora is considered to be one of the finest in the Aegean. Rather than purpose-built battlements, its unique outer wall consists of four-storey buildings with castle-thick outer walls. In its prime, it housed 4,000 people within these walls and contained a labyrinth of staircases and alleyways, in addition to two blue-domed churches.

The remaining thick outer walls of the Kastro viewed from the Chora’s main square. 

(The windows in the walls were opened up only in the nineteenth century.)

The adjacent resort of Livadia, which occupies the bay on the west side of the Kastro, has the best easily accessible beach on the island and is backed by a fertile valley – a major source of the island’s garden produce. Its long straight beach is fringed with restaurants and bars and compared with the rest of the island it seems to have been transplanted from a glitzier environment.

Livadia beach viewed through one of the beachside tavernas 

with the Chora and Kastro in the background

Maltezena, Astipalia’s second largest settlement, is 10 kms east of Skala and less than one kilometre from the island’s airstrip. We found it to be a very pleasant place with several sandy beaches and a small fishing-boat jetty. The German couple who helped us berth in Skala were moving to that quay to sit out another forthcoming northerly front, since their boat would be facing into wind there in the best-protected anchorage on the island’s south coast.

Maltezana’s fishing-boat quay

We, however, decided to head next day for Vathi on the northwest corner of the eastern butterfly wing of the island. To enter the bay, which provides excellent all-round shelter and holding, we had to negotiate its narrow, very shallow entrance. At one point, we had less than one metre under our keel and were getting a ‘little bit’ concerned.

Vathi Bay in Astipalia

The tiny fishing hamlet of Vathi can be reached only by sea or via a very long rutted dirt track. It is home to three or four self-sufficient elderly families, one of whom runs a taverna on the quay, which remains open all year. As evidenced by our own experience, they are quite willing to accommodate small numbers of visitors as and when they arrive. The hamlet’s families do appear, however, from the amount of building work going on, to have recognised their tourist potential and there are already several small holiday apartments available to rent in this very Greek backwater.

Galini Fish Taverna and Ouzerie at Vathi viewed from ID

After dropping our anchor and confirming that the sand and weed holding in the anchorage was particularly good, we ended up, at the invitation of the taverna owners, pulled alongside their shallow quay – just 15 metres’ stroll from the taverna. We were the only boat or visitors there during our two-day stay. On checking the depth sounder, we noted that there was hardly any water under the keel – certainly not the metre we had been advised there would be!

ID on the quay at Vathi with the bay and mountains in the background

Manolis, the owner, had made it quite clear that the taverna was open, so we decided to treat ourselves to lunch. It was obvious from the start that the taverna’s principal fare was fish caught by the family in the bay. We were given a tour of the fish options in the kitchen and were told to help ourselves to drinks from the fridge, lay up our own table and to collect the food ourselves when summoned by Maria, Manolis’s wife and the taverna cook!

Explanatory blackboard in self-service Taverna Galini

We ordered fish (Mike) and squid (Helen) with chips, salad, and local wine. Excellent. Although goats roamed the quay at night, no meat was on the menu.

Helen about to enjoy her fish lunch in Taverna Galini in Vathi

At the end of the meal, we were presented with hand-winnowed saffron stamens and three large pomegranates from their own tree to take away with us and, after a complimentary shot of tsipouro, we drifted the 15 metres back to the boat for a late siesta, from which we awoke at 2100 hrs and subsequently only went back to bed at 0200 hours!

ID viewed from the taverna

Helen was concerned about the lack of Wi-Fi reception because she was in the middle of proofreading the final version of the Ocean Cruising Club’s quarterly newsletter. Fortunately, next morning, she managed to coax a signal out of her Greek data SIM and could send off her final corrections to Jeremy Firth, the editor in Tasmania. We have been thinking for some time that Greek SIMs are more dependable than our UK equivalent which has to piggyback on the Greek networks.

KOS

With our time beginning to run out and another northerly gale forecast, we left Vathi at dawn – seen off by Maria, who’d kindly got up early to wave us off.

Maria picking out the saffron stamens from hand-gathered crocuses

We headed east for the comparative shelter of the principal Dodecanese islands off the Turkish coast. With waves from a Force 6 on the beam, we rolled sideways as each one passed under us. It was not comfortable, but it was a fast passage.

On a beam reach, well reefed down at top end of a Force 6

Soon after leaving Vathi, we ascertained by phone that Mike’s biometric residence card was ready for collection. However…! Helen’s application had also been approved in Athens, but her passport photo had not! She needed to obtain and submit a new one in person to the Immigration authority in Kos, who would re-submit it to Athens. We therefore changed course towards to Kos.

After ten hours sailing, we pulled in at dusk (1700 hours) to a spare place on the inside of the outer wall of Kos marina’s breakwater. While we were in transit, the unhelpful, grumpy male marina receptionist told us on the phone that we could not berth in the marina that night, since no Marinero would be available to assist us (supposedly mandatory in Kos Marina) and, besides, there was no room. (Incorrect.) We nevertheless went there ready to plead ‘Stress of Weather’. Once in a marina, possession becomes nine tenths of the law when it comes to berthing in bad weather. Indeed, during the next three days as we remained on the quay, nobody came near us, nor even suggested we had to move.

 ID alongside on the breakwater quay in Kos Marina

Next morning, Helen had to rush into town to get a new passport photo in time for her pre-arranged appointment with Kos Immigration Authority’s officials (for which she was told not to be late). This she achieved and at the same time we collected Mike’s residence permit, although the officials insisted that he come in himself to sign for it.

The palatial folly that is Kos Police Station, houses the Police and Immigration Department. 

It feels as if it’s almost become our second home

We stayed on in Kos Marina for a couple of extra days since the marina’s Wi-Fi was good and we wanted to watch the Rugby Union matches between England and South Africa and France and New Zealand – and besides, there was a strong northerly wind. Both were excellent games. England and France won their respective matches.

France v New Zealand – Autumn International 2021

On the subject of Wi-Fi, we have met up with a cruising couple (Sergei from Uzbekistan and Angelica from Belarus) who have a very powerful Wi-Fi-boosting receiver (a MikroTik Metal 52) on board, which they use regularly to pick up a café’s Wi-Fi signal (free) while anchored quite considerable distances away from the source. It costs them the price of a beer or coffee in a café to obtain the password. This makes our old system (which we no longer use) look positively antiquated. We’ll be investigating further. Incidentally, their yacht Luma is an Oyster 53, purchased from Fox’s Marina, Ipswich – where we prepared Island Drifter for her first Atlantic crossing. A small world indeed!

LEROS

The morning after (the Rugby) we left Kos at 0500 hours and sailed north with a now- southerly wind behind us for the 35 miles up the east coast of Kalymnos back to Lakki harbour in Leros.

Route from Kos to Leros

There were no cruising yachts on the marina quay – not many of us are left at this time of the year – and yet, it is still warm (20°C), although it does rain occasionally and can be quite windy.

The effects of a southwesterly gale blowing into Lakki harbour

We moored alongside the quay, it being more convenient than mooring bows-to for our purpose of decommissioning ID, before having her lifted out in the boatyard at the north of the island. Certain jobs are best done while the boat is in the water; others best done on land.

Hosing down the sails

Soaking ropes in detergent and fabric softener in the dinghy

Helen cleaning the bilges while the sole-boards were 

waiting to be cleaned and oiled on the quay

After three days we motored north up to Moor & Dock’s boatyard at Partheni, where ID was lifted out and pressure washed.

ID about to be lifted

The fishermen’s antifouling we used worked like a dream. 

There was no marine growth whatsoever on the keel

We set up ‘camp’ around the boat. Initially we emptied it of large items (sails, ropes, canvas covers, etc.) to give ourselves space to live and work in, storing them on a raft of pallets covered with a tarpaulin.

‘Camp Island Drifter’: note, from L to R, the fuel bowser; storage under tarpaulin; 

to the right of the boat, the cleaning and polishing platform; 

and anchor chain having 10-metre marks renewed in red paint

The boatyard is devoid of people but full of boats. This suits us fine since we can get on with what we need to do and there isn’t any competition for the boatyard services – hence we can get assistance as and when required as compared to most of the time when we must ‘join the queue’. There is even plenty of hot water left in the shower cylinders at the end of a day’s work!

We have changed our return flights to the UK from 4 to 9 December in the hope that Helen’s biometric residence card will arrive in time for her to go to Kos by ferry to collect it. We are now able to change flights on line, thereby avoiding Aegean Air’s admin costs of 40 Euros. Fortunately, the price of both our original and new flights were the same – otherwise we’d have had to pay the difference.

We have had to fork out £100 for PCR tests following the recent announcements by the Government and will have to self-isolate when we get back until we receive confirmation of a – hopefully – negative result. It is also possible that we’ll have to take a ‘Fit to Fly’ test here and that the period of self-isolation in the UK could be extended to eight days from the current two to three.

Having been critical of the Government’s approach to Covid travel-control measures in the past, we can hardly complain now, particularly since we agree with the policy! Hopefully, however, the Government won’t go so far as to oblige us to isolate in a quarantine hotel – our beach chalet at Calshot will do just fine for self-isolation!

 

Meanwhile, we’d like to take this opportunity of wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year!