This year we have decided not to travel too far and with an annual berth in Leros, it seemed a good time to stay around the Dodecanese (12 Greek islands on the east of the Aegean near the coast of Turkey). We aimed to go between Samos in the north and Kos in the south but it all depends on the wind.
It took us the 3 weeks to actually start the cruise this year but have enjoyed many islands so far. Lipso, Arki, Fournoi (actually part of the Eastern Sporades chain of islands and notorious for being windy), Samos and then south to include Patmos, Kalimnos and Kos.
We've been back to anchorages that we had visited before and to new ones too. Always a little interesting when you go to a new place and you never know what to expect. The pilot book says buoys and there aren't any, it says poor holding and the anchor goes straight in or the other way round, good holding and you can't get the anchor to hold at all. Taking a line ashore is aways interesting in that you drop the anchor and then reverse to the shore or rocks, when close enough one of you jumps in (usually P) with a line and swims to the shore to tie you off securely. We use a grapnel to help temporarily secure us as it gives P more time to get ashore. We usually feel a lot happier moored this way as long as the wind doesn't shift!!
We've met up with friends this year and at one point even had a race with 2 other English yachts involved. Obviously it wasn't a real race as none of us are insured to race and we didn't sign on to start! But the theory is if there is more than one boat going the same way, its a race. Marinerme was the overall winner on handicap, Rassy Lady got a first for sailing into the anchorage and Crazydream came first for having the most crew (Sandi & Colin were on visiting at the time).
Some of the new places we visited had spectacular scenery and the pictures show some on Kalimnos, a beautiful if barren island famous for its sponge divers who sadly in recent years have declined due to the sponges dying off and the sponges are now imported from America.
The towns museum shows the antiquated diving equipment used up until the 70's which left many of the divers with side effects of the "bends" who are still seen "walking" around the water front.
