Start of the Season

We stayed our 10 free days in Leros, infact we stayed 12 as the wind was very strong and from the wrong direction. There was also a large swell coming into the harbour which meant big waves outside. The good thing about Lakki is if you take a short walk you can see out of the entrance and see what the sea is doing. If you see trees in the sea - its too rough, if its bushes then the sea is calming down!! Finally we left, we had to we were having to pay! We sailed to Kalimnos or rather motor sailed as the wind had turned right off. We were welcomed on the quay like long lost friends from the taverna family and spent a couple of days. They did give us some duff info on the buses - they don't actually run on a Sunday and so we walked up to the Hora and then up the steep steps to the castle. Hard work but worth it for the view from the top.

View from Kalimnos Castle

We went onto Nisiros to sit out a southerly wind which in fact when it came blew from the east there and thus straight in the entrance. We watched a boat get blown across the fishing boats, then our neighbour - a large Amel yacht had his anchor displaced and lent on us for half an hour as he had no power to pull up his anchor or to start his engine. Crazydream was in full ahead, still tied to the quay hoping that the anchor would hold both of us with the extra weight on it. There were fenders protecting the aft quarter and people on the quay pushing us off - it was a long half hour with the wind increasing all the time. Once the boats were sorted G helped the Amel sort his lack of power and recieved a bottle of wine for his trouble. Then a chartering skipper asked for advice about pulling off the quay and where to put his ropes (yes he really should not have been left in charge of a boat) and G got another bottle of wine. All this before 9am but thats not all, when a Swiss charter boat came in and really didn't know what to do he managed to pick up our anchor whilst trying to moor. Engine on full ahead again with "instructions" being shouted from the bow of the boat! When they managed to release our anchor and drop it, it was in the wrong place and with alot less chain so we decided we needed to relay and with the help of some people on the shore went out and relayed in 20 knots plus cross wind and even if we say so ourselves, did it quite well. The Swiss charter boat was still trying to get in an hour later, when we saw them in the taverna that night G apologised for the language used in the "instructions" and asked where they were going the next day so we could avoid them! They bought us a drink each. A stressful but rewarding (in alcholol) day.
We didn't want another day like that and with a favourable wind we set off for Symi. We didn't expect the wind and sea to be as much as it was and then to increase the nearer we got to Symi, gusting up to 30knots but thankfully from behind with only the genoa poled out and surfing the waves with speeds up to 9.5 knots. The sea was building as well and we were seeing waves up to 2 meters which at times meant we couldn't see the hull of the boat that was sailing close to us off Symi. Once inside the entrance of Panormitis the sea was fairly flat, we dropped anchor and stayed a week! We took the bus to Symi town to stock up and to see a bit of the island. A dozen hairpins on the road up to the top of the "hill" and then fabulous views of the Greek islands of Nisiros, Tilos, Rhodos and the Turkish coast. Half an hour to shop before the bus returned and the hairpins, if possible, were worse going down!

Symi Town

Temperatures were improving and we finally had our first swim of the year on the 27th May when the sea temp actually rose above 20'C - just! When we finally left Panormitis we had some gentle sails and stopped in some nice anchorages on the Turkish coast. We hadn't signed into the country yet but Rashit, the man who made our sprayhood last year was available to make some cockpit cushions for us so we stopped in one of favourite spot in Orhaniye to meet him. Two days later we had new cockpit cushions which we are trying desperately to keep clean - maybe a darker colour would have been better!!

Orhaniye

 We headed back to Symi to re stock and after some days at anchor, for some wi-fi.We stayed longer than we expected due to a fouled anchor - stuck fast to debris on the bottom and held more so by a another boats anchor and chain. A long story short was that we needed to get a diver to free us. We split the cost 150€ with the other boat and as they had caused more problems they paid two thirds of the cost. Great we're free we can go except the other boat (French) managed to re pick up our anchor chain and wrap it around a block on the bottom. Thankfully the diver was still there and didn't charge again for going down to sort us out. When we were finally sorted it was late in the day and so we re moored (in a different place) and went to the divers cafe for a drink! Oh the joys of cruising!
We will check into Turkey soon as our first visitor arrives there in a couple of weeks and we'll then head towards the Gocek area,