Summer 2014

Leros Marina with Lakki Town

Having an annual contract has made us lazy (or lazier!) this year, we kept returning to the marina and staying there rather than going out sailing. Its a good marina with a nice shower block with plenty of hot water, if you're lucky someone has left some credit on a pillar on the pontoon and you pick up some free water and electric for the boat. There always seems to be a breeze by the late morning making it a comfortable temperature. The downside is the distance to the town and shopping but now that we have the "Brompton's" its a lot easier and quicker, they also give us the chance to explore more of the island. We visited the Italian battlements from the second world war. Underground tunnels, gun emplacements and even a tank up on the hill in the centre of Leros giving the troops a panoramic view of the island and neighbouring islands. Very thought provoking.

light wind sailing!

Thankfully we had more visitors and so we headed back to sea eventually and picked Jane and Mark up again from Kalymnos. Its an easy place for people to get to from Kos airport with a short bus ride and ferry trip (not always on the same day though!). We planned to visit some islands that we'd not been to before and with the forecast decided to head down towards the north west coast of Rhodes to Khalki and Alimia, some 70 miles south with islands in the way! A gentle first day saw us in Pserimos for a welcome swim and the nightly BBQ after that the wind picked up and gave us bumpy rides to the islands of Yali and Tilos - how do the waves get that big in the Med? We were lucky to find  space in the small harbour of Livadhi on Tilos but not so lucky to find a sheared off bolt on the deck from the inner forstay (a wire that helps keep the mast up!).

Alimia anchorage

As the island is small with limited supplies  a temporary repair was carried out but even that consisted of headlining down in the fore peak - very messy and cutting back the lay up of the boat that was encapsulating the bolts. Two bolts replaced (all we had) and the boat put back together a few hours later. Thankfully  Livadhi has a lovely beach, clear water and trees for shade to escape to, we seriously recommend it to anyone wanting a chill out and do nothing break.

Khalki

We managed to head off the next day heading for some anchorages on Khalki and Alimia, idyllic places with very few people in them. Ashore on Alimia are some abandoned buildings used by the Italians and Germans in WW11 with some nostalgic cartoons drawn by them on the walls. No one lives on the island, there is just the few tourists who take the water taxi from Khalki to there for the day, you have the island often to yourself. Sadly there were numerous wasps when we were at anchor which were very annoying and even stung P who reacted with a very red swollen arm which needed cream, tablets and an injection from the local Dr! We spent 3 days on the quay/pontoon in Khalki due to strong winds, its not ideal shelter and the pontoon was very rickety making the boat move quite a bit. We spent more time ashore eating or swimming off the pontoon than on the boat. Finally the wind eased and allowed us to start making the trip back north stopping at Symi, Tilos and Nisiros, winds were anything from having us reefed down, motoring or the light weight cruising chute - ah the Mediterranean wind, its either no wind, too much wind or on the nose wind!!

Escapade & Crazydream in Nisiros

Jane & Mark got the ferry from Nisiros to Kos for their return trip and we stayed on in Nisiros to meet up with Svein and Caryn from Escapade. With good company, an excellent restaurant and too much wind from the north (the way we wanted to go) we stayed over a week. Finally the wind eased enough to head back to Leros in two hops, we needed reefs in the main as the wind was lighter than it had been but was still causing us to get water over the foredeck - the canals are seriously becoming a option!

Again some free electric and water saw us staying in the marina for longer than we should but there was the repair of the inner forestay to do, headlining to be stuck, water pump to be mended then subsequently replaced, the jobs are endless, we even started some internal varnishing. Then there's all the people to socialise with, we will get out there again soon - honest!!

Early Summer 2014

Crazydream at anchor

A leasurely return to Crazydream this year, a few jobs to do before we were lifted out of the water for a survey that our insurance company had requested. Crazydream is 30 years old and needs an "all clear" for the insurance company to keep taking our money! Whilst out of the water Gordon took the opportunity to drop the rudder and make the bearings looser to lighten the steering. Surprisingly this was all done with relative ease over a day or so but having booked 10 days ashore many other jobs were done leaving a whole day at the end for the survey. A nice chap, Ioannis Galouzis from Kos agreed to do the survey and happily took our money before delivering a favourable report. All that maintanence is worth while.

Once back in the water we prepared ourselves and the boat for our first guest of the year. We have an annual contract again this year and were in no rush to head out. The weather this year is unsettled and was still chilly in the evening in late May and strong winds from the south.

Anne Marie on Crazydream

Early June saw Anne Marie join us for 10 days. Pick up in Kalymnos went as arranged before we headed north for her stay. We visited many idyllic anchorages that Anne Marie had not been to on Matapan, we didn't want to bring back too many sad memories. Only one day of strong winds saw us held up in Lipsi on the town quay for a couple of nights. A safe place to be and the chance to visit one of our favourite resturants in the area, Manoli's in the centre of the village.

 Some down wind sailing to Kos where we hired a car to drop Anne Marie off with relatives who happened to be holidaying on the island. We shared a meal with Lucy, Steve and Beatrice before we headed back to Crazydream.

Goose winging downwind

Keeping the car the following morning to shop in Lidl's - a must for every cruiser when you can!

A return to Lakki marina for some rest before our next guest - the berth is paid for so we may as well use it! A little socialising with some of the other boat owners we knew before heading back to Kalymnos to pick up Kathryn. A few hick ups in that we weren't actually berthed when her flight landed and when her ferry arrived we missed it as we were sitting in the shade and it crept in without us seeing it. A text from Kathryn saying she was on our boat was all that made us move!!

With Kathryn's nick name of "windy witch" there of course was a blow forecast for a few days time, so a short sail to Pserimos with the hope of seeing some dolphins (didn't happen) before a swim and bbq in a lovely anchorage. Wind increased overnight and as we left the anchorage in the morning, just under genoa, we saw 32 kts and a large sea north of Kos. It became less as we travelled down the passage between Kos and the Turkish coast but at the notoriuos SE corner of Kos the wind increased and we were reefing  - the blow wasn't meant to start for another 36 hours. We headed straight for Nisiros and secured a spot on the outer breakwater, stern to the wind and as forecast the wind increased as did the waves outside the harbour.

Roma Bath, Nisiros

Windy at the Monastry

On our second day the wind was a force 8-9 with the waves crashing over the breakwater an covering the boat with salt. The motion of the boat was not very pleasant and the girls opted to go sight seeing whilst Gordon stayed on board - just in case. We took the early bus to the main town of Mandraki, visiting the monastry, the fortifications of the ancient city (a 30 minute up hill walk out of the village) and the archelogical museum.

Mandraki, Nisiros

Nisiros Crater

Pali Harbour

Looking down on the harbour at Pali on our return the waves were crashing on the breakwater and along the beach, resembling the Gold Coast in Australia - we'd have taken photo's but the bus didn't stop and the windows were all covered in salt! Five nights we stayed in Nisiros, hiring a car to see the Volcano and its craters,  the village of Nikia with its Volcanological Museum, natural sauna's and roman baths. With the motion on the boat uncomfortable scrabble was adjourned to the local taverna! They even put the British Grand Prix on for us to watch.

Eventually we managed to leave having washed all the salt off the boat to then sail into wind getting the decks all salty again and found ourselves stopping in Kos on the free quay. Plenty of depth for us but after a sleepless night due to the noisy holiday makers we remembered why we pay the money and go into the marina! An early start back to Kalymnos with a stronger wind forecast we were reefed down and salt all over the deck, again. Paulines sense of humour really is now fading and this windy, tippy sailing lark is coming to an end for her. A nice last night for Kathryn in Stukas taverna on the front before an early ferry back to Kos and Gordon & Pauline returned to Lakki for a rest and yet another wash off!

As luck would have it Svein and Caryn, friends who had sadly lost their boat to a fire last year but who have since bought another with the insurance payout, were due in Lakki and they had our bikes on board.  They had offered to deliver them from Lefkas, where Gordon had seen them on his delivery trip, as they were coming this way and it would save us the postage. Amazingly they were unfolded at the back of "Escapade" and even after a long time of not being used, ridden back to Crazydream in the marina. A truely useful gift bequeathed to us from  s/y Matapan. 

Our Brompton bikes

A few nights of drinking and eating saw us catching up with all the news from Caryn and Svein before they headed off south, with plans to meet again in Nisiros in August. With the bikes it was now easier and much quicker to go into town for shopping, what would have taken up to 2 hours takes half an hour now, leaving time to do some jobs and catch up on some reading - a book on the French Canals for Pauline!!!!

Winter 2013/14

Slowly people were putting their boats to bed for the winter and heading home but not us. We had jobs we wanted to do and were likely to be messy and thus better when no one was on their boats close by.
The treadmaster on the deck was more worn out than in place and we had decided to remove it and paint

The new decks

the decks. Easy peasy you say - if only! After nearly 5 weeks of Gordon on his knees with either a chisel, file or sander taking the stuff off, then masking up the deck prior to painting "sand beige" deck paint. All in amongst the rain showers, it does however look great and really tidies up the boat.

varnished inside & new telly

That job done saw some inside work of varnishing and headlining resticking. Days were shorter and cooler with the temperature dropping at night. The cockpit tent, which hadn't been used since Kalamata was a God send, keeping the wind and rain off and enabling us to use the cockpit for jobs as well as sitting in the dry. The flat screen telly that we had treated ourselves too came in handy on the long dark nights too, although it was films we were watching rather than Greek telly.

The marina was very quiet with only 5 boats with crew on for the winter and all on different pontoons and all different languages - thankfully English was the universal language. There were some nights socialising on each others boats and in one case in an old Italian style house on the island that a crew were housesitting. When Christmas arrived we headed to one taverna on Christmas eve, a long walk there but with fantastic food and some Greek dancing, it was worth it. On Christmas day all the boat crews headed in a different direction to another taverna, many of us had been frequenting each month for lunch. Poppy served up excellant food and lots of it, with plenty of wine and beer, traditional spit roast pork, pies, pasta, soup and salads all for 15€ a head. No supper was required that evening.

We packed up the next day and as a treat stayed in a hotel for the night before flying back to the UK. We were staying with Anne-Marie of Matapan for a couple of days prior to New Years Eve in London for the fireworks.

Some planning at Anne-Maries was required for the return trip of Matapan to the UK. Gordon was going to help Anne-Marie, with some others, deliver Matapan from Turkey to Slovenia prior to overlanding Matapan

Punting on the Cam

to Holland and then finally the English Channel. After planning we spent a day in Cambridge and with a bright sunny winters day went punting on the Cam! Cold but entertaining.

Our time with Anne-Marie ended all too soon and we headed to London to stay on Taransay Mhor with Sandi and Colin in St Katherine's Dock. We did some sight seeing, went on a tradition London bus and managed 5 Whetherspoon pub's during our stay. We walked along the Thames for a great view of the fireworks on New Years Eve with all the crowds, it was spectacular and an experience but probably done on telly next time!

Finally time to head back to Portsmouth to work, P at the hospital and G to whatever he could find which turned out to be sorting some leaks at his Mum's house, decorating, driving and builders mate. Oh and the

G working, delivering a yacht!

delivery of Matapan in early March across the Aegean and up the Adriatic flying back to the UK after only 3 weeks away.
With all the mod cons we were able to speak to each other almost every day. Matapan took another week to get back across Europe, dropped in the water and sailed to the east coast where she is now based and up for sale.


Some house sitting for friends made the time left go very quickly and what with working it left little time to catch up with all the people we would have liked to - next time! For now it's back to Crazydream for the summer.