Photo: Pandeli Castel, Leros.
With no wind and glassy seas we motored 13nm around to Ormos Milou, Milos on Tuesday 22nd July. Milos is another volcanic island, with cliffs not as steep as Thira but with a rugged beauty. The bay is the cone of the volcano, approximately 4nm long by 1nm wide; we anchored off the town and went ashore to re-provision in the very good supermarket and to check in with the Port Authorities. The Port Authorities told us that we only had to check in once a month within an island group, i.e. the Cyclades and as we checked into Paros 2 weeks ago, he did not stamp our Transit Log, although he did check our papers. With a south westerly due later in the day, we moved anchorage after lunch to Ormos Rivari an anchorage on the other side of the bay, as the town anchorage was not suitable. We sat off the beach for 2 days while an unusual, for this time of year, South, South West blow came through.
The wind died out Wednesday night, so Thursday we upped anchor and sailed out, destination Folegandros 38nm south east. The blow the last couple of days left an ugly swell, we motor sailed in little wind arriving in Karavostasi, Folegandros at 14:00. Looks a nice, pretty place, the clarity of the water is amazing, we can see the anchor clearly dug into the sand in 8ms, time for a swim. We had dinner ashore and a quiet night, the following day we took the local bus over the hill to the Chora, town. The town is a no traffic area, again a labyrinth of white paved streets with the classic white houses with blue trim, bougainvillea, tavernas and shops. After walking around and having lunch we headed back on the bus to the port. The port, Karavostasi means “ship stop”, is quite small and just after we returned a local tour boat came over with a message from the Port Captain asking if we could move forward as some large ferries were due and we may have been in their turning circle. In the next several hours 2 fast ferries and 3 large slow ferries arrived, loading and unloading passengers, cars and freight. During the afternoon and evening a swell worked its way into the bay which was uncomfortable although not dangerous.
Saturday 26th July it was anchor up after breakfast, and off to Skala, Sikinos our 16th Greek island, with a reef in the main. A good sail although the gusts along the back of Sikinos became quite intense so we initially reefed the Yankee then put it away and went with the reefed main. Skala is another small harbour that has big ferries arriving so anchoring to the edge is a must. Skala was an overnight stop and a sail to Ios the next morning, anchoring in Milopotamou for morning tea and then sailing down to Manganari which offered better westerly protection. The next few days were spent enjoying a quiet anchorage, lots of swimming, snorkeling (although nothing to see) and going ashore for walks and lunch at the tavernas at the end of the long boardwalks.
Finally we decided it was time to leave and Wednesday 30th July offered favourable winds for the 58nm trip to Astipalaia, leaving the Cyclades Islands and entering the Dodecanese group. The forecast was pretty much correct with the usual strong gusts off the hills on the islands and we sailed with a reefed main and full Yankee the whole way, anchoring in Maltezana. We stayed in Astipalaia for a couple of weeks, going to different anchorages each day and back into the Maltezana anchorage at night. In this respect it is similar to our holidays at Gt Barrier Island, NZ, going out to different places each day and into Fitzroy at night for a peaceful night. You can see why this island in times gone by was a hide out for Pirates, lots of coves to take ships ashore and unload the booty. The bus into the Chora and then down to Per Gailos ran every 2hrs, there is only one bus on the island, with the Chora having fruit and veges stores and supermarkets. We then parked ourselves in Skhinounda, a bay within Maltezana, for 5 days whilst Brian did the varnishing on the Dol. Astipalaia is a bit off the normal route through the Greek islands and therefore there are few boats in the anchorages and it is a nice place to spend quiet time. Going into town on the local bus we met Margaret and Will, Atlantia whom we had not seen since arriving in Iluka, NSW, Australia in 2011. Sundowners on Atlantia and morning tea on Dol enabled us to catch up on what each other had been doing in the ensuing years. On Friday 8th August we moved around the corner to Agrilithi, “the creek” for a couple of days. Bringing the anchor up we noticed 5 or 6 tiny dead fish on the deck, no idea when they arrived. The following day Atlantia arrived in the bay, so sundowners for the next couple of nights, walks ashore in the morning as we had no reception on our Vodafone internet, although Atlantia did on Cosmote, next year must check out Cosmote.
Monday mid-morning, 11th August we motored back around to Maltezana, intending to go to the taverna for dinner with Margaret and Will, however we checked the weather, saw the forecast was favourable, picked the anchor up again and set sail for Lakki, Leros. We sailed all the way anchoring in Lakki at 18:00. Leros was occupied by the Italians as a naval base and therefore the architecture is Italian, unlike the white and blue houses of the Cyclades. Many of the buildings have been restored; some had been used as mental hospitals which gave Leros its nickname of “Devil’s Island”. We hired a motor bike and toured the island, visiting Pandeli castle, town, Alindas, Kioura, with a church painted by political prisoners in 1968; however the underground military museum was closed for a festival. It seemed that Lakki was the bay of choice for Kiwis, we met three Kiwi boats whilst in the bay – Simon and Lauren, Elisa May, from Palmerston North, Will and Viv, Sao Vicente from Waiheke Island and Erin and John Zee Kiwi from Omaha. Drinks and socialising was the order of the day. Friday 15th August we motored around to Pandeli for a few days.