The harbour of Kalymnos where we copped a hiding!

Our anchorage on the island of Kalymnos was in the main town of Pothia. The island is well renowned for it's Sponge industry. For many years the majority of the local men were employed as sponge divers. Most of the sponge boats used for this purpose were also built in the main town. While there we visited an extremely interesting Folk Musuem which explained the history of the sponge diver and the traditonal way of life for a diver and his family. Originally the sponge divers fished in shallow waters, jumping overboard with a heavy stone tied to them, to weight them down. They would hold their breath and scoop as many sponges off the bottom into a net before resurfacing without the stone. As technology improved they dived with a hose attached to them and linked to a pump on the boat that supplied them air underwater allowing them to dive deeper and for longer. However, their ignorance of the dangers of ascending too quickly and suffering from the 'bends' led to higher incidences of death and disability. The sponge divers were often away for months at a time and the womenfolk were left behind to do all the chores and rear the children. It was a hard life for both the men and the women. These days the sponge divers use compressors and dive in the deeper waters off Africa and Cyprus. There are numerous shops in town selling a variety of sponges in all shapes and sizes! The natural sponge has largely been superceded by synthetic sponge and seems to be only sold now to tourists and those wanting a coarse sponge to scrub their backs!
Kalymnos is a mountainous rocky island and in some parts looks like a lunar landscape, it is so barren. We were able to ride around the southern part of the island and found some of the uphill ascents challenging however, the quick rides on the downhill make it all worthwhile!
One evening we experienced the full force of the Meltemi while moored to the dock in the harbour. We were expecting the strong winds and chose a safe harbour to weather it out. However in the early hours of the morning forty knot gusts blasted us from all sides which necessitated Bern having the engine running to hold us into the wind while still attched to the docks. Many yachts either side of us were forced to do the same. Due to the force of the side wind, many anchors dragged including ours causing all the yachts moored to the dock to swing sideways. We were thankful when daybreak came as we left the dock, pulled up our anchor and re set it in another spot with better holding. A number of yachts sustained damage and we suffered a bent swimming ladder when it hit the dock. We enjoyed quite a long siesta the following day after the long night!