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Four weeks in the UK passed very quickly. We saw most of the family and many friends, having spent a week in Plymouth, two in Coventry, and a few days each in Malvern and London. One highlight that I must mention was a visit to friends and ex-colleagues, Nick and Mags in Looe, who gave us a very decadent and delicious lobster and chips dinner - even better as they had also caught the lobster!

Samos: Flying back to Samos after our UK trip was great as we were back on board less than an hour after landing! However, landing on Samos is a little fraught; as we bumpily approached the runway the pilot suddenly pulled out of the descent and with engines screaming headed back up over the hills! After explaining that it was very gusty due to the Meltemi, he then flew around the island and back into another, this time successful, approach and landing. You can imagine how frightening that was!!! Poor Kit had bruises on his arm where I had gripped him! Next day, when we were safely at anchor in Pythagorian Bay we watched a similar event with a landing that was twice aborted! ....give me the sea any time!!!
Once on board we set to and prepared the boat to leave, as our month contract was up and we were now on daily rate in the marina. We flushed out the water tanks and refilled them, stashed away our things and did a bit of shopping in the marina shop. Kit checked the engine and we took down the deck tent that helps protect the boat from the sun. The unaccustomed heat took its toll and we were exhausted by nightfall, but ready to leave next morning when we motored around to anchor in Pythagorian Bay.
It was good to be out on anchor, it's much cooler because we catch the coastal winds and we can take a cooling swim anytime. We stayed for a few more days, running ashore in the dinghy to re-stock the cupboards, and readjusting to being afloat. Chris and Elaine on 'Ginny' arrived and anchored nearby; we had last seen them in Syracuse Bay on Sicily early last year, so we invited them over. It was lovely to hear about their recent travels and we swapped cruising notes and stories over sundowners.

Marathos, Arki: Heading south from Samos in light following winds we sailed under Yankee only (front sail) almost all the 25miles to the Arki Islands, and picked up a mooring buoy in a pretty bay on Marathos, one of the smaller islets. Arki, Lipsi and Leros are in a marine and nature reserve and friends had told us about these free buoys set down to reduce damage to the seabed from anchors. Marathos is a small rocky islet with a nice sandy beach in the bay and clear blue waters - ideal for swimming! A few white houses and three beach tavernas are the only buildings on the shore, and goats roam the hill behind that is crowned by a tiny white and blue chapel. Despite the small size of Marathos it attracted some large expensive 'gin palaces' with RIBs and jet skis tucked away in their stern lockers, as well as ferries and Turkish gulets that brought day trippers for swimming and lunch at the tavernas. The place became quite busy from 11am until 5pm when they finally packed up and returned to their marina berths leaving us to enjoy lovely, peaceful evenings. We restricted our shore visits to early morning and late evening to avoid the rush! ...well, it is August and the height of the tourist season! Ashore, we wandered over the hill to overlook a quiet bay on the other side with only goats for company, unfortunately it was not sheltered enough to anchor in! We spotted peppercorns growing and picked some to take back to the boat for drying out. After a few days we ran out of bread but our favourite taverna kindly sold us half of a very large loaf (there are no shops here) so we stayed another two days, before sailing across to Patmos 8 miles to the west.

Patmos: The white houses with blue painted woodwork that seem to epitomise the Dodecanese Islands, looked very pretty as we sailed into Skala, Patmos's port. We anchored at the head of the bay where there is just room for a few yachts to swing between local small boat moorings, and the anchors of yachts and motor boats moored stern-to on the quay. The small bustling port is overlooked by the imposing Monastery of St John, surrounded on the hilltop by the little white houses of the Chora (old town). We dinghied ashore and soon found a nice taverna that served excellent frappe and had free wifi - result! It was great fun watching the nautical comings and goings: lots of inter-island ferries, day trip boats and even very large cruise ships found their way into this small port. Once we had caught up with email, shopping etc. we motored around the headland to Meloyi, a small bay just north of Skala.
What a difference! Meloyi is a sleepy inlet with a narrow sandy strip running around the head of the bay shaded by Tamarisk trees. One solitary Taverna and a few houses sit just back from the beach, on which, considering its proximity to Skala, there were very few people. We dropped anchor in the clear blue water and swam over to check that it was dug in. We could see down to it clearly although it was in 10 metres! Another place to fall in love with! We skinny-dipped at night, when the blackness of the water came alive with fluorescence which looked like jewels dripping off our raised arms! Such a peaceful place, the noisiest things were an early morning cockerel crowing and two braying donkeys! For five wonderful days we remained in Meloyi, and then reluctantly motored back around to Skala for wifi and supplies.
This time we took the opportunity to visit the Monastery, arriving there shortly after several busloads of American cruise ship tourists! Never mind, we managed to see the main bits! I had imagined it would be quite austere but it was surprisingly ornate with lots of religious icons in gold, and some wonderful frescos that reminded us of those we'd seen in the troglodyte churches of Cappadocia, Turkey. It was well worth a visit and afterward we found ourselves almost alone as we walked around the cool, narrow streets of the Chora. There were some brilliant views over the port and bay of Patmos. We stopped at a baker to buy spinacopita, a delicious spinach and cheese pie, which we ate sitting on a shady step.
Back on the boat we watched in horror as large gulets and enormous motor boats, manoeuvring to go stern-to the quay, dropped their anchors half way out into the bay, coming far too close for comfort! Sadly these giants are 'squeezing' smaller boats and yachts out, as they encroach upon the already-limited anchorage space. It was a relief to leave and from Skala we intended to go to Kambos, another inlet in Patmos Bay before leaving for the next small island of Lipsi. When we arrived in Kambos inlet there were lots of yachts and gulets already at anchor and the beach was littered with sunbeds. Apartments, taverns and shops backed the beach, so we did an about-turn and returned to the peace of Meloyi for another few days.
Now I know that people think that we sit around in the sun all day doing nothing, but in fact we keep quite busy cleaning and maintaining the boat, we swim, go for walks, read, cook, etc. Admittedly we do pop over to the taverna for morning coffee sometimes, or an early evening Ouzo!
On a walk ashore at Meloyi we discovered that it is only 2km to Skala by road, so no need to risk the anchorage; we could walk over the hill when we needed fresh bread or veg. Even better, en route we passed a fig tree loaded with ripe figs so enjoyed fresh figs with lunch and breakfast! Whilst in Meloyi we tried out our watermaker for the first time, it was on the boat when we bought it and had never been commissioned! Surprise - it works fine! Now we can keep our tanks topped up with fresh water and extend the time between refilling in port! It's just a small one so only makes 5 litres per hour from seawater, and we can only use it when in clear waters, but the drain on power is very little so we now run it for a couple of hours a day. We do use quite a lot of fresh water, especially if we swim a few times a day and shower off afterwards.
Altogether it was two weeks before we could drag ourselves away from Patmos and beautiful Meloyi Bay, and we vowed go back next year for a return visit!

Lipsi: Lipsi was the next stop, and with only light winds we motorsailed across to Ormos Lipsi, Lipsi's only port. We anchored near a 50ft yacht just outside the small boat moorings. Hardly had we settled down when we were told to move as a large ship was expected in the night and we might be in the way when it turned. We moved Quilcene closer into the moorings but were not very happy as it was quite shallow. Still, the holding was good in mud and we stayed overnight, hearing the large ship (a ferry) arrive and leave without any problem, just the loud throbbing of its engines to keep us awake whilst it unloaded and loaded on the opposite quay.
In the morning a coffee in one of the town's bakers refreshed us and we had a quick look around the pretty port and got a new weather file before leaving for Lera Lipsi on the south of the island.
A strong northerly wind was forecast but the triple headed inlet of Lera Lipsi looked to be well sheltered to sit out the blow. ......and we were not the only ones to realise this; as we entered the bay there were several other yachts riding at anchor, or on mooring buoys! We opted for the middle bay as there is a tavern on the beach, but after two attempts we couldn't get the anchor to hold, so we tried in the western arm. Again we had trouble and only managed to get a good hold after three attempts! ...and the pilot book said 'good holding'!!
The blow came and went and happily the anchor held. It was a good place to be with good swimming, a white beach (Katsadia) and nice scenery, although there were surprisingly few people on the shore. We went across in the dinghy one evening to the solitary taverna for an Ouzo sundowner. It's called Dalaila's and is a strange place; the terrace, with its brightly painted chairs is shaded by a net with coloured streamers hanging down and fluttering in the breeze. Ethereal music was playing and we sat and waited for around 10 minutes before a young man appeared to serve us. We're used to the Greeks being laid back but this was something else! Nonetheless the outlook was really great, (just like the Caribbean Kit says) and one or two other customers came, sat, and waited too so I guess the 'laid back-ness' was par for the course!

Arkhangelos, Leros: After one more trip back up to Ormos Lipsi for provisions and a weather forecast we sailed south to Arkhangelos, a small islet north of Leros island. We anchored in a bay on the south side. I know I'm always banging on about the blue and clear water, but this bay is exceptional! With only a few patches of seagrass the white sand reflects the light and the water appears to be an almost luminous aquamarine! We could see lots of fish around the boat, many of them quite large so we determined to get out the fishing rod and try our hand again!
It is a really remote spot with nothing on the shore but a herd of goats and a blue and white painted chapel, or shrine the size of a portaloo! Every evening around 5pm a man arrived in a little boat, he sounded the horn as he approached and the goats came running from all over the island as he brought their food and hay - it was very funny to watch them jumping and vying to get to the troughs first! At night it was so dark that we could see a heaven full of stars, just like sailing at night away from land, and the only sound was the donging of the goat bells.
We were one of only two yachts the first night but next day another three arrived. An Austrian flagged one anchored nearby and passed by in their dinghy on the way to lay a fish trap. We'd caught nothing as usual but they assured us that this trap would be successful. Later they retrieved it and pulled their dinghy up on the shore whilst they cleaned their catch. I was reading and suddenly heard cries as their dinghy floated out toward the channel with the woman swimming in hot pursuit! Every time she got near the wind took it further away, so Kit jumped into our dinghy and went to the rescue! Needless to say they were very grateful and later brought us two lovely fish from their trap - excellent! We vowed to buy a trap when next in port.

After three days in this idyllic spot we reluctantly upped anchor and sailed down the west side of Leros to Ormos (Bay of) Lakki. Outside the entrance to Lakki the engine wouldn't start! Kit thought it was an electrical problem, and ran around like a dervish trying to get it going so we could motor in. I tacked in and out trying to keep level with the bay so we didn't have to head up into the wind to get in with no engine. Eventually we had to sail in and once inside we radioed the marina to come and help. They came out in a dinghy and instead of towing us, one of them, a French guy, shorted across the starter motor terminals and managed to start the engine - Tres bien! Kit had tried to get at the terminals but couldn't get one of the engine panels off!
We tied up in to the marina hoping we could get it fixed next day and after all the excitement treated ourselves to dinner ashore. Next morning Jean-Claude the French mechanic came aboard and traced the problem to a broken wire in the relay - one tiny wire that looked about as thick as a hair! We were out on the anchorage by midday, having topped up the water tanks and done a load of washing! Now we'll be able to explore Lakki!