deva in paradise

The Dodecanese

Until now all of our sailing in Greece has been within the group of islands in the Southern Aegean Sea, called the Dodecanese. (derived from the Greek word for twelve, as in Dodecahedron, a twelve sided figure, because the original island group consisted of twelve islands) From Rhodes in the South up to Patmos Island, all of them are clustered fairly close to the Turkish mainland. The climate is dry and the area is known for the "meltemi" winds, which can blow for days and even weeks at a time. The Meltemi is a North wind, getting its intensity from the heat generated in the Sahara desert. The hot air over Africa rises up to the upper atmosphere, , and cooler air from the Eurasian continent rushes in. "Hot" and "Cooler" are meant only in the relative sense, as in Summertime the Meltemi wind coming from the North can be 80 or 90F, at which time the temperatures in Africa are well into the 100's. The Aegean Islanders, and sailors like us, must reckon with these winds on a daily basis, as it often means that the waters are not navigable. Not even for the large ferries that service all of the islands in this region, which are often canceled due to weather..

As we readied our boat for cruising again in October, we had several Meltemi periods, during which all boats stayed in the harbor. Now that we are cruising again, we have found ourselves stopped in port waiting for the Meltemi to subside. One such place was the little port of Scala on Patmos Island. We were fortunate to find a space alongside a floating pontoon where we could tie up alongside, something that is quite rare in this part of the world where the "Medmoor" is almost always the only way to get alongside a pier, either stern or bow to with an anchor led out on the seaward end. Medmooring is efficient because two or three boats can get alongside a pier or float where only one might have been able to tie alongside. The unfortunate compromise is one can never access the side of the boat for maintenance, and there are almost always other boats rubbing up or slamming into either side. We need twice as many fenders out as any other place in the world, and of course those fenders take up space on the boat when we are underway...

We took advantage of being "stuck" in port in Scala to see some of the landmarks. The most well known of these is the Cave of the Apostle St John, where it is believed that he wrote the chapter of Revelations in the New Testament. Since this chapter of the bible refers to the "Apocalypse", this cave is known locally as the Cave of St John of the Apocalypse. Getting there was half the fun, as it is about 2000 feet up a trail to the top of the highest mountain on Patmos. We hiked it twice in very windy, chilly conditions as the cave and nearby monastery were closed the first time. Interestingly, the cave has been embellished with structures built around it, mostly in the form of sanctuaries and temple-like structures for the many Christian pilgrims who have come to visit during the past 1900 years since originally occupied by St John. Farther up the mountain a short distance is a large fortified castle-like monastery, built in 1085. One must pause to think about those dates, hundreds of years apart, and how all of the political boundaries have changed since then! The early Romans banished John to Patmos Island for being a heretic supporter of Jesus Christ. Later, the Roman Emperors were more favorable to Christianity. The Knights of St John, a Catholic order, were here to protect the Island and others nearby from anti-Christian invaders during the period 1300 to 1525 AD. Then came the Ottoman Muslims who drove out the Knights and the Christians and occupied the area until around 1930. Prior to WWII the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany occupied the area until nearly the end of WWII. During that war, the Islands were bombed by both the Allies and the Axis powers as Greece changed sides to join the allies. . The event of this change of heart, which took place about 1943, is celebrated now in late October, as "Say No to Germany Day"

After we wandered about the mountain and its 1900 year old historical monuments, we were in awe of the vast period of time the buildings and stone works were in place. Really, really Old! The next day we hiked up to another rocky promontory locally called the "Kastelli", which put all of our illusions of time and history into a different perspective. There we saw hewn stone works around the Kastelli that have been dated by historians at around 750 BC! To be sure, those fortifications are not in very good shape, but one can still see the precision of the huge rectangular pieces that were quarried and brought to the site by sophisticated early inhabitants, probably Carians and Artemesians, and their draft animals. They were the same people whose ancient building sites we visited a few months ago on the Lycean coast of Turkey, and around Ephesus. Indeed, Patmos Island is only about 50 miles as the gull flies from the ancient city of Ephesus and the site of the Temple of Artemis, just a day away by small boat and walking...

After hiking back to town, a bit mind-boggled, we decided to indulge in one of the most favored pastimes of Greek Islanders, sitting in a Taverna... sipping coffee or one of their many varieties of liquid refreshment. One of the tavernas happened to have Discovery Channel, "Alaska Bush People" on the big screen, with Greek subtitles. They thought we were joking when we told them that's where we are from...

Onward to Samos

When the winds died down to a reasonable level, we set sail again to windward to the much larger island of Samos. Technically Samos is part of the Sporades island group, North of the Dodecanese. Samos is one of the closest Greek Islands to Turkey, only about 2 miles from its Eastern tip. One can stand on the waterfront in Pythagorio and see the large Turkish flags flying on the opposite shore and the top of Camil Mountain...

We sailed into the little marina near Pythagorio, which is named after the famous native son of Samos, Pythagoras. Almost anyone can remember the "Pythagorean Theorum" from high school geometry class, which is named after this great Greek mathematician and scholar of approximately 570 BC. . A large bronze statue of him standing under the apex of a right triangle is erected on the breakwater of Pythagorio. Pythagoras, who spent much of his later life in modern Italy, is considered one of the world's great early scholars of mathematics, music, and political science. His contributions to science put him afoul of the politics of his time...and for this reason many of his contributions were not known or publicized until years and centuries later...

We found Pythagorio to be a quaint harbor town, with flat stones paving the waterfront, polished from centuries of use. Many smaller fishing boats tied up to the quay, and tavernas lining the shore. Since we had a safe place to leave the boat for longer ventures ashore, we rented a car and drove almost around the entire island. This proved to be a challenge since much of its Western half is ruggedly mountainous and the roads very narrow and with many hairpin switchbacks. We paused twice at the large town of Samos on the North shore... to walk along its wide and very busy waterfront promenade, and to sit for a while at a coffee shop... The town square was bustling with people enjoying the bars and tavernas, and children playing drop-in soccer. Moored to the city front were several patrol boats along with the usual plethora of fishing craft. The Patrol boasts were from Germany and other EU countries that are in the area to control the ongoing refugee problem... Much of the narrative of the refugee migration is tragic, but occasionally one hears locally of more humorous events. Several immigrants were recently arrested, for example, having floated over on blow-up beach toys, including a shark and a blow up island complete with a palm tree.

Considering we are somewhat "city folk" we find it amusing to pull into one of the small coves and listen to the many tinkling bells of the nearby goats running along its shores. While we sip our evening wine on deck one of us often will say, "look! There is a herd of goats running down that cliff over there, hear/see them?" Well, on our road trip around Samos, which turned out to be an all day affair, we ran across another grouping of the furry horned beasts. We have had a craving for goat until this moment when we rolled down the window for a few photos. The smell was intense. Debby said, "they smell like what strong cheese tastes like": "kinda like feta." They also had weird dingle ball things hanging in their fur. Ugh! No goat for me now thank you very much. We did have some very tasty lamb souvlaki, however at a local taverna.

We have made some interesting observations of Greek customs and culture... One, the Greek people, both men and women, are VERY LOUD talkers and tend to use a lot of hand gestures. We often think we hear an argument only to find friends having a lively conversation. Second, Smoking is more common in public places than not. When we ask to be seated in a non smoking section in a restaurant, the usual answer is "yes, smoking is OK everywhere"... When checking into hotel rooms, we always ask for a big bed and a nonsmoking room. The response is usually "smoking in the room is OK, no problem". So we repeat ourselves, "we prefer a no smoking room" to which the response is again " "smoking okay, no problem".

After Samos we pointed our bow South again, to the windswept island of Athagonisi, and then Leros...
In Leros we lingered awhile since it has many attractions and wonderful protected harbors... The first attraction, of course is the beautiful mountaintop castle of Panteli, built in the Byzantine era, modified during the occupation of the Knights of St John and again when the Turks came in 1500. This castle is formidable in its seemingly insurmountable steep and high walls and its position at the top of a mountain overlooking the natural harbor of Lakki. Two legends add an aura to the castle. One, the Virgin of the castle is memorialized by a medieval church within its walls...The second legend is of the
siege of several years in about 1500 when the Ottoman Turkish Army was resisted by a much smaller contingent of Knights of St John. The Knights suffered many casualties, despite the advantages of the high walls and moat of the castle which allowed them to hurl rocks and shoot arrows down upon the invaders... until only one Knight remained, an 18 year old boy. Legend says he asked the remaining women, children and elderly villagers to don the armor of the many dead knights, to make their numbers seem greater, and they lasted through another two months of the siege.

In Leros we endured a week of late November gales, tied up in a small but protected marina... Here we decided to leave DEVA in a boatyard for our next 90 day period back in the States... To get home we will have to take a ferry to Kos, then a plane to Athens, then another plane to The UK, and Iceland, before landing in Seattle. Two days of travel followed by two days of recovery...In three months we get to do it all over again when we return to Greece and continue our journey.