From Emborios on the island of Kalimnos we headed to the island of Leros. We plan to take shelter in Lakki harbour, as strong winds are predicted for a couple of days. The video below includes footage of the stunning view of the bay at Emborios and how the colours change during the day. Our cameras don't really do the area justice.

Lakki does not fit with the appearance of a Greek town. The buildings in Lakki are art deco style and originate from when the Italians occupied the island prior to the Second World War. Lakki town is well equipped with supermarkets, butchers, a baklava shop (which is just as well as we had run out of Turkish delight), bottle shops and fruit and a vegetable market. The fruit and vegetable market was very disappointing compared to previous visits, I would not want to be relying on it's very limited supplies on a regular basis. We also managed to get laundry done. Nerida often does hand washing on the boat but sheets and towels are too big to be washed in the kitchen sink, so having a laundry that collect washing from the marina and delivers it back solves that issue.

One of the delights of being in Lakki marina is the delivery of fresh bread and pastries by the bakery van every morning. Just before 8.45 a small queue starts to appear, as people do not want to miss out on the fresh crusty bread, chocolate croissants or spanakopita. We stocked the freezer with bread, as the next few days we will be anchored out in bays with no facilities, apart from a taverna.

Eating out in Lakki is good. We visited a favourite restaurant called Lyxnari, which includes fresh local fish and vegetables grown in their own garden. We enjoyed local cheeses and our first red mullet of the season served with a green salad.

We decided to hire a car for a day to do a lap around the island, including exploring the boat yards at the northern end of the island, where some Aussies winter their yachts. The boat yards did not appear to have the facilities available at the Gocek marina. We also planned to visit the castle above the town of Pandeli but a traffic jam by two trucks and the resulting backlog of cars in the narrow streets put an end to that plan. We did enjoy a fantastic lunch of saganaki, zucchini croquettes and slow baked eggplant with tomato and herbs.

The narrow roads on most Greek islands probably explain why most people ride scooters rather than drive cars and any cars are very small by Australian standards. You see some very odd things being carted on a scooter. Firstly helmets are optional, although sometimes you will see the rider (male) with a helmet with the wife and kids on the back with no protection. We saw one man riding the scooter with one hand and with the other hand he was towing a lawn mower alongside. Another man had a huge pile of garden prunings he was taking to the tip on the back of his scooter - the pile could have filled the back of a ute.

On our last nigh in Lakki we discovered a taverna frequented by locals and enjoyed a tasty but very large pork gyros plate - we should have ordered one plate between us. When the complementary desert arrived, we could barely fit it in. All Greek restaurants seem to provide a complementary desert of various forms, these include walnut cake with cinnamon syrup, orange flavoured semolina, pineapple mouse.

Before leaving Lakki, the marina staff organised a fuel delivery, so we could top up our tanks with diesel, 91 Litres used in 29 hours of motoring since we left Gocek. (= 3.1 Litres per hour)

On leaving Lakki, once the wind died down, we headed to a favourite bay of Archangelo. There is nothing here except goats and a taverna. The taverna is run by a family that lives on the island over the summer time catering for the visiting yachties and others that catch a boat from the top end of Leros. The food is always delicious, local dishes and the service is great. As it was early in the season, they did not have a full menu operating but we enjoyed moussaka. We were invited back for dinner for slow cooked goat but declined as lunch was substantial.

Tomorrow we are leaving the Dodecanese group of islands and venturing into the Cyclades for the first time. We are heading for the island of Levitha. The island is only inhabited by a lighthouse keeper and a couple of families of fishermen but apparently still manage to run a taverna.