Endless summer on SCII

Patmos, Lipsi, Arki and Samos

18 June 2022
Nerida Matthews | Fine and sunny 29 degrees, water temperature is 23 degrees
We left Levitha with an 18-20 knot southerly wind, which is unusual for this time of the year where the prevailing wind is from the north. So, we took the opportunity for a down wind sail and headed north to Patmos.

The main harbour in Patmos had a significant cross wind with strong gusts which makes anchoring difficult. We dropped our anchor and attempted to tie up to the harbour wall but our anchor failed to grab. So, after our failed attempt in the harbour we opted to anchor out in an adjacent bay. The wind gusts were very strong, there was a build-up of clouds and we can confirm that it does rain in the Greek islands. We had a short shower of 30 minutes but the temperature was still a pleasant 25 degrees.

The next day was calm so we ventured back to the harbour and managed to successful anchor and tie up to the harbour wall. The day was spent cleaning the boat, as the rain from the previous day had turned dust into mud, as well as exploring the harbour town and reprovisioning. We had a lovely dinner in a taverna of grilled prawns, grilled sardine fillets and a geek salad. Yes, Glenn who proclaims that he 'will not eat anything that resembles fish bait' actually ate sardines and enjoyed them!

We had planned on spending 2 days in Patmos harbour but on the second morning the wind was up again and once again our anchor stated dragging in. We don't usually have this issue but it seemed to be a problem in this harbour for us. We went out and anchored in a nearby bay to spend the day there.

Patmos is one of the places that cruise ships call into, we were to see several come in and spend a day there. There is a monastery at the top of the hill which along with the town itself is quite a popular attraction.

On leaving Patmos we had a good sail across to the island of Lipsi. Lipsi has quite a good harbour that is very popular with the yachties. The harbour is run by one of the locals - a very colourful character! He tends to give lots of shouted instructions with arm waving and generally gesticulating towards new arrivals. It can sometimes be quite an issue understanding what he actually wants. There are also times he will totally ignore a new arrival if it doesn't suit him at the time. It is quite entertaining just watching the boats coming and going in this harbour.

Around the harbour are a couple of ouzeries, specialising in small dishes, including grilled octopus. The octopus is hung outside during the day to tenderise and then is cooked on the charcoal BBQ and is serves simply with lemon juice and olive oil - it is delicious. We ordered half a kilo of white wine, eggplant salad, dolmades and fried potatoes to go with the grilled octopus. The meal and the ambience was so good, we went back a second night, this time for saganaki prawns.

After 2 days in Lipsi we headed up to the island of Arki. We had hoped to spend a couple of days there as there are some beautiful anchorages and a small harbour we hoped to get into. Once again the wind was quite strong and it wasn't such a great place to be living on a boat at anchor. As the forecast was for a week of similar weather we decided to go up to the island of Samos. We knew from experience that the South East corner of Samos is in a wind shadow and is a good place to stay. We had expected to be able to sail all the way for this trip but it didn't work out that way. We started with a fresh North West wind which was perfect for our North Easterly course. About a quarter of the way across the wind dropped off to nothing so in with the sails and on with the engine. A short time later the wind came up again but this time from the North East - dead in front of us. While we could in theory tack back and forward to get to our destination but we did not want to extend what was already a 5-hour trip so just motored on. At least as we got close to Samos the wind and waves dropped down and we arrived into a very sheltered anchorage.

We will spend a couple of days here before moving around into the nearby harbour and town of Pythagorian. We have run the engine for 40 hours since we last got fuel so it might also be time to top up with diesel while there. We have now covered 550 miles (about 990 km) this season so have covered quite a bit of the South Aegean and many islands we have not previously been to. We are hoping to get a weather window to head further North up to the island of Chios, also a place we have not been before.
Comments
Vessel Name: Southern Comfort II
Vessel Make/Model: Bavaria 47, 2009
Hailing Port: Melbourne, Australia
Crew: Glenn and Nerida Matthews
About: Having almost completed the charter yacht catalogue over the last 25 years, we are fulfilling our long term dream of living the endless summer. In April 2017 we purchased our yacht and plan to spend several months every year in the Med.
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