Nisos Lipsi
13 November 2022
Jane Paulson
We said our farewells to friends on Ikaria and left the marina at 09.20am for the 23 mile passage to Nisi Marathos where we planned to pick up a mooring buoy for an overnight stay.
The first 11 miles was a great run on full white sails but then the wind died (there's a surprise!!) and we finished on the engine (boo hoo ). Andreas lost another fish – the least said about that the better !!!
We just love Marathos. We have been here many times.
On arrival, we were the only boat in the bay. The three tavernas were all closed up for the winter. It was soooooo quiet. All we could hear was the tinkling of the goat bells.
We watched the sun set, ate on board and tucked down for the evening. Bliss.
Next morning, we slipped our lines from the mooring buoy and motored the 7 miles to Nisos Lipsi. We have been here before, both at anchor in the bay and on the quayside. Today we chose the quayside because there were strong winds forecast and that was the safest option. In fact, after we tied up, we received a Severe Weather Warning from the Greek authorities telling us to stay put. Do Not Move. We stayed put !!
It was here we caught up with Janita and Andrea. We first met them on Nisos Samos back in 2019. Pre – Bloody - Covid.
We love them both. They sail a beautiful classic wooden yacht named Mayflower and this year they have taken part in several regattas and won. We met them for coffee and an outstanding club sandwich at the renowned bakery and caught up on all the news. Later we met for Ouzo and Mezze and they introduced us to Giánnis who invited all of us to his farm up in the hills the next day for a BBQ.
Janitas daughter Tamara was due to arrive that evening on the ferry with her husband Dimitris and son Lukas for the weekend.
It was agreed that Janita and I would take food and of course booze for the BBQ and what a feast, expertly cooked by Andreas (Janitas Andreas) and Giánnis. It was a lovely afternoon in a beautiful setting with lovely people.
We sat out the big wind, torrential rain, thunder and lightning and once that was all over and the sea state had settled, we headed back to our Greek base - Leros.
Muse for this post: Once you've matured you will realise that sailing is more important than proving a point. You get to meet so many wonderful people, many go on to become life long friends.