Arriving Kos
04 October 2012 | Aegean Sea
Dan 31 degrees C, 1013mb, 8kts WNW

We're about 1 hour from our destination on this 77nm leg from Amorgos to Kos. We left in darkness this morning in order to arrive with plenty of daylight left and perhaps even have time to explore the island a bit. I woke up at 4am and watched the presidential debate before getting the boat ready for our departure. (Still kind of a junkie, I suppose.) The air was absolutely still so I let Ty and Chris remain asleep while I slipped the stern lines and pulled away from the dock, lifting the anchor using the control switch at the helm. The ferry that came in late last night laid its chain over ours, but once I realized that, I was able to lift most of our chain up, then pull the anchor from underneath his chain by backing Interlude up a ways. Blind luck that it actually worked...
I love being out on the water at night. There's serenity and natural beauty that is amplified by the heightened sense of awareness that the situation requires. And with the early dawn comes anticipation... this morning there was a fabulous sunrise as I motored along the jagged NW coast of Amorgos and I felt genuinely privileged to be out there, camera in hand. The photo attached to this entry depicts the scene quite nicely.
The sea has been calm all day except for a gentle, rolling swell from behind us. We've been running at 2100 RPM and averaging nearly 9 knots. Lots of time for reading, organizing photos, playing cards and tidying the boat while underway. The iPod stereo input stopped working a few days ago (a critical systems failure that must be fixed at once!) so we spent the morning listening to a new Greek music CD that we picked up on Amorgos.
And speaking of Amorgos... yesterday was definitely one of our most memorable and enjoyable days so far. I'll post a separate update later with highlights and reflections about our brief time there.