Things are so close here that we decided to duck up to the next island from Kalymnos for a lunchtime stop, only to decide we liked the bay and couldn’t be bothered ducking back down to Kalymnos for our nighttime anchorage. So that is how we found ourself in Leros. We said goodbye to Court who was flying off to Boston via Rhodes and Istanbul. A nice guy with lots of experience and very helpful. In the short time he was with us, he quickly worked out our VHF antenna had been incorrectly fitted – another end of season job added to the list.
Next morning we shifted around to the east coast of Leros and anchored up in Pandeli, under the castle and the Greek windmills. Michael and Elaine wanted to organize their ferry tickets to Rhodes so we walked across to Lakki on the West side – not far.
Then we attempted to walk to the Venetian castle but took a wrong turn and Sherry hailed a painters van to take us back to the right road. Karin, DeAnne and I all piled into the back amongst the paint cans and other bits and pieces whilst Sherry travelled in luxury in the front.
Now on the right road, our weary legs found their way up to the castle where the views were magnificent. The little restaurant strip on the beach (and I mean right on the beach) was very pretty with the castle and windmill backdrop all lit up at night – worth a nighttime dingy ride to sample a local wine or two.
Next day the meltemi was well and truly in, so we stayed put and walked over the hill to Ayia Marina and then around the corner to Alindas, where we found a great little restaurant and bar (another Sherry recommendation), which Dee and I decided would make an excellent venue for a romantic dinner, complete with the supermoon. The restaurant was super booked so we could only get an early booking (7pm!!!), which turned out perfect as we saw the moon rising over the castle.
Next day we ventured out and sailed North to check out the White Islands. These are small islands at the top of Leros. Once again, Sherry earned her keep by taking us to a beautiful bay on Nisis Arckhangelos, where we anchored in 2.5m of crystal clear water. We swam around the bay and enjoyed the sunshine before heading down the other side of Leros to Lakki. Ah – it was good to have a following wind for a change after beating our way north for ages.
We got ourselves a berth at the marina, which turned out to be a lovely little spot. The staff were really nice (and very competent) and by the end of our stay we had decided to winter there. Close enough striking distance to Gallipoli and good tradies.
Here it was time to say goodbye to Michael and Elaine, who were catching a ferry to Rhodes to make their way home. We had another great time together seeing quite a bit of both Turkey and Greece, whilst enjoying Elaine’s cooking and Michael’s help.
I now had a Charlie’s Angel situation on my hands – myself and 3 women – now there’s a challenge. I dared not go anywhere near the galley.
We had some repairs to be done as our 12V motor on the watermaker wasn’t working and we had to rely on the 240V motor (it has both) to make water. Unfortunately we were burning through impellers on our genset like nobody’s business so this really did need to be attended to. The watermaker problem turned out to be a thermal fuse and the genset problem turned out to be a non-return valve that decided to turn its into a return valve.
Problems resolved it was time to move to yet another island – this time Lipso – again to the north.
For pictures of Leros please see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202129610274664.1073741933.1620379103&type=1&l=9feb07d97f.
A Little Bit of Mischief 