Day: June 28, 2015

Off to Pythagorion – In Theory

~ stull61 ~ 2 Comments

Samos was our next stop, and once again took up Garry and Marti’s recommendation to stop at Pythagorion. So after summing up the square of the two shorter sides and finding that they equaled the sum of the longer side of the right triangle – as well as exhausting all the other bad jokes about Pythagoras – off we went to Samos, where the subject of my appalling sense of humour lived a long, long time ago.

Our somewhat cunning plan was to put La Mischief in a marina and catch a ferry across to Turkey so we could see Ephasus and Pamukkale. Great idea in theory but for the fact that the ferry wasn’t running on the day we needed it to run because of a lack of paying customers.

So time for Plan B, which was to enjoy Samos for a few days, get a new water pump and a float switch for the bilge pump (as my second electronic float switch had now stopped working – two years after the first had failed). I’m now very much a fan of the old fashioned Rule float switches.

But first, a drive around the island, checking out all the beaches and sites. After an early morning swim, we checked out Samos Town (Vathi) and picked up some boat parts and checked out the old town. Glad we chose Pythgorion over Samos Town.

The drive round Samos is 155km, so makes for a good day. We were recommended a great little village called Manodates (where cars don’t get a look in) up in the mountains for lunch. The road up passed through sub tropical rain forest and on certain sections we were glad we didn’t encounter any oncoming traffic. The lunch was really nice, the home made wine not so. After some more beaches and swimming, we pulled into see what was left of the ancient ruins of Ireon, and the Temple of Hera. Unfortunately there is only one column remaining – but still worth a look.

Next day it was boat repair day. Whilst the others went exploring/relaxing on hired beach chairs, Dee and I got to work. First step was to ride into town on the foldable bike and pick up a new Sureflow pump (less than half the price of my Jabsco) and a new bilge float switch. There was another Aussie boat on the same marina pier and Melinda kindly offered her husband Dave to come and help. The fittings for the Sureflow were quite different, so back on the bike and into town to see what I could do. Wasn’t all that lucky and tried to butcher something up but it didn’t work. So in with the old one with Plan #3 to get it fixed in Kusadasi.

After Mojito’s on La Mischief with Dave, Melinda and a young Pommie guy called Ash (sorry Ash if you read this – Dee deleted your friend request by mistake and can’t find it) who was crew on a Jenneau 57 and was turning 20 alone. After drinks on La Mischief we e walked the kilometre into town to celebrate Ash’s birthday and you guessed it – another round of Mojitos (and dinner).

We’d checked out of Greece the night before, so it was an early 6am start to sail to Kusadasi in Turkey.

For photos of Samos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203935477420214.1073741967.1620379103&type=1&l=d20872d876

Arki – Greek for Very Cute little Village.

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After the cushion overboard episode and a quick swim, we decided we would live with turning on and off the water pump manually and headed north to our planned first stop in Arki. With the Northerly well and truly set in, we motored all the way, up the east side of Leros, past Lipsi and onto the wall at Arki. Garry and Marti had given us a hot tip for a restaurant at Arki, and we managed to tie up side on to the small wall.

What a cute little spot Arki turned up to be. You’d be lucky to find 30 people living permanently on the island, and rumour has it that they are all related. It was a great place for a swim straight off the back of the boat and by now Dee and I were back in the groove and swimming 30-40 mins a time.

After the swim we headed up to the Church of Metamorfosis, up on top of the hill outside of the small village. We took in the views and headed back to the boat for some more quite delicious French Red and Bubbles if I remember correctly.

Then it was off to our recommended restaurant (the one ending in 1956), for some very delicious Greek food. We were struggling with ordering the right amount of food and once again managed to over order – but not to worry, La Mischief was only a 50m crawl across the small square.

Weather Reporting for Dummies
Weather Reporting for Dummies

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Cute Little Arki
Cute Little Arki
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June 2015 – The Adventure Continues On

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With Dee and I back in Greece, and a serious lack of blogging going on (due to numerous excuses I have to say), its well and truly time to fire up the blog and let you poor folk shivering away in the Australian winter know just how good cruising around the Med is. We got to Greece in early June, spent a couple of days recuperating in a seaside hotel close to the airport, before hopping on the plane to Leros with our five heavy bags full of boat parts and half a blow up windsurfer/SUP (as Emirates decided I couldn’t bring the sail section).

In Leros it was not all fun and cocktails. Before the play comes the work. In no time at all I had Dee scrubbing the decks, removing the effects of a Saharan red mud rainstorm. We worked through a long list of boat jobs – 60 odd jobs in total. Dale had reconditioned one of our shower sump pumps and machined up some latch locks so we gratefully fitted those. It took us a little longer than we thought to work our way through our list. After a week and a bit, the day before Kim and Jane were arriving, La Mischief was looking pretty darn good (to quote George of the Jungle) and we were getting closer to finishing when, bugger me, the fresh water pump’s pressure sensor refused to play ball!!

Never mind, it was out to the airport to pick up Kim and Jane at 7.30am (ouch) in our hire car, and we finally gave ourselves a break and spent a day being tourist – breakfast at Skippers (at the marina), lunch on Pateli Beach, looking up at the castle, a quick drink at The View to guess what, check out the view, and then back to Ostria for dinner, an old favorite. In between, I organized for someone to look at my pump, and for some fibre-glassing work to be done.

In Leros we also found time to socialize with the other yachties – a great past time given the stories and information they have. We had drinks on a Seawind 1160 from the USA and Dee keenly did the grand tour to see what Camelot was like. Also ran into a couple of Australians in Garry and Marti – Garry being the guy who set up the original Cruising Helmsman magazine and his wife.

Next day, it was time to pick up Tiki and Scott to bring us up to the full compliment of crew. Of course we needed to check out another restaurant and as the request was for live music and seafood, we headed to the Pateli Beach Bar. Logistics were somewhat of an issue, but with three slim girls and some slow and steady driving, we managed to deliver 6 people to the restaurant in the hire car. Certainly not OH and S compliant.

Being the weekend it was impossible to order a new pump until Monday, so we decided we would cruise down to Kalymnos for a couple of days, until the pump was ordered and delivered from Athens. We headed for Emporios on the NW side, and had a great reach down in 20kts of breeze, before making our way into the bay and picking up a restaurant mooring. Emporios was a cool little spot, with sugar white houses set against a pebble beach with crystal clear water. Out came the two SUPs and much swimming and paddling was done. Tiki and Scott had arrived from France with a suitcase full of wine (and a few clothes), making our pre-dinner drinks on the front of the boat a very delightful occasion.

Dinner was according to the restaurant name written on the mooring ball, so off we went in our dingy to Artistico Café, just off the beach under some tamarisk trees. The name suggested music, as did the posters and photos, and George the proprietor did not let us down with an impromptu jam session with House of the Rising Sun being the highlight.

After a windy night, we got up to find one of our front cushions blown away, due to a combination of some good French wine being spilt the night before and us forgetting to re-attach the cushion to the boat following the cleanup exercise. So off in the dingy to comb the shoreline to no avail. Meanwhile Kim had gone for a swim and a beachcomb and heroically returned with a somewhat damp cushion. Disaster averted.

Now that we were finally on the water, we’d decided that we would push on with our dodgy water pump rather than going back to Leros for a new one. So then it was off to Arki.

For photos of Leros see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202129610274664.1073741933.1620379103&type=1&l=9feb07d97f (includes photos from last year as well)

For photos of Kalymnos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202129600234413.1073741932.1620379103&type=1&l=e7ee7e7a6b (ditto about last years photos)