Sailing Through the Dodecanese to Seaclusion’s Winter Home on Samos

Having left Turkish Waters, our first stop in Greece was back to Symi to clear in. However since departing Greece last year, a new sailing tax has been introduced and whilst we had already registered online to pay this, we hadn’t appreciated that the payment itself has to be done via a bank transfer and it could take days to be accepted and registered on the Greek System. Until it was registered we couldn’t get our papers so our stay on Symi was therefore a little longer than expected!

Symi

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Finally on the 27th August we left Symi, heading southwards and as the weather was so calm, we managed to do so via a narrow, shallow strip of water between Symi and the uninhabited island of Nimos which shaved a few miles and hours off our journey.

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29NMs later we arrived at the tiny, uninhabited island of Alimnia, near to Khalki where we stopped for the night, even though it took us 5 attempts to get the anchor through the weed!

The following day we headed 9nm’s across the water to Khalki, approx 7kms west of Rhodes.. We have been here before in 2016 but didn’t actually stop to explore. The barren 2kmx2km island is still untouched by mass tourism and its capital, Nimporio which stretches around the island’s port is very picturesque with its traditional architecture, peaceful atmosphere and secluded beaches. The capital of Halki Greece is Nimporio, a picturesque little village that stretches around the island’s port.

Mooring was a little interesting, still getting used to stern too with an anchor mooring, helped by locals that don’t know what they are doing. Thankfully the water was so shallow and clear we could see exactly where we were laying our chain, more importantly where others that came in later laid theirs, to avoid any issues on departure!

Whilst we only stayed the one night, we had plenty of time to explore the village, camera in hand, and pick where to eat that night.

Chalki

The following morning saw an early rise so off I trotted, camera at the ready again, to make the most of the best light!

South Coast of Chalki

On the 29th August, we motored along the bottom of Khalki, then started heading north, giving us plenty of time to get to Samos, knowing we would be against the wind and seas most of the way. Our first stop was the island of Tilos, 25nm’s north, where we had stopped in 2016 and therefore didn’t venture in again. We anchored off the beach for the night and set off early the following day towards Kos.

We did make a slight detour to Knidos, on the Turkish Datca headland, a place we had previously tried to stop at before high winds had alway made it unsafe. It would have been perfect for another night on anchor, but having already cleared out of Turkey, that would not have been the wisest thing to do! Nevertheless we spent a couple of hours there, which gave me just enough time to pop my phone in its waterproof bag and swim ashore for a look-see.

Knidos

Knidos is very historical, having been founded first in Burgaz, which is 2 km away from the centre of Datca, by the local people who migrated from Argos in 700 BC. The locals who became wealthy gradually marketed agricultural products by sea. The ships sailing to the North, unable to resist to Northwest winds, had to anchor and wait at the west end of the peninsula. For this reason, it was moved to the end of the Datca peninsula in order to build a harbour city in 360 BC. Two harbours, one of them for the war ships in the North and the other for the merchant ships in the South, were built in the cape of Deveboynu. People of Knidos showed their wealth and strength by building a treasure room in Apollon Temple in Delphi during this period. Knidos Ancient City is now one of the most important historical sites in the area, famous in antiquity for its many great amphitheatres. 

We then left and rounded the headland to be faced with a north west 7/8 right around the eastern tip of Kos, right on our nose. After a horrendous few hours, we safely arrived outside Kos Marina to be told there was no room for us either in the marina or the old town harbour, and so it was a rough night on anchor for us, not that you can see it from the sunset photo below!!

Kos Harbour at Sunset & Sunrise

The following day we left early to try our luck at Pserimos. (Attempts in previous years have been unsuccessful due to the weather conditions). By rights with north westerly winds, the tiny little harbour should have been fine, but for some reason a nasty swell was working its way in there, so after having had a bad night, we decided to abandon the idea and head for a safe haven (Agios Nikolaus) we know on the South east coast of Kalymnos. This was not before we had a slight issue of a knot forming in the genoa in-haul line, which meant we had to sail back towards Kos for a while so the wind was behind us, so we could fix it. Thankfully we managed to do this, although not before seeing my Oakley sunglasses disappear into the drink… argggg!!! We were grateful finally to drop the pick in our safe calm haven and chill out for the rest of the evening.

The next morning we set sail again toward Leros, and had a fantastic sail up the coast, spotting dolphins along the way. Perhaps we should have counted our chickens and stopped in the bay on the south, but past experience told us we had to use a buoy and it would creak all night, so we persevered against the winds which had turned to be on our nose again, to get 3/4’s of the way up the east coast of Leros to Ormos Alinda where we could drop our pick, finding shelter from the swell if not the winds. An early start brought a beautiful sunrise with it.

Alinda, Leros

Our next stop on the 2nd September was one of our favorite islands Lipsi, where we met up with old sailing chums, Connie & Dirk with their daughter Nina and son-in-law, Matthoe, on their new to them 45ft Dufour, Cocco.

Lipsi

We stayed a couple of nights, tucked safely up in Lipsi’s little harbour, catching up with our friends, before departing for Samos, being the only place with a hospital and an X-Ray machine, (my back causing excruciating pain after being hammered by the wind and sea for the past few days, something was clearly wrong). When then said goodbye to our friends who were heading over to Patmos, whilst we motored around the bottom of Lipsi to Katsada Bay, to wait for the right wind conditions, which thankfully arrived 1 day later, allowing us to have a wonderful sail for 26nms to Pythagoria on Samos.

Pythagoria, Samos

The next few days saw us stay in Pythagoria whilst we made a couple of trips to Samos town on the north of the island where the hospital was, and hide from the Meltemi blowing a Force 7. Connie & Dirk had had the same idea and met us there, so a few more sociable evenings ensued until we braved the conditions and sailed over to a wonderful bay on the south east tip of Samos called Posedonia where we weathered out the rest of the storm. By this time, aside from some painkillers and anti-inflammatories which were great with vino, there was little more that could be done for me and my back until we got home.

Posedonia, Samos

Posedonia is a small and calm cove with green crystal clear waters said to be totally protected from the strong winds, well yes if they are coming from the north west, not so much if they turn to north east, which we discovered during our stay there, still it was much better than the yawing and jarring we were experiencing whilst moored up to Pythagoria’s quay! We were also joined by Cocco and a couple of other boats they knew, which meant a few drinks on board other yachts and David having to clean out the dinghy, anyone for fried fish???

Finally on the 14th we headed back to Pythagoria, more for provisioning than anything else and then headed back to Patmos. We were not due to be lifted until the 23rd September, Not that the winds were going to let us be lifted beforehand, and we couldn’t stay in Pythagoria any longer! So we bid farewell to our friends and had a wonderful sail over to Patmos where we found a gloriously sheltered bay and chilled out for 2 days.

Patmos Anchorage

From there we motored back to Lipsi, as finally I had managed to get an appointment with the very busy and very good hairdresser, and boy did I need one, my hair was well below my shoulder blades by now! We stayed one night and then sailed up to the tiny island of Arki, and after 3 attempts to anchor in weed, we finally braved a tiny bay called Ormos Steni, said to get very shallow very quickly as we slowly inched our way in towards the only buoy left, watching the depth gauge continuously. Just about to give up, with 1/2m under us and still a few yards to go, this kind English gentlemen in a much smaller yacht offered to vacate his buoy and move further in. How lovely of him although he did prove to be a bit of a chatterbox!

Ormos Steni, Arki

As is the norm in these parts, if you use a restaurant’s buoy you should frequent their establishment! Sadly for us we had already performed a fresh water flush on our outboard in readiness for the winter, which meant rowing in. We deliberated over whether we could get away it and finally decided etiquette should prevail and made the effort, well David did, he doing all the rowing, me just lighting the way with the odd, left hand down etc. The menu comprised of lamb chops or souvlaki, and the wine, well lets just say we have had better, so not really sure it was worth it but at least we slept well that night!

Finally on the 20th, we set sail back to Samos, this time to the Marina to start the whole process of cleaning and shutting down our summer home for the winter. 2 days later, with the dingy clean, deflated, in its bags and safely sorted on one of the aft bunks, all mooring lines cleaned, dried and stored, cupboards cleared out of tempting food for rats etc, we had a fabulous sail in a NW 4/5 to the north of Samos, aiming to stop for the night at an anchorage designed to provide shelter in these winds, but which on arrival, we found was seriously too deep for us. We therefore had no choice but to continue around the headland, into the wind and Plan B. This however was definitely untenable due to the winds, so onto Plan C, that being the deep inlet of Vathy, the Capital of Samos, which faces north west, hmmmm. Fortunately we did manage to find some shelter behind a small spit just off Andreas Roussaki’s yard, Seaclusion’s Winter home and had a better than expected night.

Early on the 23rd Andreas radioed us to come in and we were lifted shortly after. The final steps to put Seaclusion to bed, namely taking her sails off, lowering the anchor and all its chain onto a pallet, removing her bimini, sprayhood, other lines from the deck, cleaning then commences and a day later we said our goodbyes once again until 2020!

We have had another wonderful summer on board Seaclusion, over a period of 92 days we sailed 993 nautical miles and ventured inland to explore more stunning parts of Turkey.

Thank you all for following us, we hope you have enjoyed it, almost as much as we have!

See you next summer!

Chantal & David