Our Introduction to the Dodecanese, Astipalaia & Kos

We finally departed from Santorini early on the 18th July, thankfully the skipper of the Cat that had boxed us in turned up at 7.30 to move and let us out!.We had a great sail in a north westerlie 4 until the last 2 hours when it grew to a 5 and gusted 6, giving us a top speed of 8.9 knots through the water. After 54 miles we arrived at the first island in the Dodecanese, Astipalaia and grabbed a spot on the quay.

Astipalaia, lying like an almost forgotten part of the Dodecanese consists of 2 mountain ranges joined by a long slender isthmus, the coastline being very indented and a natural lair for pirates before piracy was suppressed in the Aegean. Skala Astipalaia, where we stopped, was a a cute harbour, with, unsurprisingly a church, a number of tavernas and little shops, and wound its way up the hill, (which we climbed) to the Chora at the top with a line of old windmills, its old castle and two white, blue doomed churches in its middle.

Astipalaia

Having washed the boat from all the salt that had covered her deck during our crossing, we ventured into the harbour for a chilled out bite to eat and the inevitable carafe of the local vino. The following morning, we have been having a spot of bother with the outboard for the dinghy and a mechanic came on a moped to have a look at it, he said he needed to take it away and work on it, which he duly did, tucking a 27kg engine under his arm and riding off on his moped with the use of the other one. We then walked up the steep hill to the Chora to take in the sites and view from the top!

We then wandered around the tiny streets, and wound our way up to the castle.

The last bit was a little treacherous, and for those of you who remember our blogs in Croatia, when I made the mistake of climbing to the top of a fabulous old church only to realise I had to climb through a tiny door to get to the view, wearing a short skirt and a thong, you will chuckle at the next 2 pictures! Not the most sensible!

We loved Astipalaia, and having originally thought we would stay a couple of nights only, we decided on a third, our next destination being Kos. And thankful we were, as that was the night that Kos suffered its earthquake. Our thoughts are with those who were there, were hurt or lost their lives.

Once the news filtered through that it was safe, we did then set off to Kos, stopping on anchor a couple of nights, on the south of the island in Kamares.

As the afternoon wore on, we realised that our peaceful bay was now the stopping point for the ferries to and from the island, the ferry quay at Kos town having been too badly damaged to be used. Their turning circle was a little close!

On the 23rd July we then sailed the 31 mile length of Kos going from a NW4, to  a SE2 to, as we rounded the corner a NW6 gusting 7, on our nose! The last 9 miles took us nearly 3 hours of tacking, sailed reefed. Exhausted, we found safety in Kos Marina, a little way south of Kos Old Port, and settled in for the night. On arrival and having checked into the marina office, we were advised that there had, that afternoon, been two additional aftershocks, measuring 4.5, we didn’t feel a thing !

The following day, we ventured into Kos itself, not knowing what to expect after the quake. It is a beautiful old town, amidst the touristy spots and at first little was damaged, as far as we could see.

Although the port was the quietest it has probably been for decades in the middle of the season. This is what it should have looked like, pinched from the internet:

Sadly, this is what it did look like;

The culprit being a massive crack along the quayside.

There was some really cute places, and to be honest, most of the time you would not have realised they had suffered a tragedy as recent as 2 days ago, the Greek people certainly have resilient spirits, but as some of the pictures will show, it is a tragedy, some of the fabulous old buildings and monuments are no more.

The before and after pictures of :

Eleftherias Square & the Ottoman Defterdar mosque and the building dating back to Italian rule which did houses the archaeological museum, now without its town and little structure on very rocky ground.

Hippocratus Tree in Platanos Square

Church of Aghia Paraskevi

The loss of this history for Kos is very sad for everyone, for us a sadness dealt with by a lovely meal and carafe of Vino in Platanos square.

On the 25th, we then departed heading slightly northward to the island of Pserimos, a short hop away, our spirits lifting with the wind.