Pserimos, A little bit of Kalymnos & Leros

On leaving Kos we stopped for the night in an almost secluded bay on the east coast of Pserimos, an island of no roads, and funnily enough no cars, just people, and goats! But on departure we had our first row, not with each other, but with an Italian skipper, who after anchoring in front of us and over our chain, refused to move, as we picked our chain up to within 3 metres of his boat, asking first very politely, being ignored, and then a little more persuasively, which at least got a response from him even if he still refused to move, so after some profanities from us, we waited until his boat swung to one side so we could then pick up our anchor and leave..

The next day our intention was to go around to Ormos Pserimos as it is said to be beautiful, and from the pictures on the internet, it is…. but open to southerlies and despite everyone saying southerlies never occurred at this time of year, it was blowing one today! We stayed the night in peace and as the forecast was for the Southerlie to drop to a Force 2, headed around the corner towards Ormos Pserimos. But hey ho, all our forecasts were wrong, by the time we got there, it was blowing a SW5, and having popped in to see just how untenable it was, we gave it a miss and headed to the east coast of Kalymnos.

Akti, on Kalymos was a nice bay tucked in away from the winds, said to have just the one Taverna, but on arrival it looked very much like it was to be another lunchtime one, so we didn’t bother dropping the dinghy, opting for a cosy night on board with one other boat for company.

The following morning we headed off to Vathy, 2 miles around the corner which our friends, Connie & Dirk said was a must. Vathy is nestled in a fjord like bay, very cute, but I have to say, involved a pretty scary stern too with anchor mooring. It was blowing through the very narrow inlet, the depths were seriously not much and room to manoeuvre was restricted to say the least. Below is a picture of the fjord from the hilltop, not taken by me I might add!. Still, all safely moored up, we waited until all the booze cruise boats had left, with their occupants and went for the briefest of wanders, the village consisting of one street, 2 shops, a couple of tavernas and some quay side stalls. Very pretty indeed.

We were going to catch a bus to the main town Pothia, but they were very few and far between, so decided we would stop by on our next visit.

Next Stop. Leros, due north of Kalymnos.

Having tried to sail and then tack for a couple of hours, it became apparent that we were getting nowhere fast, the wind had come round onto our nose and so we motored the rest of the way to Leros.

Xerokambos

The forecast was a force 5 gusting 6 for the next 2-3 days, but with being on the east side of the islands, the leeward side, we were experiencing even stronger gusts coming off from the land.  We managed to pick up a mooring buoy here, without any trouble, the trouble was then trying to keep the lines to the buoy quiet, especially during the night, but after about 3 attempts to try different things to eradicate it, we were fresh out of ideas.

We took a bus via Lakki to Platanos, which are the major towns on the island. As the bus drove into Lakki, we took one look and decided straight away that there was no point stopping, it was very dull and dirty, and to be frank they had done little to make the most of the significant waterfront that they had. So on to Platanos, and after finding the main square and having a drink, apart from a pleasant obligatory church, there was little else to write home about, so we walked down the steep hill to Pandali, some 10-15 minutes away for a spot of lunch and to work out if we could make this the next overnight stop with the yacht.

Pandali

After 2 nights in Xerocampos, we did indeed leave to go up the coast a few miles to Pandali.

So having spent night on anchor in Pandali bay, and not venturing ashore, we took another short hop to Alindas.

The wind was still howling as we came into the bay at Alindas, increasing in speed off the land and creating a swell out to sea. This would normally have been fine, but we needed to get some provisions, well a man still has to eat and drink !

So going in by dinghy, we walked around the bay to find a supermarket, some 10 minutes away from where we left the dinghy, but luck would have it, there was a short pier close by so we went back to the dinghy and went across the bay, keeping close to shore to steer clear of the swell. After getting the provisions into the boat, the wind had now picked up around 30 knots and the ride back to the yacht, was not quite as comfortable as it should have been, we got drenched at low speed, so then the best option was to go faster and get even wetter, but at least we got back to the yacht quicker !

Alindas

We did also stop to check out where we were going to eat that evening and had a chuckle at the menus of one restaurant!

In the evening, with the wind still howling and being dressed up for dinner ashore, Chantal challenged me to get us there dry ! This would have been no mean achievement in normal circumstances, but having miraculously manged to do so, I then asked Chantal where my flip flops were, only to realise they were still on the yacht ! So no pressure, I had to do it all over again, but, it is fair to say, we still managed to stay dry, under extreme pressure on another return leg.

Next Stop, Agathonisi!