The last of the Dodecanese for 2018, Kasos to Karpathos & Kastellerizon.

Finally our weather window arrived for us to cross from Crete to the Karpathian Islands (that is after a brief race with a Swede to grab a mooring in Sitia, our final albeit brief stop on Crete, so we could watch England beat the Swedes in style).

Sitia, Crete

Nisoi Karpathos & Kasos are the 2 most southerly islands of the Dodecanese, sea and wind swept, sitting in an area of large and disturbed sea between Crete & Rhodes, hence patiently waiting for the Meltemi to pass before setting off. Despite a North West 4 being forecasted, we soon found ourselves back in a Force 5 gusting 6, alas the swell had not settled down. In a way it was great, as it was pushing us along nicely with an average boat speed of 7 knots so we sailed the 46 NM in just under 7 hours and found ourselves a fabulous spot in the inner harbour of Kasos, perhaps we should have taken more notice of the one single power cable, water hose and a couple of mooring lines on the side of the quay, still no one told us otherwise!

We chilled out with our obligatory bottle of Corona, tidied up the boat, locked it up to go wandering and just as we were about to get off, were rudely disturbed by a very loud horn emanating from a rather large power boat and choice language telling us to move! We ummed and aaa’d a bit, until we saw the harbour master running towards us and rather more politely apologising for not being around when we arrived, and advised we had to move. This we duly did, sadly to the outside of the quay, whilst safe enough, not quite such a comfortable night was destined ahead of us, if only we had got off the boat 10 minutes earlier!!!!

Kasos is a steep too island, one of the most barren we have seen in Greece, the tiny little capital Fry described as a “bit of a wallflower in a dowdy old-fashioned way”, not sure we would agree with the except for the tiny fishing harbour set inside the inner harbour. I will let the pics do the talking, but suffice to say we were happy to be only stopping there the one night!

Fry, Kasos

Just a bit too hilly billy for us, fab sunset though!

The following day we headed round the northern tip of Kasos and the southern tip of Karpathos, again under sail in a NW5, and were pleasantly surprised by the Capital Pigadhia, fringed by green trees, it is a picturesque town with a buzz about it and very friendly people. We would have liked to have taken the time to explore the island itself which is in fact the 2nd largest of the Dodecanese with many small and pretty villages apparently but with another Meltemi following closely behind the last and the Straits of Karpathos said to produce a wicked cross-sea, it was not meant to be!

Pigadhia, Karpathos

On the 10th July we set off for Lindos, mid way along the south eastern coast of Rhodes , our stopping point before crossing to the eastern most Greek Island, Kastellerizon. North West to West strong winds and yet another 3m swell pushing us along, we made the 58NM crossing in just under 9 hours to drop our anchor in our favourite bay on Rhodes, all in time to have supper, a glass of vino and watch the first of the Semi Finals!

Obviously we couldn’t undertake the 75NM crossing to Kastellerizon the next day, as it would have risked missing England’s semi-final, so we had a fab day chilling out on board, enjoying the crystal clear waters and our books. That evening we jumped in the dinghy to find a bar with the game, no shortage there, but it was with heavy hearts we returned to the boat that evening, even though England had exceeded David’s expectations just by getting to the semi-finals!

With  NW5 winds and over 2m swells predicted the following day we decided to stay put and wait another day which was forecasted NW4 and under 1m swell most of the way dropping to next to no wind the closer we got to Kastellerizon. And it was a good thing we did….. a lone sailor in front of us got his anchor chain jammed in between 2 rocks, and being the considerate sailors we are, we offered to help him free it, taking control of his boat as he dived into the water to steer us in the right direction!

The second good deed of the day was actually the following morning when we got up at 5am to make our crossing. It didn’t take long to realise that a German boat anchored near us wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and with each gust of wind, was continuing to drift closer and closer to the rocks. Without waiting to even wash our faces, secure our oven and kettle and still in PJ’s we picked up our anchor and raced over to them, yelling at the tops of our voices trying to raise them. Finally one of the them popped their head out of a hatch, and raised the alarm to the others. we reckon 10 minutes later they would have been in serious problems! Thankfully for us, the winds and sea at that time of the morning were relatively calm giving us time to wake up properly and sort the boat out whilst motoring along!

By 7am we had our sails set on a nice beam reach, the forecasted 4 obviously being a 5, still it was again a nice sailing position and Seaclusion responded well again, if more than a little tiring as the swell hitting our rear quarterly overwhelmed the autohelm which meant us helming all the way. We were looking forward to getting closer to Kastellerizon with the little winds forecasted, ha ha ha some 9 hours later with 3-4 still to go, the wind turned westerly and blew a 6 gusting 7 the rest of the way there, and it was with aching arms, shoulders and everything else, we dropped our anchor and reversed onto the quay. 79NM later we opened another bottle of Corona! Needless to say after a bite out, neither the bars on the front nor the heat could stop us from shutting our eyes at midnight and falling asleep very quickly!

Kastellerizon lies 1 mile of the Turkish coast, and despite being a steep-to, bare, rocky place with barely a patch of top-spoil, it has still been the subject of dispute between the Greeks and Turks for decades, the Turks obviously wanting it back!  It is quite clear that the Greeks like to remind the Turks of that fact, as there are numerous huge Greek flags around the island on its approaches, as well as more painted on the hillsides that face Turkey. In contrast the town is delightful, very picturesque, centred around the port area, which I might add has a very very low quay at times with water lapping over the edges, or, as we just witnessed completely saturating a couple of tourists having lunch right at the edge when a large stink pot came in next to us, and over revved its engines! Needless to say the captain has probably paid for their lunch! Aside from the tiny population, the tourists, most of which seem to be Aussies, the bay is populated by very friendly turtles, well 2 that keep swimming up to and under our boat, well did before the stink pot arrived!

Kastellerizon

We are here for 3 days, 2 days in the Port and 1 on anchor in the bay around the corner before we say our goodbyes to the Greeks, clear into Turkey and start our Turkish leg of this journey!

14th July 2018