autumn has arrived

Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Wed 14 Oct 2009 18:55
37 17.7N 26 45.9E
Lipso and Arki
We had a pleasant stay here on the town quay - a small village really with a few tavernas and some other small shops. A wonderful bread shop/cafe where we sampled some of the sweet specialities as well as using the free wifi. The cobbled lanes wind up hill in a positive warren with shops appearing in the most unlikely spots - very picturesque. There were a number of UK flagged boats on the quay - more than we have seen for ages. We left the following morning and headed for Arki another small island to the north and part of the North Dodecanese Wild Life Refuge. Watson thinks he may have spotted a Bonnetti eagle (known to inhabit this area) as we approached the island. We passed Marathos to port and noted a very small interesting harbour which we hope to make use of in the future but no time to stop this trip. on arrival at Port Augusta we found space on the quay so were soon all fast stern to and off to walk round the village. There were two tavernas and a mini market plus a few houses and not much else! very quaint and un spoilt. We rowed the dinghy to a small sandy bay about 100 metres across from the mooring for a swim before getting ready for supper. Had an excellent meal at the first of the 2 tavernas - local rabbit among other things.
We heard from another boat owner that the weather was going to deteriorate so we headed back for samos the following morning.
37 41.2N 26 56.6E
Samos 12th - 14th October
Well I guess it was too good to last - the weather that is! We managed a final swim from the boat while anchored off the beach to the east of Pythagorean harbour before retreating to the relative safety of the marina. The wind arrived earlier than forecasted and we were pleased to be secure on the pontoon as it started to gust above 28 knots. Samos marina is quite new and has all the services you would expect at 30 Euros per night: - lazy lines, power and water, showers (though not very special) and a laundry. There is also a good supermarket and two tavernas one for meals and the other more of a cafe for breakfast and drinks. We ate at the taverna and had a very good meal with plenty of choices of home made food and spit roasted lamb as a main course (the portions were enough for two!) Our visitors left early 0600 via a taxi to Vathi to catch their ferry to Piraeus - we heard from then at 1700 to say they were still in Vathi as the wind had prevented them from sailing! We had some torrential rain for about an hour and still the wind increased peaking around 2100 at 35 knots. We made good use of our enforced stay and got all the laundry done (4 loads) plus cleaned the boat, topped up with water and defrosted the fridge/ freezer. On Wednesday morning we decided to move to the town quay as the wind had dropped.