Graptolite - Dodecanese Revisited
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Thu 23 Jul 2009 08:12
On Saturday 18th, with fresh galley-slaves of John, Julian and Heike, we
left Kos Harbour to sail to Emporios Bay, Kalimnos. I was here just a week
ago. It's nice to be able to go back to places for a change. Most of this
big journey has been just a one-way trip with only the one chance to check a
place out.
On Sunday it was a return to Kos to send Heike back to work. We anchored in
the tiny, shallow harbour of Mastkhari as it was near the airport. Oversized
ferries use the place and it turned out to have little room for yachts. In
fact no room at all as we had to leave in a hurry early on Monday morning to
make way for the Kalimnos ferry.
On Monday it was another visit to Niseros and another drive up to the
spectacular volcano, perched villages and natural sauna rooms of the island.
The harbour of Palon was stuffed with yachts from a regatta. Our faces were
stuffed with octopus and calamari for dinner. The onboard sundowners of
margharitas may have been a mistake.
On Tuesday we lunched in a pretty, rocky bay on the south side of Tilos then
went on to the island of Chalki. Chalki was a new place for me. It's a
lovely little town with pastel-painted campaniles, windmills and clear blue
water. With its working fishing boats it doesn't even feel all that
touristy. I'll be back.
Wednesday had us racing to Rhodes and the airport so this time John and
Julian could return to real life. As I partly expected, Mandraki Harbour was
completely full. I expect it's always full otherwise the harbourmaster there
would be a bit more polite with his customers. The choices were a scary
anchorage inside the cruise-ship harbour or tie up in the partly-built
marina further south. I went for the marina. The dust from the earth-moving
equipment brings back memories of Egypt.
M