We left Kos on the 20th with light winds forecast. We motored sailed for a couple of hours then the wind picked up and set the full Main and Genoa and had a lovely sail towards Nisiros. As we got closer the wind picked up again and we ended up having to put 2 reefs in the Genoa and one in the Main. The crossing only took 3 hours instead of our predicted 4 so we arrived in Nisiros at 1400. The pilot book says the entrance is very shallow and narrow. It wasn’t wrong. It silts up and has to be dredged occasionally, we can only assume that it hadn’t been dredged this year yet because, as we approached the bottom came up to meet us. We did as the pilot said and kept very close to the breakwater and entered the harbour very slowly with 0.2m to spare under the keel. The pilot book also says that usually there could be up to 45 yachts in the harbour, there were 4 of us.

Three boats had decided to moor along side the town quay but we thought we would do the right thing and moor stern to to the quay. Chris made a very good job at putting us at 90’ to the wall, the anchor appeared to set straight away and the lines were soon ashore. 

Nisiros is a pretty harbour with blue and white painted houses, a church and lots of car rental places. There is also tavernas and a small grocery shop, but that didn’t appear to be open just yet, or if it did, it was very infrequent due to it still being out of season at the moment.

The next day we decided to let Chris’s wrist have a rest and take a walk to the volcanic crater. Most people take a bus or hire a car or scooter. The buses were so infrequent that it was not possible to trust them, after our last scooter hire experience we thought better of hiring a scooter and to hire a car just to go up a crater seamed a little extravagant, so we decided to walk. Most of the walk was on made up narrow ish roads, but being out of season, the road was very quiet and most of the time we were walking up the middle of the road with no traffic. After about an hours walking up hill, we got to the junction where we had to turn off to start going down hill into the crater but there was a lovely looking chora, Emborios, further up on the top of the crater rim so we decided to make a detour to see it. We were glad we did, it was a maze of tiny narrow streets, small houses all packed together with the most fantastic views across the Mediterranean. Once up there we could see where we had to go to get to the volcanic crater. There was a set of “steps” leading down to the road from the chora that cut off some of the need to walk along the road so we climbed down and met the road again making our way towards the crater. The air was smelling of sulphur by this time and it was another hours walk to the crater. We finally got to the crater, we didn’t have to pay the entrance fee because we had arrived on foot. The volcano is still active, pushing out steam of sulphurous gas but you are able to walk on the crater floor, at your own risk, you are just advised not to walk on any “soft bits”! We got down onto the floor and had a walk around but didn’t venture into the middle. We then visited another crater nearby where you can stand on the rim and look down. Then there was the walk back again. In all we walked nearly 16 miles but it was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow we move on again to Simi. 

The route up to the crater.

The up’s and downs we took on route.

Palon Harbour

 Emborios on the crater rim

Chris on the crater floor.