Lleros to Nisiros, 20th - 23rd October

Spellbinder
Sun 1 Nov 2009 08:07
Henry departed Leros on Tuesday 20th, to go to Felicity Burbridge's wedding in South Africa, leaving Martin as skipper for the leg through the Dodecanese to Fethiye, well supported by Eric, Jane and Peter. There follows Jane's record of the cruise as far as Nisiros
 
Leros to Nissos Kalimnos
We pulled away from the jetty, some of us -me -a bit rusty on Henry's standards of drill but with adequate performance to give Martin confidence that we showed enough promise to be a crack crew for the next fortnight.Now bound for Kalimnos, we cut the engine and sailed under the main sail and genoa, all part of the shake down and drills on a seven mile, short leg which got us all in to the spirit of Spellbinder again.With a good wind behind us, we arrived in sight of Nissos Kalimnos and began the search for a buoy.There were several to choose from but a long hot summer had mostly obscurred the names of their taverna,and our preferred option was already occupied. Undeterred we went for next best, moored at the buoy and launched the dinghy to row ashore in search of food. Peter, who immediately volunteered to demonstrate his oarsman skills, was to become chief oarsman of the trip and thus assumed the name of Michael for the duration of each dinghy passsage thereafter.To be brutally honest, Nissos Kalimnos was already closed for the winter season - two shoreside restaurants had lights on but only one served food - so we opted for the food one and enjoyed our first evening meal of the cruise ashore, the experience somewhat diminished for me by the appearance of a bucket full of floating fishheads behind my seat. I had decided on pasta anyway but did wonder at the provenance of the local fish on the plates in front of the others. Back on the dinghy, as ever I had my headtorch, but it wasn't needed under the waxing moon and a bright night.  
 
Kalimnos to Kos
We had agreed a sharp getaway and were all up and ready to slip from the mooring at Emboris for 8am. The wind was favourable again and we sailed to Martin's waypoints under a cloudless sky, round the headland to a sheltered bay at Kamari on the south side of the island. From a distance we could see that this had all the promise of Costa del Cos and we were not disappointed.Once in and anchored Peter and Eric did their bombdiving approach to 'hands to bathe', and then we all rowed ashore for a meal and a walk along the seafront, the whole place influenced by today's mass tourism, junk food and endless promises of Happy Hours. 
 
Kos to Nissos Nisiros
As we prepared to set sail, we watched a fishing boat about to be launched from the shore. One man in a suit and another in a new tracksuit watched the proceedings whilst 3 other men heaved and coaxed the boat onto her maiden voyage, up to their waists in water. 
 
Heading for Pallos Bay, a mere 10 mile hop to go, we both sailed and motored, the watermaker on, and made good time to our destination. Pallos harbour has been much improved from what was shown on the chart, and provided an excellent and well sheltered stop. Nisiros lived up to its reputation from initial sighting, and from the first step ashore, we enjoyed every guidebook promise and more of this lovely, unspoiled island with whitewashed houses and an array of painted blues, with only a few of yachts and fishing boats alongside.  Next day we hired a car and toured the island under recommendations made by Micheal who owned both the car and the internet cafe. Peter drove, Eric navigated and between us we found the road to do our tour, to the volcanos,  to Nikia where we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the square of the very pretty village, and to  Mandraki, the main town. From there a 20 minute walk took us to the seventh century BC Paleokastro, spectacularly located above the town.