On 17th August we motored out of the port of Pothia on the island of Kalymnos and sailed/motored the 18 N miles in light winds to the Island of Kos.

We motored into the harbour in Kos town and moored stern to the quay. We had visited Kos by air before for a short holiday and whilst we liked it , we knew it would be quite developed and touristy.

 

The harbour in Kos town is still a very nice place—moored in the shadow of the castle fortress built by the Knights of St John and only a stones throw from where Hippocrates ( born in Kos in 460BC) is said to have taught medicine to his students sitting under the famous plane tree.  The Hippocratic oath is as poignant today and is still sworn by qualifying doctors.

 

The pretty harbour is unfortunately edged by numerous tacky souvenir shops and well used bars and restaurants. We found the atmosphere better away from the central mayhem.

 

On the water the harbour is at times calm and at other times frenetic with the comings and goings of tripper boats. The curved harbour creates a nail biting experience for yacht owners if there are crossed or lifted/displaced anchors.

 

In the med, yachts drop anchor in the harbour or bay and reverse backwards to the quay/dock where they secure mooring lines from the stern.  This is a good system until a boat comes in next to someone at a crazy angle and drops over the chain ahead of the boat. Then its difficult to leave.  Sometimes other people over shoot when collecting their anchors and lift others chains or worse they lift someone else's anchor and then drop it where they fancy. The boat on the dock then falling backwards to hit the dock or sidewards onto another boat.  Worse still is a 90 degree harbour where the tripper boats can lift other angled anchors---oh joy.

It means we only leave the boat when we know our neighbours are staying or there is no other traffic movement.

 

So in Kos after about one hour, our anchor was lifted out of the water by a motor boat, his anchor windlass motor tripped out and so he was left floating around the harbour with our anchor. Fortunately Tony and another guy dinghied to the motor yacht and got it all sorted whilst I had Tiorams engine on holding us off the dock.  The anchor was finally dropped almost in front of us with no length ahead of us to get tension/security------ so we had to leave the dock and reset our anchor 40 meters back out in the bay where it held firmly again------its not all sitting in the sun here !!!!

We had a peaceful afternoon and lovely evening/sunset on the bow looking over the harbour--- drinking our last bottle of champagne--- thank you Timmy ---- we have drunk some beautiful champagne in the most lovely locations in the Caribbean and med----- we saved all our champagne presents from friends and family, labelled them so we knew who from--- to keep for special moments----over the past two years---- now they are all drunk.  Not sure what we do now---- we sailed west to the Caribbean and now almost as far east as Tioram goes and the twenty or so bottles of champers have ended too------ retsina I think !!!!!

 

Later that evening after the champers at dusk a 50 ft motorboat flew into the harbour at speed ( always worrying ) and promptly dropped his anchor across ours at an angle and moored next to us--- later emptying his sewage tanks--- supposedly by mistake. So we were stuck until he left or we would have to lift his chain with ours and risk a tangle. So by 1pm the next day they finally sorted their passports with the port police and left at speed.

 

We decided our nerves couldn't take it any more and moved--- beaten--- along the coast to the MARINA !!!

 

We hired a scooter to tour a little and visited the Asklepieion,  a site of the ancient ruins of the temple, school and medical centre built shortly after the death of Hippocrates by the students who practised his teachings. It became an important centre for new practises in health.

 

We enjoyed a stress free night in the marina and on the 19th paid our fee in the marina office----see photo from door---great--- slipped our lines to head for Turkey.

 

Photos of

 

Kos harbour and town

Asklepieion--- Ruins

Kos  marina

Notice on the marina office door----it could only happen in Greece--- we guess the notice of ‘thongs’ is for all the male visitors—ha !!!

 

Love to all

 

Tina and Tony x x x