The Dodecanese Islands
Posted at 10:39 AM, Jul. 13, 2008
It is presently Saturday evening 12th July and for the first time for what seems like weeks we have had a couple of days of light winds, and we are on the town quay at Symi (or Simi) which has turned out to be a most delightful spot. Last night we threw the anchor (I like this expression of Alain’s) in the bay at the south eastern corner of Symi called Panormittis which was recommended to us weeks ago by Tony and Esmae Farrington. The bay is pretty much circular, the entrance no more than 60 metres wide, a monastry facing the entrance, a couple of taverna’s, a windmill on the northern side of the entrance and anchoring in 6-7 metres of crystal clear water on a sandy bottom.
Looking across the bay to the Monastry - Savarna in foreground
Water temp around 27 in the bay and with only about 6/7 other boats in the bay for the night and no wind it was one of the best we have had for weeks. Went ashore for the sunset and tried a Chris M quality photograph of the event. See below! However tranquillity comes at a price – as broadcast through the bay over a loudspeaker system was the monks evening chanting followed by what appeared to be some kind of sermon. Whether this was aimed at the boats in the bay or the monks who knows?
Sunset at Panorittis Bay, Symi
BBQ dinner on board with plenty of Katie Melua which was turned off when the monks took over but after the chanting we resumed with Emma Shapplin’s “Carmine Meo” – the entire CD is sung in Latin - and the best follow up we could provide for the monks to sleep or meditate to.
This morning we motored up the eastern side of the island and discovered several beautiful bays for anchoring in until we got into the town of Symi itself. This island is surrounded by Turkey on three sides and at the closest point Turkey is only 5 miles away. It appears to be the most eastern part of Greece and I am not sure how the Turks got it wrong but after the conquering they did in these parts many years back they somehow got the raw end of the deal in that they got no islands – all the way up the Aegean the islands are Greek territory. Maybe the mythical Greek gods played a part in this somehow?
From Naxos we sailed to weather towards Myconos to clear the north of the island in a 20 knot NE me thinking that a little bit of windward work would give us a nice angle to sail across to the eastern most island of Amorgos in the Cyclades Group. That idea seemed fine until the wind went to the NW and we had a flat off 15 mile run across to Amorgos in quite a heavy sea with winds up to 30 knots. A beam reach coming around the bottom end of Naxos would have been the best call! We anchored for the night in a deserted bay called Ormos Kalotiri. With strong gusts belting across the bay, at over 30 knots, it took three goes to get the anchor successfully bedded in. Lovely bay and well worth a visit – the sort of place that with more benign conditions you would want to stay for several days.
The following day we sailed the 75 miles across to the island of Kos – an all day event basically. Plenty of wind, running, beam reaching, code zero up for a couple of hours and pulled into the marina at Kos at around 1700 hrs after 10 hours on the go. Our arrival at Kos also heralded our departure from the Cyclades Group and our arrival in the Dodecanese Group of islands. Just to the NW of Kos is the island of Kylimnos, that we sailed close to, which is famous for producing natural sponges that are everywhere to be found in Kos. The marina at Kos is rated as the best in Greece and they certainly do a good job. Kos, notably, is famous as the birthplace of Hippocrates in around 460BC and the photo below is supposedly the tree under which he taught students?
Pam reflecting under Hippocrates tree on Kos
It is very obviously an old tree but 2500 years old? The first hospital in the world was built here at a place known as the Ascelepion just out of the town of Kos. We were on the marina next to Jacques, a Frenchman and his wife from Paris, who keep their boat here all year round. Jacques knew all the deals to be had, the best restaurants, the cheapest car rental place (Safari Rent A Car – discount on request to EUR30 a day instead of EUR47) the cheapest laundry etc so he was a great knowledge source for us.
Images of Kos that were very different from the Cyclades islands – trees other than olive trees (conifers, gums, hibiscus, oleander and other varieties), cows (no fences so tethered to posts driven in to the ground), haymaking the old NZ way (oblong bales tied with string), a large local honey industry, the source of the Cos lettuce, and a far greater degree of land cultivation. We stopped off in Kos for 3 nights and spent the middle day with a rental car exploring the entire island. The southern end of the of the island had a Club Med hotel, lots of other pretty average hotel development and stony beaches. The northern end of the island (where the town of Kos is) and along the northern coast is far more attractive although receives the Meltemi on a daily basis - but at least the beaches are sandy and the hotel development lower intensity. We just missed catching up with our friends off Eos as they had gone across to Bodrum in Turkey the day we arrived. Alain emailed to say they have moved from Ouzo to Raki and why don’t we bring the boat across for dinner one night – didn’t happen as the processes of checking out of Greece and arriving into Turkey are ones that inevitably take several hours.
Kos is also the place that the Knights of St John ruled from 1315 until the Turks took over in 1522 (until 1912) at which time they were kicked out and permitted to relocate to Malta. They built the castle - the remains of which are pictured below.
Kos castle remains with Turkey in background
One thing for sure thought when they got to Malta they built a far more substantial castle and town there to ensure they were not going to get overthrown by the Turks again. Apparently many of the ships to support the Knights in their crusades were built by the men of Symi where there is a strong boat building heritage.
So Friday 11th July saw us sail the 40 odd miles from Kos to the bottom end of Symi. For the first time we motored pretty much the whole way – the persistent Meltemi winds are fine from a sailing perspective and we have had some very nice sailing. But at 24 hours a day, and day after day, it does limit the options as to where we can go and where we can throw the anchor. And most days we had wind strengths into the 30 knots and once or twice into the low 40 knots – and while I love sailing that does get a bit tiresome.
Tomorrow will see us clear out of Greece and across to Marmaris in Turkey about 30 miles away where the Netsel Marina will be our home while we return to NZ for a couple of months.
To conclude on a more sombre note (apart from the fact the burglars hit again at home Friday night) was the presence of around 50/60 Afganistani refugees at the Port Police office when I went to get our transit log stamped. Apparently they get into Turkey and are then transported by Turkish boats (for money) into Symi that as part of Greece signals their arrival into the EU. I ascertained this on enquiry of one of the port police after I saw them on the office deck, huddled in a small space, hot and dirty, and obviously not western European tourists. A number of them were later put onto a ferry but what was happening to them i.e. return to Afganistan, we do not know.
Cheers
Keith