Day 3. Monday 4th
June 2018 Lekki Harbour, Leros en
route to Kalymos.
0630hrs. Reveille. As we exited the cabin Tim was playing
Rule Britannia on his wi-fi speakers.
We had a brew. Mike did a few
dishes and we stowed away all kit in lockers, fastened hatches, emptied ‘pink
bags’ (the loo paper bags, you cannot put it down the head) as well as rubbish
into the quayside trash bins.
Tim went off to pay our two day
mooring fees E59 inc. water and power. He was fuming. The most expensive so
far. David had not appeared. We ate breakfast. Boiled eggs. The time was fast
approaching for us to depart. We had agreed on, or rather been told by Tim, the
Captain, we would slip our moorings at 0800hrs which we duly did. The sound of
the engine being started to take us away from the quay brought David on deck to
assist with the various skills and duties required to leave harbour. We were
now underway.
Leaving Lekki
harbour on Leros Island. Tim has the helm, whilst Suzie looks on.
The sea, a dark blue, seemed to the
Stopportons untrained eyes, to be ‘running’ but David insisted it was calm! The
darkness of the sea contrasted by the cloudless skies, a gorgeous light blue.
We made a steady 6 knots touching 9 knots on a few stretches. Running before
the wind.
1010hrs. We sailed into
Emborious Bay Lat 26*55’ Lon 37*3’ on the Northern end of the island of
Kalymnos and dropped the anchor for lunch and a swim. Nobody bothered with
lunch but having powered down the swimming platform, Suzie and Jackie took
themselves into the water and swam around the boat. They both said there was a
current running. Mike dangled his feet. The water didn’t feel too cold. The
girls said it was fine!
The lunch time swim completed and
Mike was given instruction on hauling in the anchor. No capstan winch and singing
of sea shanties involved here just the press of a button from the for’ard anchor
locker and the 75 meters of chain with anchor was soon on board. As instructed
I gave the thumbs up to the helm. We were underway once again.
We had to use the engine a fair
amount to get out of the bay and into the straights again as the wind seemed to
have deserted us. Once clear of the shore we hoisted jib and main and were soon
once more running before the wind. We had a Goose rigged sail up when Suzie took
the helm for the 9 knot record of the day. Soon it was Mike’s turn at the helm
and much to his surprise the boat handled and responded very well. Maintaining
a course by both binnacle compass and distant feature reference.
1520 hrs. David piloted us
into Kalymnos Harbour on Kalymnos Island.
Passing the outer and inner mole.
We reversed onto the quay under the watchful eyes of the landsman that would
assist us. Tim took charge of the anchor dropping whilst Mike and Suzie were
handed warps to throw ashore to tie us off. Soon we had the boat connected to
shore power, the bimini out and a cold beer in our hands.
Going stern too at
Kalymnos Harbour. Notice Panda a most able seaman and ace navigator.
Literally 15 meters from the boat
were numerous taverns set on the marina side. One, directly behind us caught
our eye. Its name was ‘Stuka’. Perhaps owned by an old Luftwaffe pilot who flew
JU 87’s during the war? We thought we might get a beer but first we needed some
rations.
Walking straight into the narrow
streets of the small town we searched up and down ever smaller alleys looking
for a supermarket, until now, back on the front we stumbled across a very well
stocked liquor shop. All thoughts of stocking up on food vanished. Here we
bought whiskey, gin, beer and tonics. The owner also told us exactly where the
supermarket was. Literally a few doors further on. If we had walked left on
exiting the boat instead of entering the alleyways we would have found it
immediately. Still it gave us an opportunity to walk the town. With the beer
and rations stowed aboard Chrysanthi we walked to Stuka’s for a beer. David
enjoying a couple of Negronis. Campari, Gin, Red Martini and soda water.
This is turn led to quite a lengthy stay. We
decided we may as well eat here instead of at ‘The Rocks’ which David had seen
suggested in the guide book. These waterside tavernas are so pleasant, an added
bonus being we had Wi-Fi and it was an extremely short stumble back to the
boat.
The poor owner however had to cross
the road with every order and it was quite busy. The traffic, mopeds, bikes,
the odd car and lorry strangely only adding to the atmosphere. At one point
what appeared to be a refugee wandered through the tables with baby in arms and
a young 8 year old daughter by her side holding a plastic cup. Looking for
‘donations’. She was politely insistent but somewhat taken aback when Tim
started chatting to her in Arabic asking her where she had come from, where she
was now living and various other mundane questions. I would like to say we
dropped a few euros into her cup but we did not. However, through Tim we gave
her our best wishes. Can’t buy food on wishes I know but as Jackie pointed out,
none looked that thin! Living with me, my cynicism is starting to rub off on
her.
Suzie consults the
dinner menu at Stuka’s. Note the empty dish of complimentary tapas.
The crew looking
somewhat ‘chipstrapped’.
Dinner over we stumbled back to
the boat and enjoyed a glass of port on the upper deck.
2200hrs. Bedtime.
