Friday, September 19, 2008

The Northern Dodecanese

























































































































Jack Tar is now once again in Lakki on the Greek island of Leros. We returned to kusadasi in Turkey and then sailed on to Sigacik, a small town with a walled village on the harbour front, before picking up Lin and Terry in Kusadasi and returning to Samos to re-enter Greece. From there we have sailed via Agathonisi, a delighful small island; Arki, another very small island which we last visited in 2006; Patmos; Lipso and Pandeli on Leros. The northern Dodecanese islands are a wonderful sailing ground and even though we are late in the season it is common to see as many as 20 yachts under sail within our range of visibility. In Patmos we encountered a flotilla of 16 charter yachts whose skippers entertained us with crossed anchor chains, chains wrapped around propellers and near collisions. Although the meltemi has returned we are bound downwind and so have had some beaut journeys with the wind. People smuggling is also popular here and we have seen illegal immigrants rounded up by both the Turkish and Greek Coast Guards, and also the cheap Chinese inflatable boats used to make the crossings between the coast and islands.

2 comments:

tony and serena said...

Pedro - We are much enjoying your blogs as you are covering so much of the ground we knew 10 yrs ago. Keep up the reports and pics and, most importantly, enjoy.

And make a plan for coming SE down the Red Sea and thus getting to to Langkawi.

Our fondest to you both,

Tony and Serena

PS Seems along time since Mooloolaba, doesn't it?

tony and serena said...

Pedro - We are much enjoying your blogs as you are covering so much of the ground we knew 10 yrs ago. Keep up the reports and pics and, most importantly, enjoy.

And make a plan for coming SE down the Red Sea and thus getting to to Langkawi.

Our fondest to you both,

Tony and Serena

PS Seems along time since Mooloolaba, doesn't it?