Greece - Southern Aegean
Before heading south we spent a few days around Leros, making sure that NOETA was working as she should – always easier to get things fixed where you know people. Genoa up, watermaker and aircon running, and our new anchoring system – bravo! The last couple of days were spent at anchor in Lakki and Panteli and our last night dining with Mr George and Poppy at Pirofani, great food, great company.
Heading down to Kos, we skirted the Greek-Turkish border; the Turkish mainland only 4 nautical miles away at times, lights at night from Karatoprak and Turgutreis and, we were sure, music! We have made the decision not to visit Turkey this season as we aren’t sure under COVID whether we will be able to get back into Greece..
Kos was the birthplace of Hippocrates and I was keen to see the plane tree that he supposedly taught under, really? Our COVID onshore kits packed (facemasks and hand sanitiser) we went on a flora hunt. The tree was old, incredibly old, growing beside a spring, across from a harbour fort, I could imagine that. However my cos lettuce hunt was unsuccessful, a decided lack of fresh provisioning, just lots of clothes shops and tavernas - we had thought to stop for a beer but have become increasing COVID cautious, and hearing a lot of non-Greek accents decided to head back to NOETA and keep heading south.
Although bleached and barren, Tilos, Khalki and Alimia were lovely, easy quiet anchorages good for swimming and snorkelling.
Sleepy Tilos, population 500, seemed to be a town of herbs and on my hike up to the old town I collected some wonderful wild thyme, mmm. The old town, Mikro Horio, was abandoned after the 1940s as the wells dried up. It was a hot 40 mins up the main road, to an angle twisting stone path then prickly fields to the deserted town, just me, goats, and cicadas - a wonderful way to spend a Wednesday morning. We had been given the option to catch a bus up the night before at 2300, an enterprisingly local has set up a bar in one of the old buildings – it would have been, fun, but we didn’t..
Postcard Khalki, population 250, the harbour ringed with colourful Italian style houses, remnants of its rich fishing and merchant history and reminiscent of Porto Fino where the locals have painted the once white houses a myriad of colours. After a morning wander through the back streets we lunched at Valantis, the owner "mopping" octopus on the jetty to tenderise, it was worth the wait as we watched the late morning go by - visit by the Prime Minister and twice weekly ferry deliveries.
Alimi, population 0, we anchored out from old German WW2 barracks with graffiti old and new, I had read there were old U boat pens somewhere, but I couldn’t find them, verdammt!
Then across to Rhodes, a great three hour downwind goosewing sail 7-8 knots in NW 15-20 knots. Rhodes - population 120,000, main town 65,000. It was evident that COVID has greatly reduced visitor numbers which makes for visiting normally very popular attractions and self-distancing very easy; this was confirmed when I checked out the Rhodes airport stats – calendar YTD international traffic is down from 2,447,496 in 2019 to 182,031 – three months of closed borders a big part of this but still in July traffic 181,765 down from 945,680 - will be interesting to see what August looks like.
Rhodes was a welcome greenness, sub-tropical, healthy frangipani in the suburban streets. A large shallow sandy anchorage east of the main town and port was an easy 10 minute tender to Mandraki Harbour, its narrow entrance framed by two columns depicting the emblems of Rhodes - the Elafos and Elafina - stag and doe. I could imagine the 33m bronze statue of Colossus standing there.
The town is dominated by the gothic Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes and medieval town - restored by the Italians in the 1930s, it is beautiful - the vast empty moat walking up, stone cannon balls placed artistically, every room floored with mosaics from Kos and stunning windows made from alabaster, golden light filtering through.. beautiful but one wonders how much is truly original.
Very rarely do we hire a cab and explore inland, but when we do, we are never disappointed. Savvas our driver was great - pointing out the simple seafront Mussulmen houses now expensive real estate, old deserted Italian farmhouses once thriving farms and most importantly suggesting he drop us at the 470m top so we could walk down Petaloúdes (Butterfly Valley). The Valley was a welcome cool, leafy stroll down stone paths with simple log fencing beside a tumbling stream - Liquidamber orientalis attracting Panaxia Quadripunctaria, a nocturnal moth that comes here to rest and reproduce. Tree and rock covered black and white shields, signs to be quiet so as not to disturb the resting, although puffs of wind created red flutterings, so hard to capture!
The southern coast of Rhodes is lined with sandy beaches and family friendly resorts, good anchorages hard to find which is why we loved Lindos. Situated halfway down the coast, Lindos is a small heart-shaped bay with a commanding acropolis/castle atop and a whitewashed village saddled through to St Pauls Bay. Eschewing donkeys for our legs, our morning walk up to acropolis took us to an archaeological jigsaw puzzle – Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Knights of St John, and Ottoman – restored during the Italian occupation and unfortunately in the process destroying much archaeological record. I have never seen so many statue bases, roughly chiselled out footprints - where did all the statues go!
The second half was spent dodging parasail boats and keeping an eye on a patrolling naval vessel – things have never been that great between Greece and Turkey, but the situation is escalating with conflict over oil and gas exploration in the eastern sea. Cape Prasonisi is windy which is why the isthmus it is so popular with windsurfers and kiteboarders – reliable, constant wind on the nose, again.
The passage between Rhodes and Crete seems to act as a funnel for the Meltimi which is why we headed back up to Khalki for a night to give us a better wind angle the following day. WNW 20 knots with close reach sail most of way 7-8 knots - twelve hours later we arrived on the east coast of Crete (having seen a grand total of three ships) and, as you can imagine, pleased to be there.
Crete, population 650,00, birthplace of Zeus and the largest Greek Island (roughly the same size as Corsica) is regarded as the site of Europe’s first advanced civilization, the Minoans (2700 to 1420 BC). Ideally at this time of the year you want to be travelling eastwards, however, we had read and been given advice that the southern coast is dangerous with strong katabatic winds off the land. So with the ever present Meltimi we bashed our way into 20-25 knot winds for hours on end, fortunately we can easily make water (180 l/hr) because at the end of every bashing it’s good to wash down the salt encrusted decks and windows.
We anchored for four days at the southern end of Spinalonga Peninsula - an easy tender under the causeway to Elounda and Spinalonga Island – a 16th century Venetian fortress and a leper colony from 1903-1957 - magnificent and heart wrenching. We had met a great couple on Rhodes - Sandra and Dennis from Sundowner II who suggested I should read The Island, the timing was perfect and personalised the experience. So eerie walking through the leper’s entrance, a tunnel known as “Dante’s Gate" aware that hundreds of people had passed through here knowing that they would never see their loved ones again, never leave the island and die here. The cemetery looking north to the open sea was sad - mass unmarked graves.
Knossos was on the list and the island of Dia, six nautical miles out from Heraklion, was a perfect base. Dia looks like a giant lizard when viewed from the city of Heraklion and mythology is that Zeus turned it into stone with a thunderbolt, thus creating the island. Sounds of Eleonora’s falcons (Falco eleonorae) wheeling, amphorae shards on the seafloor and remains of an old causeway which Jacques Cousteau discovered (while searching for Atlantis), as did Mon Desir! Dia is believed to have been the most important port of Knossos, once rich with springs and vegetation, it declined due to deforestation and then completely destroyed during Santorini eruption around 1450.
Getting in, out and around Heraklion was easier than we thought, isn’t is always? We anchored then tied back to the quay opposite the old Venetian fort, €12 for the day, helpful Port Police who stamped our transit log and gave us instructions on where to get a bus to Knossos and a number to call for a diesel delivery €1.16 per litre!
Knossos is a 30-40 minute bus ride through town (€3.40 return) to the 2,000 BC Minoan palace complex, the monumental symbol of Minoan civilisation and seat of the legendary King Minos, repaired and constructed in the 1920’s with modern materials by Arthur Evans, it is a facsimile based on archaeological evidence, so sort of disappointing, red pillars and concreted paths and walls.
Onwards.. and after another big nine hour day along the coast with few places to anchor, creeping past Souda, the southernmost NATO base, through submarine exercise, mine-laying and firing practice areas, we anchored off Theodoros, another easy commute to a big city - Khania five nautical miles away. The island is a nature reserve to preserve the integrity and breed kri-kri, the Cretan goat or ibex (Capra aegagrus criticus), the second remaining species of ibex in Europe and the emblem of Crete. The isolated community of kri-kri at Agios Theodoros has been used to provide kri-kri to zoos around the world.
Hoping to find an easy and safe anchorage so we could visit the Allied War cemetery in Souda, we anchored in the old Khania Venetian harbour around midday (was indicated on Raymarine chart) but told to move around to marina to tie-up, so didn't… Charming little harbour encircled by tavernas and Italian and Turkish style buildings. Highlight was a large turtle off our bow in the harbour as we were leaving!
And onwards six hours to the end of Crete and spectacular Gramvousa! – the island is the site of yet another 16th century Venetian fort which was taken from the Ottoman Turks by insurgent Cretans in the 19th century who turned to piracy to survive. In ancient times the island was known as Korykos which means leather bag – a very convincing contender for the home of Aeolus, keeper of the winds who gave Odysseus a bag of storm winds on his way back from Troy (Tim Severin). It really is quite a splendid flat commanding spot, with what appears to be a good cistern system and one can imagine livestock grazing on the vast plateau below. We anchored near the wreck of DIMITRIOS P, foundered in 1968 carrying cement to Northern Africa, its two large anchors, chain and rope still embedded in the sea floor. Our morning walk up to the fort gave us the opportunity to stretch our legs, view the world from afar and download emails! Gramvousa looks south across the bay to Balos lagoon and beach - midday beachgoers streaming down a steep hill and alighting from ferries.
It was a lovely place from which to farewell the southern seas, next stop Kythera - Island of Aphrodite….