Sorbas, Ouzo and the Sea

Sorbas, Ouzo and the sea ....... sailing with a catamaran in the Dodecanese area	Sailors World Sailingreports
	Karin Gerkhardt Catamaran Veligandu

Blue sky, cristalclear water, cubic white painted houses and shady tavernas at the waterfront..... that´s Greece, luring every year thousands of tourists.

Also Catamaran Veligandu , sailing since 3 years in turkish waters to document the beauty of the turkish coast in its famous CD-ROM Turkish Coast between Antalya and Kusadasi , capitulated and tried to explore the fascination of the Dodecanese islands.

After all, in 1998 the turkish CD-Rom should get a new sister, Dodecanese Islands .

To tell the whole truth, big part of the decision to change to Greece was also the enormous heat in Turkey during the summermonths. Although the winds where much higher in greek waters, the temperatures were much easier to handle.

So, on a beautyful summerday in Juli, we declare out in Datca and head towards Nisiros, a wonderful nearly squaresized island south of Kos. The weather is good, a light breeze promises nice sailing high to the wind. We need to use the engine aswell and go slowly towards west, passing the green turkish coast.

Lately nearby cape Knidos, conditions change dramatically: wind turning onto the nose (of course...) going up to 28 to 32 knots. Most of the days, even in calm winds the sea round Knidos is slight to rough, but with wind it is hard work to make some miles.

As we know Nisiros , we get the first doubts about its harbour Paloi . The island offers only two harbours, Paloi and Mandraki, both at the northside and both dangerous in northerlies more than 6 Bft. We could proofe that after reaching the harbour of Paloi in the early afternoon hours, the waves breaking at the entrance, making it impossible to pass the narrow gate into the harbour. We turn round and set course towards Yali , a little island between Kos and Nisiros, where they mine pumice. We are afraid of dirt, but find a wonderful, nice anchorage on sandy bottom with cool, turquoise waters and, best of all, friends with their Escale, "Van Kedisi", great hurra!! So, it is no question, to spend a few days together with them in this well protected bay (well protected against the summerly northwinds!)

The most astonishing difference to Turkey is the temperature aswell of air and water! One day before, we were moored at Dogan´s jetty in Orhanyie, with an air temperature of more than 35°C and water above 31°C. Now, on this dreamy anchorage, we can refresh in 25°C "cold" water and in the evenings, enjoying the beautiful sunsets, we really need some sweaters to stand the sometimes strong meltem!

If you visit Nisiros , don´t forget to rent a motorbike and visit the vulcano, the little village of Nikia and monastery Panajiatis Krias, 450m above the sea. (although it seems, as if there was a taverna and, to get visitors, they quickly built a little monastery beside.......)

After the sulphureous air up the hills of Nisiros and having enjoyed the long missed porkchops, Kos , island of Hippokrates and thirdbiggest island of the Dodecanes after Rhodes and Karpathos, surrenders.

Kosharbour normally isn´t what you call a dreamplace. A lot of sailorfriends said so. But, after all, we are surprised about the beauty of the spot. We had to go in for taking pictures and datas for our CD-ROM and liked the circular basin, bordered by cafés, tavernas and little shops. Another plus is, that the touristmanager gave order to the locals to be a bit more friendly to the guests (really!) and you will be astonished, what a smile can cause......

In the night, it is forbidden to drive by car along the waterfront, which makes the noise of that lively harbourtown acceptable.

To explore the island by car, we moore Veligandu in the socalled Kos-marina, which acutally is a harbourbasin, without moorings, water or electricity and a considerable surge even in calm weather...... Seems to be deadborn child, we are quite sure, that only with big constructions there could be a marina one day in here...

But, after all, it is free and the boat (in good weather) can stay alone for a day.

To explore Kos by car is a fine thing! We are really surprised to find green valleys in the inner of the island and enjoy the landtrip, especially the long and fine-sandy beaches, which makes a difference to see them now from the landside.

If you like long beachwalks,you should go to the northside of Kos to find your paradise.

The surfer´s heaven is in Kaimari at the southwest tip of Kos! There are always gusts from the hills, delivering a steady good wind for a good ride on the surfboard. Surprising enough, there aswell is a safe anchorage for the sailor, on good holding sandy bottom.

Visit the pittoresque islet of Kastri with its Basilika Ajios Stefanos and also the monastery of Ajios Ioannis, about 8 km away from the most southerly village of the island, Kefalos.

After a short stop at Pserimos, where you only find an overcrowded anchorbay, we sail on towards Kalymnos , the famous spongedivers-island. In earlier times, the men of Kalymnos found rich deposits round their homebase, but these times are long ago. Nowadays, they have to travel long trips to the northafrican coast, which means a long and often dangerous adventure. Therefore, no wonder, that they prefer to earn their money much easier and much more comfortable by tourism, which has its centres in Kalymnostown, at the westcoast and in Vathi, a narrow bay, frequently visited by daytrippers and private yachts. Actually, we didn´t like it in here, because it was overcrowded and plus to that, you get disturbed during your anchoring manoevre by waterskiing boats!! But after all, it is reported, that the taverna in Vathi is one of the best in the region, some longtimesailors from Turkey just plan a trip over to Kalymnos, only because of this taverna.

Along the westside of Kalmynos, some very pittoresque little villages with very good planned hotels and appartements can be visited.

Do not miss to head for Telendos island, a little islet in front of the westside of Kalymnos with its own charme.

All the Dodecanese islands are easy to reach within some hours sailing and therefore, Veligandu soon enters the big bay of Lakki on Leros .

Attention: before you reach the harbourbasin of Lakki, you will find a very nice anchorbay on your portside. Neither in pilots, nor in charts, no matter if german, english or greek ones, we have found the extremely dangerous reef, which is situated in the northern part of the bay!! Thanks to the loud warning cry of the skipper of "Irene VL", an old snowgoose with english flag, we could avoid big damages on "Veligandu`s" underwaterships.....

Lakki is definitively worth a visit! Anchor free in front of the town, right of the harbour or go into the marina, where you can pick up a mooring or use own anchor. In any case it is wise to follow the instructions of the harbourmaster, where to anchor or where to pick up a mooring. If you drop anchor in the area, where the moorings are, you will have to pay a diver for sure!!!

Don´t fill up with water in Lakki unless you are proud owner of a separate tank for non-potable water. The water in the marina is salty and undrinkable. You better go to the spring in Lakki, where also the locals get very good potable water by cans. Ask the friendly harbourmaster for a plan of Lakki, where you will find all informations you need.

A special tip in Lakki is the old, onehanded man at the last circle with his little "rentabike" shop. He offers the best prices in the whole region of the Dodecanese islands: we paid for 24 hours just 1500 greek drachme. For example, normal rate on other islands was 3000 drachme and in Patmos, they rob you with 4500 drachme per day!

After some useful visits in the big and new supermarket of Lakki, we go on to Panteli and Platanos , the capital of the island, where you should visit the castle, high on top of the mountain.

After all that hustle and bustle in touristic villages and anchorbays, we love to go to lonely bays, for example our favourite bay Lera on Lipso .

Lipso island is a sleepy little place north of Leros, an island, that just discovers tourism...and hopefully will need very long to explore all possibilities ......

In the marvellous bay of Lera in south of the island, you find a perfect sheltered place with the meltem, and, if southerlies appear, you can change to Lipsotown, just round the corner.

It is even more idyllic and quiet on Arki , a nearly deserted island north of Lipso. Some people live in the "capital" of the island, where you may be lucky to find a berth at the pier. But there are aswell wonderful, sheltered anchorages around the island, maybe you visit our favourite, Port Stretto , where we were moored comfortably in a storm with more than 45 knots.

Opposite Arki, we were very curious about Maratho , a place, where a lot of sailors told us, it is their absolute special tip, nice, calm and deserted. Aswell inour pilot with pictures, taken from the air, it seemed to be wonderful. What a disappointment!! Overcrowded with daytrippers, using ugly buoys, sailing- and motoryachts, the beach bordered with tavernas, the smell of chipsoil in the air.... we go in, look, turn round in one moment, sailing over to Port Stretto, where the only "noise" is the ringing of the sheep´s bells.

After relaxing on Arki, we are fit enough to face Patmos , holy island and centre of tourism.

Patmos is St.John´s island, the place where he wrote the apocalypse, nowadays holy island of greek orthodoxian religion and day by day flooded with streams of tourists.

Therefore, it is not astonishing, that the formerly silence and friendliness of the locals is missing nowadays. The motto of today could be "money rules", but when you know before, you can react in the right way. After all, a visit of the castle, good landmark from the distance, is a must for any visitor, staying at Patmos.

Using the light meltem of the late summerdays, we sail with beautiful aftwinds to our favourite island, Nisiros, passing Kalymnos and Kos.

Leaving Paloi on a nice summermorning, we sail, only under genoa, to Tilos , a sleepy island, not often visited by sailors. It lies beside the normal routes and is beloved holiday resort for retired english people, who enjoy their two daily swims, in the morning and in the evening at the nice long pebbles beach of Livadia . If you are looking for a busy place, for bars and discos, don´t go to Tilos.

We anchor in front of the church and fix our landropes to the little wall. This is a wise decision to do so, because in the night, even with no winds, swell comes in and, if you anchor free, you normally get it on the side, which makes it rather uncomfortable. With the landropes, we keep the boat in the right position so that the swell runs alongside.

This swell is also the reason why you shouldn´t go to the pier, the yachts are lying extremely uncomfortable there. Better to anchor free and take the "dinghitaxi".

You can rent a motorbike and have trips to the impressive "capital" Megalo Chorio and its castle, and monastery Agios Paneteleimonos.

Little "mini"elephants were found, who have lived here centuries ago and a clever touristic manager tries to offer Tilos now as the "Elephant-island", but actually, it is still an oasis of silence and originality.

If you sit on the terrace of one of the little tavernas, sipping a cold beer or an ouzo, looking at the sea and your yacht, listening to nice Sirtaki-music, that mixes up with the singing of the cicadas while the sun sets......than you enjoy Greece pur!

Much more lifely, but absolutely beautiful is Simi , a charming island directly in front of the turkish coast. A wonderful scenerie opens, when you sail into the harbour: pastelcoloured, italian stylish houses, build like an amphitheatre up the hill border the harbour basin.

Go as far as you can into the harbour, the more you go in, the better the anchorground gets!

Twice a day, the big ferries from Rhodes come and spit out masses of tourists, flooding the whole harbourarea. Then, Simi is a hustle and bustle, you can not imagine. Sitting in your cockpit, you are in the first line to watch all that running around. It´s great, don´t miss it. When the ferry leaves, all the little shops with sponges, souveniers, postcards and kitsch close immediately and Simi falls asleep.....til the next ferry comes.

Simi offers a lot of nice, good sheltered anchorages. The best one if you are looking for good shelter, is Panormittis , the monasterybay in south of the island.

But be sure, that your anchor is well in, for the bottom is covered with thick weed, not easy to handle!

The same ferries that come to Simitown, plus 3 or 4 flying dolphins, hydrofoils, enter the bay, all at once! The spectacle is enormous and announced by the bells of the monastery, ringing very quick, loud and funny, you shouldn´t miss it.

Before we stress us with visiting Rhodes, we enjoy two calm islands, Chalki and Alimnia.

Alimnia is a completely deserted island. You drop anchor in the mainbay in front of the deserted village, which impresses with the fact, that all the houses are more or less rotten, but the two (!) churches are in good condition, "Ready-to-use".

Ashore, a friendly touristguide invites us to have a tour around the island. He is happy to have guests and walks in front of us, purring loudly, the ears shivering excitingly, the whole little "person" showing totally the picture of a proud, black, greek cat.

If you can manage to do the sportive walk up the hill you will be rewarded by an overwhelming view to the sea and the other islands. (if not, you still have the chance to buy our CD-ROM Dodecanese Islands and have a look at the pictures we took)

Unfortunately, the only usable bay of Alimnia is not free of swell, even with light winds and therefore, we go to Chalki the next day.

Chalki looks like the poor sister of Simi. Again, pastelcoloured houses stretch alongside and up the hill like an amphitheater, but mainly in a less good condition than in Simi. It seems, as if the locals start to renovate the houses, some of them are really good looking.

Like in Maratho, we are surprised about the big difference between the pilot and the reality.

According to the pilot, we expected a sleepy little harbour, where the ferry from Rhodes arrives once a week. The ferries do not come once a week, but roundabout 3 times a day and there is a steadily stop and go of daytripperboats, fisherboats, little and even big ferries......If you enter the harbour, the fisher send you roughly to the socalled "marina", a rotten swimmingpier, dangerous in the dark with big holes, no water, no electricity. You can stock up in Chalki, but we found out, that the locals here were the most unfriendly ones in the whole district!

But the harbour itself has a special charme and so we stay for 2 days before we say "anchor up for Rhodes !"

The biggest island of the Dodecanese and fourthbiggest of Greece lies close to the minorasian, turkish coast. A sailorfriend of us told us before "You love it or hate it, there is nothing between." Well, we must say, we loved it. We were "filledup" with prejudices like loud, dirty, expensive, swelly and so on, we reach Lindos , this wonderful natural bay at the eastside of Rhodes with its famous castle and......we are surprised. It is nice, it is the first real calm water since times (!) and we have a wonderful first night after all that swelly nights on other islands before. Well, it is really totally overcrowded when all the busses arrive, but having your home with you whilest sailing, you can coordinate the visiting time. Go to the castle and the pittoresque village of Lindos before 10 o`clock in the morning, or after 4 o`clock in the afternoon, means, before the busses have arrived or after they have left again. Then you will enjoy it, wandering around. When all the tourists come, you better relax on your boat, swim in cristalclear water, while your yacht is safely anchoring on good holding sandy bottom, well protected against the meltem! But don´t pick up one of the buoys, we saw a french cat taking it with him in not more than 20 knots! They are not safe, maybe, they are only for marking a special area?!

The highlight of all is Rhodes town. To get a berth in Mandraki harbour is like a jackpot. Your nerves should be in good condition, when you come to here, be aware of a chaos with your neighbour´s anchors and aswell to get the boot of one of the charteragents, who keep the berths vacant for their own boats and don´t like other yachties. But, if you were lucky and got a berth in one of the three harbourbasins, one of the most beautiful towns of the Med is waiting for you!

In this place you will never be bored, , museum, exhibitions, churches, monasteries, natural beauties allover the island, bars, cafés, restaurants, casino,nightclubs, everything is waiting for you!

Well, normally this would be the endpoint of our Dodecanesetour, we do not visit Kassos/Karpathos , the two islands southwest of Rhodes. They offer most brutal gusts, howling down high hills of more than 1200m, unsufficient anchorages with long distances. We like nice, comfortable familysailing and have the feeling, these two islands should only be visited by sportive sailingfreaks. Of course, you may be lucky with the weather, but why try this risk?

After all, there is the gentle taillight, Kastellorizon , a nearly forgotten greek guard in front of the turkish coast, 3 sm away of Kas.

Only a few years ago, it seemed to be a dieing island, all the young people left the place, the houses looking like ruins, a spot to make you depressive!

But today, some rich Greeks, living in Australia bought the ruins and restore them,so new life is coming into the narrow streets and places of Kastellorizon. Go into the harbour to moore your boat or anchor free in the neighbourbay in front of the cementary.

In the harbour, just behind the little place, Savas and Evangelina have their little restaurant.

Ask here for a guided dinghitour to the cave, where the seals live, an unforgettable experience, but please, not on your own, respect natural- and animalprotection.

After a long wonderful walk over the island we finish, enjoying the best chips in the eastern Med and icecold retsina at Café Paris, this Dodecanese trip.

If you liked it to follow us and you would love to get more information about all our 120 anchorages and/or harbours, looking at the more than 2500 colourpictures, than you should get a first impression on our demoversions of the CD-ROMs