We had a few very windy days at D-Marine, Turgut Reis (just outside of Bodrum). It is a very pleasant marina with lots of shops and restaurants near by.  The break gave us a chance to do some boatwork (change duckbill valves on several important pumps), get things cleaned up and ready for our returning shipmate, get supplies, top-up our water and refuel. We rewarded ourselves with a Turkish Bath at a local Hamam. Bodrum is where we agreed to meet Doug and it is a good jump-off point for our planned cruising in the nearby Greek Islands.

We entered Greece at the main port of Pothia on the south side of Nisos Kalimnos (Nisos=Island) on May 1. It was a short 2.5 hour passage. We anchored stern-to the town quay. Little did we know, May 1 or May Day is a holiday in Greece, that meant we had to wait until the next day to finalize our entrance formalities and get ourselves Greek SIM cards. Pothia is a cute and friendly spot, the locals out for a stroll on the holiday stopped to comment on our Canadian flag and to say hello. Kalimos is a sponge-diving centre. No stop would be complete without a trip to the Sponge Factory in Pothia.

We left Pothia around noon the next day and made our way around the corner and halfway up the west side of Kalimnos to the islet of Telendos. We anchored near Telendos in the narrow passage between the tiny island and the main island of Kalimnos. We had a lovely afternoon walking to the ruins of the ancient sarcophagi, visiting the cliff-side church and relaxing with refreshments at one of the local tavernas.

Unfortunately, our visit to this charming little spot ended abruptly around midnight when the strong winds and heavy gusts between the two islands drove us out of our anchorage. We tried, unsuccessfully, to anchor on the other side of the narrow passage. In the end, we decided to leave the whole mess behind and steam to nearby Nisos Leros where we had already scoped out a protected anchorage in Thremona Bay.

Looking forward to the expected southerly winds in the coming days, we knew Thremona Bay was not going to be our safe haven for more than that one night. Late morning, we made our way to Partheni Bay on the northern tip of Leros.

Partheni Bay is an interesting spot. It is more of a commercial port with several fish farms, which we found quite interesting. We anchored among a number of private bouys and a couple of other boats at anchor which added to the challenge of finding a good and safe spot to let out enough anchor chain for the expected winds. There was a lot of anchor-watching that night. We had gusts over 37 knots. Thankfully, our anchor held.

We had to choose our next spot carefully to give all-around protection, the winds were predicted to shift from strong southerlies to strong northerlies. After much research and weather observation we decided to make our way to Aigialis on Nisos Amorgos.

It looked like we would have ideal conditions for a nice sail on what would be a bit of a longer passage for us (six or seven hours). In the end, the wind didn’t cooperate; but, we made very good time with the trailing seas and it was a pleasant journey.

We quite liked the little bay and the community at Aigialis. We decided to hang out there until the northerlies subsided. Unfortunately, we got blown out of our beds again our second night there. Luckily, we had scoped out a nearby place we could hide out if things didn’t work out where we were. Once again, we had a short, but rough ride to a new anchorage in the dark. This time it was just around the corner to a small bay at the nearby islet of Nikouria. We ended up being there for three nights and two days. To add to our challenges, there was no internet or cell coverage at Nikouria. Luckily we had already done a lot of research scoping out our next stop and we had the weather forecast almost memorized. Our main weather indicator was looking out to where we entered the bay, if the waves were still crashing, we knew it was too soon to leave.

If you are already tired of hearing about the weather, imagine how we feel. As we end this first week in the Greek Islands, I will confess all the weather-watching and searching for islands with all manner of protection is a little bit overwhelming at times. It is beautiful though.