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I think I need to start this story about a year ago. Around Christmas last year a tiny seed of a travel idea germinated in my head.

Dodecanese, Greece

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 16:38:39

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Pilot on board described Kalymnos as a "great craggy lump of rock" that "imparts a feeling of prehistoric permanence" and this certainly rings true. From Pserimos we headed into the main port of Pothia hoping to get a berth in the Kalymnos marina.

As we pulled into the harbour some two hours later I looked over the large yellow dredging machine parked where the charts indicated a marina and recalled the words of the charter operator back in Kos : "they've been trying to build a marina in Kalymnos for seven years now, but they just can't get it finished". Resigning myself to an early introduction to the joys of "Mediterranean mooring" we headed up into the town itself to moor against the quay.

Mediterranean mooring is a very practical way of parking a boat but is not practiced much anywhere outside the Med and is justifiably viewed with some trepidation by most foreign skippers. The process involves dropping your anchor a couple of boat lengths of the quay and backing down to moor 'stern-to'. Given that your average sailing vessel behaves like a very quiet but single minded 5-ton shopping trolley makes this prospect less than simple.

Still the actual mooring itself proved to be not too difficult and we were assisted by a very nice Dutch crew whose boat we moored too since the quay was full. The whole process was relatively painless although we were alarmed to see soldiers in fatigues and a full marching band awaiting us on the quay. It turned out to be a local festival in Pothia that night. All in all an auspicious arrival. The departure was going to prove to be not so favourable though.

With the boat parked and a first day of sailing under our belt we headed off in search of the nights sustenance and a bit of entertainment. The first was provided by a lively local restaurant owner who touted us with the utmost of good manners and won us over. Most ...