This week, we were heading North to an island we’d all read about and wanted to see, Samos. Samos is a thickly wooded, much indented island for calm anchorages, and it’s actually part of another set of islands called the Northern Sporades. All of our time so far in Greece has been sailing among the island cluster called the Dodocanese, which means 12 islands. And, between our first season and in the last two weeks, I think we’ve been to almost all 12!
Anyhow, as we were sailing North, the wind kept getting stronger and stronger on our nose, meaning it’s a lot harder sail and the seas get rough, pounding the boat, and just not a fun day. So, we were passing by the island of Leros, the island where we started the whole adventure almost 2 years ago. We spent about a month there getting the boat ready to launch and working on boat projects before we headed out. We decided, let’s duck in there and wait for a better wind day. Well, after checking weather, a day turned into 4 and we ended up staying through the weekend there.
It was great being reminded of all our favorite stops and we rented scooters one day and explored all over the island. Levi and Emma and I made a late trip one night riding the scooters up to the castle on the center if the island. It was VERY windy and we looked out over the ocean, glad we weren’t out the sailing in these waves! (We’d already done that sailing from Cyprus!) We caught a chill and the only way we could find to get rid of it was stop in a cool little jazz café and have some coffee and a dessert crepe, filled with chocolate, caramel and almonds. We were just thankful it worked ;) and Levi decided we need a scooter on Mehari for island hopping.
Leros is a very picturesque Greek island, with several ports, and fishing docks around it’s 30 sq. mile size. It also has some beautiful countryside with sheep and goats grazing, olive groves, vineyards, and citrus groves. Even though it’s late Spring, we could still smell the strong scent of citrus blossoms as we rode through narrow country roads. Rachel and I went exploring with Zoe and Lily and found a great little patisserie on the other side of the island. The owner, a young man in his late 20’s had recently graduated from Patisserie school in Athens and was running the family business, mixing his creations with the recipies from his grand-mother. He had some delicious things and he really wanted us to try everything, and kept bring us samples from all the cabinets. We didn’t argue and all left with what we thought was the best!
As it goes, it’s time to move on and Monday is a good weather day, so we will continue North, aiming for the island of Patmos, Lipsi, and Samos. Patmos is where John the disciple wrote the book of Revelation in a cave, which of course, now has a Greek Orthodox church and “site” around it, but, we still hope to see it. Then on to………we’ll have to see!
On the waves,
Hems
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