Saturday, 24th May

If it's Saturday it must be Astypalaia, just out of the Cyclades and the start of this end of the Dodecanese. We stopped en route at a little island called Anafi - and stayed 2 nights to see out some weather (another bout of F7/8 at anchor). They say in this part of the Aegean the so-called sheltered (lee) side of an island is not necessarily the easiest. They have such steep hills that in strong conditions the winds roll up and over the island and come whistling down the cliffs in huge gusts. It makes it difficult to assess whether your conditions are local or more general also out to sea. And the quality of the forecasts doesn't help.

Anafi has a big rock at the end of the island - it is apparently bigger that Gibraltar. We were warned to be well reefed or have sails down rounding that point. The warning was apt - as we rounded it the wind went from a gentle F4 to a gusty F8 in a matter of seconds. Once well past, it returned to a light breeze.

And now on Astypalaia - the island is butterfly shaped, two mountainous wings with a narrow isthmus joining them in the middle. It's a lovely little island, well off the tourist track. We stayed 2 nights in the little skala or port. Here the water man comes in the evening to unlock the taps - good drinking water to fill our tanks. The cost is a notional 5 Euros. But a 62ft Oyster was not only filling his cavernous tanks, but washing the boat down as well (frowned upon on islands where water is precious) - the waterman agreed that our little boats should never be charged as much and we happily handed over our 3 Euros instead. The Chora or main town sits high on the hill above the port (as is normal in these islands) and is topped with a large 13th C Kastro or castle. The castle was there to provide defence from the pirates who plagued the area at the time. The Chora also has 8 windmills spread along the main thoroughfare of the town - the rest of it being steep steps or lanes up the sides of the hill.

A fishing boat had a problem on our second night - whether it had struck something or had a failure of some sort - it had filled with water and began sinking. The whole community pulled together to try and rescue it, bilge pumps were pumping the water out as fast as they could whilst they tried to haul it out on a trailer using a 4x4. Not man enough for the job, they then got a crane, it also could not take the weight. The poor boat got unceremoniously crunched on its side. They did eventually manage to stem or plug whatever was causing the water ingress and managed to refloat it. Presumably a temporary fix to let it get round to a place where it could be properly lifted. The whole town seemed to gather to offer opinions and advice - loudly.

Now, our last night here is in a bay called Maltezana, on a tiny dock with Free Spirit and an Australian boat. Very Aussie accents, so it was with some surprise that we heard the man speaking in flawless and fluent Greek to the local fishermen - turns out his family are Greek Cypriot émigrés.

On tomorrow to Kalimnos, where we may meet up in a day or so with Silent Wings, our Malo friends who had overwintered this side on Leros. This is turning out to be a sociable cruise so far - and very nice too.