On Easter Monday, 21st April 2025, we left Patmos and had a good sail over to Lipsi. Our friends the M’s arrived on the catamaran from Kos, having spent the night there after a late flight.
Manolis (who runs the quay) took our lines and Manolis (who runs the restaurant, Manoli’s Taste) booked us in for supper. Life continues here much as usual but Manolis (quay) has new smart teeth and has lost his brother in February, so he was sad and did not have such a happy Easter. Lunch, snooze, drinks on board, supper… repeat!
Tuesday morning dawned clear and sunny so we headed up to Arki, which the M’s loved so we stayed two nights there. “A little gem” our friends called it. We went for a little walk up to the church and had supper with Manolis in Taverna Trypas. You may be forgiven for thinking I only know one Greek man’s name but this Manolis is a very cool dude who plays the best music and is a cousin of Manolis quaymaster in Lipsi!
We were the only yacht in Port Augusta, such a treat to have an easy side-to berth. Katrin and Manolis made us a delicious dinner on both nights and on the middle day we took the boat round to Turquoise Bay to swim, although it was quite windy. I had to hang onto the bathing ladder, it was like swimming in a river.
On Thursday we set off for Panteli on the east side of Leros, stopping off for lunch and a swim on Aspronisi, two tiny islands with a spit of sand between them. On the cliffs, David spotted three Peregrine falcons. We thought we would have a downwind genoa run but of course the wind changed and we wished the main was out too. We arrived in Panteli just as Lefteris was measuring out his moorings with long tapes. He helped us happily tuck into the lee of the headland and after he finished work he came to have a beer with us. He has added another 11 moorings, making 30 in total which will be a huge help to his business. Of course the local politics are difficult, it took him ten years to get this far but once the restaurants realise this is bringing them business, it will probably settle down.
We had supper at our favourite place on that beach, Pirofani, and the food was excellent. This is the only proper family restaurant, the others rely on chefs from elsewhere with variable results. It was chilly so we sat inside. In fact it has been unseasonably chilly all this trip – galling to hear there’s a heat wave in England! We need long trousers and fleeces at night. Blankets over duvets – even bed socks!
The following morning we dropped the mooring and motored round the south side of Leros, past Xerocambos and headed into Lakki where we found a spot on the town quay. The water was unusually filthy with litter and scum which saddens me as this part of the Aegean is usually pristine as they are so proud of their turquoise waters.
As we were having lunch in the cockpit, friends who we met last year in Leros Marina popped in and joined us for a drink. That evening we all went to Dimitris o Kefalos – known as the Balcony restaurant. Dimitris is known for his meat and produced some delicious pork chops and a tomahawk steak that could have fed four people. He had a medical drama at the end of last season and had to be rushed to Athens for an operation on the back of his neck. Such a sweet man and it was good to see him back in business. He said “I love you” to me as we left! We will be back.
Having completed all our Lakki jobs (gas, ice, provisions, new stern lines) we set off for Lipsi and had a rather slow sail up the west side of Leros as far as the Archangelos islands where we dropped an anchor for lunch. On our way out of Lakki harbour we thought we might have seen a dolphin – a rare sighting these days and probably scavenging from the local fish farm as the seas are so depleted these days by the Turkish trawlers. This will be the subject of another blog shortly.
After lunch we were lucky to have a decent wind and a champagne sail up to Lipsi with 14 knots on the port quarter. Heaven. We had to go there again to complete our paperwork with the port police and rather wished we had done it when we were last there. The formalities were easy and we also paid our mooring fee to the new young man, clearly a body-builder, who is doing this job now. We were soon ready for drinks and supper – this time at Calypso on the end of the jetty – where we found the same young man as our waiter! The starters were delicious but the main courses the opposite, very disappointing apart from the lamb (lamp!) chops. Our earnest waiter came to ask for feedback and we told him the truth. However we felt that he took such serious offence that I woke up in the night determined that he was not going to spoil our view of Lipsi, an island that we particularly love. As we left in the morning, we managed to have a quick chat and apologised for any offence caused. He replied “no, no, no problem. I hadn’t slept for four days after the festival”. So all the misunderstanding was caused by his hangover!
Our neighbours with an enormous yacht kindly gave us the local “sweets” which are nuts, spices and ground almonds rolled in copious amounts of icing sugar. Delicious to some but too sweet for us.
Having had a problem starting the engine yesterday, we had been on shore power overnight and miraculously the engine started this morning, although we are pretty certain we need a new engine battery. And off we go, back to Patmos where the M’s can explore the monastery during the morning tomorrow when we have rain forecast. Looking forward to three nights there and a lunch stop in O. Grikos first.
Dreamcatcher Log 