Leros to Kos

The many cats of Kos

Sailing from Leros to Kos was a bit frustrating. We got behind the island of Kalimnos and its enormous wind shadow, so we powered (Ross loves it when the wind is low because he can swim off the back) then sailed, then the wind built and built – until it was 25-27 knots close hauled. The boat was rail down with a couple of reefs in both the jib and mainsail. We could still do a reasonable 6.5 knots generally towards our destination. Throughout the day the wind moderated and we pulled out the reef in the jib, then the reef in the main and eventually had to put the motor on to arrive by 6pm. It’s now getting dark fairly early so we try to be moored and everything squared away by 6.

We got our first glimpse of Turkey because Bodrum is only 10 miles from Kos. While we haven’t visited Turkey, the contrast is evident from 10 miles away. Where Greece appears to be built up without a lot of planning, and in the Cyclades islands the houses and buildings look like randomly dropped sugar-cubes all white and blue. The Turkish houses are laid out in perfect symmetry. As you sail along you can see them line up perfectly, same type of buildings, same colour, same size, in perfect square formation. Very different than Greece.

Kos has two harbours – the one in the town that you med-moor at and a Marina. We opted to stay in town because the marina is a kilometer or two from the ‘action’. The town harbour is about 4 meters deep and we were expecting a big blow so we put out 50-60 meters of chain and med-moored to the dock. As the wind grew we added more lines and have effectively sewn ourselves to the dock. To Marina’s credit, we had to cinch up the anchor a couple of times to take the slack out of it, but we never hit the quay and never had any problems. This morning saw 32 knots on the wind speed indicator in driving rain and lightning. A couple of boats had to reset their anchors in that stuff – not much fun. There was this guy in a 40 footer that decided to come in between two boats, one over from us. It took him 4 tries, he hung the boat up on the anchor chain of the boat beside us, crashed about, nearly hit our boat, nearly fouled our chain and all he needed to do is anchor in the middle of the bay and wait two hours because by 11:30 it was dead calm and sunny.

Our Second McDonalds

One thing this trip has taught us is that you should be flexible on what you’re doing. Had he anchored out it would have been no problem, he wouldn’t damage his boat nor others, and a couple hours later he could do whatever he wanted. I thought this ‘mental vapor lock’ was a racing phenomenon. Having seen two guys that couldn’t do the easy alternative (one in Mykonos and one on Kos) maybe it’s a yachting thing.

Ross in the "cat tree"

Kos is pretty touristy – but one thing I have found here that we were unable to find anywhere else in Europe – Mount Gay Rum – plus it’s 18 euro for a litre – woo hoo! Naturally I bought a couple bottles, though I have resolved to limit my consumption to a max of one every couple of days.

Because of the weather we're needing to stay here three nights. The first one was fine, the second was almost without sleep, and the third should be fine. It is truly amazing the difference in noise on a boat between a 10knot and 30 knot breeze. I understand the force of the wind increases at the square of the speed ... so a 30 knot breeze is 9x time more powerful a 10 knot breeze -- hence the reason why it's so much more difficult to sleep.