Rob Buchanan & Becky Goddard

Sailing Kos 2024

Our holiday started with 5 nights in the Maritina Hotel,in Kos Town. This was a very central location with a roof top pool, comfortable rooms (most with a/c),good breakfasts and friendly staff. We had also booked rooms for the last night after sailing. The bar however was rarely open.

As we had not been to Kos since the last earthquake(2017) we needed to revisit some of the facilities at the marina and if possible locate a mini market because the provision list from the charter company (Boataround and local company Kerkeris) was very limited.

Kostas Market was still there, now run by the son of Kostas and carrying an excellent selection of groceries, f&v, beverages and fresh/preserved meats.They were able to deliver to the boat without charge (unlike the charter company which charged E30 for delivery). We made contact with the base manager and arranged to meet him later in the week to double check the arrangements.

Other members of the crew arrived during the week and we all met up at the marina on Saturday morning having had a restful few days.

This was only the second time we had booked with BoatAround so our checking paid dividends.....they had not transmitted our requests for bedding,towels,outboard and fuel. All corrected during our handover except the outboard fuel as we discovered two days later. The boat had not been out in the previous week and was clean and well equipped...two fridges already full of our food order packed by Kostas! The original boat spec had said free WIFI but it wasn’t there.

Bob and Colin did the handover and we were ready to rock!

Saturday. 1/6/2024 

We all went down to the marina with all the crew

Bob Buchanan  ,Samantha Williams  , Becky Goddard  , Becca Paulino  , Hugh Hayward  , Colin Evans  and David Winks 

The yacht was a Bavaria 51 cruiser. Named Navarino  .

After an easy handover, we left the marina at 15.30 hrs. Outside the marina we pulled up the main and Genny, (you could just about call it a genny, as it came past the mast by about six inches.

We sailed over to the next island going north (Pserimos) and dropped anchor in a bay called Ormos Vathi. We covered 9 NM

We had a meal on board, Piri Piri chicken.

Sunday.

Up anchor at 12.00hrs and headed to the island of Kalimnos

With no wind it was engine all the way.

We dropped anchor in a bay called Palionisos. (14 NM)

There were three tavernas in the bay, and we managed to get a water taxi ashore and back. A lovely evening ashore, excellent drinks and meal.

Monday.

We were up and ready to go at 12.30 hrs

We headed back to the south west tip of Kos

The wind was a bit all over the place, some wind, no wind, lots of wind.

We hit 9.4knts at one point.

We dropped anchor in a bay called Kamares, a bay we know quite well at 19.00hrs

The meal we had on board was Vietnamese pork. (35 NM that day)

Tuesday.

In the morning, I took Samantha and becca ashore in the dinghy to get some supplies. When we left, we found the engine on the dinghy would not start.

It was only a short distance from the yacht, so we paddled back.

We had a look at the engine when we got back on board, but still could not get it to go. We informed the charter company, and they said they would get someone out to look at it.

We told them we were just off to the island of Nisiros, so not to bother.

We left at 13.00hrs, pulled up full main and genny. With that, the genny furling gear jammed, and we had to unjam it as we went. We had to unhook the genny from the furling gear, unwind the rope from the drum, rewind it back on then refit the genny, it took us over an hour to fix it.

On Nisiros, we went stern too mooring in a marina called Mandraki, a marina that we visited seven years before.

We were assisted from the marina by a man named Manos, he recognised us and we recognised him. Once we had berthed, we went with him to his office and showed him and his daughter, Popi, some Fotos that we had taken seven years ago.

Manos runs a car rental in the marina, and one of the cars he had was a bright yellow beach buggy. My daughter was looking at it and said it would be nice to go out in it. Without her knowing, I said to Manos, book the buggy for me tomorrow, Colin also booked a car, as we were not sailing anywhere the next day.

That evening we had a walk around the town, a few drinks in different bars, and a meal. (nice for the girls not cooking) 12nm that day.

Wednesday.

We were up about 8/ 8.30. not a puff of wind and about 30 degrees.

The sea was like a mill pond. There were quite a few yachts in the harbour, and lots of people on deck having breakfast.

All of a sudden, it was chaos, all the yachts were being tossed about, cups of coffee, plates, dishes etc were being thrown all over the place.

Some very large waves had hit the harbour. We looked around to see if a very large ship had passed, but there was nothing. What caused it?

It turned out that an earth tremor on the south west tip of Kos was what had caused it, sending large waves over to Nisiros.

Unfortunately for us, we had our bathing platform down, and it had hit the harbour wall a few times causing quite a bit of damage.

We informed the charter company, told them it still worked up and down, but had severe damage.

We then had a day touring the island, to my daughter’s surprise, I said jump in the buggy, we have rented it.

We had a lovely day out, visited the volcano, it was 93 degrees F at the rim. We all stayed at the top, because no one wanted to go down into the caldera where it was even hotter, and there was lots of sulphur steaming out of the rocks. Some of us went down there last time we were here and it is not very nice, with big puddles of bubbling molten stuff that are roped off so that you can’t get near them.

We left the volcano and had a bit of a tour around the island before getting back to the boat.

Another evening in town that night.

Thursday.

After saying goodbye to Manos and Popi, we left at 11.00hrs

There was lots of wind, so we pulled main and genny up, and headed back to Kamares bay on the south west tip of Kos.

We dropped anchor at 15.00hrs, time for a dip in the sea before drinks and evening meal.

My niece was staying in a hotel in the bay we were anchored in and I phoned her and arranged to meet her in the morning.

Friday.

We were all woken up at 03.00 hrs by strong winds

We started drifting, then we sort of stopped. The reason was that we had caught our anchor around a fishing net. (we seem to have a habit of that)

As we were not going anywhere we decided to keep an eye on where we were and wait until daylight before we did anything.

At about 05.00hrs, we decided to leave as it was still very strong winds and there was no chance of me rowing ashore and back in the dinghy.

Colin went up to untangle the anchor, but there was so much rope and net around it and the chain, the only thing that he could do was to cut it all off.

With that done we pulled up the sails with a few reefs in and headed back to Kos marina. At times with a few reefs in we were still getting overpowered.

We got to Kos marina, but dropped anchor just outside in the bay, as it was a bit early to go back in.

At 15.00hrs we went into the refuelling station, then back into the marina.

The charter company came to look at the damaged bathing platform , and came up with a 2500 euro bill. (we paid a 3000-euro deposit, so they took it out of that)

In all the years that we have been sailing, apart from a broken glass or plate, this is the only time that we have done any damage. (so, can’t complain)

Total distance for the week was 115 NM