Goodbye Kos ... we will never forget you!

Photos:
Southern Kos during a south easterly storm - well away from the Marina!
Lucy and Aurora pay us a visit
Sophie, Peter and Catarina pay us a visit on board just before we leave


Suddenly we are leaving Kos. It is time to go as our contract has finished. It has come around very quickly and we may have stayed on for longer and tootled around, but our motivation to get moving appears suddenly out of the blue in the form of “SY Deep Blue” and our friends Andy and Brenda from the UK. On Monday we get an email from them telling us they are heading out to cruise. Several text messages and a dinner date later, and our plans are made.

We are suddenly rushing around buying last minute stocks of good cheap Greek wine and muesli (7 kg) and saying goodbye to some of the friends we have made. Sadly we have not seen Ian from Yacht Café (the best bar in Kos), Pavlos our favourite ship chandler who has been such a good friend to us, and others. We hastily finish all our last minute shopping, return the hired bikes and Richard takes care of our customs clearance out of Greece.

Kos Marina has been a wonderful place to winter over – the best – and it feels like home to us especially as the people here are so wonderful to us. Big thanks to Sophie our Aussie/Greek friend who is the ‘face’ of the marina and has looked after us. Nothing is too much trouble. The team at Kos Marina are truly awesome – Kostas who pays us a daily visit with his sunny smile and always a bit of chat and the Marinaras, Thomas, and Stavros. We will miss you all and thank you so much.

Fortunately we have completed all the spring prep jobs on the boat and she is ready to rock and roll, so off we go.

We are going to Turkey.

The day is very windy. 25 knots at least from the south west and it is hooting through the marina in fresh gusts. We get some funny looks from our cruising neighbours who may think we are a little crazy going out in this weather. Pippy is gritting her teeth and thinking “great choice of weather for our first sail of the season!”

Thomas escorts us out of the marina in rib boat and we motor with the wind dead aft until we are off Cape Psalidi on the north western corner of the island, past the light house where we pull up the main and break out the genoa. Andy and Brenda are two hours ahead of us and have let us know the wind is a bit fresh in the passage between Kos Island and Datca Peninsular so we have both reefs in the main and the genoa partly furled – we can see the white water ahead. As we lay the 11 miles across to the tip of the Datca Peninsular, we have up to 30 knots apparent wind and make between 6.5 – 7.5 knots. Matelot loves this sail and we sight Deep Blue off our bow as we close on the point of the Datca Peninsular some way ahead. Sea state is approx 2m rolling swells and fairly lumpy as we round the point. Later Andy and Brenda say they have had breaking waves over their boat. We get some water over us but not much and the boat goes really well… “See Pippy!....”

Our destination of Palamut is a small village nestled on the southern side of the Datca Peninsular. It is unspoilt by massive tourist invasions, despite the row of restaurants along the waterfront and the shade trees fringing the long beach lapped by turquoise waters, where tables are set up in the summer. Four hours after our departure from Kos, we follow Deep Blue into the small harbour and reverse into a stern berth alongside them. We are met and welcomed by Alten, a local personality who owns the Mirhaba Restaurant – we hear later this is the best restaurant on the strip. Alten is gracious and helpful in every way and ensures we have facilities ashore to use if we wish. Unfortunately his restaurant is not open until mid April – we are a month too early. After the brisk sail we tuck into a shared treat of freshly squeezed orange juice and vodka (Deep Blue) accompanied by some mezze of white beans, fried aubergine and zucchini with loads of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, accompanied by some fresh brown bread from Kos Island (Matelot). We all turn in fairly early for a sound sleep.