Strenuous day today. We covered 1.3 miles to get to this anchorage. Mainsail was up for 10 minutes. By now, Rieke and Benno have left and it’s me and Papi. He keeps saying it’s granddad and great-grand dad going sailing, which is true. At 92 he’s ok on the boat but it’s a bit challenging to get him on and off the boat, particularly if we’re taking the dinghy. But we manage.

So Papi and I have 2 weeks to get to Lesbos, some 120 miles away, where Nicki will join. Not a lot of sailing, even considering the Northerly winds we seem to be having every day now. This give us time to check off some other islands in the Dodecanese and the Eastern Sporades. In the Samos Marina, we met a family on a Super Maramu 2000, an older Amel, who have sailed in this area for 8 years. Where we are today is one of their tips. A narrow inlet between two islands, Arki and Markronisi, with deep blue and turquoise water. “Like the Caribbean”! Our first stop after Samos was a nice bay on Agathonisi, an island with about 50 human inhabitants and lots of sheep and goats. Yesterday, after an upwind slog in increasing winds, we stopped around the corner from here on Arki, where we found a nice taverna. That was part of the only town on Arki, which counts 150 souls we learned last night from a nice British couple at dinner. We woke to the sound of small bells - all the goats seem to have bells around their neck and at around 7, they were on the move to get to their daily feeding ground. No shepherd in sight - the island of Makronisi is all of a few acres big. The adventure this morning was to try to buy some bread. We had heard about the only store on Arki opening only after the owner got home from fishing, at 4 pm. A bit late for us. So I checked with the taverna owner from last night and he suggested that we sail to Lipsi, Patmos or Samos to buy bread! Nobody on the island of Arki bakes bread! But he offered to sell me one of his own breads, which he gets from Patmos every few days. I gladly accepted.

So here we are in our beautiful bay. The meltimi is at work, with a steady 15-20 knots from the North in the anchorage. Good weather for the wind generator! The water is 22C or 72F. Not bad for the end of May but in fairness, a bit chilly. I’m still going in, now.