Thursday, June 28, 2012

Three islands and on to Samos

Tens of people from around the world have been screaming for a really big update - here you go my fine, demented friends! We sail from Nisos Patmos to Nisos Arkoi and anchor in the afternoon. Here we have another anchorage all to ourselves.

We go swimming first thing we arrive and it serves two purposes. One, we cool off from our trip and secondly, I swim out and check the anchor. Depending upon wind and how the anchor is sitting, many times I let out more chain. Safe and sound!


In late afternoon, we hear what sounds like wind chimes everywhere but can't spot the source. Finally the goats come down from the hills for a feeding and here they are. While checking this out, a sailboat pulls up in the next bay over and anchors. Initially, I thought it was a pond. Some would call this "surreal" or "amazing". I call it very cool.

The next morning more goats and then two young fishermen (kids) come by, putting down their nets with big smiles and wave hello. Also pretty neat.

Our goal is to make our way north, in this case to Samos. You do this one island at a time when the wind permits as it is usually blowing hard from the north. The good news it keeps the Aegean Sea at a reasonable temperature, vs. 100+ degrees F. Here we are anchored on a little fishing island called Nisos Aganothisi. The hills tend to accelerate the Meltemi winds and we were really moving on our anchor chain. We ended up re-anchoring as we were swinging close to the rocks in this narrow, one boat anchorage.

Made our way to Samos. This time we opted for the town waterfront of Pythagorion names after Pythagorus, who was born in Samos. He of Pythagorium's theorum. All my geek (not Greek) engineering friends, who are off hard drugs, will remember him. Convenient for us a bar/cafe is only steps away.

Two boats over is this dude, nice guy, a Brit, never got his name. He sitting in his family car, an open 4 seater ...

... On his boat! He also had a motorbike on the back deck. I told him he won, he has all the toys. He did tell me his life consists of 3 months USA, 3 months Malta and 6 months in the Greek Islands on his trawler. Too boot the boat is painted yellow on one side, black on the other. Gotta love crazy rich dudes!

Back to reality, kinda. Fortunately we don't have far to walk for a cocktail. We needed it. When backing in, we hooked our anchor on a large metal frame dumped from a boat years ago in the middle of the harbor. I know because I dove on it and couldn't free my chain or even spot the anchor. Long story short, a local diver happened by on his boat and we flagged him down to dive for us. He (Antonis, or Tony) had to unbolt our anchor, unwrap the chain off the debris, then help us haul the anchor back to Jungle. 100 euros ($150) later, did I mention we went through the whole anchoring process a second time, only to have people yelling that we dropped on their anchor. Are you sh*tting me! I almost reverted back to 'ole pshyco Jim, but patiently started over a third time. Success. Anyways the beer tasted great. For the rest of the day, people would run into us and say, hey, where you that couple that got stuck ...?

Time for baby goats to walk by Jungle. WTF is in my beer?!

At night we go to Maritsa as recommended by our diver Tony. Great dinner.

Night time view off the back of Jungle. Everybody in this town dresses up for the night out. Lots of tourists, but very pleasant.

We took an after dinner stroll and stopped off for a nightcap ... Which turned into a few (too many) nightcaps. We met these Swedish folks who kept buying us ouzo - uh oh!

Hey, is that a picture of me dancing like an idiot. Me? Never!

Is that Jenée dancing with the band? Methinks yes.

Hey it's all fun. No worries, it's 4 AM. Plenty of time to sleep.

It's the next morning. I don't feel so hot as I describe this photo to you. Gssp dwaaaand grrrghy buutthrup. Any questions.

Here's a safety tip for you. One ouzo afer dinner really seems to settle the stomach. 4 ouzos after beer, dinner and wine - not so good. Hello, my name is Jim ... We wake up in time for night.

It's a new day and I'm all better. Here's my new buddy Richard. Richard is from the UK and teaches diving with Tony. After getting us unstuck in 10 feet of water I asked Tony to teach me how to use the SCUBA gear I have and buy the stuff I need. Tony has a dive shop and teaches an introductory course called PADI which stands for Please Always Dive In water. Okay, I made that up, I forget what it means, but Jenée and I took it and passed. Personally I don't plan to dive below 30 feet until fully certified.

Here's Tony and my cleaned up regulator and tank. Great guy and he is from Nicosia, Cyprus to boot. Makes him an even better guy in my book.

And here Is my spiffed up gear and new buoyancy control device (BCD). Call me Mike Nelson or frogman! My game plan is to walk around the dock wearing this baby. I don't plan to actually use it.

We go out to dinner again to a restaurant recommended by Tony called Poisiden. Really good and really cheap. Yassas!

The view is of the anchorage just outside the town harbor.

The next day we hop on a ferry to Turkey to go to the old city of Ephesus and a tour through history.

We take a bus from the ferry terminal to Ephesus. And immediately pay .50 euro (75 cents) to use the head. Merhaba! Welcome to Turkey! BTW, women in Turkey are lady. Very funny when they explain somethingto Jenée and say "this for you lady, very nice" I keep saying that to Jenée, "hey lady". I'm now sleeping in the forward cabin, but I digress.

Ephesus is historical on multiple fronts. First populated in 1000 BC and eventually taken over by the Greeks and their lady god Artemus, who then gave way to the Romans and their lady god Diana, who then imported Christianity and Jesus. It contained one of the 7 wonders of the old world - the temple of Artemis. It was 4 times the size of the Pantheon and of course destroyed by the Goths in 263 AD, cause that's what they do. This is a Roman bath.

Another view as the bath had a cold bath section, hot bath and medium temp. Civilized

Here is some of the plumbing - teracotta pipes.

Jenée was smart to bring sun shade as it was hot here.

This was once the harbor of Ephesus and the town was the capital of Roman Asia Minor - a big deal. Silting from this river pushed the Med back 20 KM (10 miles). The loss of the harbor triggered the city's final decline.

We walk down the main street which self cleaned every night with running water.

We come to the house of Nero's nephew with statues of himself and Nero. I forget his name, something like Snagapotamus. A bit of a guess on my part.

Quite a view. I like this shot, it makes me look, I don't know, breathing.

Looking down the main street with the library and harbor off in the distance.

Stones in place over the archway. The keystone is the center stone, it holds everything together.

Medusa guarding the home. Look at her and you turn to this. Stone cold baby!

Check out the restored library in 85% of its original state.

First time Jenée's been to the library in a while. I'm killing me again!

What's left of a gymnasium.

What's left of this tourist.

Big, pretty and green. Other history to Ephesus is this is the town the St. John the Evagelist brought the Virgin Mary in her final years. Also St. Paul came here to preach Christianity in 53 AD and was thrown in jail. While there he wrote Bible passages.

Here's a 24,000 seat stadium.

And the road leading to the stadium, all marble.

Here is a look back at the stadium. Supposedly the acoustics are so good the top seat can hear a person on stage talking at normal pitch. This is per our guide, I took his word for it.

Here is Jenée and our guide Myxyzpdlick. Them Turks have tough names. Well, back to Samos.

We had a day of work on Jungle and after that we go to the beach and lie under a tree.

This is what I call relaxing.

Another beach almost all to ourselves.

Jenée and I can't believe how clear the water is.

And how warm it gets by the rocks. Overall, I'd describe the Med water temp as refreshing and cool.

Many of the beaches are is bit rocky, but sandy once you walk into the water.

And there is Jenée with our naked German guy below the church. Sacrilegious!

We hop back on our scooter - not so cool, a silver one. And drive until we get lost and find a little town of Ireon. Then we get lost some more and come across this little place on a harbor called, whatever, you reoad it, it's Greek to me. It's another Mom and son shop and they make us a great little Meze (mixed plate). Bravo!

The view is also charming.

Next we are off to Nisos Khios and the Island port of Mandraki. Yassou!