SERENITY NOW

  21st Sept 2018 (Kos) Med moored back at our second (or is it third?) home for the year: Kardamaina. Arrived yesterday, after a good little sail (one tack, both sails up, 15-20 knots, some chop) from Nisiros, where we’d spent an entertaining couple of days getting the boat ready for Martin’s arrival and enjoying the evening sport. This consists of getting a beer, standing on the bow and watching the charter crews’ frantic attempts at anchoring/mooring in fading light and rising winds. During this time we were fortunate to be involved in a quayside tug of war against a 50ft Turkish yacht who’d wrapped an unsuspecting Frenchman’s anchor warp. Nice community building stuff! Spoilt only slightly by Herr Uve Bricks (our new friend from Tilos) Pointing out that simply using a winch would be significantly easier than the impromptu tug of war team we'd formed. As we left Nisiros, we collected our nice German (....yes, really) neighbours anchor, and did our own bit of marina entertainin

  6th Sept 2018 (Kos - Tilos) Disturbed nights sleep last night: firstly our standard 2am mossie hunt, then at 4 ish I flung myself out of bed after hearing a shouted conversation. My sleepy brain translated the raised Northern accents to ‘Mark (Malu Kai) is in some sort of fight and needs help to repel boarders’..  Closely followed by Chez I sprang up the companionway stairs to see the usual pissed argumentative pommies going at it: “ I cannae believe you’d do this on our last day” “ Aww fuckoff or I’ll jump in” Ahhh... young love! So somewhat puffy-eyed, we awoke and began prepping for, what will be our first, real sail on our own. ( Kardamaina (Kos) to Tilos) Said our goodbyes to Mark and Alex on the quay - they have been so lovely/funny/generous, hope we can stay in touch. Then up anchor and away! Wind began picking up as we headed out, it was pretty much right behind us, so we tried some wing on wing action with the sails - couldn’t quite get it right, so went back to stan

  2nd Sept 2018 (Astipalaia) Spent the day - Sunday -  anchored in the quiet bay of Maltezana on the island of Astipalaia. We’ve spent the last 4 days here with Malu Kai and Cloud 9. Great company. Went to the main town via bus one day, then on Mark and Alex’s tender the next - getting soaked on the return leg.  The town is picturesque in the standard white and blues, and surrounds a nice enclosed harbour (where Peter & Eyvone & Woozle were moored)  Had a couple of sundowning evenings on Cloud 9. Today went for a ‘last supper’ with Paul & Jill - all very nice, but slightly marred by Paul’s exacting standards of waiting staff.  Said sad goodbyes - C9 heading back to Crete tomorrow, while we, with Malu Kai, head back to Kardamaina on Kos. Have learnt so much from being around Paul & Jill - probably more so than Dave and Shirl - I always found Dave to be a little condescending when helping, and as such didn’t like to ask him things. (edit: its now 2021, and Dave'