A late season cruise in the Dodecanese islands

We've certainly started to slow down and enjoy the Greek islands that we haven't been to before, after the hectic east-west bashing of the Black Sea. It is nice to just sit in a port for several days at a time, and watch the Greeks enjoy their easy-going laid back lives enjoying all the upgraded facilities paid for by us via the EU.

We virtually circumnavigated Lesbos, and had a fun day on a quadbike exploring all the dirt roads to the beaches, then managed to leave on the 3^rd attempt of being defeated by southerly winds. Then we spent a very pleasant time in Chios/Hios/Xios/Khios, however you wish to translate it, visiting the Mastic villages where they harvest the stuff that used to go into chewing gum, jelly beans, glue and cosmetics before petrochemical alternatives were found. Then on to Samos, where we spent a pleasant few days in Pythagorio, I wonder if you can guess who was born there.....We did a long cycle of about 15 miles, which doesn't sound so much but 2 hours of it were slogging non-stop uphill.

After a short stop in Arki, too small to be any sort of community but a popular stop with charter boats spending their bucks in the 2 tavernas.

Now we are in Lipsi, a delightful little island. As we came in we spotted 'Cruising Queen' alongside a small jetty. We guessed correctly that it would be free, as Claus always finds the best places! So now we have the perfect little place to wait out the first really inclement weather of the season. Some thunder and lightning today, and enough rain to warrant putting on the bimini sides. Its a good excuse to get a few indoor jobs done, as we won't have a lot of time to do any in Marmaris before we fly off to Blighty (bbbrrrrrr) and New Zealand.

Despite the rain, it still feels good to be on the move, and not tied down to a marina base yet. Almost all of the boats about now are German, or Swiss and the charterers are mostly Germans making the most of late season bargains.

We are not at all in a hurry to catch up with all the Brits in Marmaris, so well described by Orca Joss as overweight and underdressed, usually loud and lobster pink too.

The only saving graces are that you can easily get any sort boaty work done (there's lots of choice of tradesmen and plenty of yachties to provide recommendations or otherwise, unlike Finike where you're at the mercy of the marina monopoly pirates), and that we will be able to catch up with old friends on Roamer and Birvidik.

For our entertainment here, there's a little taverna in the square with daily specials, and a 1 minute walk to a perfect sandy beach for swimming, and a friendly ouzeri providing mezes in the traditional fashion. So we will stay here until we get bored and then go to Leros, to wait out the next autumnal storm.

We frequently ponder what we will do next year. It would be wonderful to play in the Greek islands again, but maybe you can have too much of a good thing, and we can always come back in years to come, they will still be here. Since we haven't had any visitors on the boat this year, we feel that we might as well be travelling further afield, while we have the time and energy to make the most of it. We would still have a spring and summer to travel to Madeira and Canaries, via Crete, Peloponnese, Sicily, southern Sardinia, Balearics and Gibralter, and then head across to the Caribbean for winter. Can anyone think of a reason we shouldn't ???.....Maybe we would have more winter visitors there....?

PS Pictures and Black Sea blog will follow at some point when I have better internet and I have the time.