Monday 6 July 2015 - Kos

We get up fairly early and manage to leave our mooring by 9:15am.  Richard has read the forecast.  It is much the same as it has been for the last two days, but he thinks the wind should be going down so that we will expect 15-17knots, not 20 odd.  With that in mind we put the mainsail up just after we left the harbour.  The wind is what we expected for a short time and then it started to gust up to force 6!  So we had to put a reef in almost immediately.  But on the whole we had a good sail.  As Richard would put it we spent most of the morning in Highbury, touching Highgate (that is winds northerly 5-6).  So we sailed most of the way until the last half hour when the wind died completely.

We arrive at Kos at about 12:30 ish.  We have decided not to go into the old harbour.  Although it would be fun to be in the centre of town right next to the Knights’ castle, the pilot book says it is a very uncomfortable harbour with so many ferries coming and going.  The marina down the road is considered the best in Greece and has all facilities, including toilets and showers!  So we go to the marina.  They are very efficient.  We call them up and they tell us to wait outside the entrance until they again call us and direct us to the pontoon where a berthing man in a rib is waiting for us.  He even pushes and pulls us into our mooring, which would not have been necessary, but was nice as it was suddenly blowing a force 5 again!

So we are very comfortably ensconced in the marina.  We had a walk to the old town.  We saw the ancient Agora and Hippocrates’s plane tree (under which he apparently taught his students).  We had a cold drink and sussed out the local beach.  There is a bike lane all along the front to the town, so I fear Richard might make me go out on the bike tomorrow.  We shall stay here for another night doing the sightseeing bit tomorrow.

We are so taken with this place we are considering staying for the winter.