Sunday 20 September 2015 – Lipsi (sometimes called Lipso)

We woke up early to get out in time to catch the 9:15 bus to the Chora.  We got to the bus station in good time only to find that the bus didn’t leave until 9:25. The ride up to the Chora only took about 10 minutes, but it is a 4k road with lots of hairpin bends, so we are not keen on having to walk any of it.  This was the closest we came to rally driving on Patmos.

First stop is the Monastery of St John.  It is at the very top of the hill village and is quite a walk up, though not as bad as the Monastery in Amorgos.  The weather is very hot and close.  There is quite a lot of cloud about.  That clearly is an indication of the bad weather that is supposed to be coming in.  The Monastery is a massive stone structure more like a defensive castle than a church.  Inside there is an interesting museum with all sorts of church relics including ancient manuscripts, icons and paintings, religious silverware and vestments.

The church itself is surprisingly small, but highly decorated.  All the walls are painted and there are dozens of silver chandeliers and incense burners.  We are not too certain what we are looking at, but it is impressive.

When we finish at the Monastery the book suggests we go to a convent on the other side of the Chora called Zoodochos Pigi.  It takes some time to find the place.  When we do, it is basically closed and having some sort of celebration.  But one of the nuns kindly opens the church for us.  Again, it is tiny but very elaborate with every inch of wall painted on and lots of silverware.  One amusing thing happened.  As we were looking at the church another man came in to look at it.  When we left, the nun came back and locked the church.  It was then that we realised the man hadn’t come out and was banging on the door.  We managed to get the nun to come back and let him out!  He was very grateful and said this was the second time this happened to him!

The next thing to see is the cave of the Apocalypse, where St John was supposed to have had his revelations.  The original plan was to take the bus back down to the cave and then maybe a cab to the port.  But we are much too early for the next bus.  We try to kill some time having an iced coffee at a café, but we are still too early.  So after speaking to the lady who runs the café we decide to walk down.  There is supposed to be a path, which is much shorter than the road and should take about 15 minutes to walk down.  We manage to find the path and the cave.  Again, we have no idea what we are looking at, and other than what I have already said, we are none the wiser.  However we do manage to finish our visit in time to catch the next bus down to the village.  So we arrive back at the boat by 12:30.

We now have to decide what to do.  The weather forecast is getting worse.  The anticipated winds are up to the top of a 5 or bottom of a 6, from the southeast.  The pilot book says this port is untenable in such a wind, and that means we should move.  So we decide we will go this afternoon.  We have a quick lunch, pick up our laundry and set out just after 1:30pm.  Quite a feat for us.

We are not going far.  The aim is to make it to Lipsi, about 10 miles away.  Lipsi is the island where Calypso kept Odysseus for many years.  It is supposed to be a charming place, but the harbour is small and only has one pontoon for visiting boats.  So we are a bit concerned about getting a place.

For a change, the wind is not on the nose, but it isn’t very strong.  So we put up the genoa and just motor sail all the way.  We are pleased to see that there are places on the pontoon available, although unfortunately all the places on the inner part (where it will be more sheltered) are taken and we have to moor on the outer side of the pontoon.  We have a deuce of a time trying to moor.  The wind is a cross wind, just strong enough to push us around.  We are not helped by the man on the boat we are meant to moor next to shouting that we are snagging his anchor with ours.  This is rubbish because I have barely put the anchor down and can see it suspended only a few feet down in the sea and not touching anything.  In the end, we just wind up in a space about one boat space away from that complaining boat.  It isn’t a great job, but we are safely in. 

As the afternoon goes on we see a lot more boats arrive and they make an even worse job of mooring on the pontoon than we did.  So we don’t feel too bad.  By 6 pm the pontoon is nearly full, so we are pleased that we did come away when we did.

Richard has paid for us to stay here for three nights.  The weather forecast is getting worse, with suggestions that it will rain for the next three days!  We are a bit worried about how long we can be here before our tank fills us and we run out of water.  There is water here, but it is not drinkable.  However, if we run out we will just have to fill the tank with it.  It will be fine for washing and we will just use bottled water for making coffee and tea.  We only drink bottled water in any event.

So we have settled in.  We went to a café for a drink and find they have internet.  We may be able to pick it up from the boat with the aerial, but we haven’t tried yet.  We have eaten on board, but expect we will use the local restaurants for part of the stay.  It is a bit rocky on board but we hope that will quieten down.  Richard hopes to take the time to do a few minor repairs.  We shall see what the weather does.