Nísos Kálimnos

Approaching Kálimnos with Amek Lines ferry well ahead to port    

We had a good sail south from Pandeli, Léros to Kálimnos on Saturday 22 August. With a forecast 15-20 knots from the northwest, we started off with a reef in the main and full genoa poled out to port. However, the wind never properly reached its forecast promise so we fairly quickly shook out the reef and enjoyed the speedy downhill run. Towards the east tip of Kálimnos we rolled up the genoa to make gybing easy with a freighter looking like it was trying to vie for the same patch of water. As it was the freighter didn’t come round the corner with us but in the acceleration zone the wind picked up to 25+knots so we were pleased that we didn’t have the full genoa up as well as the mainsail. As we motored in the final mile or so to the town, we were overtaken by a large Amek Lines ferry which moored on the outside of the harbour breakwater. We were later told that this is one of the ferries charged with moving to Piraeus the vast numbers of migrants/refugees who are arriving in the Greek east Aegean islands.

Blue Star ferry mooring at Kálimnos. It seems
 closer in real life but not as close as some!   

We took what seemed to be the last available mooring on the quay, squeezed in tight between a Turkish charter yacht and a British yacht, ‘Sofi-Ann’, owned by Ed and Linda. They have been sailing the area for over 12 years, first based out of Didim and now from Léros and they provided us with a lot of useful information, not least where we could get our laundry done (at Hammer’s Italian Restaurant on the quayside, of all places!).

Kálimnos used to be a the centre of the Greek sponge-diving industry and it houses a small but very interesting diving and folklore museum. The traditional costumes in the folklore section were fascinating and hugely reminiscent of some Middle Eastern clothing. We were reminded of many of the descriptions in the book ‘Birds without Wings’, which we had both found captivating when we had read it earlier in the year when we visited Gallipoli.

Diving stones (top) and huge sponges

The sponge-diving section of the museum was equally fascinating. It takes the visitor through the history of sponge-diving on the island, from free-diving with stone diving weights, to the mid-20^th century with diving suits and pumped air supplies.

Sponge diving was a dangerous occupation, perhaps more so after the advent of the diving suits until the physiological cause of The Bends was understood. One of the displays casually stated that the free-divers would quite frequently go down to 40 fathoms (240ft, approx 75m!) and come up with blood streaming from their nose and ears and that ‘this was seen as a good omen’!!!

Re-conditioned traditional sponge-diving boat    

Unlike in Japan, where free-diving for pearls was women’s work, Greek sponge-diving was a man’s occupation. At the height of the industry, large fleets of sponge-diving boats set off early each summer for several months at a time. When the sponge beds around the island were fished out (funny old thing) the boats went further and further afield; the museum has photographs of the fleet, ladened with sponges, leaving Tripoli to return home.

The industry pretty much died out after a virus swept through the Mediterranean’s remaining sponge colonies. However, in some ways it still lives on in the souvenir shops and tourist sponge factories of Kálimnos’ main town. Exactly where all the sponges come from these days is anyone’s guess but it’s not inconceivable that they are farmed somewhere.

For several days the meltemi blew hard from the north though where BV was moored in on the northeast side of the harbour it was difficult to appreciate the full force of the wind. When we did walk round to the other side of the harbour the wind hit in full strength, and we were pleased to be ‘in here wishing we were out there rather than out there wishing we were in here’. To while away the time I made up some more tuna/albacore lures which, I hope, will prove more successful than my other ones.

Since we had the time, we took a wander through rabbit warren of backstreets to the archaeological museum, admiring the Italianate architecture and winding cobbled roads (as well as the good tourist signage) as we went.

Kálimnos’ archaeological museum comes highly recommended in our tourist guide, featuring in the editor’s choise of top six archaeological museums in the Greek Islands. When you walk into the large hall of statuary it is easy to see why. All of the statues in the hall came from 2 votive deposits in the sanctuary of Apollo Dalios, ancient Kálimnos’ most important political and religious centre, and they span about 600 years of history, from 7^th to 2^nd century BC.

One of the star pieces, made in a Kalimniot workshop in around 530BC, is a child-sized, robed kouros (unusual as most kouros are naked), which still has traces of red pigment from the original paint decoration on the back of the robes.

Other major pieces include the upper part of a huge cult statue of Asklepios, complete with snake-wrapped staff. This was found in 1970 built into the early Christian basilica of Agia Sophia, which is located close to the site of the ancient sanctuary of Apollo Dalios. The smaller headless replica also dates to the 2^nd century BC, as does the statuette of Athena.

In a second room are artefacts from a settlement near Panormos which developed in the late Hellenistic period. The lamps and incense burners came from the main settlement area, the valuable glassware and intricate gold jewellery and clothing decoration from the necropolis.

The museum also has artefacts from Kálimnos’ Byzantine past. If our memories serve us correctly, these beautiful illuminated gospels date from around 900AD.

14^th and 15^th century painted ceramics (Italian)

Some of the rarest artefacts on display are the remains of large bronze statues which have been trawled up from the waters off Kálimnos. Most ancient bronzework has not survived to the present day as, being merely decorative, it was frequently smelted down by intervening generations to be turned into something ‘more useful’: tools, weapons, money. A male torso with a breastplate, has recently been recovered from the same area of sea where the cavalryman’s legs were foun and is currently undergoing conservation work and examination. It is possible that the 3 pieces were part of the same statue; if so they will be displayed together in the future.

Nísos Kálimnos was an interesting place to wait out the meltemi but after 5 nights it was definitely time to move on towards Kos.

Nísos Kálimnos, Greece