Lipso

Leaving Léros

After 2 nights spent anchored beside Áy Marina, on the island of Léros, on Monday 25 April we decided to move on. We raised the anchor at 1015 and made our way out of the bay which gave us one last look at the castle and the windmills on the ridgeline.

Lipso on the horizon   

We sailed the short distance north to the next island in the chain, Lipso (or possibly Lipsi depending upon which book you read).

Once we had dodged the fuel delivery ship we were joined by a bottlenose dolphin. It seemed to be on its own and didn’t stay with us for long.

Entering Lipso harbour   

We anchored in the bay beside the main town of Lipso. It was set to be a bit windy for the following 24 hours and so we planned to stay on board and then move on the next day to a particularly scenic anchorage on Arki, the island to the north.

There is a harbour at Lipsi but the 2 yachts moored in it look very uncomfortable with the south-westerly wind pushing them around and sending spray over both the breakwater and them. We seem to be much more settled tucked in the corner of the bay at anchor. We had the place to ourselves initially but were joined on Tuesday by 2 other yachts.

By the time the other yachts joined us the wind had abated a little but the forecast had changed and didn’t show it dropping off further or coming from a more useful direction until Wednesday. As a result, our one-night stop turned into a 2-night stop. We used the time to cover all of our monthly and 2-weekly checks. We’ve found that without a roster of checks it’s very easy to forget to do some of the routine bits and pieces that keep everything working. We took the covers off and did a full check on the engine and then moved on to doing more mundane things like exercising all of the stopcocks, lubricating the toilet pumps, shaking the fire extinguishers to stop them settling, and checking all of the lights on the rescue equipment.

With the checks and a bit of blog writing the day seemed to slip away quickly. BV sat reasonably quietly at anchor but like most yachts with roller-furling headsails she tends to shear a bit in the gusts. We looked at potentially using an old staysail to make a riding sail but in the end we found a design online for a much more elaborate, and potentially more effective, design. Making a riding sail was put on hold. We’ll look to get some material and make up a trial one; if the design works we can make up a more robust one in sailcloth.

In some ways it was a shame that we didn’t go ashore but we used the time profitably and can visit the town when we come past here again. Like most Greek islands it’s got its fair share of churches and chapels; we counted 17 of them from our position in the bay.

Leaving Lipso

By Wednesday morning BV had sat at nearly all points of the compass in the anchorage as the wind had veered during the previous 36 hours. We now had a gentle wind from the north west which would work well for moving on towards Pátmos. We wanted to visit Pátmos during the Greek Orthodox church’s Easter celebrations because they have a reputation for being quite special. With that in mind we left Lipso at 9am and headed west.

Lipso, Greece