Pátmos (Part 3)

Selkie Dancer   

There was yell to us from the quay which turned out to be from Selkie Dancer’s crew. They had anchored in the harbour and come ashore. We had not actually met before but had exchanged e-mails with Andrew and Jinti last year. They had taken some photographs of BV with her spinnaker flying overtaking them a little to the north of here and had very kindly e-mailed us the photographs. They had recognised BV hence the yell to say hello. It was very nice to meet them properly and in all likelihood we’ll meet up again as our cruising paths this year are similar.

Chapel beside where St John baptised the people of Pátmos    

Our outing for Friday was another of the island’s treks. We made our way towards the town centre to pick up the track and noticed a small chapel on the coastline. On further investigation it turns out that St John had conducted baptisms here and the chapel had been built to mark the site.

Kastelli, Bronze Age city walls   

Our trek was a circular route taking in the high ground above Skála Pátmos. This includes the acropolis and the archaeological site of Kastelli, the original Bronze Age settlement here. As we climbed above the modern town we could see parts of the old city walls and, having reached the top, the line of the old walls on the seaward side. There are rocks from the old buildings everywhere but there also dry stone walls and enclosures for sheep and goats built subsequently which makes it difficult to work out which bits are original foundations. Not a top archaeological site but worth visiting for the views. There are also a couple of well-kept chapels on the high ground each within a small garden.

 

Other than the walls we’d seen earlier, the base of the old gate towers at the northern end of the ridge is probably the best preserved part of the site.

The route took us through wild goatherd country before returning to our start point in the town.

That evening the religious artefacts from all of the different churches were paraded through the town and everyone assembled in the square for a short service, we presume, blessing the artefacts.

Unusually we had some rain but that didn’t seem to put off the crowds although we suspect that the parade was a bit brisker than normal as a result. As soon as the priests had finished their blessings the artefacts were hoisted up again and they shot off into the narrow lanes of the town. We were carried along with the crowd and found that all of the artefacts had been placed in the largest church in the town and the locals were filing through to see them and mark Good Friday when Jesus had been taken down from the cross.

Saturday turned out to be a reasonably lazy day. We sorted out some admin and tracked down some intermittent faults. The anchor windlass had played up a couple of times and so whilst the dive shop/chandlery was open we tried to get a spare solenoid in case that was the source of the problem. They didn’t have any but got a marine electrical engineer to deliver one to us. I was still poking around looking at the wiring when he turned up so we bought the spare solenoid so as not to miss the opportunity, however, in the end we didn’t need it because the problem was a connection in the activation circuit. At least we have a spare on board; a bit irritating though because I had already ordered a spare solenoid for Charlotte to bring out with her when she visits us in July.

During the afternoon the town was busier because 2 cruise ships docked. We thought that they were both here for the night time celebrations but one left early. That was around the time that I noticed that the fridge was playing up again. The intermittent fault was no longer intermittent; the voltage reducer, which is there to reduce the power consumption of the fridge’s water cooling pump, had failed. Not something for which we’d easily be able to find a proper spare in the Greek islands. However, the prospect of warm beer and wasted food were classified as serious issues and I scratched my head to come up with a solution. In the end, the use of our high amp USB charger for the iPads was sacrificed in the cause of generating cool beer; it drops 12 volts to 5 volts which is perfect for what the fridge needs and can put out enough current to do the job. With a careful bit of wiring the fridge was back in business and at a fraction of the cost of the official grossly overpriced £200 part we’ll probably have to track down at some stage.

For the past week Greek lads have been setting off loud bangers. Some have been extremely powerful and you wonder how many injuries are caused by misjudgement of these industrial sized explosions. The frequency of bangs built throughout the day until Midnight when the official fireworks were set off to mark the Resurrection. Fasting is over and the rest of Sunday would be a day of celebration and feasting, with lamb and goat being the traditional dishes. We looked forward to that but took the opportunity of the lull in explosions after the firework display to get some kip.

Come the morning it was clear that the scallies’ stocks of explosives were far from depleted. Nicky commented that she felt that she was featuring as an extra in some sort of war movie as we were surrounded by large explosions all day. Being 1 May, Labour Day, and Easter Sunday not much was going on in town during the day. We didn’t attend but mid-afternoon at the Monastery of St. John was the “Liturgy of Love”. During this liturgy, which is dedicated to the Second Resurrection, the Gospel of the Resurrection is read in seven different languages. When the mass ends, red eggs are offered to all those in attendance by the Abbot, symbolising the perpetual rebirth of life and nature. The reason for the red egg in the Greek Easter bun became clear.

Whilst relatively quiet during the day, by night the town came alive. There were more fireworks…

...and the town square was full of people dancing and listening to the live Greek music. 

Pátmos had once again been an interesting place to visit and we’d enjoyed seeing the Greek Orthodox Easter festivities but by Monday it definitely felt like the right time to be moving on.

Pátmos, Greece