It’s a Small World

It’s the day to eat all the leftovers. Well, as many as we possibly could. Cookies, pastries, deli meats, a wide variety of cheese, and nutella. There was zero wind, so us girls spent an hour or two riding up on the bow, soaking up the sunshine and chatting. Kindi slept a long time, and the guys chilled in the cockpit. It’s impossible to believe that we soon will be back in our cold, dark home countries, with all this blue water and endless sunshine. Day before yesterday there were a few clouds in the sky, but mostly it’s completely clear except for the contrails from a dozen aircraft crisscrossing the sky. Our Turkish flag was once again clothes-pinned to the right shroud, as a majority of today was in Turkish water. We didn’t have it up when we passed through the other day, so were stopped by the Turkish coastguard. They came roaring up in in their boat and signaled for us to stop with a whoop of their siren. Super friendly, but quite firm, “Turkish waters, Turkish flag.” We had actually been told that at checkin, but kinda forgot. Also there wasn’t anything to tie it on with, or even hoist it, so we compromised by pinning it as high as we could reach with clothes-pins. A simple courtesy is all it is. Somehow it ended up blowing off and flying into the drink today, just as we got within spitting distance of the Turkish Shore, but there was nothing we could do so we shrugged and said “Turkish flag, Turkish water”. Didn’t seem to have any repercussions as the Coast Guards never appeared.

There is a Thermal Spring on Kos that flows into the Sea. They have built a little pool around it using rocks, but the sea water still washes into it. It seemed interesting, so we anchored our boat and took the dinghy in to shore to have a dip. It was amazingly busy for this time of year, but we all happily bubbled around in it, gasping at the heat when you got close to the source. It was HOT. Apparently it’s gotten quite a lot hotter since the major earthquake Kos had in 2017. None of us could stand the heat at the source, tho we tried to creep as close as possible. I felt like my legs would sizzle off. Of course it stuck like sulphur, and of course there were goats around. Goats that had had way too much contact with people, cause they dug in bags, stomped on beach towels and generally were a total pain, by all appearances. Our dinghy had been pulled high onto the beach, but when we exited the pool, behold, it was gone. “Oh was that your boat?” a guy asked. “It’s bumping along the beach further down”. Oh great. Not more dinghy damage. Heath ran, actually ran with his tender feet, to go catch it and bring it back. I was sore amazed, as just a minute earlier he had been gingerly picking his way across the peddles, looking for all the world like his pain levels were through the roof. Alls well that ends well, and the dinghy appeared to be undamaged. We aren’t sure how it got loose. Either there was a really huge wave, or a goat or person shoved it off. Guess it doesn’t matter, but it would be interesting to know.

Leaving the Thermal Spring, we headed to the home port at Kos. Joining the queue at the fuel dock, we tried to ignore the fact that it really was almost over. We queued a long old time, as all the boats that had been chartered that week were coming in at the same time. It was constant activity.

A frisky Harbor pilot led us to our dock, and we squished in next to another returning boat. Never have I seen boats packed so tightly together. Our fenders were pressed nearly flat. And so began the long process of check out. A diver went down to examine the hull to make sure we hadn’t damaged it, the sails were opened and inspected, and all the small things like anchors and refrigerators and broken shower heads were discussed. The Istion Yacht people are fantastic to deal with! They were very impressed with how clean our boat was, so all our scrubbing was not in vain. Zach n Camille packed out to spend their last night in a hotel, and the rest of us showered and relaxed. Rob, Zach P and Forrest had left the boat when we fueled and went to get three teeny rental cars so we can tour tomorrow.

Supper was at a fun and delightful place called Street Food Kantina, and we sat and thoroughly enjoyed each other and the food. Heath forced me to stroll the Marina with him after supper, even though all I wanted to do was go to bed. He wanted another look at a massive Catamaran that was right at 120’ long. Truly enormous. We love this Marina. It has such a normal, relaxed vibe. Prices are good, people seem average and it’s not the glittering, loud affair of Rhodes.

And so we had our last sleep on the boat. Heath said he slept like a rock since he could finally let down his responsibility guard. I slept like a rock cause I normally do.