Return to Leros, but not for long

Our return to Greece was a bit reminiscent of “Trains, Planes and Automobiles”, except for us it was “Automobiles, Planes and Ferries”.

Our taxi turned up at 04:15 to whisk us off to Bristol Airport, which we rather naively assumed would be quiet. It was absolutely heaving, full of stag and hen parties. We were desperate for coffee, and had to manoeuvre our way through the, “I’m on holiday, therefore I’m having a pint” brigade. We stood open-mouthed at a hen party, where the bride-to-be was dressed in an inflatable cow outfit (think Nursey in Blackadder).

Our transfer was waiting for us at Kos airport (we know from experience quite how few taxis there are on Kos, so we had reserved one), and it deposited us at a hotel, where we had stayed before, and that had kindly let us book a daily room. Later that day, another taxi took us to the ferry port, and we caught the Blue Star car ferry up to Leros, where Irene (Rene) – of Leros Car Rentals - had left us a vehicle at the ferry port. Exhausted, we dumped our bags in a hotel, and went in search of anywhere that was still open and would serve us a glass of wine.

We had driven from Cirencester to Leros in the spring, and back to the UK in July, enjoying the opportunity to linger in Germany and Italy, but trading in precious Schengen days. We’d already spent two months in Türkiye in the spring on Missy Bear, and had thought that we would have to return in the autumn (especially as we had extended our autumn stay by a few days to meet up with friends.) But when I did the Schengen calculation, we would be bang on our 90 days. But our flight home was from Leros airport, and they cancel flights if the crosswinds are too strong. We’d already taken one flight a year or so ago, where all bags were left behind on the island to allow the plane to take off.  There was a risk we would overstay our welcome in Europe.

Richard is a much greater risk-taker than me, but after years of working in Risk and Compliance, I invariably look for mitigation strategies…

With strong winds forecast, there was no way of getting out of the Leros marina for the next five days anyway. So, we decided to go to Türkiye on the new Leros-Turgutreis ferry, and have a few days in Bodrum. Just to show you how strong the winds were, the ferry was cancelled on the day we had booked, but fortunately we were able to transfer to the one on the day before. We gained four full days out of Schengen and some breathing space for November.

I first visited Bodrum back in 1985, before the hotel-building spree. I stayed in a hut in a pomegranate grove, and during the day the hot sun melted the tar on the flat roof, which would drip down onto our bed. We’d catch a dolmuş (jeep bus) to the beach in the morning, spend the day on the beach, and then wander into the old town at night for mezes and fish. We also did some cultural trips, and I remember being enthralled by Ephesus. Some years later, I returned with Richard, and my sister and her husband, to explore the large bay on a chartered yacht.

R and R outside Schengen

Bodrum now is nothing like Bodrum then. Nevertheless, with the aid of ChatGPT, I found a small hotel guesthouse with a fab pool and great restaurants nearby. This had the advantage of being nowhere near the big, all-inclusive hotels and noisy bars.

We returned to Leros on the Monday morning return ferry. It was then all systems go. In the space of three hours, we'd rigged the jib (we’d left the main on), did a massive food-shop, and stowed everything, bought a birthday cake for a friend from the great patisserie in Lakki (main town on Leros), filled the water tanks, and called for the marinero, on Channel 10.

Rigging to do before we can depart

Just after 14:00, we were leaving the marina to join friends at the south of Kalymnos. Our autumn sailing season had begun!