Makarma goes walkabout

11th July, Grikos, Patmos

It was supposed to be a quiet Sunday lunch at the waterfront taverna.
Spiros, the taverna's resident pet

















We've just finished our chilled watermelon and we're preparing to spend a leisurely afternoon watching the world go by, when we notice something odd about Makarma, anchored out in the bay.  Her bow is falling off the wind but is not being pulled back up again by the anchor chain. Her anchor can't be dragging, can it?

As we watch in mounting horror, she drifts off in the gusty breeze trailing the anchor and 40 metres of chain. She is soon picking up speed across the bay.  Oh my god! Leighton throws some money on the table and we sprint for the dinghy to race after her. Makarma meanwhile narrowly misses a large motorboat and is sliding sideways towards the bows of an Australian sailing boat.

Our progress in the dinghy feels agonisingly slow as we watch the drama unfold. We're helpless to do anything about the inevitable collision. Come on, we urge the outboard. This is the moment we're starting to regret exchanging our old 10hp engine for a sluggish 2.5hp.

By the time we reach her, Makarma is pinned on the bow of the yacht with our man-overboard A-frame caught in its pulpit. A guy from the motorboat is using his tender as a tug, trying to push us off. Back onboard at last, we help the yacht's owner disentangle us from his bow and Leighton gets the engine started in record time to reverse us out of harm's way.

After we get re-anchored and the adrenalin's stopped pumping we wonder how on earth it happened. We have huge confidence in our 20kg Bugel which doesn't usually let us down. This time we've been anchored here for three days in strong wind and we've checked every day that our anchor is still well dug in.  The only possible explanation we could come up with was a boat anchored very close to us left while we were ashore and disturbed our anchor.

Whatever the reason, the incident has a happy outcome. When Leighton went over to apologise to the Aussies and check they were OK they generously invite us over. Mike and Sue on Skedaddle Again, who we'd - literally! - bumped into have no hard feelings.  To our relief, no damage has been done to either boat either. Although we wouldn't choose to meet people this way, we're glad we have.
At anchor as she should be

Revelations - Patmos 4th July

Skala, Patmos - 4th July

Today marks the date five years ago when we sailed from Plymouth at the start of our journey to the Med.  We've come a long way - in many senses. On the day we arrived here in Skala, we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary as well.
Still together!


















We reckon that it's quite an achievement to stay together when you're living together in a 40 foot box. We may have had some low points, but on balance we've had some of the happiest days of our lives onboard and we have no regrets about doing what we're doing. What's more, we're collecting some amazing experiences to remember in years to come. 

It seems fitting that we went to visit the cave where St John had his vision of the Apocalypse. He's the reason that Patmos is on the tourist trail. Cruise liners bring them in by the thousands. By a lucky stroke, a service was in progress when we entered the little chapel enclosing the cave, and the priest blessed us with holy water flicked from a bunch of wet parsley.
The chapel at Profitis Ilias














One lunchtime we stopped for a drink at a taverna and got talking to two ladies who were decorating the poles holding up the awning over our heads. It turned out that one of them lives in Florida but spends three months a year for the last ten years volunteering at a local farm owned by the church. Joy (or Hara in Greek) invited us to drop by the farm at Kalogiro. Inspired by her story, we did.

Kalogiro is a small farm lying in a fertile valley that runs down to the beach on the northwest coast of the island. Hara was hoeing when we arrived but stopped to show us around. Aubergine, peppers, tomatoes and watermelons were growing in the fields; we saw apricot, fig and pomegranate trees; and stooks of oats were piled up ready for winnowing in a traditional threshing circle.  There was grazing for goats, a cow and some mules.


At its heart stood a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Tenant farmers Nikolas and Kristina live with their family in the old monks' cells.  The place has an in-tune-with-the-seasons quality, a place that's far removed from worldly pressures. No surprise then that Hara has a calm grace about her - a living example of taking things slowly.

However it may not last. Hara told us this year the monastery tried to evict the farmers. They've been granted a two-year reprieve. She may yet turn out to be their best defence - she fund-raises for charities back in US, and would get backing to save it if it's threatened again.  We wish them well.