Fry - Kasos... What was I saying about those Greeks?

7:45 on the 29th August we cast off. This was our earliest start to date in an attempt to get some water beneath us before the Meltimi arched up.

It made no difference, it was blowing NE, the water was agitated and confused with a swell of sorts hitting us on the port beam the whole way. We had life jackets at the ready but after 15 minutes or so, we'd all settled into the rhythm of it and it became quite enjoyable.



One issue with a beam sea is it requires a lot of input from the auto pilot which is of course, battery powered. Within no time at all we noticed the nav screen flickering. This could be one of two things. Either the fuse that let us down all that way back in Lakka was on the blink, or the batteries were getting too low to cope with the work load. It is nerve wracking when your navigation systems threatens to pop....
I checked the battery reading and sure enough it was low which meant either starting the generator or the engines to provide charge.

Well if you're going to use fuel, it may as well be for propulsion even though we were finally sailing and not motoring, so we motor sailed all the way to Fry.

Fry on Kasos is not touted as your dream destination but we could not complain about the welcome we received.... there was none!

The harbour is a large construction, but in reality there is very little room for small craft, ie; not ferries and the like. The only safe spot is on the left side of that thicker inverted 'T'.

There looked to be a nice big spot on the quay safe from the Meltimi surge until we made for it. We were told by local fishermen, in no uncertain terms, that that spot was for the Kasos Princess and we were directed to our nightmare on the other side of the quay. ie; on the right side of the inverted 'T'

It looked as though the outer mole was sufficient to  protect us, but there was enough water between us and the mole for a substantial and dangerous surge to form, but it did not form until nightfall. Too late to move and the entire night was spent moving fenders and tightening surge lines as the Meltimi built and the resultant surge lifted the boat and slammed it repeatedly against the quay.

We had planned to head off  the next day, but by 4:00am our trusty apps told us that the wind would strengthen, the next port could well be full and lack of sleep leads to bad decision making so we resolved to stay another day but move a boat or two inside the quay to create space and moor there safely until the wind abated.

At first light this procedure got under way and in no time we were in, safe and ready for some serious shut eye. No thanks at all to the locals.

After a nap, we were visited by the owner of the boat that I had carefully moved to make the space and if Arris was out of control in Heraklion, this boy was hysterical! I mean Hysterical! Malaka this malaka that, he went OFF!.... He and his mate made grand gestures in moving the boat to a 'safer' location.... less than a meter back toward us and if I wasn't so pissed off with these locals by now it would have been a good laugh. They finally went away and left us alone.

Now that we had a day and a night to kill in 'armpitville' we decided to hire a car and check the place out.

Well... it was sad really. Clearly there was a time when there was a higher rainfall here but it was as if the place had been cursed. Little churches in the most obscure locations, placed as if to ward off the dark spirits that had inhabited the island. Dry, baron, desolate, rocky and wind swept, why on earth would you live here?


Yet we met people who clearly love the place and others that holiday here every year?

The terraces you see in these shots literally covered these slopes and would have taken enormous effort to construct. We assumed they were once filled with olive trees and it would all have looked so much more inhabitable.

With only a quarter of a tank, we went to get some fuel for a trip to the south of the island but found the only petrol station shut, so, have hire car, go nowhere!

One nice chap we did meet called Joseph, a guy who holidays here every, year told us about 'the other port' so we thought we'd check it out.

If only we had known about this when we arrived! It was perfect, picturesque, clean and safe and to top it off, home to the nicest teverna we'd seen in a  while.

We had a swim, reminisced over a great meal about how different it would all have been if we'd moored here.... and who should turn up for a feed?....
Mr Angry from Kasos who's boat we had moved!

I asked our waiter to take him a bottle of wine. He turned that down for a coke, a broad smile broke out on his face and as with Arris in Heraklion, we became besties.