Once arrived in Tilos we decided pretty quickly that we would stay for a few days even though it was much quieter than our previous visit two weeks before.

The first excitement was caused by the mobile fruit and veg van which came right up alongside the boat and had some wonderfully fresh produce. It was such a joy to choose the items we needed and the chap did not seem too disappointed when all I bought was a honeydew melon and two cucumbers!

The following day, Saturday, started with the ringing of church bells which was slightly abnormal and there was as an air of something unusual going on! I looked out of the boat over to the small plaza and there were people beginning to gather. When I looked at the end of the quay there were groups of children, from as young as five to late teenagers, all waving flags and banners.

I sensed that this was not just a local celebration and much though I would like to profess that I was well aware of the significance of the day for the Greeks, alas I had to look it up!

Oxi Day, the “Day of No,” is an important part of modern Greek history celebrated annually on 28th October. It marks the day in 1940 when the Greek prime minister, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected an ultimatum given by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini during World War II. Effectively, Mussolini was asking for permission for his forces to enter Greece and occupy certain strategic locations and Metaxas said ‘Oxi’ thus bringing Greece into WWII.

It is reported that Churchill at the time said something along the lines of “We will not say that the Greeks fought like heroes, we will say that heroes fought like the Greeks…….”

I felt very honoured to be able to experience this moment of remembrance, which was solemn yet joyous, knowing that the same parades and speeches were being made in every Greek town, village and island.

Our next stop the following day was to Nisyros where we had visited previously years ago to see, and walk across the top of, the famous volcano! This time instead of heading to the main harbour we moored up alongside ‘Let Go’, in Port Mandraki where the mooring and electricity were free (very unusual!) and it was a short stroll to the beautiful old town.

The ‘Let Go’ crew were keen to get to see the island that day and after a close up inspection of the red option by Sarah and Jay and then the yellow option by the rest of the family the yellow beach buggy was chosen – leaving the red one for us the following day!

Jay also thoroughly investigated the racing car option!

Having ‘walked’ the volcano last time, we decided that we should get a different view on this visit so we drove to one of the many fabulous viewing points by the local church next to the village of Nikia.

These are a couple of shots of our last visit in 2016, including a close up of my finger!! The crust was very, very hot in places, bubbling and gurgling and I will leave you to imagine the smell!

We headed down into the village for lunch to the restaurant recommended by our the lovely car hire lady who was also the font of all local knowledge and very handy at tying up a boat!

As we ambled up the hill and into the small plaza I had a ‘ooh, where have we been somewhere that looks like this before?’ moment! I was sure that I had seen a set up very similar to this on a previous adventure – weeks, months or years ago and who knows where!

The pristine church overlooking the restaurant’s terrace, the stone seating around the edge were so familiar but something was not quite the same – where could the ‘other’ place have been??

This ‘other’ place, of course, turned out to actually be this place but in the heat of summer in 2016!! It dawned on me that this was the restaurant we had come to seven years ago after our volcano tour. The difference was that on that occasion it was mid August and we had eaten there with ‘the kids’, Kay, Chris and family and around 100 other people taking up every seat and space available!

That mystery (!) having been solved we had a fabulous lunch and chat to the staff there who were already making preparations for closing for winter. We would be their last lunch customers of 2023!

The drive back was mostly uneventful but there were a few colourful moments.

Like us, the ‘Let Go’ crew would be heading north in a day or two to safe harbour for the winter, they to Leros and us to Kos. We agreed that for our last evening as boat neighbours, the adult crew would come on board Mossy Joe for post dinner drinks.

Dinner was over for both boats, the boys were happily asleep and we were preparing for the arrival of our guests when the evening ferry arrived. The previous night it had caused a ‘wash’ and some movement of the boats but this evening the effect was of a supersonic tanker coming into harbour! Apart from us and ‘Let Go’ the only other boats were two monohulls whose crews were both off and out to dinner ashore. The strength of the wash from the ferry turned into very strong waves causing all four boats to move violently both towards the quay and towards each other. There was much checking of lines and discussions of moving further back from the quay – it may seem over cautious for just a few minutes of movement but the effect of wave after wave causes each one to increase in power and it really is terrifying. Multihulls like Mossy Joe and Let Go move differently to monohulls so it was no surprise once the waves abated to see the monohulls in quite a state. It was dark by this time with limited light from the onshore buildings but we could clearly see that the masts of the monohulls had become entwined.

This situation is not immediately dangerous and the waves had ceased but any further wind or waves could be catastrophic bringing down one or both masts and the possibility that the masts could fall on neighbouring boats i.e. us!! Jacques, Jon and other onlookers tried to fathom out how to untangle the boats using boat hooks or other techniques from the ground but it was clear that someone would need to go up and survey the situation from close up. But not tonight!

Knowing we had done as much as we could and with the return of the monohull crews we resumed our planned evening and an interesting experiment of Ouzo versus Mastika! It has amazed me how ‘marmite’ like these two competing Greek spirits are – I (despite a terrible experience with it when I was 19 on my first ever holiday abroad to Corfu) love Ouzo but Mastika makes me gag! Everyone we have had these drinks with fall into one camp or the other with a definite preference.

The following morning brought more ideas on how the co-joined masts could be separated and this culminated in the arrival of a local chap with his ‘cherry picker’ equipment. We decided we should get going – once the masts were released the ‘spring’ intensity and the proximity to our mast could mean a massive knock on effect for us!

We said a hasty goodbye to Let Go and headed to Kos and back to Kardamena bay for a last night at sea before the marina. We hoped we would see our friends again – they were heading to Kos too but we had left so abruptly there was no time to agree plans. Happily, later that day we saw them heading towards the bay and exchanged ideas to make Hallowe’en as much fun as possible for the boys!

We went ashore to buy some perfect trick or treat gifts! We had just sat down for a drink to review our purchases and plan their application when we were spotted by the scary pirates!

We set off back to the boat to prepare to be trick or treated! It was soon dark and knowing that our trick or treaters would be arriving by dinghy we used our candles and lanterns along with the red lighting to create a spooky look! It worked – the boys were amazed! They were slightly more amazed when their first ‘treat’ was a bulb of garlic!!

We almost let Kai sink his teeth into it when he asked ‘can I eat it??’

More devilish moments, mostly cause by Jacques uplighting his face with a torch, and a great deal of laughter were had!

The next morning we waved off our friends on Let Go and took our time to move the 15 miles around to the top of the island and into Kos Marina.

Our time in the marina these last few weeks have been calm yet busy, incredibly hot days and then almost chilly evenings, new friends discovered and many news things experienced, plans made and some put in motion.

Sad that we are leaving our sailing life for a few weeks or months but so looking forward to hugging family and friends and preparing for ‘that which cannot be spoken of before 1st December!’

There will be a short P.S. to come covering the ‘wintering’ of Mossy Joe including the great people we have met to assist with this and also the preparation of ‘wintering’ for me and Jacques!

There is certainly a huge amount of sail to remove!

Thank you for reading.

Take care and sail safe.

Love Tracey xx