David's Diary: Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Naxos to Kilimnos, Greece

Karalee and I are up before day break this morning. The wind blew lightly all night and we want to get away and do some traveling before it starts building for the day. Our goal is Kilimnos more than seventy nautical miles (135 kilometres) away. For most of the morning we do a mixture of motoring and sailing as the wind starts to build. I have the first watch and I get to take in a spectacular sunrise that light up the cliffs of the islands around us.

Approaching Kilimnos

As we approach Kilimnos the wind is strong and I am hand steering to keep Dragonsinger on track in the gusts. The wind almost disappears as we pass the southern end of Kilimnos. We can feel the heat rising from the land and smell a mixture of herbs and dry grass in the air.

Kilimnos

We motor into Kilimnos Harbour just after 17:00. The marina written about in our Pilot Guide is missing, so we use our own anchor and pull up the quay and tie next to an Italian boat. We made good time and sailed almost 70% of the time today.

Dinner in Kilimnos

We have a short rest, then I go out and explore the town and take some pictures. Because we were up so early and traveled so far today, we decided to go out for dinner. We pick a restaurant recommended in our Lonely Planet guide book. We are invited into the kitchen by the owner and chief cook. She shows us what is inside each pot and we each pick our dinner. We order a bottle of wine, but Karalee and I are too tired to finish it. The portions are generous and we don't finish all of the food. We ask for it to be wrapped up and we sleepily make our way back to Dragonsinger where we all fall into bed and I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.