Greece sailing report
Dodecanese islands Samos,Patmos,Arki,Lipsi,Kalymnos,Leros,Kos,Nisyros,Tilos,Chalki,Simi Rhodes Karpathos and Megisti Kastellorizon

Kos has one of the few "professional" Marinas in Greece. Even, if staying in a normal village-port might be noisy, and the water in the harbour usually is dirty, we prefer staying in "normal" ports to take part of the "normal life" on the quais and being right in the middle of local scenery, but sometimes, a Marina with it´s facilities can be an good stop. Especially for a charter-crew with 6 or 8 on board, who need to have a shower, for provisioning the boat with fuel and water, a Marina is a good place to stay. Kos Marina is quite close to the town-harbour (10-15 minutes walk or a bus) and mostly, the town-harbour-policeman will send you over to the Marina.

In Kos, it is important to "kow the rules", because Stavros, managing the pilot boat, feels responsible to get you in the mooring-place without damages. Usually, the wind is coming strong from north, so be carefull entering the Marina. Call the Marina at your VHF Channell 77 and wait at the entrance for arrival of the pilot boat, whose pilot will check your boatsize and order a mooring-place for you. Note: alongside costs triple!
Following the instructions of the pilot is helpfull, he stays with you and pushes the bow to position with his inflatable boat.
Read more about Marina Kos on their website here...

In the summer season, and at critical wid-situations, it is very recommended, to call the Marina the day before or in the morning for a reservation (use the phone-numbers on website of Kosmarina!)

Kos itself is very nice to stay, visit the castle, see the old plant of Hypokrates, the ancient philosopher and doctor, who is still the mental guide for medical doctors all over the world, have a walk through the narrow shopping- and Bar-streets up the hill, take a cup of coffee on the place right below the old Mosque, maybe take a day and go for a daytrip to turkish Bodrum, which is 35 minutes by ferry twice a day in the summer season.

After one or two days in Kos (if you don´t have the time to stay longer, you should, if you can !) , you might want to sail further.

You can sail "upwards" to Dedecenese islands like Kalymnos, Leros, Patmos, Samos, or "southwards" to Nisyros, Tilos, Symi, Chalki, Rhodes, Karpathos and the turkish coast then, maybe visit the very southeasterly lying Kastellorizon. We describe all these islands, but here we will report a sailing trip starting from Kos to the southeast and back.

Enjoy relaxed sailing from greek island Kos southwesterly to the island of Nisyros, which is in sight, from the moment on, we pass the SE-cape of Kos
Watchout the easterly corner of Kos: at the end of the Kos-bay, it s very shallow, and the beach-related surfers and small catamarans don´t pay much attention for international sailing rules - they just take their way!

Sailing to the northeasterly part of the vulcanic island Nisyros you surely should prefer the small harbour called PALI.
First in sight is a big building. It is the never finished, half-ready sanatorium for healing-waters: Nisyros has vulcanic-springs, and years ago, it was planned to built a sanatorium there...it was started to built, and ended up (like many greek investments ;-)  in a non-finished ruin. If you have a walk from the harbour there (about 500m, passing the bakery !!) and go inside, you can see the bath-installations etc. Nobody knows, if it will be finished and used ever. At least, the building is a good landmark for the sailors, because about 500m further right, you can see the piers of the small Pali-harbour.

Note: from >  5 Bft it is not possible to pass into that harbour, because it has only about 3m water in the entrance, and ground-seas appear very quick there!  In that case you should sail over to the white industrial-island Yali about 2nm north, which gives shelter against strong N-winds!