Kalymnos - Rhodos

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Rhodos, Greece 29/11-2011

N36°27.018´
E028°13.663´

Sailing distance made: 5943 nautical miles

From Kalymnos we continue our sailing to new islands and new experiences, over water as well as beneath the surface.






We visit Kos, Nisiros and Simi, islands which all belong to Greece. The small volcanic island, Nisiros, becomes my favoruite quite soon...




From Nisiros there are not many nautical miles left over to the mainland of Turkey and the high mountains of Turkey are easily seen from this lovely island.




At the top of the island there is a stunning veiw in all directions...




Here you also find a small abandoned village, situated at the edge of the crater...



... and in the village there is a small sauna, offering steamy sauna bath, heated up by the volcano! :)



With great valleys, green surroundings, old oaks, olive trees and lots of animals running free around, this cozy place feels like its own ”Garden of Eden”...





Our voyage continues from Nisiros to Simi island. Here we spend some more days, filming the surroundings and under water life.







After great days of diving and sailing, we are now in Rhodos island...




Here we will make our last service of our boat and equipment before it is time to leave European waters and head south to the African continent... :)










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Kalymnos - The Sponge Diver Island

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Kalymnos, Greece 21/11-2011

N36°57.054´
E026°59.187´

Sailing distance made: 5831 nautical miles

We have now spent a little bit more then one week at the island of Kalymnos and it is time to continue our trip further south. But before we set the sails I want to share some of our experiences from this lovely island.



Kalymnos is well known as ”The Sponge Diver Island” and here our aim is to film and document the hard work of the sponge divers.



The local people here are very friendly and helpful and are happy to take us out at sea showing their different diving methods.








We also make nice diving in the many underwater caves of the island...






It is always exiting to get inside and discover a new cave. Who knows what is hiding in the darkness...





Suddenly we see something bright moving inside the big dark cave. I can hardly believe what I see, but truly it is a monkseal! :)

Today there are not many Mediterranean monkseals left in our oceans, but even so there are fishermen still shooting this endangered species illegal.




The caves offer shelter and protection for the monkseals, therefore we leave the cave giving the monkseal the opportunity coming back to its home without to much disturbance.

I am really happy to meet this shy and rare seal species in such a close distance. :)




Great dark shadows, moving in the water, are always exiting...



And when the shadows also shows their curiosity, by coming closer and closer, it is a good reason to get even more exited!



This time the shadows are tunas, swimming with their great speed and fast movements. During the time filming those ”fast runners” I can not stop thinking of how elegant this fish species truly is.




After many nice experiences at this friendly island it is time now, to contine our sailing voyage to new places and new adventures! :)






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