M
idway between Amagos and Patmos during one long
day���s journey we anchored at the tiny island of Levithi, home
to one family. Shrouded in mist, its steep cliffs and small fjord
are positively Wagnerian. We had breakfast aboard and moved
on. On previous visits we have joined the island���s sole family
for delicious meals served in their farmyard.
Several days were spent at Patmos and her sister islands of
Marathi, Arki, Lipsi, Aspronissa and Makronissa. I have plied
the waters around and explored every corner of these islands
for years, ���mining��� rocks from countless beaches, sea caves,
trails and memorable sites. The rocks now form large piles
in Burmese offering bowls and on surfaces throughout our
apartment.
One large rock, now supported by its own gilt Victorian plinth,
rests atop the counter in the very heart of the apartment. Its
surface, a series of broad gradations of burnt orange against a
cream background, appears as if a fractal sculpture of the cosmos. It is a souvenir of a long ago eruption. At its center is an
eye evoking the human, the geological and the divine.
A remarkable day itinerary is to leave Patmos very early in an
old fishing ca��que directly for Aspronissa, mere outcroppings
of rock with a stony white beach. Then you proceed to Makronissa, a cluster of small islands near the entrance to Lipsi
harbor. There you swim to a sea cave, then to an inland pool,
dive beneath the island to the outside sea and continue swimming under a sea arch back to the caique.
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