a Dodecanese chronicle
Day One
Kos → Tilos → Chalki · the Dodecanese
Sixty-seven photographs from seven phones, and the first full day reads like a whole voyage: sunrise at anchor, a reunion on the aft deck at twenty to ten, the sails up before noon, a swim to shore and lunch in a bay, then a harbour with a castle over it, a beach at sunset, a taverna on the waterfront and dinner on board. Mark filed the day in one sentence at a quarter to nine; everyone else filed the pictures. Here it is in the order it happened.
Somebody was up at 6.26 to photograph the sun coming over the hills across the water, and again at 6.58 with the flag at the stern in front of it; the note that came with them said Good morning and nothing else. The swimming started before breakfast — Sheila’s frame at 7.48 is a man on the aft deck with both arms in the air, and Beck’s at 9.05 is another coming up the swim platform. At 9.42 the tender came alongside with three aboard and a paddleboard in tow, and a minute later Beck took the photograph of the morning: two women in an embrace on the aft deck. Her caption was five words long.
Mandy photographed the breakfast table at 8.32 — a tart, a basket of pastries, a dish of something roasted, water and juice on the patterned cloth — and at 8.58 the bowl that got the words: Greek yoghurt, honey, cinnamon, apple.. delish from Jason. Both are in The Galley now, where the stars are.
By 11.17 there was someone at the helm and a headland going past; at 11.26 a coast of white cliffs; at 11.30 someone flat out on the foredeck with a hat over the face. Maria’s photograph at 11.31 looks straight up the mast into the sun, and Mark’s at 11.42 is the sail itself, full and drawing, with the island astern. At 11.45 a pair of feet up on the rail and the wake going away behind. Sailed from Kos to Tilos, Mark wrote, and that is the passage in three words.
The chart on Beck’s phone at 1.46 shows where they were; her three frames at 1.51, 1.52 and 1.53 show what it looked like — a bare brown hillside, a scatter of white houses, water the colour of the sky, and two of the party in the sun on the foredeck. Then the swimming: at two o’clock Maria photographed one swimmer floating, then two, in water so clear the shadows show on the bottom. Lunch came at 2.29 — a roll of something sliced thick, herbs on top, small potatoes around it — and by 2.50 the whole table was at it under the awning. At 3.17 they were still there, talking. Beck’s photograph at four o’clock is the one at the top of this page, and her reason for choosing it is the caption.
Everything written on Day One, in the order it arrived. The log has added nothing.
The map on Beck’s phone at 6.11 went into the log under places, and Chalki went into the Black Book three times over, which is a review. At 6.15 one of the party was standing on the bow with the sun going down behind the harbour — RGG tempting fate, Beck wrote. By 6.35 they were at the dock, masts all round; at 6.49 Mark photographed the waterfront from the quay, fishing boats and a row of tall painted houses. Then the walk: a stone house with green shutters at 6.59, the sign for the castle at 7.02, and from 7.05 the beach — Mark called it Patomos — where they went in as the light went pink, one after another, and Beck stood at the water’s edge in a white shirt and let herself be photographed.
At 7.43 the harbour lights had come on and a tower stood lit above the quay; at 7.44 Mandy photographed the houses doubled in the water. The taverna took them from 8.05 — Maria’s frames are the table under the umbrellas, two of the party over drinks, and one man in a white shirt laughing at whoever held the phone. By 8.29 they were back aboard with glasses raised, Mandy had photographed a gin with cucumber in it at 8.38, and at 8.58 she took the picture of the harbour at night that she chose as her hero. Dinner was at nine: bowls of something dark and rich under a snowfall of grated cheese, and Roger sent five frames of it and tagged them food, people and places, all three, which is fair.
