a Dodecanese chronicle
Day Six
Pserimos → Leros · the Dodecanese
Fifty-one photographs, and the boat went north: a rock-cove swim at Pserimos before half past eight, then across to Leros, where Serenissima was in the bay at Pandeli by a quarter to one and the tender was running by half past. Lunch under the tamarisks on the beach, a walk through the bougainvillea lanes, and then the climb — Mark’s three photographs from the ramparts of Panteli Castle at five o’clock are the only words anyone sent all day, and they say exactly where everyone was. The sundowners were taken from a table on the hill with the whole bay below, the windmills were photographed at dusk, and the last frame is a chalkboard at nine.
Mandy’s 8.32 is a swimmer flat on her back on a ledge of orange rock, feet in the water, the sea below her clear to the stones. At 9.29 Maria had the two of them on the sunbed on the bow, the boat still at anchor in the western bay, the hill behind. Then the lines came in.
Mandy’s 12.44 is the approach: a white town climbing a brown hill, the shrouds in the foreground, and ten minutes later the quay at Pandeli with the motor yachts alongside. By 1.34 Maria had Mark on the aft deck with a hand up, the bay behind him, and from 1.36 to 1.38 she took the tender run — four frames, the wake white behind, everyone in sunglasses. At 1.47 Mandy photographed the front of Maria’s Market, someone in the doorway under the sign — the kind of photograph that gets taken when a shop has the right name.
Maria’s 1.49 is the taverna on the beach — wicker chairs on the pebbles, a tamarisk over the tables, the boats beyond. Lunch was at two: Mark with a bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other at 2.02, and Mandy’s 2.04 of the whitewashed room, the two men at the table in blue. At 2.20 Beck photographed the map on her phone, which is how the log knows the pin was on Leros. Then the lanes behind the beach — Maria’s three bougainvillea frames between 2.25 and 2.26, the blue shutters, the stone stair — and back to the water: the tender driver at 2.38, Serenissima at anchor from the tender at 2.39, and the selfies at 2.41 with the bay behind.
Everything written on Day Six, in the order it arrived. The log has added nothing.
Mark’s 4.57 is the way in — a cobbled ramp under an arch, a wooden rail, the stone gone gold. At 5.01 he had the ramparts and the view they were built for: the whole of Pandeli bay below, the boats small on it, Leros running away north. Mandy’s 5.13 is the coast from the top, and Mark’s 5.14 the group photograph, five of them on the wall with the ruins behind; Beck’s 5.15 is the flag over the gate, and her 5.19 the wooden cross and the bells beside the chapel, the sun straight into the lens. Maria’s 5.22 was taken back at the water, the beach and the bay.
Mandy’s 6.07 is two of them at a table with the bay behind, and Beck’s 6.08 the drinks on the table — a copper mug, a glass of something with lime and mint, a coaster. From 6.15 the whole group was photographing the same view: the harbour and the white town below, the light going warm, and between 6.27 and 6.33 everyone had everyone, in pairs and threes, the sun finally low enough to sit in the frame. Maria’s 6.57 is the windmills of Pandeli in the last light, white on the ridge above the town. The day ends on her 8.51: a chalkboard on a tree, lit from above, the evening’s prices.
