a Dodecanese chronicle
Day Ten
Kalymnos · the Dodecanese
Sixty-six photographs, and the day ran from a sunrise to a walnut cake. Craig was up for the sun coming over the water at 6.45 and 7.08; Beck’s coffee was on the table at 7.35 with the pin still on Kalymnos. At 10.16 Maria had all nine of them on the aft deck in a row, and by 10.58 Mandy was photographing the town of Pothia from the tender — a harbour of tall houses climbing the hill, an octopus drying on a tray at 11.19, a bronze figure with wings under the flag at 11.23. Mark’s 1.31 is Serenissima stern-to on the town quay, with his line: Pole position taken by Captain Nik in Kalymnos Harbour. Lunch at five to two was octopus on fava. Beck’s afternoon was a cove with a shingle beach and one swimmer at 5.40, and her 6.04 is one of the men beside a small blue car with MARIA on the door. The evening came in two days later: five of the women on the aft deck at 8.22 holding up their new bags, and Craig’s dinner at 9.13 and 9.41.
Craig’s 6.45 is the sky going apricot over a flat sea, the headland black on the left; Maria’s 6.53 the same view a shade lighter, and Craig’s 7.08 the sun itself, a red point on the horizon with its path on the water. Beck’s 7.34 is the map and her 7.35 the coffee, an iced one, on the table with the rock behind. Craig’s 8.16 is the rocks at the edge of the cove in early light, and his 9.45 one of the women on the aft deck in a white Aperol Spritz T-shirt, twice, mid-turn. Maria’s 10.14 is one of them stretched out on the sofa in blue, and her 10.16 the line-up: nine on the aft deck, caps and sunglasses, the cove behind.
Mandy’s four from 10.58 to 11.01 are the approach from the tender: the town stacked up the hillside in white and ochre, a green-and-red boat at the quay, the outboard in the corner of the frame. Her 11.19 is an octopus on a tin tray, two of them, drying in the sun. At 11.23 a frame came in without a name: a bronze figure with wings on a plinth, the Greek flag flying beside it. The 12.22 without a name is a doorstep — a pebble mosaic in black and white in front of a blue door. Mandy’s 12.23s are a wine shop window with the rosé lined up, her 12.32 a church front with a bell tower, her 12.34 the hill above the town with a monastery on the skyline, her 12.36 a whitewashed stair, and her 12.38 a selfie of two of the women in front of the same shop window. Beck’s 1.05 is one of the men beside a three-wheeled van in a lane, Mandy’s 1.24 one of the women in white at a café table, and Beck’s 1.27 a stone lane with a blue door. Her 1.31 is the stern of the boat at the quay with a man on the platform; Mark’s 1.31 is the same from the road — Serenissima stern-to among the town’s cars — and his caption is the day’s title.
Everything written on Day Ten, in the order it arrived. The log has added nothing.
Maria’s 1.36 is two of the men arm in arm under a café awning, her 1.38 the boat’s stern from the café with the town rising behind the mast, and her 1.39 a selfie of two in the sun. Lunch went to two phones: Maria’s 1.55 and Mandy’s 1.57, an octopus tentacle laid over a plate of yellow fava, capers scattered on it, and a bowl of salad with feta beside.
Beck’s 5.40 is a small bay ringed with a white-painted wall and trees, the water green in the shallows; her 5.42 the open sea beyond a point with an island on the horizon, and her 5.45 one swimmer walking in off the shingle. Maria’s 5.54s are a lane with a cactus at the door and the inside of a taverna, wooden chairs on a pebble floor. Beck’s 6.04 is one of the men in a yellow cap leaning on a small blue car with the word MARIA on the door, the hills of Kalymnos behind.
Maria’s 8.22 is five of the women in a row on the aft-deck bench, each holding up a bag from the town — blue-and-white evil-eye prints, one striped — and one of them making a peace sign; Mandy sent the same frame a second later, and the log keeps one. Craig’s 9.13 is dinner: a fillet of sea bass, skin scored, on white beans in tomato, with a slice of something under a row of carrot coins beside it. His 9.41 closes the day — a square of walnut cake with a scoop of ice cream on a blue-patterned plate. His line for these, sent the next morning, is on Day Eleven: The serenity and the companionship.
