a Dodecanese chronicle
Day Eleven
Kalymnos to Kos · the Dodecanese
Fifty-one photographs, and the last full day of the voyage ran from Pothia to Kos. Mandy’s morning frames from 11.39 are the harbour with a three-masted ship at the quay and one of the men at the stern rail with the flag; her 11.43 and 11.44 are the church on the rock and the white monastery along the ridge. By 12.48 the boat was in a cove and everyone was on the bow, and lunch at 2.14 was tomatoes with basil and a pasta with burrata. At 2.37 Mark photographed the chart of the Aegean with the whole voyage on it, and wrote: The chart of the voyage — 12 amazing days. Craig’s 4.08 is the marina at Kos, his 6.22 the I ♥ KOS sign against the sunset, and the night was the last dinner aboard — Spiro in the galley, a baked fish, and a tray of something sweet at 10.05.
The first frame is Mandy’s, at 2.17 in the morning: a yacht at anchor under a dark headland, small and far off. Maria’s 10.05 is a café front with blossom over the sign, and her 10.53 looks straight up the mast from the deck, the boom and the rigging against the blue. Mandy’s two 11.39s are the harbour from the water — the town stacked up the hill in white and ochre, and a three-masted ship at the quay — and her 11.42 is one of the men in a white cap at the stern rail, the flag beside him and Pothia behind. Her 11.43 is a church on a rock with its bell tower, her 11.44 the white monastery along the top of the ridge, her 11.45 the town front with the church, and Rod’s 11.46 the flag at the stern with the sea opening up.
Rod’s 12.48 is a couple at the bow rail, the man in a white cap, the woman in white, turquoise water behind; Mandy’s 12.48s are a selfie and the cove itself, a bare hillside coming down to water the colour of a swimming pool. Rod’s 12.51 is two in caps and sunglasses on the foredeck, Mandy’s 12.53 a selfie with one of the men, and her 12.58 a selfie in the galley with Spiro at the pots. Her 12.59 is one of the men in a white cap sitting on the bow with his feet over the water, and her 1.01 is the water alone, lit from below. Craig’s 2.04 is Spiro at the bench with a knife, his 2.05 the foredeck with everyone stretched out on it; Mandy’s 2.05s are one of the men grinning at the rail and another in a yellow cap sitting on the bow. Beck’s 2.08 is the foredeck from the flybridge, and Mandy’s 2.09 and 2.11 the couple on the bow and three of them side by side on the trampoline. Lunch was on Beck’s phone at 2.14 and Mandy’s at 2.16: a bowl of halved tomatoes with basil, and spaghetti in tomato with a burrata on top.
Everything written on Day Eleven, in the order it arrived. The log has added nothing.
Mark’s two 2.37s are the paper chart, Aegean Sea (South), spread on the table: Kos at the bottom, the Turkish coast on the right, and the islands of the fortnight strung up between them. Mandy photographed it again at 4.25. Craig’s 4.08 is the marina at Kos — masts, a fuel pump on the quay, the hills behind — and by 4.55 there was a tray of baklava on the galley counter with two of the party behind it. At 5.00 Mandy caught Spiro in his navy polo holding up a spatula and a knife, and Beck sent the same frame on with three words that are the day’s title on the masthead. Her 5.01 is four of them behind the tray. Maria’s 5.54 is three of the women outside a shop called Be Fabulous, and Craig’s 6.22 is the I ♥ KOS sign in red letters against the sunset, the flag above it.
Maria’s 7.27 is four of the women at the table on the aft deck with the sky going pink behind the masts; Mandy’s 7.29 is three of the men on the quay in white shirts under the flag, and Maria’s 7.31 the masts of the marina against the last of the light. At 9.13 and 9.16 she had the party on the aft deck dressed for dinner, five seated and then six standing. Her 9.20 is bruschetta piled with a chopped salad, Mark’s 9.20 is Spiro at the galley bench in the lamplight, Maria’s 9.21 a whole fish baked under tomatoes and cheese, and her 10.05 closes the voyage’s last full day: a tray of something sweet under a brown crumb, waiting to be cut.
