Picture the scene.
A large bay accessible only by sea. Hills either side to protect you from all the prevailing winds. Water with hardly any swell so able to anchor up knowing the boat will not strain on the chain. One small concrete jetty to help land ashore but water only deep enough for boats with shallow keels. Wonderful clear waters with no pollution and teaming with marine life. Rocky shores and hillsides with only the wild goats looking on. A deserted beach with only one tree giving welcoming shade from the hot sun. A few rooftops of the village houses visible in the distance through the olive trees. A great place to stop off for a late afternoon swim and be at peace with yourself, your friends and the world.
If you owned the only local taverna how would you market it? With your level of turnover and seasonality (yachting season only) how would you be able to afford an entry into nearly every guide book? How would you ensure you were featured in a two page spread in one of the UK’s top yachting magazines?
As Seth Godin would say - Purple Cow or Be Remarkable. Stand out from the crowd. Be different. In this case there is even a twist to that.
The taverna in question is really little more than a private home in a village on the Greek Island of Kalymnos. A few tables on the patio of the house. Food is cooked in their kitchen. The BBQ is in their garden and you can picture it being the centre of many family gatherings. The village is actually a collection of about 10 houses. Only a few are now occupied. The rest deserted and in various stages of dilapidation. The owners? They have moved to Athens or other big towns. The young do not want the village life style. Many have emigrated to America and Australia. Now only Nicolas and his wife and his parents plus two other families remain in the village. The village is a 300 yards drive down a dirt track from the nearest main road. The local authorities plan to tarmac part of it later this year but even then the track ends 100 yards from the village. It has to be approached on foot. It did get electricity a few years ago. A telephone line came last year so now there is one phone to share in the village! Mobile phone reception is poor at best and often just not available unless you go back to the main road. Water is supplied via by big plastic pipes from a central tank filled by tanker. They have to be careful. Too much used and the village runs out till the next delivery.
How come the bay and Nicolas taverna are so well known to those who sail in the Greek Dodecanese? The answer - WOM and being remarkable.
For details of his marketing and prmotional materials check out the other pictures in Flickr.
Every yacht that moors up in the bay is visited by Nicolas in the afternoon in his fishing boat. He chats and shares weather forecasts. Advises on the best spots to anchor. Talks about the wind and sea conditions. He advises people about the best places to snorkel in the bay and shares his knowledge of other bays and places to visit on this island and others locally. He offers to take the boats rubbish and cook for them that night. He gives them a hand drawn map of how to walk through the village to get there. Even if people do not want to eat at his place they will still remember him. The map will probably stay on the boat and if it is rented be seen by the next group of people to hire and sail it.
If you do eat in his taverna the walk to it will be remarkable. You pass the small church – all graves tended to. Some are recent. People may go to live abroad but some must come back to be buried in the church overlooking the bay. You pass chickens and wild goats. You pass some tethered goats who must be being kept for milking. You pass houses that are deserted and one or two with doors and windows open and obviously still being lived in. Everywhere you go signs ask you to close the gates to keep the wild goats out. I guess this is to stop the risk of them eating the flowers and any vegetables.
Nicolas has a simple menu. Goat? One less wild one roaming the hills that night.* Chicken? One less to catch sight of on the way back to the boat. Fish? Now what did I catch this morning…? Cooked in the pan or on the BBQ. Fresh herbs from the hillsides or gardens. Everything is fresh. It is cooked Greek home style. The BBQ uses kindling from the hillside and olive groves. While it is being cooked Nicolas joins you and brings out three big photo albums. They are full of family pictures. He wants to share with you his experiences as an ex-sponge diver. Over a few beers he tells you of his life until 15 years before. His father was a sponge diver and his brother too. You may have noticed a recent grave in the church. Someone in their mid 40’s. Was that his brother? You do not like to ask. It could have been. In showing you the pictures Nicolas would point to someone, shake his head and say ‘sadly dead’. Sponge fishing is dangerous. In weighted suits they dive up to 100 meters deep. Incorrect decompression or faulty kit maims, kills or cripples them. Nicolas is now a teacher and from 2pm weekdays (after school) and full time at weekends he is a taverna owner, host, cook and waiter. He is also story teller and teacher. He has a display of sponges from all over the world. He explains all about the different types. The various techniques – manual and machine processed – for cleaning and preparing sponges. He also sells them but in a very clever way. The stories are so rich, vivid and real that you want to take away more than just the memory – so you buy one of the sponges. You also feel you are helping to sustain a special way of life. One that we may hanker after. A sort of Shirley Valentine moment as it were. Where we could all have a less (?) stressful life living partly off the land. Use that sponge months later in the shower and maybe for a few seconds you will back there? While eating and drinking his mother and father finish their work and sit at a table in the garden having an evening drink. While not talking with you they become an extension to the group.
The food is wonderful. Nothing fancy but fresh, tasty and part of a lovely evening where you have shared stories and seen a glimpse of someone trying to make a living locally rather than deserting the village for the big city or abroad. Nicolas’s sons like all the other young people have moved away for work. Sadly he says that this life is not for them but he loves the bay and the links to where he grew up as a boy.
Walking back is part of the memory too. There are few lights. Those that are on are single bulbs so they do not give much illumination and they rapidly fall behind you as you head to the beach. You need torches to see the rocky pathway back. What a magnificent sight. The boat in the bay in the moonlight. Stars brighter than you will have ever seen before. You can really see the mass of stars that make up the Milky Way. The bay, the hillsides and the few lights in the village (probably turned off now that you have left) means you are in total darkness. That darkness allows the moon and stars to be seen as nature intended.
But the real magic is this. Yachting people always chat when they meet up. Strangers say hello and share information on the weather, sea conditions and places to visit. WOM is used as a rich information source. Everyone who has been to Nicolas’s Bay tells people they meet about it. Many of the boats log books and pilot books will have notes about it too. People may even blog about it! Maybe a YouTube video will come soon.
All Nicolas has to do is ‘Be Remarkable’. WOM does the rest.
* Wild goat is not shot but trapped. They put some food out in a field and when the goats come in to eat it they pull a cord which closes the gate. The goat is trapped and will have a starring role on the menu that night.