Friday 21st July...
Dean - The wind never stopped last night, although we were safe in the anchorage. We decided, I decided, to move on to Lindos. We had heard that it was the best place to be during the Meltemi wind that is due over the weekend. We were up at 5.30am to watch the sunrise along with the anchor. It was still blowing about 20 knots so we set off with a reefed genoa sail making about 5.5 knots.
Faliraki
Approaching Lindos
It was a bit of a gamble leaving the anchorage but....it's Friday which means the charter boats have to be back in their marina, it's also a little off the beaten track. We saw a few boats heading in the opposite direction once we got nearer, and low and behold there was space to tie to shore which was our favoured position for the forecasted winds.
The guy next door helped with the lines
One line done now for the next one
This place is stunning
Our own swimming pool for the next few days
Back garden
Here we are
On my way to 'DeliSiosa' ... there's a job to be done
I had promised to help another cruiser with replacing his lost propeller but when the replacement parts arrived in Pedi, Symi they were wrong so he made it to Rhodes last night and picked up the right parts. Today we fitted his starboard propeller that he lost and then found in Turkey.
Just fitting the propeller with my scuba gear on
It's almost impossible to manoevre a catamaran with only one propeller so our friend was desperate to get both enginge back up and running again.
Job done now
Following on from yesterday's blog, now here is Thesee's shadow
....and the chain
...and the anchor dug in well
The anchor sets in about 1.5 metres length, we rev the engine in reverse to dig it in deep. Tonight we have 5 meters depth with 40 meters of chain out on a smooth sandy bottom.
Although some rocks nearer to shore
This is me and Peter from the catamaran with one propeller
Enjoying lunch on board for a job well done
One of our lines to shore
Yellow submarine anyone?
Saturday 22nd July...
Linda - After a great night's sleep our stunning anchorage turned into an extraordinary Saturday. We though we should have a quiet day onboard, after being on the move for the last three days. Around midday we saw smoke appearing behind the hills just south of us, luckily blowing in the opposite direction. We found out that two villages inland had been evacuated because of the fire and the evacuees had been told to head to their nearest beach at Lardos and await collection by boat.
Fire starting up
A little time later
The fire-fighting sea planes arrived again soon after
In the anchorage we spent most of the day watching the comings and goings of yachts and ferries. In particular one yacht trying to tie to shore for about an hour. He was making such erratic movements trying to tie up. The boat next to where he was trying to anchor went to help him, but ended up having to give up because of the strange boat handling manoevres. The helper was not at all happy and we could hear him making that very clear indeed! Say no more.
Dean and Peter next door decided to attach anchor ball markers to our anchors so that no-one would drop anchor across our chains. We don't do this very often but felt it needed today because the anchorage was filling up and being windy we didn't want a loony coming along and pulling our anchors up. You can't see it on this photo but we have an anchor drawn on it and a big red cross.
Thesee's anchor ball marker
Time was flying by. Late afternoon, after a swim (dip) to cool off, and Dean's snorkel about a bit we saw three fast triple engine RIB's (Rigid Inflatable Boat) come into the anchorage at top speed, two black and one grey. They were official looking with flashing lights and guys dressed in camo gear.... weirdly. The three boats loitered around the anchorage for about 20 minutes. We were afraid that they were going to ask us all to leave because of the fires. However, a tripper boat came in and they descended on it. We couldn't work out what was going on. Then after a short while they offloaded all the passengers onto the three RIB's and left, then the tripper boat left too.
Tripper boat with one of the black RIBs
After all sorts of discussions with each other and Peter we thought that the RIBs must be Police and they had seconded the tripper boat to go and help with the people evacuation. Also there was an endless stream of coaches going back and forth along the high road, so assuming they were evacuating people too.
We got nervous again thinking we were going to be moved on. Where can we go? There's a meltemi going on out there AND we came 40 miles to get here for protection. To be honest there's been so much going on today I almost forgot we're sitting in a meltemi. There's been a number of strong gusts, but in between it's been pretty calm.
The evening turned very smoky in the air and we had some small amounts of ash landing on the boat. For the last three hours we've been watching all sorts of boats coming and going, it's been really busy. Ferries, gullets, high speed ferries (which looked almost like a ride at Alton Towers), yachts, small boats, tugs, and a coastguard boat.
I do hope that tomorrow is boring.
Sunday 23rd July... (blog written up on Monday 24th at 8pm)
Linda - WELL !! Unfortunately my day definately WAS NOT boring. After receiving a couple of emergency phone alerts yesterday evening from the Greek Civil Protection (stating that certain villages should be evacuated), it was just before midnight when we received the message we had been dreading.... It read.... 'If you are in Pefki, Lindos, Kalathos, evacuate now to Archangelos. Wildfire in your area.'
Now remember we are in the middle of a 4 day meltemi. We really don't want to go out there right now, also being dark we could end up in worse trouble. There was no sign of a fire in the night sky, so we decided to monitor the situation overnight, both of us napping outside in the cockpit. Having almost no sleep we were up at sunrise (still no sign of a fire). We had to make a decision, stay or go?
'Go' won. Reluctantly we felt that we had to follow the instructions we'd been given, and that was to evacuate. Off we set northwards at 7am along the coast trying to pick out a suitable anchorage. We found one at Tsampika (9 miles away), and dropped the hook. We were tucked in nicely behind a small promontory protecting us from North West winds. It was super calm with clear blue water and an incredible sandy beach that ascended up the mountain. So we settled in, along with our new catamaran friends.
New anchorage
Just look at that beach
Even a Greek flag painted on to some rocks
Catamaran friends
THEN 2pm arrived. The bloody wind changed direction to due West and speeded up. About an hour later we started getting the full force of it. The gusts became more violent and we knew we must move. It was very difficult getting the anchor up with the boat yawing side to side at right angles to the chain. Even the boom swung across twice! It was the most difficult experience we've ever had lifting the anchor.
Where can we go now for shelter?
(continuing this blog post, it's now being written up on Tuesday 25th at 3pm)
First thing to do in town was eat lunch (very tasty gyros and caesar salad), and more fluids.
The next blog post will be called 'Symi, Safety, and Good Friends'
At the south side of the bay it appeared to look calmer being sheltered from the west by a big cliff. We headed across to the area and tucked ourselves in next to the sheer cliff face and found a sandy patch to drop the anchor, and indeed it was much much calmer with winds less than 10 knots and in fact coming from the south! It was a vast impovement on our position. A little while later our catamaran friends came across too.
The cliffs at our new anchor spot
Much calmer just here
High cliffs sheltering us, with two crazy black goats on the edges
We grabbed some dinner then our friends told us their anchor windlass had been playing up and kept cutting out when trying to lift the anchor. Dean went to have a look at it and was there quite a while tying to sort it out. Seems that they need a new motor for it.
To be honest I'm fed up with Rhodes (which I point out I haven't even set foot on, even after being here for four days!). I'm wondering what tomorrow will bring, and where we will end up. I'm totally disheartened with the sailing life. Dean returned around 9pm, the wind has started gusting again in bits and bobs. Oh and now it's coming from the EAST and pushing the boat towards the big cliff. So that's just about every direction of the compass today. But it's a good job we did leave Lindos because we can see more smoke south of us even though we moved up the coast about 12 miles.
Oh and we have no internet connection here so can't even check the weather forecast (for what it's worth).
(I scribbled these notes down roughly on the night. We had no internet)
Monday 24th July... (blog written up on Tuesday 25th at 4pm)
Linda - OMG, we had a terrible night last night. As I said, the winds started gusting again at 9pm, and they carried on building in strength coming from the East?? It was pitch black by this time. Our two boats were getting close together and we were near to the cliff face (if you remember), and the catamaran had anchor windlass troubles (if you remember that too). He was slightly further out than us, we had no option but to lift our own anchor and re-anchor further away from each other and the cliff.
Well, we had only moved about 20 metres further out and the wind was going wild, in all directions and all strengths from about 4 knots to 22 knots. Fortunately we could see our track on our chartplotter which helped us to know where we were in relation to the cliff. We circled a couple of times trying to judge a better spot. Normally we face into the wind, drop the anchor and reverse. It was extremely difficult to anchor with the changing wind direction. However, we succeeded and was relatively happy.
Overnight, Dean slept (tried to) on guard in the cockpit again (2nd night running), and I was inside on the sofa. The forecabin where we normally sleep has been so hot it's impossible to lie down on the bed. It's been about 30 degrees inside the boat at night. I've been taking an ice pack to bed with me. Can you believe it?
We had a terrible night, you could hear the gusty wind building and then squealing through the rigging. Even our wind generator was not happy. When it gets too windy for it, it turns away from the wind and makes a horrible noise. Dean has tried to repair it but we need some new bearings I think. It's obviously being overworked a the moment.
At long last daybreak arrived. By 6am both us and our catamaran friends had lifted anchors and were getting the hell out of there. They, unfortunately, had a bigger job than us because they had to crank it up by hand.
There was only one place to head for with any chance of a little protection and that was Rhodes Town itself, right on the northern tip of the island. It was a 15 mile trip (approx 3 hours) in 18 knot north westerlies but the sea was pretty flat until the last hour. Dean made a reservation at the marina for us. We didn't really want to go to the marina because it's got some bad reports about surge, however anything was an improvement at that point.
By 9.30am we were tied up successfully inside the marina, with a chance to wind down and re-assess everything that had happened over the last few days. I was feeling quite light-headed by this time, maybe a sign of reaching a place of safety at last? We've been drinking so much water so I don't think we are dehydrated. We are thirsty all of the time, and constantly having to fill our water bottles up throughout the day (and night).
This may not be the best marina in the world by a long way, but now we are here it does give us the opportunity to carry out some chores and make the most of our time here. It's 3 kilometres into the main town (old town) from here. We asked the marina office to call us a taxi, but they said 'We are having a state of emergency, and we cannot book you a taxi because we don't know when or even if it will turn up'. OK we haven't got a problem with that and totally understand. I guess all the taxis are ferrying evacuees around and doing airport runs.
So, how do we get into town now in this midday 40 degrees heat? Impossible to walk in that. We even asked about hiring a car for a couple of days, and also renting bikes but that was a no no. We couldn't get our own bikes off the boat because it's too dodgy even walking off our passarelle with the surge in the marina and the boats swaying. Then, I suddenly remembered in the marina office I saw a bus timetable, and by this time we had clocked a bus stop out on the main road. We went back to check the timetable and worked out that a bus was due in about 10 minutes. Well, we had nothing to lose so we went and sat at the bus stop with our fingers and toes crossed. I don't know why the marina office hadn't told us to just take a bus.
Would you believe it, a bus turned up and on we stepped. We felt tickled pink and it was only 3 euros for the two of us. We couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces. On the bus we went past the cruise ship terminal. The 'Norwegian Jade' was in port.
Secondly, find a Cosmote phone shop to buy a Greek SIM (sold out at the shop).
Thirdly, find the Hellenic Coastguard to get our Transit Log stamped (successful and important)
Fourthly, take a walk to the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes. This (before it collapsed in an Earthquake in 226 BC) was a huge statue of the Greek Sun God Helios. Check him out on Wikipedia.
Fifthly, take a walk through the old town. This was fantastic, and such a surprise because it was huge and very lovely. Dean went on a spending spree, he bought himself a posh leather wallet, then a bottle of Bowmore whisky, a bottle of Captain Morgan dark rum, and also a bottle of Pomegranate liquer. We stopped at a bar for refreshments, beer and cider this time to celebrate our successful afternoon.
And then we found our way back meandering the streets of the old town, it was wonderful. And Dean was secretly a bit tiddly I thought. How much excitement and adventure can we pack into just a few days?
Thumbs up. we found the Hellenic Coastguard office
At the port
Dean at the site of the Colossus
Two deer stand atop columbs at the site these days
Approaching the Old Town walls
Dean drinking my Orange Slushpuppy
The leather shop
Parasols shading the walkways
Cider at last
My knight not in shining armour
Gifts
Fridge magnets
Then we came across these old motorbikes,
a Harley Davidson & a BSA
A wicker motorbike in a shop window
Dean with all his goodies
We finally got back to the boat and it was swaying quite a lot in the berth. The port side line was chaffing somewhat on the concrete quay. My ever-resourceful Mr C used one of our empty pop bottles to put underneath the ropes to rectify the chaffing. He's such a clever Mr C. I honestly would never sail with anyone else.
A cheap and easy fix
Monday 25th July...
Linda - I'm back on track now with keeping the blog in order. A fairly quiet day today, although we couldn't miss the chance of a LIDL shop 20 minutes walk down the coast. We had to walk there and back before 10am (remember, no taxis!). Our sack trolley came in very useful as always to transport all of the goodies and proper food we bought, including Pork Chops, and real sandwich ham, and doughnuts, and nice salmon fillets, and loads of fruit.
Dean has washed the decks and filled the tanks with water. We've actually got through a whole 300 litre tank of water in about 10 days, shows how much we've been drinking and washing down after being in the sea.
How exciting to be shopping at LIDL
This is the marina, Thesee in there somewhere
Almost back with the shopping
And the luxuries
Thank you God, any God, Greek or whatever.
Here's a couple of photos I found on the internet of where the forest fires were/are. We were in Lindos when we were told to evacuate.
Yesterday, Dean met a man in the marina and he said that he had been evacuated from his hotel and had been relocated to this marina where he was staying on an empty charter boat. All his belongings were still at the hotel down south. He told Dean that yesterday he had paid someone 200 euros to drive him back down to his hotel to collect his belongings and PASSPORT. He also told Dean that he had been evacuated from a beach (we knew this was going on) and the boat that he was on had to go right around the other side of the island to get here because the smoke was so bad they couldn't see to get through it.
There are obviously quite a few people here who have been put onto boats in the marina, and it makes sense to us now because when we checked in at the marina office yesterday there were piles of food and drink stuffs on the floor. The receptionist had made a comment about being for the evacuees, but we never really understood what she meant at the time. Now we know.
Dare I say tomorrow we might be moving on to another island? Seems we have two meltemi-less days before the next meltemi comes in.
Wednesday 26th July...
Linda - It was the first opportunity weather wise for us to 'get the hell out of Rhodes'. We filled up with diesel and departed at about 8.30am. We had only been on the move about 10 minutes and as we passed the town, two fire fighting planes came over us quite low. After the immediate shock, we realised that they must be going in to land at the airport or refuelling, So, it seems they are still fighting fires here then.
First plane coming across
Second plane over Thesee
So we hadn't made a definate decision where to head for until we could tell the direction of the wind for best sailing. We should have known, wind straight on the nose, no good for sailing to either of our proposed destinations.... Symi or Halki.
We chose to motor back across to Symi which seemed to take forever and a day, with a lumpy but manageable sea. No tide against us this time.
Celebrity Infinity cruise ship approaching Rhodes
Eventually after about 3 hours we were back in our Pedi anchorage on Symi island. We weren't looking forward to coming back again. It's a beautiful place, but it's always rather depressing returning to a previous location. Strangely, as we arrived it felt so good to be back in this calm pretty chilled out anchorage. Don't get me wrong, we've got more winds due starting tomorrow night. But for now, a little reprieve.
Back in Pedi
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