We experienced the odd strong gusts overnight, but still the wind did not appear to be living up to expectations. A large yacht that had come in to the bay took off in the morning with reefed main and cutter staysail. In the afternoon, we decided we must get off the boat to try to procure some fresh fruit. We left the dinghy on the beach and climbed up the steep and rocky path until we found the road at the top. We walked into the chora, and found a path that led down to the port from there. We managed to find an ATM, buy a phone card to recharge the mobile, and stopped for a drink at a bar. On the way back we bought some fruit, wine and other essentials. Hopefully we can make a break for it in the morning, unless the new Grib file shows good reason not to.
| |
| The main square in Ios' chora | An old church nestled amongst the new |
| |
| Fuga lay off the beach to the south of the harbour |
It had gusted down into our anchorage most of the night, but neither the forecast nor the view out to sea from our anchorage persuaded us that we could sensibly stay put. We recovered the kedge, and got ready, leaving around 1100 hours. We tried to make sail, with two reefs (Mo's vote counting), but without any luck, motoring into the steep short seas. The problem proved to be the reefing block on the sail, which had lost its 'non-swivel' setting, so that the reefing line was twisted around itself. Once this was resolved, we managed to get some sail up, but could not make the course up to the north of Ios without tacking. The only way to make headway against the seas was to motor sail. Once we had cleared the north of the island we were able to sail the course, but first had to clear a reef off the north east extremity. After that it was a broad reach, and we were soon under the lee of a series of islands. The wind continued to either gust, or die away, with the speed building to 8 knots or falling to 4, and although the seas were quieter, we were kept on our toes. As we approached Amorgos, we lost the lee of the islands, and the seas became quite large (2 m or more), and the wind managed to pipe up to F6 from the NNW. The route in to the anchorage was fairly narrow, with rocks on either side, so we removed our sails early, and advanced as cautiously as conditions permitted. Until we were literally inside it, we could not see the anchorage, which was a bit restricted with moorings for local fishing craft and tripper boats. We anchored as far in as we dare at 1730, and proceeded to relax at last with some alchoholic assistance.
 |
| The chora at Astipalaia straddles the hill above the harbour |
We left our anchorage at 1030. During the night it had blown quite a bit, but seemed to have settled down, and the Grib files were showing F4. We motored out of the anchorage, and turning south we set the jib by itself. We were soon skitting along at 8 knots, and as the wind increased to F5 and then F6, we rolled it twice to keep progress more comfortable. We were under the lee of Amorgos, which is very high and sheer down into the sea on the south side, yet despite this we saw some big seas, and of course were subject to gusts. Several gusts showed as F7, and one rose briefly well into the 30 knots. It was considerably more comfortable than our experience the day before, but there was little we could do to while away the time but sit there and try to enjoy it. As the wind dropped, a following yacht overtook us, and in response we raised the double reefed main to restore our speed. Eventually the waypoint off the offlying islands came up, and there was at least some attention required to the navigation. We were able to carry our sail to within a mile or so of the anchorage at Anilipsis, dropping anchor at 1830. There we met up with Bali Blue (CA) and had a hailed conversation: they are planning on doing the Blue Water rally next year and are on their way to Crete to lay up for the winter. We (or at least I) will be enviously looking out for news of their progress.
The wind continued to gust for most of the night. We decided to award ourselves a day off from the flight eastwards, in the hope that it would continue to improve. We had a swim and shower off the back of the boat, so felt reasonably clean for the first time for days. We had set off in the dinghy to go ashore when Mo noticed that the mooring buoy that had been lurking around our transom until recently had moved itself a couple of boats lengths in front of our bows. Further thought suggested that having held all night, the anchor had decided to go for a stroll. We got back on board, and started to recover the anchor. However, this was snarled around the mooring tackle and would not come up. I had to strip off and don flippers, snorkel and mask, to go and investigate. We had indeed engaged a very large fisherman anchor, attached to 'large ship anchor chain' that disappeared away into the sands. Fortunately the winch had managed to lift the fisherman off the bottom, so that I was able to get a warp around one of the flukes. We then let our anchor go, and coaxed it out of harms way. Having re-anchored again, at the second attempt, we set off again for the shore. The supermarket was closed by this time for lunch, so we returned to the harbour and stopped for a lunch of fresh fish. It was delicious.
 |  |
| Fuga just visible off the quay | Our host cleaned the fish we had chosen in the sea |
We returned to the boat and continued our relaxing day. Later we returned to the supermarket, but found it ravaged and pillaged after the tourist season, with nothing to buy, except a packet of milk that we needed. With more investment in 'NonStop' internet connection I was able to place an order for some charts and a new ensign with Mailspeed, which hopefully Sandy will bring with her.
We knew we had a long day in front of us, so set the alarm, and were away from the anchorage at 0800. I had promised Mo there was at least half an hour before we lost the lee of the island in which we could eat breakfast. Despite the strong winds overnight, the conditions outside were not as bad as we had feared. It was a straight course to Tilos, on a broad reach, with winds F4/5 making for a fast passage. We anchored in Ormos Eristou at 1630. Rod was right: swell did work its way in despite the depth of the bay and our attempt to tuck ourselves into a corner, but it was a pleasant spot to be. Tried fishing without success, but the cry of 'Fresh Fish' sent Mo hunting for the camera!
Neither of us had a good night. The wind dropped so that we turned, and for a while were riding side on to the swell: everything on board that could clang and creak did so. It was hot. Mo and I at different times visited the cockpit and enjoyed the meteorites and stars, the moon having already gone down. Later the wind came back for a while with some force. In the morning, we had decided the evening before to visit the chora, to see if we could get some fresh fruit and bread. We attempted to land on the beach, but it is steep to. We had not brought waterproof bags, swimming gear, etc. so Mo abandoned ship with the anchor holding us just off the beach. She disappeared up to her chest: T-shirt as well as pants soaked, although shorts etc. held aloft remained dry. It was obviously a doomed expedition, so we abandoned it, returned to Fuga, and enjoyed a long swim in the perfectly clear and smooth waters. We set off for Simi with the hope of a sailing breeze: this sadly declined and we had to motor the majority of the way. We found Panormittis much prettier than the austere surroundings that we had been led to expect. Maybe there has been some landscaping done recently? A second fishing expedition ended in the loss of my deposit: the lure caught on the bottom, but it had never caught a fish so wasn't any good. We settled for Mo's chilli out of the freezer.
 |  |
| The monastery at Panormittis on Simi | The windmill to port marks the entrance |
We enjoyed a slow start to the day, listening to the monks chanting broadcast from the monastery. We swam, chatted to our neighbours on Sutami, watched the ferries come in with day trippers, and eventually motivated ourselves. The WSW F2 eventually freshened, and we found it necessary to put in a reef. The passage between Marmaris in Turkey on our port side, and Rhodos to starboard, is busy with commercial traffic and ferries. On arrival at Rhodos we decided first to explore the new Rhodos marina that was described in great detail in our pilot (Heikell 9th edition, 2004). It did not appear to have progressed and did not seem an attractive anchorage. We had spotted some yachts at anchor in the bottom of the seconnd commercial basin, Akundas Port, and went there. We managed to anchor in company with a handful of other yachts. The shallow and rock infested water off the Nereus boat yard has been dredged to 8m, leaving a narrow ledge to the south and west to preserve the beach there.
Quite soon after breakfast, a port launch came up and in friendly fashion advised us to move further away from the cement ship behind us. We were able to re-anchor closer to the beach, the Meltemi blowing strongly off it. We were pleased we had done so later, when the tugs arrived to tow the cement ship off her berth and out to sea.
 |  |
| Sunset in the commercial basin | The city bustles with tourists into the night |
The generator had packed up. It had been showing some signs of doing so, the load indicator led's were no longer working and it was taking time to work up to voltage so that the inverter would hand over. But now it would not run at all. As usual, all the dry stores had to be moved and the saloon seating dismantled to gain access to it. (Who put it there anyway?). It appeared that the last straw had been shortage of oil, so that was the first job. It still would not run. The lack of load indication proved to be broken off connectors on the toroid, so I managed to bodge/solder some leads onto the ends of the tags that may last a few hours. I had suspected that the charger circuitry was duff for some time. Re-assembling it all and it all seemed very sick. So as we had a spare controller, I fitted that, and off she went again - for a while.
At that point we abandoned the job, had a swim, and went ashore to find the Port Police to check in, as we were near our one month limit. We took the dinghy around to Mandraki harbour, and left it there while we made enquiries. Naturally, everyone has moved since the pilot was written. We enjoyed walking around Rhodes, and after locating immigration, we set off into the old town. This is alive and full of all sorts of shops, ranging from smart jewellery and art shops down to tourist tatty T-shirt shops. Waiters from restaurants touted their menus, and amongst it all some interesting old buildings. The old city was mostly rebuilt by the Italians in the early 20th century. We found a restaurant in the open in the new market, at the north end of town, and sat down there to enjoy a meal. It was quite late as we drove the unlit dinghy across the busy harbour.
By the following morning I had developed the theory that our outstanding generator problems were probably a shortage of fuel, so I began checking the filters, and cleaned them out by backflushing, having no spares. The generator, we found, ran happily on diesel from a jug when the fuel pipe to the filter was dipped into it. Working back, I found there was a blockage in the feed from the tank, and dismantled the tap and 'christmas tree' of pipes where the generator, heater and engine branch off from the fuel tap. No luck there! At this point I managed to blow the offending article back out of the tank feed tube, and everything then ran smoothly. This led us to pump out the tank, filter the fuel, and flush through. Eventually we were rewarded by several blobs of sticky black tarry substance. We returned all the filtered fuel to the tank, and started to put things back together. During all this process we swam occasionally, and observed the comings and goings of vast cruise ships and the cement ships unloading nearby.
The following day we spent much of the morning fetching diesel from the garage behind the beach, and filling the tank up. We also managed to persuade the Nereus boatyard (Tel 2241022717 Mail) to let us fill our water jacks for a small fee: they try not to encourage it but were very friendly. After lunch, we set off as it was calm to try to find Lidl. Google Earth had revealed its whereabouts close to another 'port' some two miles south of the basin we were lying in. The area was full of scrap metal, scrapped vessels, sunken boats, and young ruffians. However, it was a short walk to the joys of Lidl, and we returned with smoked salmon and pizzas, as well as the usual liquid refreshment. We have since heard that a Swedish yacht left here unattended for a short while was stripped bare by gypsies. After that, I set about the tour, first to immigration, then customs (20€ fee), and finally to the Port Police(0.88€ fee!), so that we were able to leave Greece. I returned on board, and we enjoyed one of Mo's concoctions for supper for the second night running.