Castles and Crosswinds

We sailed to Greece via express wind and made it to Rhodes in the early afternoon. There is a bay we like to anchor in, so we headed for our favorite spot. I went to the port authorities, customs, immigrations and port police to be stamped, certified, checked and stapled. I came out the other end surprisingly well. Not too bad this time. I think I am getting better at this. We ate within the castles walls in the evening as the sun set over this medieval town. The next day we moved the boat to the marina through the imaginary legs of the ancient Colossus that once straddled the harbor entrance. One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the giant statue to Helios was over 107 feet tall. It remained standing for only 56 years before being destroyed by an earthquake in 226 B.C. The original ancient harbor wall is still there however, keeping the force of the sea from hurling itself on defenseless boats like it has for centuries.

The marina itself is pretty small and antiquated. Boats are required to throw their anchor out in the middle of the harbor and back their sterns up to the quay to tie off. It is a pretty good plan unless the wind is blowing strongly from the side which was exactly what was happening. We had to set the anchor three times before we got a solid hold. Everyone on our side of the marina was having problems keeping their anchors set properly. We were also all concerned that we just laid our anchor on top of someone else’s anchor and in the morning chaos will break out as each boat tries to leave the port, pulling up his neighbors anchor along with his own. So we discuss it between the captains to coordinate departure times. First anchors laid are the last ones out. Typical of Greek ports, there was also no water or power. Fortunately, with the solar panels, needing to plug in to shore power is no longer important. But we did need some water to wash off the boat and refill our tanks. So we linked a bunch of hoses from the neighboring boats and we all got water. There is always a very co-operative feeling amongst boaters. We all know that we do better working together than trying to do it on our own. In the afternoon, we picked up 4 guys for our first charter of the summer. Kevin and Will are from Minneapolis. Doug and Mark are from Sacramento. Looks like we are in for a fun week.