We
tried to get away early again, but as usual were a bit dopey in the morning and
didn’t get away until nearly 10am.
But it really didn’t matter.
We were only going 15 miles around the island to the town of Vathy. The day is very bright, but there are
quite a few big fluffy cumulous clouds around. There is also very little wind. For a change the wind is behind us, but was too weak to help
us along. We tried to sail at one
point when the wind got up to 10 knots, but it didn’t last long enough to get
us anywhere. So we motored all the
way. It got very hot at one stage,
but then the sun went behind the clouds and it was quite cool.
On
the way we saw much more evidence of the migrants. As I have said, this island is only one mile from Turkey so it
attracts a lot of boats of migrants.
So at every bit of the coast we saw discarded life jackets and some
deflated ribs. At one small
headland Richard counted over 35 life jackets. So in all we think there must have been hundreds, even
possibly thousands of them. We
have said that we haven’t seen any actual migrants so far, but more of that
later.
At
lunchtime we arrive in Vathy. We
are a bit surprised at the facilities.
The pilot book had suggested that there were two places to moor. A town quay where there were no
facilities and you have to put out the anchor and a small boats harbour, which
may be limited to local fishing boats.
But it is very different when we arrive. The town quay has been done up. It has pick up lines and water and electricity. The only problem is that there does not
seem to be anyone running the place or anyone to take your lines. So Richard gets prepared to jump off to
deal with the lines when a kind Englishman comes and helps us. The only problem is that we make a mess
of moving to a suitable pick up line and cut one of the lines! We feel terrible. But there are plenty more and not many
boats, so we manage to moor safely and securely. We are told that they are developing the town quay. Last year there was nothing here and it
was all dug up. Now most of it is
done, but they are not charging anything and even the water and electricity are
free! So this could be a good
place to stay for a couple of nights.
After
lunch and settling in we go for a walk.
We know there is a very good archaeological museum here, but we don’t
know where it is and our guide book says it closes at 3pm. We try to find a tourist office and do
succeed, but only to find that it is closed. The shop next door suggests it will reopen at 6pm, but when
we go there at that time, it is still closed. We will have to do all those things tomorrow.
So
we have an ice cream and then go to the local café for a drink to get their
WIFI password. As they are right across
the street we hope to use that instead of the dongle while we are here.
We
then wash the boat with our free water.
Now we can see evidence of the migrants. There is no tent town we can see here, but there are groups
of what look like feral young men speaking Arabic and looking shabby. They are very polite, smiling and
saying hello, but there presence is a bit disturbing as we are rather exposed
here in the centre of town. But we
have not heard of any problems.
We
have dinner on the boat. I am
nearly out of provisions, so we shall have to shop tomorrow.
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