I haven’t posted for some days due to not too much to say and lack of
internet and charge on the computer!
We stayed in Lindos for two nights. We really enjoyed it, but we found that the town has also
changed a lot in the last 36 years.
Colin and the family came to us on Friday. He was supposed to arrive by 10am, but it was more like 11
or later by which time it was getting really hot. The idea was to go up to the Acropolis before midday, but we
wound up there at the height of the sun.
The journey started well.
The children rode a donkey up while we adults tried to keep up with
them. Actually Molly refused to
get on the donkey initially, but finally allowed herself to be put on the
beast. At the top all the children
got bored even though the place is spectacular. Worse was to come.
After half an hour Wednesday got sick. A bad headache and she felt weak. It was probably the heat. She wasn’t wearing a hat. So we had to sit her in the shade and feed her paracetemol,
and iced water. She came to and we
walked back down into the town. It
has many more tourist shops, cafes and restaurants than we remember. But later in the day we did find a
house we think was the one we rented all those years ago. The family stayed all day and we had a
Thai dinner in the town! Strange
but true. Getting back to the boat
in the dark was a bit of a challenge, but fine.
On Saturday morning we were getting ready to leave and return to Haraki
Bay. We had an interesting
encounter with another boat owner.
We had noticed that there was a rather tatty looking ketch anchored in
front of us. It had a rigid tender
on davits on the side of it. The
skipper was also rather ragged, about our age, thin and bearded. So as we were having breakfast he rowed
over to us. He wanted to ask us if
we knew about the Canal du Midi, which of course we do and were able to show
him the book and give him some information. It turns out that he had just arrived in Greece from the Red
Sea! He is Dutch. He has sailed around the world
twice. He was sitting in the bay
for a few weeks because he couldn’t sign into Greece as he didn’t have liability
insurance. He hoped that was being
arranged.
So Saturday lunchtime back in Haraki. We arrive in time for lunch and
have it on the boat. Then we meet
up with the family. We are
anchored fairly close in. In fact,
so close that we hit a rock on the way in! We are so near the shore that even Abi and Wednesday can
swim to the boat. So they come out
with Colin. As we are sitting in
the cockpit with them Wednesday shouts and says look at that. And what do we see, Molly (all of 4
years old) in her inflatable armbands doing her doggy paddle half way out to
the boat! She probably would have
made it and all, but Colin did jump in and assist her to the boat. Later all the family come on board and
we have a bottle of champagne. We
also had nibbles, but Molly ate most of those!
Then we have another crisis with children. After a very nice dinner Abi managed to swallow a ring pull
from a can of Coke! More frantic
efforts to find out what to do.
Richard and I could barely get an internet signal but from what I found
and later what Colin found, the answer was do nothing it will go through her.
This morning we left Haraki after breakfast and went to the next bay,
Agathi, which has a lovely sandy beach.
Again, it is not a recognized anchorage, but it had a lovely sandy
bottom where the anchor dug in beautifully. So we stayed there for the morning swimming and had lunch
before making our way back to Rhodes town. We thought we would try the new marina. We understand they are taking boats though
they are not officially opened. There
are no showers but there are supposed to be toilets, electricity and
water. After five days at anchor
we are really in need of all of those.
So with absolutely no wind we motor back to Rhodes. Just as we get there the wind picks up
to 15 knots! We make our way into
the marina and are directed to an alongside berth. That seems a good thing, until we make a thorough mess of
it. I didn’t get the stern line to
the shore in time and the now strongish winds are blowing us off and
sideways. Richard is bowthrusting
madly and finally with the stern on the quay we manage to get both the stern
line attached and the bow line to the mooring man who has to pull us into the
space because the bow thruster has stopped working! We don’t know if it has just overheated, or it really is
broken, but I rather think it is the latter. There is nothing to do about in until tomorrow. We have three choices. The first is to call an engineer
tomorrow morning from here and see if he can fix it. The second is to call our agent in Mandraki and see if he
can get someone to push us into a space there and find an engineer there as we
were planning to be there for three days.
The last is just to get help getting in and out of Mandraki and go to
Marmaris and see if they can fix it while we are away.
So we go to check in. This
place is a disorganized mess.
Firstly we find we cannot connect to electricity because the berth we
are on only has outlets for large ships with too much capacity. So we are sitting in reception trying
to charge up the computer as I write this. There is also a problem with the water. We probably will be unable to connect
because the tap needs a bit adaptor.
They may be getting adaptors tomorrow. The only toilet is in reception, but at least it is open 24
hours a day. They will accept
credit cards, but their card machine is not working! When we ask when they will open officially (bearing in mind
they were supposed to open two years ago) they say maybe next year! But at least they are making use of the
facilities and there are a fair number of boats here, although not nearly the
capacity particularly as they are mooring everyone alongside, not stern to.
So when this computer is more fully charged Richard will take me for a
drink. I think I need one.
Just one point. This entry
sounds like the trip is being a disaster.
But really we have had a lovely 5 days at anchor enjoying the hot
weather and the lovely seas and the family, or course.
No comments:
Post a Comment