I have not posted for several days because frankly we have just been too
busy. We have spent the last 4
days with Colin and family and it has been frantic. On Sunday they came to see us at Mandraki and we had lunch
on the boat and then found a local beach.
It has been very hot and really too hot to do much more than swim and
relax. The family came back on Monday
when we did some of the tourist things around Rhodes old town. It is a fabulous place all filled with
mediaeval buildings from the time of the Crusades. Basically the town was built by and for the Knights of St
John. We walked around the old
town a bit, but the children were not really enjoying it. We did wind up at the Castle
(technically the Palace of the Grand Masters). It was destroyed by the Turks but rebuilt by the Italians in
the 1880’s. We had a walk around
but again the children were getting restive. So after lunch they departed to their studio and beach and
we had a quiet time getting the boat filled with fuel and then spent the rest
of the day until the evening on the beach. I was going to go to a supermarket to provision, but I was
too lazy. In any event it is not
practical for me to try to cater for 7 on the boat every day. The family want to eat out and that is
what we shall do.
On Tuesday we decided it was time to leave the harbour and make our way
to the bay where Colin and the family are staying. It is not a recognized anchorage and there is no mention of
it in any of the pilot books.
Colin says he has seen boats come and anchor for the afternoon. The weather forecast is for very
settled weather with virtually no wind, and what there is will be from the
west, which would make his bay sheltered.
So we set out early to make it there for lunch. We are pleasantly surprised when we are
able to take up the anchor with no hitches. As we leave the wind picks up and we decide to put the sails
up. It is blowing between 13-17 knots
on the beam and for about an hour and a half we are sailing really nicely. But then, as usual the wind dies on us
and what there is (3 knots) turns on the nose. So we have to motor for the last hour of the journey.
When we get to Haraki Bay Colin swims out to greet us. There is a motor boat anchored in the
bay together with a couple of tourist boats. We have problems anchoring. The bay is mostly sand but the bottom also has a lot of
rocks. The trick is to try to put
the anchor down on a sandy patch and not snagging a rock. However, two attempts later we are
still on a rock. Richard and Colin
go to look at the anchor and decide that if we go hard in reverse it will fall
off the rock and dig itself in. So
we do that and yes, it appears to be well dug in.
So we have been here for two days with the family. We brought Abi and Wednesday out to the
boat to swim around it and they liked that. We have not put the engine on the dinghy. We are not very far from the shore and
it is easier just to row back and forth.
The other boats have left the harbour and we are the only ones
here. In the evening Colin drove
us to a supermarket where I was able to pick up a bit of stores and then had
drinks at Colin’s studio and dinner out.
The bay is very pretty. It is a quiet little spot in a semi-circle with
tavernas and villas around the bay.
At the back of the buildings are cliffs one of which has the ruins of a
mediaeval castle which is all floodlit at night. The waters are crystal clear. The beach is unfortunately mainly stony, but there is one
end with a bit of sand. This
morning we found that we had turned around in the night. Richard went for a pre-breakfast swim
to check on the anchor and found that it has dislodged and was again on a
rock. So after meeting up with the
family on the beach and installing ourselves we moved the boat and on the
second attempt managed to put the anchor down on sand where it dug in well.
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