Onwards and Upwards

After a heavy night in the fleshpots of Kos (I wish), we tootled out and set of round to the S of the island and headed for Nisiros.

Turkish Coast Guard Jet Boat!

We sailed a bit and motored a bit until the afternoon breeze from the NW came in and we had an excellent point of sail for the last half of the trip. We had planned to moor at Palon on the NE end of the island as the harbour there is much preferable than the at the main town of Mandraki (well every island seems to need one).

Nisiros - 1/3 Island Missing from Volcanic Explosion

Nisiros is basically a large volcano. It is said to be extinct (Greek Tourist board) but on closer inspection it still seems pretty active. I think it’s official classification is “dormant”, which means there are still soft bits in the crater that you can’t walk on and there are noxious gases emanating from fissures in the ground.

It exploded same 30,000 years ago, and as you approach you can imagine the bit that is missing, whcih looks to be about a third of the island. It must have been an enormous explosion to destroy that amount of material.

1/3 Island missing from quarrying!

Just N of Nisiros is another small island of Gyali about a third of which is missing due to quarrying. This is pumice stone that is being mined for the manufacture of concrete. We have seen extensive quarrying elsewhere
I guess these islands don’t have much in the way of agriculture or other things they can sell, so they are selling their islands! Apparently the sea surface around the island is covered in dust from the quarry such that it is not recommended to go there.

The harbour was quiet as we entered with about 10 boats on the shore side but the inner mole was empty. Rod Heikell had warned that the laid moorings here were not well maintained. So we decided show our prowess at stern-to mooring with the anchor on the mole. This involved some excellent work getting lines through rings on the shore from Ebba and a leap of enormous courage from Chris to go ashore and help secure the lines.

Unfortunately the anchor did not set and we had to release the shore lines and do it all again. At least this time we had Chris ashore to receive the warps, although he did look slightly concerned as we drifted away from him.

Again the anchor just dragged along the bottom, and it became clear why all the other boats were using the laid moorings on the other side. And they were all out on deck shaking their communal head at us. There was one laid mooring line left so we sheepishly used that. Two other boats came in after us and neither of them managed to set an anchor either. The sea bed looks like sand but I guess it must be a very thin layer of pumice dust lying on top of hard rock.

The result of a prolonged education

I would not walk there.

The next morning M. and the visitors set off on an assault on the summit. Well, they got the bus to Mandraki harbour and after some skilled negotiating and brazen effrontery, managed to infiltrate a tour group from Kos. Apparently the tour leader was very knowledgable and they had a great educational experience. The crater is as spectacular as advertised and probably a lot scarier. They even persuaded the tour bus to drop them back at the boat!

Tilos Harbour

Nisiros Crater

Not sure who to blame for that.

We spent a second night on Nisiros and then headed S to Tilos. We had a pleasant sail under the afternoon NW breeze. Tilos is probably the least developed and visited island in this group but it is very pretty and peaceful, The small harbour is in good order and well cared for. The bougainvillea cascading down the buildings in the village are spectacular. We moored up uneventfully and had a nice meal ashore. Nothing worth comment happened during our stay on Tilos, maybe that is why nobody much goes there. Although I understand the super-rich and celebrities are paying top dollar for quiet and seclusion – perhaps this is the market Tilos should enter.

The Meltemi is still in play and another brisk NW, backing W forecast promised a good days sailing from Tilos to Simi. Simi nestles in the jaws of the Turkish mainland and is an area we have sailed in before, though then we were not allowed to visit Simi as we were on Turkish flagged charter vessels. However I well remember a senior colleague wrapping his spinnaker sheet round his prop and ignominioulsy drifting ashore to the consternation of the Sunsail staff.

Greek Flag after amateur surgery

Simi harbour

We sailed round the N end of the island and into the main harbour. It can often be very busy here and we were prepared not to be able to find a berth. The harbour was full of superyachts, Gullets and every description of craft. However the senior Marinero, having just seen off a yacht, whistled at us to fill the gap. So in we went. He was a large jovial chap who handled our lines professionally and welcomed us to the town. However his brow then furrowed and a darkness spread across his visage. He sternly told us that our dilapidated Greek courtesy flag was an insult to the nation and he would fine us if it was not replaced immediately.

Champion sponge diver - 88m!

I surveyed our flag, the outer third of which was shredded by the wind, and I could see his point. We had a discussion as to whether this foreman of the foreshore really had the judicial power to levy a fine on us. As none of us really knew much about Greek law, we agreed it was just about feasible that this authority had been vested to him. M suddenly had a good idea she would cut off the outer bit and no-one would notice. 
Easier said than done. The first issue was that the three flag combo we had on the same line had resulted in a real bird’s nest of a wrap in the line, and we could not get it down. It took about two hours of twisting, turning, standing on the mast steps with a boat hook before we eventually got it down.
 M performed some girl guide magic with scissors, insulating tape and a cigarette lighter. Voila – something that might fool a very stupid person. It was then that I noticed the boat flags on either side of us had been similarly reduced in stature, as indeed had many other boat’s courtesy flags. We never saw him again, he was having a laugh.

Chris is enchanted

Simi is said to be the prettiest harbour in the Aegean, and I would not argue with that. There are steep hillsides sweeping down to the harbour tiered and terraced with Italianate style buildings, all painted according to an agreed palette of browns, reds and ochres.

Yilos-Simi-Rhodes

Walks were done, ice cream was eaten and some beer consumed. There was a long walk up to the Chora and down to a beach We had a very pleasant two day stay before our next trip.

For the Beach Bums

From Simi we had a slightly longer trip down to Rhodes. It was not much of a sailing day to start with and we had a mixture of sailing and motoring until we got about 6 miles from Rhodes when a 20-25 knot Westerly blew up. The last stretch was then at high speed downwind. The situation was complicated by the traffic of every type emanating from, and entering into Rhodes harbour from every direction. Cruise ships, high speed ferries, cargo ships, yachts, fizz boats, day tripper boats and speed boats pulling parascenders. I would not want one of these caught on the mast.

Rhodes Church and Minaret

Gate to Castle of St John

We had booked into the new Marina in Rhodes, in order to have a base from which our crew would depart. The marina is all fairly new and has had significant expenditure. I think it is aimed at larger vessels and not the itinerant trade like us. It all felt a bit soulless.
However Rhodes itself is splendid. The old town is basically a huge castle. It has been renovated and preserved and forms the basis of the tourist industry. Having said that it is quite spectacular and well worth visiting. We greatly enjoyed exploring it.

Chris and Ebba departed, which was very sad as we had really enjoyed their company. However we will look froward to them joining us again at some point.

Support ship(R) with toys for supper yacht (L)

We now had to sign out of Greece and head for Turkey. At the Greek end, I had identified the harbour master’s office. The harbour master said we needed a crew list authorised by the port police and sent us to the police office about a mile on the other side of the harbour. The port police sent us to customs, who said we needed our crew list stamped by the port police, but gave us our customs clearance anyway. The port police then said we needed to go to passport control to get the crew list stamped. This worked and we then went back to the harbour master, who dismissed us from Greece. What could be simpler. Not!

Rhodes to Marmaris

The next morning we sailed for Marmaris on a light Westerly breeze. In order to sign in to Turkey, they insist you use an agent. I don’t really know what an agent is or what the qualifications are but I was about to find out. 
I had enquired at the marina we were booked into and they gave me the email of their agent, Mr M, so I emailed him. He replied asking the flag of the boat, and then ten minutes later I got another email from his brother, Mr. T, saying Mr M had been sent to the army and he, Mr. T, would help me. It was clear from the quality of his message that comms was going to be an issue. 

I have found in the past that direct questions are ignored and answered with another question, however I tried. “What is your fee and where should I meet you?” was answered with “my wife and I have an hour to give you good evening”.

Customs flag preparation

This did not augre well. I was unsure as to whether to go to the harbour master and customs berth or whether to go to the Marmaris Yacht Marina where we were booked. After several messages I was still uncertain, but it was clear Mr T was not going to be at the customs dock. Eventually I went to the marina, where the marinero’s were a bit perplexed by my yellow customs flag. I think they were worried about plague.

The next morning we met up with Mr T, who was a small, neat chap with a moustache, ensconced behind an oversized desk in the very palatial offices of Marmaris Yacht Marina. 
It then became apparent that his written English was his strong suite, but eventually he managed to convey that we now had to take the boat to the customs dock where his wife, Mrs T, would meet us.

 I had kind of hoped we would not have to do this and that the agency part of being an agent meant that he would do the leg work. But no, and off we went some 3 miles across to Marmaris and moored up on the customs dock. Incidentally this is now nowhere near where it used to be on the town quay, it is now at the Ferry Terminal to the East of the town.

There we met Mrs T, who greeted us and was very charming, but that was also about the extent of her English. However she was clearly expert at interacting with the various police and harbour officers we were ushered towards. She disappeared off with all our documents into an area marked for authorised persons only, which is something I don’t like, and then returned to tell us to leave. I was a bit unhappy about this but using Google Translate she managed to convey to me that we would get the documents back from Mr T sometime later.

We did not have much choice, so motored back to the marina. Later, I managed to track down Mr T and retrieved the documents, with a new Turkish Transit Log. However he could not provide us with a Blue Card for our black water suck out, declaring that "the Ministry say it is finished". I didn’t know whether this meant the scheme was finished or they just they did’t have any cards. This was all a bit difficult and stressful, however I think we are now legal. Having seen Midnight Express I hope so.

To put all this in context it took three attempts to say one hundred and fifty Euros, however I am sure he will grow into his role.