RHODES TO CRETE

Thanks for various comments about the blog. We don’t intend the blog to be a travelogue, but more about our experiences and impressions. The content has been very technical, because our main focus has been getting Envoy ready to cruise, but now that we are cruising the balance will change ("phew!" says Trish).
We arrived in Rhodes on Mon 7 June and went into ancient Mandraki Harbour, once lined with war galleys, and where the 35m high, bronze Colossus of Rhodes had one leg astride each side of the harbour entrance. Built in 290 BC, the Colossus was destroyed by an earthquake about 60 years later. We booked a space using an agent,
A1, who operate throughout Greece and we’ve used previously, as we wanted to ensure we would be in the harbour to meet our first guests, Brian & Carol. A1 do charge a fee, but it’s worth it for the advice and help they give. Other cruisers without bookings were turned away to roll outside at anchor in the wakes of numerous ferries. The water and power supply were not working (due to waves washing over the breakwater in a storm!), and A1 were able to organize an alternative for us. As with most harbours of this type the procedure is to drop your anchor in the middle of the harbour and reverse to the quay, where you secure with stern lines. The watching skippers of the adjacent vessels were pleased to see that we managed this without any problems.
Greece has passed a law introducing a new cruising tax for visiting boats. Under this law boats are only allowed to visit for a period of 60 days in any one calendar year; then they have to pay a tax – supposedly several thousand Euros. Obviously very few cruisers would pay this much, so if the new law does take effect cruisers would be leaving Greek waters in droves. A1 are close to developments and tell us the law is unlikely to proceed for the above reason. In any case, under the Schengen Treaty we can only stay 90 days in Greece, and then have to leave and re-enter.
Rhodes is a wonderful, interesting town, blending the historical aspects of the well-preserved fortress and Old Town, good eateries, excellent shopping and availability of most things you need, eg our two favourite brands of rum – Mt Gay and Lambs Navy! The supermarkets are well stocked up and the four of us spent a couple of hours doing a big shop for the supplies needed during Brian & Carol’s visit. The standard of shops was excellent and Carol and Di spent a very happy day checking them all out. All the major European brands are represented, and even during siesta time, when the shops were closed, they managed to come back with the odd parcel or two. We found an excellent wine shop, and as well as buying some good Greek & Italian wines bought a 10L cask of Tsambi quaffing dry white for Euro 17 – this has turned out to be quite reasonable drinking. As we’d moved from Turkey to Greece we also had to get a new Greek SIM card for the phone and Vodafone USB for internet access (costs 2 Euro/day for unlimited access).
All around Rhodes are piles of large round stones, and these were hurled by catapult into Rhodes during a siege by Demetrius around 300 BC. Much later in 1522 the vast fortress was held by about 1,850 Crusaders against 100,000 Turks for five months, until the Crusaders surrendered and were allowed to leave.
We spent five days in Mandraki and one of the days hired a car to tour the whole island, easily done in a day. Plenty to see including ruins from various periods in history, great beaches, villages and wineries.
Leaving Rhodes on Saturday 12th, we cruised about 20NM down the coast to spend two nights in Lindos. Inhabited since 2000BC, Lindos has a blend of architecture from then until now, including the usual hill-top fortress. Lindos has a maze of narrow alleyways lined with shops and restaurants, and cars are not allowed to enter; instead they have donkey taxis which patiently transport you around the town.
Like Rhodes, Lindos was surprisingly un-crowded – there seems to be not that many tourists yet and very few cruisers.
We then did quite a long cruise of 10 hours to the island of Karpathos. This was a good test of Envoy’s systems and all is working well. Most of the 10 hours was in a 25kn wind on the starboard bow with 2m seas and the paravane stabilizers were excellent. As we approached the lee of Karpathos we expected some shelter from the wind. Instead, due to the very high hills, the wind increased to 35knots kicking up a short, sharp, offshore chop. The wind overturned our smaller RIB, which had been under tow, fortunately without the outboard; another lesson learned. Carol noticed this, otherwise er might have lost it altogether. We had hoped to spend a night in the main harbour, Pigadhia, but in the strong wind I preferred to anchor in better shelter. We did go ashore in Pigadhia, and while Brian & I found a water hose and filled eight 30 litre containers Di and Carol went shopping for supplies. Surprisingly they found in the local supermarket frozen NZ green-lipped mussels and NZ legs of lamb. A small dog fell in love with Di, and when we set off in the dinghy back to Envoy, the dog jumped off the quay into the water and tried to follow us. I had to fish the dog out of the water and we had a very quick debate about whether we wanted a dog on board. Di tied it up ashore (with much heart-wrenching) so it wouldn’t follow us again, after arranging for it to be released after we’d left the harbour.
Karpathos has some great beaches and we spent a couple of days chilling out, anchored off one of them. We have to call in at Karpathos on the way back to Turkey, as I promised to visit a particular Taverna there.
As I write this we are cruising from Karpathos to the eastern end of Crete, a journey of about 9 hours and all OK. Conditions 6 knots on the nose and half metre sea.
Technical
We took on 1,000L of diesel at Euro 1.348L, bringing our total fuel up to about
2,000L or 50% of capacity. There’s no reason to carry more than about this level with the comparatively short distances we’re cruising this year. The diesel is carried in four different tanks, so we’ll be careful to use our three-year old fuel (which is stabilized) first, before going on to the new supply. The Groco 12V pump that drives our fuel transfer and filtering system failed, so we mounted the spare and all OK.
Since leaving Rhodes I’ve been monitoring our water usage and it’s about 75L/day, including use of the washing machine, and without making any real sacrifices; so that means we’re carrying over 2 weeks supply. We were contemplating a quick trip back to Marmaris in July to fix our water maker and Naiad stabilizers, but more than likely we’ll leave that until we return to Marmaris in November.