20th June 2011 – Rhodes
“Pamina Blue” weighed anchor at 7am and the rest of us followed about 45 minutes later. The was not a lot of breeze, so it was a motor sail, and when the wind did pick up, it was right on our stern, so we motor sailed all the way to Rhodes. “Pamina Blue” was able to pole their headsail, and so could sail a good deal of the way.
The Rhodes Channel is the first waterway we have been on where there seems to be a bit of sealife visible. There were lots of fishermen, one of which almost collided with us as they we on autopilot and all down the back of the boat with no-one on watch, when they rapidly changed course motoring towards us at a fair pace.
The rogue fishing boat too close for comfort
We also saw a school of what we later found out to be tuna, jumping out of the water about 200 m abeam of us.
We arrived at the entrance to Rhodes harbor at around 1 pm, to discover there was on offshore racing fleet in town and marina berths were in short supply. We anchored outside the harbor for about 2 hrs before being given the go ahead to come in (Offshore sailings agent had found us some berths). By now the wind had strengthened and getting into the berths was challenging, to say the least.
Our first sight of the tip of Rhodes
The Star Flyer was in port near where we were anchored
Once again it was stern in to the seawall, laying out an anchor on the way in, with a strong cross breeze. David had a particularly tough berth in the catamaran, but eventually managed to get in, nose first in the end.
Pamina Blue and Risus safely in their berths
Xenia berthed right at the harbour entrance, nose in.
Once we were settled, the customs agent arrived and collected our passports and ships papers to organize clearance for our departure from Greece on 22nd June. “Pamina Blue” has decided to spend only one night in Rhodes, so are heading off back to Turkey tomorrow. We will catch up with them in a day or two.
By now it was around 4.30pm when we headed off to have a look around. Just across the road from where we are berthed, there was a tourist “train” than did a 45 min tour of Rhodes for 7 euro per head. We quickly got some tickets and the “Xenia” and “Risus” crews headed off for what turned out to be an excellent way to get an overview of the town.
One of the many gates to the Old City of Rhodes
The Acropolis of Rhodes - Temple of Apollo
A view of the beachfront of the new city
It was after 6pm when we got back to the boat. We all decided to do our own thing for dinner and the “Risus” crew found a local restaurant not far from the boat which served very good food.
Bruce (from Xenia) couldn't wait for dinner
No comments:
Post a Comment