It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon on 9th April and things are not good. Symi harbour has a swell rolling into it, pinning Alexina to the wall and making her buck up and down alarmingly. Tiger and I are both feeling sea sick. In Harbour? Never a good sign. One of stanchions has just broken due to the force of the fenders rubbing up and down the quay wall and our forward cleat has pulled clean out of the deck! Peter announces that it's time to leave.
Nich 38's are not easy to manoeuvre off a wall with the wind blowing you on but we had a trick up our sleeves. By placing a large fender right up forward and keeping the forward mooring rope tight the act of motoring forward pushes her stern out. We can then reverse off with ease. But where to go in such stormy weather and so late in the day? Find some calm water and go around in circles till the wind dies a little! Boring, tiring but safe. Then back to the quay again. Within a day handyman Peter had mended everything and we had glorious Symi Harbour to ourselves and the fishermen. Tiger became a pavement artist while we sorted ourselves out. 
The boating community is a pretty small world. Last year, a chance conversation between two boats led to our reunion on Leros with old Brighton friends. Somehow we had lost contact with "No Limits"for 5 years. Thank you Sunset Sam for linking our common Shoreham origins and helping them get in touch with us. We spent two heavenly evenings talking 'old times'. The photo is of Elly and Mia from "No Limits" with Tiger in the middle.
We kept moving North through the wonderful Dodecanese but hurry on as this is old ground. At Patmos we met up with our old friends on "Maritea" and new French friends on "RM1200" (I bet you can just imagine me trying to call RM1200 on the VHF in French!) RM1200
had entered a sailing magazine competition and won. The prize was a brand new fully equipped boat for a year and a chance to live out their dream cruise. The crew was Christoph and Florence with their two children, Flora and Thomas. So now Tiger had 4 French children to play with. From time to time she found it a bit daunting but her French has improved enormously. She now talks in her sleep in French! We were to remain with Maritea and RM12200 as a little flotilla for the next two weeks as we travelled North , meeting up each evening for the compulsary 'Ouzo Hour'.
had entered a sailing magazine competition and won. The prize was a brand new fully equipped boat for a year and a chance to live out their dream cruise. The crew was Christoph and Florence with their two children, Flora and Thomas. So now Tiger had 4 French children to play with. From time to time she found it a bit daunting but her French has improved enormously. She now talks in her sleep in French! We were to remain with Maritea and RM12200 as a little flotilla for the next two weeks as we travelled North , meeting up each evening for the compulsary 'Ouzo Hour'.Fournoi, just north of Patmos, was our first new island this year. No sooner had our anchor touched ground then a port policeman began frantically blowing his whistle at us. Please could we move and anchor in the shallows for half an hour? Around the corner came a ferry almost as big as the small town it was servicing. Phew! Glad we moved so quickly. The ferry only comes in once a week. What timing!
The passage to Chios was interesting, to say the least. Before leaving harbour I checked the Poseidon weather forecast charts and saw only blue (meaning little or no wind.) Ha! The gale warning came too late and I had my first experience of sailing with near bare poles as wind speeds hit 45 knots and the waves grew to the size of double decker buses (or at least that's what they looked like to me!) . Our 40 year old auto-pilot decided he was far too old for this sort of game, so I steered with white knuckles for 8 hours and tried very hard not to look backwards! Alexina loved it, especially surfing down the waves at 12 knots!
The tiny island of Inoussa has been birth place to more than it's fair share of Shipping Magnates so we decided to try our luck mixing with the super rich. The harbour offered great protection, free electricity and water and the biggest ouzos ever served at the local bar. But no multi-millionaires to be seen. All the ladies on the quay saw in Greek Easter at the midnight mass along with the entire female population of the island. Where were the men? Outside the church throwing fireworks, bangers and perhaps the odd bit of dynamite that made the walls of the church shake. Happy Easter, Greek Style.
Here in the photo Thomas and Flora from RM1200 and Juliette, Celine and Leo (ship's dog) from Maritea explore the sea shore.
So May Day finds us still in our little Flotilla, planning to explore Lesvos inside and out.
