Following Sandra's departure from Bozburun, we made contact with our friendly Bozburn giant Durkan who was to perform the exit formalities prior to us leaving Turkey for Greece waters. As usual, money changed hands as it would appear that the Turkish officials dont wish to deal directly with the riff raff, all the formalities being undertaken by an agent (Durkan) who relieves you of £40 for the privilege.
Prior to setting off, we provisioned up with various bits and pieces, concentrating on the things that in Greece come in at least 3 times more expensive...tonic water for example...life blood of the crew...preventing scurvy....malaria....and general grumpiness. So Aurora , weighed down with tonic water, set off, target Symi. Symi town is definitely one of the prettiest ports of call we have made so far. As we had left Turkey that day, we needed to perform the task of 'checking in' to Greece. As we approched Symi town, there is a 'caged' area in which you are supposed to tie up before displaying your passports to the kindly police officers. As luck would have it, the area reserved for the purpose was clogged up with Turkish gulets...so, with our yellow clearance flag showing we headed off to moor up on the town quay. A wonderfully smooth stern too in the chocca waters that is Symi harbour was met with a customs chap, explaining what we needed to do to 'check in' to Greece, so off we trooped to the police point in the said 'caged area'. We needed to fill in a document detailing our crew and boat, which we duly did. The very pleasant police chaps stamped the document , checked our passports, laughed at my joke about being a prisoner in Scotland, and told us we needed to report to the customs building at 17:30. Arriving at the customs house at 17:30, we met a gentleman, who could only be described as "a scruff"... who knows when he last had a wash...and as for a comb through his hair...sometime in the last century is my guess. He shuffled around the office, grunting and snorting, photo copied various documents...stamped said documents with alarming vigour, asked us for 20 euro and bade us farewell. Dorothy was very impressed with this level of customer service i have to say. Now, we had to visit the Symi port authority. This turned out to be a dilapidated building sporting a Greek flag and blue steps. The delightful young lady checked our documents, insurance etc and asked us for 14 euro in payment for another piece of paper. That was it, all checked in and legal in Greece for the princely sum of 34 euro...as opposed to the 120 euro that we are charged when checking into Turkey. We walked along the harbour road in Symi town until we came across the beach where we had a swim. An evening moored up to the harbour quay in Symi town is like being 1) in picadilly circus (if you are English) or 2) Sauciehall street ( if you are Scots). We wandered off to one of the back streets and ate at a traditional eatery, passing a very pleasant evening. Following morning we walked the streets once more, investing wisely in beer and baklava. We left Symi just as an invasion of tourists descended from the various ferries and tripper boats, turning quiet little Symi town into a sea of people. It certainly perked up the local traders who previous to the invasion had been sat quietly in the shade awaiting their prey.
Aurora headed around the north of the island , squeezing through a narrow channel. The pilot book suggests aiming for the middle of the channel and just keep looking forward with the promise of plenty of water under the keel. Of course, Dorothy had to have a look over the sides and was heard to remark that it did indeed look very shallow. It all passed off very well. We made our way to Panormitis which is a beautiful sheltered bay complete with its own monastery selling fresh bread and other delights. It also appears to offer 'respite' holidays as there are quite a few people occupying the place that are definitely not monks. The scenery is just beautiful, which is just as well, as we are currently sitting out a gale. The wind is howling in the rigging, and it is just as well we are protected by this natural harbour. So far the anchor has done a sterling job, lets hope it continues to do so as the wind is not due to recede until the early hours of tomorrow morning.