Leaving Nisiros on Monday morning, a blow of wind was promised. Sure enough as we got into the channel between Nisiros and the Datch pennsular, the winds started to howl and the seas, having been blown about for a few days, started to build. We only had half our sails up, yet managed 9+ knots as we rattled along the 35 mile trip. As we rounded the peninsular into the lea of the land, the wind dropped and we had a far more comfortable ride. As we neared the island of Symi, the wind picked up again on our tails, and again we romped along, riding the waves as we went. To our delight, we were joined by a pod of dolphins who athought it would be great fun to ride the waves too. For a few minutes, they played in the bow wave, peeling off, coming round again, beautiful large dolphins which in the sea and sun almost appeared green to us. As usual, a visit from these fantastic creatures brought big wide smiles to the crew, they really do somehow manage to just lift your heart by their presence alone. We arrived in Symi just after lunch, squeezing through the narrow channel at the top of the island. Rather than head for Symi town, which, whilst beautiful, is very busy and very noisy, we nipped around the corner for an overnight stay in a village called Pedi which lies just over the headland on which Symi town sits. What a good decision that turned out to be , as we ended up staying in Pedi bay for 5 days in total. Pedi, according to the pilot books is not a good place to anchor with poor holding accompanied by strong gusts of wind coming down the beautiful valley. We took a while to pick our anchor spot, put out a lot of chain and really tried to dig our anchor in using a touch of reverse on the engine. As the evening progressed, the winds increased and Aurora danced around on the anchor. Fortunately, all the time spent setting the anchor paid off, we did not drag the anchor the whole week despite some pretty ferocious gusting winds. Pedi bay is yet another stunningly beautiful bay. It looks up to a large cluster of houses and churches which are in fact the top of Symi town itself. The patchwork quilt (dinghy) was launched and the motor attached, sadly, only one of the 2 cylinders decided to work, and oil poured from the casing, another problem to be looked at. Despite this we got to shore and enjoyed our time in Pedi. A footpath from the village took us to a beautiful bay with crystal clear waters. The bay had a taverna, and rather strangely a church, in fact, there must be more churches per capita on the Greek Islands than anywhere else in the world. Where the congregation might come from , to this church, you can only guess. The trip to the church swim stop was a daily trip. The scenery stunning, the weather not too warm, just perfect. Whilst Symi town is hustle and bustle with day trippers, Pedi is a step back in time with wonderful shore side homes with tiny fishing boats lined up outside...and of course a cluster of churches, some of them being quite grand, others, simple whitewashed buildings. A walk up the valley and through the hillside part of Symi town and down to the port itself took 40 minutes or so, a slog up one side of the hill followed by a leisurely stroll down the other side. This walk took us past a rather splendid bakery, which sold fantastic feta savouries alongside sweet temptations, apple pie and baklava but to mention a couple. We ate on the boat as the winds in the evening gave us a timely reminder of what nature can do the sea. One evening, as it got dark, I looked through my binnouculars to watch latecomers trying to get a hold on the seabed as the wind whistled. I commented to Dorothy that it looked to me like a dinghy had broken free and was racing across the bay...on closer inspection i saw there was a chap on boad the dinghy, heading back to his boat. What i had not realised was, that the yacht he was returning to, had , until an hour or so ago, been moored just a short way across from us. It had broken free from its anchor and lolloped across the bay. Its fortunate the owner returned when he did else who knows where his boat might have ended up. This course of events was explained to me by our friends Jim & Caz who were moored right next to the boat as it broke its moorings and headed over the bay. Jim & Caz had invited us onto their boat for a drink and a chat. Americain and Canadian , a couple who have decided to spend a large part of their lives aboard. To this end, they have bought a 44 foot Lagoon catamaran, as Caz explained, if they were to spend a lot of time on a boat, they did not want to be 'camping' (like we do)...and their boat is very much like a penthouse suite by comparison to the simple pleasures of Aurora. We spent a couple of evenings with Jim&Caz, very agreeable indeed. And now i can say i have met a real pirate as Jim was an extra in the second film in the "pirates of the carribean" series of films. We finally decided to leave Pedi, as there was a storm forecast and we did not want to push our luck. The safety of a harbour in the lee of the approaching storm sounded very appealing. So, we walked over to Symi town and performed the required customs and police formailities in order to leave Greece and head over to Turkey, and the shelter of Bozburun harbour, which is where i write this.