GHOST

I arrived for my secret service rendezvous with an extremely bearded operative (007 Brad) at almost midnight on the Wednesday evening. He was exactly where the X was on my map that had been supplied by Moneypenny Kat. We took the dingy from the beach to the boat and finally my holiday felt like it had started. The old town of Rhodes was beautiful, old stone walls with sconces lit creating warm glow outlining the town; I will be exploring further when I have returned by ferry to catch my plane home.
After a night aboard we decided to get started and head out straight away to our first bay near Simi, there was only one other boat anchored and once the anchor was set we did not wait long to dive in and have a swim. The snorkelling was really good, the water mostly clear, I was disappointed to find the lesser known tampax fish but the litter was an exception. There was a small restaurant in the bay and tourists were brought in by little put-put boats, by four o'clock the restaurant closed the tourists stopped and peace descended. I watched the world go by in the hammock.....bliss.
We left in the morning and headed to Simi where we moored to the wall and headed off for supplies. It was a fantastic little town that grew up the mountain sides that surrounded the harbour, houses in a multitude of pastels and stone steps curling through the town. Kat suggested we walk to the church atop the highest peak later and take photos, putting on a brave face I just nodded hoping she would forget. Food and electricity, banks and fuel were all relatively easy to come by, the water man however was seriously elusive! Water was one of the main reasons we headed into harbour and yet since we were in Greece (rather than Turkey) they had run out some months previously we had to wait until the water tanker arrived - if at all! By late evening we finally had water and by then I for one really needed it, Kat had not forgotten and we had hiked up the hill during the cooler part of the day (still nowhere near cool enough!) the view was astounding as was my headache.
We headed off to another anchorage the following day putting down anchor in the morning and snorkelling around. It was at the junction of many little island and headlands and the water was very shallow in places. There was so much to see, we swam most of the day. Midday the wind picked up and we decided to anchor in a more secluded spot with a line ashore. My job was to jump off swim ashore and wrap the line around the rock. I picked the wrong rock. However we got there in the end and spent a pleasant afternoon exploring in the dingy, seeing ruins covered in goat poo, secluded inlets and swimming some more.
The following day we headed to an anchorage recommended by a local we met the night before. He said it was very secluded and there was a quaint restaurant ashore. It was a tricky to get settled since the wind was extremely gusty and changing direction every few seconds, we got there in the end. After a swim we noticed a Sunsail boat arrive, followed by another 14! It was like the bloody M25 and some of the boats were not shy in ramming the dock! We had a quick evening meal but were scared off from lingering by the multitude of wasps and the Sunsail crowd of 55! We went back to the boat to continue the UNO session (winner over the whole of the holiday - at present I am definitely loosing, it is part of my game plan!).
We headed into Marti Marina yesterday, once again in Turkey. On the way we actually had some wind and not on the nose so we got out the Gennaker and had a fun sail. Marti Marina is a great marina, wonderful facilities with a pool, a bar, two restaurants, washing and internet facilities and we have decided to stay an extra night as a treat. I think we plan to head round to Bodrum soon which will probably be the longest bit of sailing I will do this holiday. I have easily lost track of time and am loving the heat (not burnt Dad, don't worry), sand, sea and swimming don't even want to think of going home yet.

Celina