We have a large gennaker sail (an asymmetric spinnaker) that came with the yacht, up to now we had not used it. On a trip from Nisyros to Symi with a light following wind we decided to dig it out and have play with it. After a bit of messing around with “strings” (as Caroline would say) we successfully deployed it. It looked great having this great big colourful sail up there - see photo on the gallery. Unfortunately, the wind dropped to almost nothing after a while so we had to stow it away for another day. More motoring…..

Symi (25 August)
Symi is one of our favourite harbours. It is always very busy but is picturesque with its multi coloured houses and is full of atmosphere.

We had a lovely seafood meal at Taverna To Spitiko (which translates to ‘its homemade’). The taverna was located right off the back of the boat (see photo in the gallery). We enjoyed taramasalata, octopus with lemon sauce (which was very tender and delicious), muscles with ouzo and garlic, seafood pasta and baklava.

Our Saturday night in Symi town coincided with the Symi festival and there was free music on. A singer and guitar player performed for a couple of hours non-stop playing traditional Greek music. The guitar player in particular was excellent and is was most enjoyable to sit there and listen to the music on a beautiful evening.

Sunday morning there was a flag raising ceremony carried out by the army. All very formal with lots of boot stomping and exaggerated arm movements when marching, as well as singing the Greek national anthem (see bottom right in the image above).

Rhodes (26-27 August)
Rhodes is a magical place full of history. We are moored in the old town harbour, surrounded by ancient walls, fortifications and wind mills. It is just over 12 months ago we picked up our yacht here from the previous owners. We had sat by the ancient windmills now just behind us and watched as “our yacht” had sailed in. It was good to come back here and not feel we had to see all of the sights, just enjoy the unique environment.

It is here in Rhodes that we say goodbye to Caroline and Darren. We have really enjoyed having them with us for the two weeks and hopefully they have enjoyed our version of Greek island travel. Tomorrow we check out of Greece and head back to Turkey for our last three weeks of sailing.