Endless summer on SCII

Rhodes and Alimia

10 May 2022
Nerida Matthews | Fine sunny 23.5 degrees, light winds, water temperature 20 degrees
We had a bit of everything for our sail to Rhodes. We left Gocek at 6.30 am with no wind at all, as we left the bay and headed into open sea, we were greeted by 30 knot winds and a large swell. Thankfully after about half an hour the wind calmed down to 20 knots which made for a pleasant and fast sail. About eight nautical miles from Rhodes, we had the motor on again, as the wind dropped and changed direction to directly on the bow.

We had booked into the old town harbour, which is very historic. We contacted our agent just before arrival, who told us to tie up near the three ancient windmills that line the harbour. He was there to tie our lines off and to process our paperwork for entry to Greece. We just had to wait 10 minutes for the port police to check our passports at the boat, then we were free to leave. The use of an agent makes the whole process of checking SCII and us into the country very easy.

The harbour was the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world, the Colossus of Rhodes. This statue stood at the entrance until it was destroyed in an earth quake in 226BC. It was reported as the tallest statue in the ancient world. Entering the old town harbour here seems very special.

Our position in the harbour was great for people watching, as tourists come to see the windmills and where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood. It becomes quite entertaining all the different ways people pose to have their photo with the windmill - leaning on it, hugging it, pointing at it, even hanging off the spokes of the sails.

This time our visit to Rhodes has been for practical reasons rather than as a tourist destination, we have explored the sites of Rhodes on previous visits. Rhodes provides a convenient entry point to Greece, with good provisioning and access to facilities such as laundries for getting towels and sheets washed.

Also we were having our new chart plotter installed on SCII. A chart plotter is the device used for navigation, giving us maps, water depths, speed, and our location etc. Our old one was not working properly and we had been relying on navigation maps on our iPad. Glenn is very excited with his new toy. It gives much more information and the panel is much clearer to read than the previous version. (see image in Gallery)


The harbour is only a 10-minute walk to the walled old town. Each evening we walked into the back streets, away from the main tourist areas, for dinner. We ate at a favourite seafood restaurant that we had dinned at on previous visits to Rhodes - restaurant Nireas. The meal was fantastic, the prawns saganaki were sensational, with potatoes, rocket and pomegranate salad and local house red wine. The owner came to chat with us and on hearing that we were repeat customers, we were offered homemade limoncello.



On our last morning in Rhodes we were woken by church bells, a change from the call to prayer in Turkey. We set sail (or we should say motored as there was no wind) to the island of Alimia. The island is virtually uninhabited, with just one house and out buildings at the end of the bay. There are many deserted buildings that date to the second world war, Italian and German soldiers were stationed here. There is also a tiny church right on the water front. It does not look like it is being used but the altar is adorned with paintings. We have included some photos in the gallery.

We had the whole bay to ourselves, with crystal clear turquoise water. It was so tranquil and picturesque that we decided to stay a couple of days, relaxing, swimming and dealing with a few boat wiring issues...

This morning there was a local fishing boat pulling up nets in the bay, we were wise to anchor away from their buoys in the bay. We were also treated to very large fish jumping out of the water around the boat. They were in the vicinity of 50-60cm in length. We did attempt to use a lure to catch dinner but with no luck. And we thought there were no fish here..... So, it will be steak on the BBQ instead.

Thank you everyone for your comments, it is good to know that you are enjoying the blog.
Comments
Vessel Name: Southern Comfort II
Vessel Make/Model: Bavaria 47, 2009
Hailing Port: Melbourne, Australia
Crew: Glenn and Nerida Matthews
About: Having almost completed the charter yacht catalogue over the last 25 years, we are fulfilling our long term dream of living the endless summer. In April 2017 we purchased our yacht and plan to spend several months every year in the Med.
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