We made it to Rhodos today. Yeah!! We escaped the 'Marmaris Bay Vortex'!!

It was a 10-15k beat on one tack all the way there. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't a whole lot of fun either. We tried to get into Mandraki Harbor cuz that is the old harbor and a cool place to say you've been there. But as soon as we tied up, they kicked us out. Apparently some mega-yacht -- with a lot more money than us -- needed the space. It was funny. I was backing into the quay and the guy on the mega-yacht didn't have the same confidence in my driving as I did. He came out onto his foredeck just to "make sure". He must've seen my driving before!

So we went around the corner and anchored off the shore near the ferry terminal. Hopefully we won't get kicked out tomorrow when we go to check out the town of Rhodes like we did in Jan.!! Rhodes is very cool with a very large castle in the middle of town. It is a huge castle. We'll explore that tomorrow.

Then on Wed. we'll scoot down the south coast of Rhodes to Lindos -- a cute anchorage we have been told about. Thurs. will be a 58 nm day to Karpathos, so I will have to get up early for that. We are expecting NW 15-25, so it will hopefully be a quick ride under main and jib. I figure (conservatively) an average of 5k, so that should take us about 12 hours. If we leave around 0600 I hope to be in Karpathos by 1800. It doesn't get dark around here till around 1930 or 2000, so that provides a little cushion.

Friday is forecast light so we will do a little 30 nm duck-around to the island of Kasos. That will set us up for the next big leg -- a 65 nm day to Crete. You say "What's the hurry?" Well, I don't much like being out in the middle of the Aegean this early in the season. It is springtime, after all, and winds can be fresh. I don't feel comfortable exposing us for a very long time to potentially bad weather and/or anchorages. Plus, on Sunday, we are getting NW 25-30. Since Ayos Nichalaos (where we are headed to haul out) is on the north side of Crete, it means we need to get there before this nor'wester hits.

So that's it. That is our sail plan. We hope to be in a marina in Ayos Nicholaos by Sat. night. If you don't hear from us by then it probably means either we have changed our itinerary for some reason, or we have gone down to the deep dark depths of the Mediterranean!

Let's hope it is neither, but if it has to be one, it's the former!!