2002 Greece May to November

This is to keep my friends and family posted on my whereabouts and whatdoings. The summer, May to November of 2002 was spent in the Greek Islands. This is how I saw it.

Greece brings back memories of school lessons, the Odyssey and the Iliad, Athens and Sparta, the travels of the gods and man gods of old. Modern civilization was to have begun here. The remains of ancient ruined homes, cities, temples, statues and castles are everywhere. Many are merely an old pile of rock, many of the rocks have manmade chips in them, that would have a meaning if I could read them. Many are still partly standing and others have been reconstructed. Being an active geologic area, earthquakes do their best to knock down anything man has built. Between times of lying out in the pasture, drinking Ouzo, naming the constellations, the old guys spent a lot of time piling up rocks. Land separation walls, jetties and piers, homes, temples and castles are all built of rock. If rock is ever to be a commodity, Greece will again be prosperous. The land is nothing more than a large, very dry, rock field. There is so much to see in so short a time. Many of the names of places are brought out of the memory banks as I read the cruising guide, Lonely Planet and study the charts.

The timing of travel by sailboat, in Greece, is weather driven. As I had planned to be in the Greek Islands for six months I felt I could see much of what the islands had to offer. The reputation of the Mediterranean Sea is that you will have no wind or too much wind. I found this to be true. The decision to move in high wind conditions or motor in none is sometimes difficult. If you have the time to wait for a favorable wind direction the passages can be done easily, regardless of wind strength, if not...? During the summer months of June to October a wind called Meltimi, summer wind, at its strongest in July and August, will blow from the N NNW at 30 - 45 knots. For days at a time this wind will keep you in harbor or cause you to venture out into rough conditions. As the Aegean Sea is small, for a sea, and broken by many different islands, I did not find the sea state to get very large, rather I found short, choppy seas, but not large. During the times of strong southerly wind the dust from the North African desert will settle on everything. RPhurst has been covered with this fine, brown dust several times since entering the Red Sea and with the lack of rain she is dirty. I was not rained on from January, south of Sri Lanka, until August, near Athens.

Over the summer I enjoyed eleven guests, sailing club members, friends, crew and women, the longest six weeks. The offer to provide sailing opportunities is still open. I really do enjoy having company on the boat. They bring news from home, mail, parts, the latest cold or flue bugs, conversation and I still hope to find a partner for the rest of this adventure, I know she is out there, I just need to find and interest her.

I arrived in Greece, at the island of Rhodos from Egypt, on 7 May 2002 where I was met by Lorrie, who stayed for more than a month. The sensible plan was to head north through the Dodecanese group until the Meltimi started blowing, about July. As it turned out it started in mid June. Then head west to the Cyclades using the north wind for sailing. Then during the strongest north wind move south. Ending on Crete, the most southerly island as the temperature begins to cool with the onset of fall. This plan worked well with few exceptions. When the Meltimi is not blowing the wind can be from any direction, is usually light, but not always.

Anchoring in the Greek islands depends around which island and group you are sailing. The charter boats tend to always go into a marina, the private boats tend to spend more time at anchor. A Greek marina is defined as a concrete wall, to which you Med moor, to the inside or outside as room and wind dictate. Med mooring means that you drop an anchor a sufficient distance from the wall, back into an open area or between boats closely tied, hoping that someone will offer to come over and catch your stern lines and put them onto a cleat, bollard, post, ring or to whatever there is to attach. Often I would need to have the anchor set, back into the wall, adjust the anchor chain to allow me to get off the boat using the gangplank with a stern line in hand and the engine still in reverse, attach the line and jump back onto the boat to take the engine out of gear. The anchorages in the Dodecanese group are hard to find. Most places where water that is shallow enough to anchor can be found a town has been built. The rest are steep to and difficult without running a line to shore, and tie to a rock, something I did several times. The bottom consists of large stones to small rocks, or mud heavily covered with weed, very difficult to set an anchor. I had two situations where I found the boat to be not where I left it. One morning I awaked to find we had crossed the bay during the night and the anchor had caught in the rocks on the bottom, a hundred thirty feet down, on the other side. Another, while ashore having dinner the boat began to drift off. Both times the anchor had been well set, but with shifting winds around the hills, turning the boat and pulling the anchor from different directions dislodged it. In the Cyclades the conditions were far better, with many lovely, remote and sheltered bays, with empty sand beaches and a good holding bottom.

The people are friendly, especially the retail relationships, the ones that want to sell you something. As tourism is the number one industry in Greece, the locals are very accustomed to people from other lands; most speak at least some English, German, French, Italian, Spanish. I find the linguistic skill of people in other parts of the world to be incredible. I stand in awe of the hustlers making their pitch to one tourist in one language and turning to the next potential customer and speaking in a different tongue. We Americans are really spoiled, thinking everyone speaks English. The tourists are mainly from Europe so, you hear many different languages spoken and the beach viewing is great. Europeans have a much different outlook from Americans on beach attire, topless is common, totally nude is not unusual. Can you imagine laying on Daytona Beach wearing nothing but a smile? You would find yourself in jail. Too bad really, we dirty old men enjoy the sights.

From ancient time being a water born economy each town or village has a water front. Most are done up very nicely. Wide walkways, although normally flagstone or brick, very rough for walking, and most are used for additional seating by the restaurants and cafes, trees have been planted, seats placed for stopping and tourist trinket kiosks. Each evening the locals do what is called the Volta, walk around or evening stroll. Hundreds of very old to very young, singles, couples, babies in strollers, lovers arm in arm all walk the Promenade or Esplanade, stopping to talk of the day, hustle the members of the opposite sex, gossip, politic or whatever people anywhere discuss.

All being built between the deep blue sea and the foothills, the streets in all villages, towns and Choras are narrow, staired, steep, cobbled with flagstone, painted white between each stone, crooked, winding, backtracking and confusing. Nothing is straight or flat. The Greeks must have very good legs after a lifetime of walking in these conditions. This is by design, it was also confusing for the pirates that frequented the areas. Those same paths are now race courses for the kamikaze motorbike riders, who claim all rights of way. I found it strange that when they were going but two hundred yards, they needed to do so at full speed. Most towns have rental donkeys for getting around, hauling construction material, delivering luggage to your room, getting up the hill or just have your picture taken sitting on an ass.

Navigation in the islands is easy. As most of the adjacent islands are less than 10 miles apart the next island is almost always in sight when you leave. Of course, you can skip islands and have longer distances if you like. With the short distances and few, if any, offshore hazards I found I became very complacent about navigation. The only thing close to a navigational problem is the current. Given that the Mediterranean is an enclosed sea, it is strange to have currents, but it does. Close to islands it can be a knot and it’s effect is seen on the points and peninsulas and seen in your speed and course over ground. One difficulty is that the names of islands and towns are not the same on the charts, in the cruising guide and the Lonely Planet causing some problems getting information.

The major sights were the castles on Rhodos, the monastery at Patmos, Delos, the Acropolis in Athens, and Santorini. The other point of interests is the color scheme, white buildings with blue trim, used in all of the towns, villages and Chora, high town. The story is that during the occupation by the Italians, perhaps around 1912, the Greeks painted everything white with blue trim, the colors of their flag, to remind the Italians that this was still Greece. The idea caught on and any pictures and postcards of Greece you see will feature the white buildings with blue trim. They are quite charming. The Chora was a matter of safety. In years gone past pirates terrorized the coastlines. Every year about harvest time they would arrive to collect their tribute. So, the Greeks began building the main town on a hill or high point. In this way they could at least see the thieves coming and hide their women, wine, money and treasures. Many of the local wines are very good.

The castle on Rhodos, reputed to have been built by the knights of St John, is claimed to be the largest, permanently inhabited castle in Europe. I read this to say it is not the largest, but very impressive. During the summer you will see up to seven cruise ships docked, discharging thousands of sightseers that are swallowed up by the immensity of the castle, known as old town. Everything any self respecting tourist could want is for sale within these walls, Tee shirts, jewelry, furs, trinkets, jewelry to satisfy any taste and Rolex dealers, who in their right mind would buy a Rolex, while on vacation in a strange land, from a guy standing on the street corner wearing several of them on his arm, under his long sleeves, new stuff made to look like old stuff and food, ah the food. Well, to settle an ongoing argument. Everyone has heard of or seen the food Gyros, how is it pronounced, as geeros, as yeeros, guyros, the Greeks say all of them, I could not get the official pronunciation, it depended on the town, restaurant or server, so the debate rages on.

Most all of the monasteries in Greece are placed on the highest hill, the most inaccessible and difficult places, like hanging on the side of a cliff, at Amorgos. I am told this was to provide the necessary solitude and remove from temptation the young girls that would have a young man for her own. The monastery and surrounding caves on Patmos are reputed to be where St John did his writing, or at least dictating to scribes, as he was nearly blind at the time. Much of the monastery is closed to the public, yet the main chapel, treasury and center courts are open and very interesting. Delos was my favorite, I returned there four times, with different crew. Each time I saw something different. It is the ruin of a civilization dating to 3,000 BC. Much of it has been excavated and is in pretty good shape. This was claimed to be the center of the modern world, at that time, and is said to be the birth place of democracy. With traders, merchants and clergy from all over the known world, living, selling, worshiping and working in the same place brought acceptance of other cultures. Parts of many of the homes and temples are in original condition, as to floors, complete with mosaics, walls with murals and decorative painting, pillars, columns and walkways. And an amazing water catchment system for the collection of rain, when it infrequently happened. How did one hundred thousand people live on a small, not more than a mile wide and three miles long, dry island?????? Most of the roofs are gone or partially reconstructed. Temples to gods such as Isis, Apollo, Hera, Neptune, and Hermes, along with houses of Cleopatra, Dionysus, Dolphins and many others are reminders of the beliefs of the ancients. For those on boats, you can anchor in a very nice bay on Rinia, just across the channel from Delos.

The Acropolis, in Athens, is quite a sight. Built and rebuilt, many times, on the same high, overlooking location, by several different religious groups for many different gods. The manpower to move that much rock is overwhelming. The modern day Athenians are rebuilding again, this time with cranes and metal scaffolding, to correct the destructive effects of time, earthquakes, pollution and a poor use of cheap reinforcing rods used the last time, to insure the ruins remain for years to come. The Caryatides, one of the buildings, has female statues supporting the roof on their heads. All of the originals have been moved indoors to preserve them and have been replaced by concrete replicas. The Greeks are not shy about stating that one of the early British Ambassadors stole one of the originals, along with part of the fascia from one of the story carvings, and it is now on display in London. The Greeks want it back. So many of the early archeologists were nothing but grave robbers and thieves taking anything and everything of value back to their homeland. This is no different. The rest of Athens is just another large, dirty city, fully under construction for the Olympics.

Santorini is known for its geologic beauty, it the most photogenic place in Greece and post cards can be found everywhere. In years past, donkeys carried everything up the nine hundred steps from the quay to Thera, the largest town. Now a ski lift style cable car is used. This did not put the donkeys out of work altogether, there is still the freight and the tourist, who pay three dollars for a ride up the stairway. I did walk down, but would not even dream of walking up, yet the donkey herders, is that what they are called, walk their animals. Santorini is an old volcano that last blew its top in 1400 BC. Sending twenty cubic miles of debris into the air, can you imagine that volume, it is more than many of the islands. The devastation from which buried Crete, 60 miles away, that which was not buried was washed away by huge tidal waves. Santorini with near vertical, multi colored walls rising 1,000 feet, out of the sea, and towns perched on the edge, seemingly waiting to fall into the next inferno, is quite spectacular. With nearly vertical walls, several hundred feet, below the surface anchoring is difficult. Today the remains of the caldera, the sunken dome over the emptied crater, has left the walls showing the stratification of many eruptions, many different colors and textures are evidence of it’s volatile past. While anchored at Santorini, I witnessed something I had never seen. A floating raft, I can think of no other term, of floating gravel, two hundred yards across and several inches thick engulfed RPhurst, for three days. It appeared I was anchored in the middle of a very large patch of freshly poured cement. When I picked up some of the stones, it looked and felt like small rock, when I hit one with a hammer it smashed like a small rock, yet they were so light they floated. It had to have been some sort of volcanic ash or pumas, dislodged by an unfelt tremor and floating freely within the enclosed crater.

The island of Hydra is interesting from the standpoint that it does not allow motor vehicle traffic, except the occasional motorbike, the delivery and garbage trucks. At the quay are many donkeys, just standing there, hanging out, waiting for something to do. They haul the freight, luggage and people. Hydra was also the most crowded marina I found. As normal I anchor off and go in during late morning of the next day, after the charter boats have left. Being the first one at the wall, when the charterers came in that afternoon and evening, they were tied four deep in front of us. We were the sidewalk extension for the party goers until 0500. During the day when I asked them to remove their shoes while crossing my boat, most were very embarrassed by needing to be asked and complied at once, until one woman insisted that hers were not a problem. When I pointed out to her captain that I was allowing them to cross as a courtesy and would not allow anyone to cross my boat if they did not remove their shoes, he informed her that she also would remover hers. Pam, one of my crew at the time, and I spent four hours using rubbing compound taking the shoe prints off the deck.

As we were backing into the wall, a very narrow spot, with Pam and Serena fending off at the stern, the boat was not responding to steering using the engines, we did bump one of the other boats, no damage. After we were safely tied up, I began trying to figure out why. We have broken a shift cable, this meant I had one engine in permanent reverse, and using the other between forward and reverse, very difficult to steer this way. Pam and I spent several hours fitting the spare, she was good crew.

Since the fall of the ancient powers of Athens, Sparta and Crete the unfortunate Greeks have been invaded by every foreign power within a thousand miles, and lost to each of them. From Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Turks, several times, the Egyptians, to the Italians and Germans. The Greeks have been occupied by all of them. In days of old when an island failed to provide support in a conflict the victor would come in, loot, rape, destroy, kill every man and boy, taking the women for other uses and wipe out an island. During the German occupation five million Greeks starved to death, because the Germans took all of the food for the war effort. The Greeks have really had a tough time of it and have not yet recovered. It is very poor. Fishermen and fishing villages are everywhere, however, there are no fish. While watching the fishermen come in with their catch it is apparent, from the size of the mesh in their nets, mostly finger size, they are fishing for bait, which is then sold at the fish market for food. Most of the fresh seafood sold by the restaurants is imported, frozen. Nearly all of the Greek sponges, sold at every tourist shop, come from Italy, north Africa or the Caribbean. Thousands of years of over fishing have taken their toll. I have not caught a fish in the Med, have seen very few while snorkeling and see few being brought in as the catch of the day. The one exception to this is octopus, you see them hanging from the rafters in most restaurants. The locals fish for them off the quay and when one is caught, they find a rock, sidewalk or quay wall to repeatedly slap the poor creature against the concrete; the sound can be heard for many minutes. No this is not to kill, but to tenderize, they are very tough. The way most people fish for them is to tie a chicken leg to a piece of monofilament. Then throw it into the water and slowly drag it back. When an octopus grabs the chicken leg, it will not let go, allowing itself to be dragged right out of the water.

The water maker became a problem this year. The pressure vessel started leaking at one of the end fittings. It still worked, however, I needed to keep a bucket under it whenever I was making water. So, order a new pressure vessel and have it brought with the next guest. That part is easy. After I installed it the product water tasted salty. I discovered that when the vessel failed it damaged the membrane. I replaced it three years ago and they should last longer than that. So, order a new membrane. After installation everything is working just fine, thank you. The near total lack of rain was a factor in needing the water maker. Many of the islands get their annual rainfall, just a few inches, in January. No wonder they have trouble raising a garden. Water is hauled by ship from the high islands that have it to all of the others. Water conservation is required.

A major problem while cruising the Greek Islands are the charter boats. The charter companies do not seem to have very high standards for the qualifications of their charterers. In all parts of the world one of the cheap entertainments, of cruising, is to watch the charter boats try to anchor, or here Med moor. Med mooring is when you drop an anchor, or occasionally pick up a mooring, then back into a wall, trying not to hit it, many do, usually concrete or stone, then attach stern lines to rings, staples, cleats or bollards on shore. This works pretty well, except when they do not lay enough rode, do not set their anchor causing them to drag with the first strong wind, cross another rode with theirs, a very common occurrence, or have a strong side wind while backing in. A few will let out their anchor nearly to the bottom and motor across the rodes of other boats picking up chains and rope as they go. I call it anchor fishing and they do have a good catch. With all of this going on every day, leaving the boat is disconcerting. Another all too frequent problem are the late arrivals. If there is not enough room on the wall to back in, they simply put the pointy end between two other boats and apply enough motor to force their way in. This is very hard on all of the boats, the sound of crunching fiberglass is not pleasant. I often heard the comment, what the hell, it’s a charter. I always tried to help others get tied up, I was seldom helped. Coming into some of those places alone was interesting. Normally I tried to anchor out the day before, then late morning to mid afternoon, when all of the party goers left, I would go in. The Germans were the worst. Once I came into a marina where several boats were already tied, with several feet between them, but not enough for me, all carried the German flag, when another German flag boat came in they quickly moved two of the boats to make room, I anchored in the harbor, to several derogatory comments. With eight feet of water in the harbor, they had a hundred fifty feet of chain out, none with anchors set, and at 0530 one wanted to leave, I was in the way.

You may think that solid waste management is a problem for a country that is solid rock. Not so, just take it out and dump it at sea. Leaving Aegina I found one of their dump sites, motoring along with no wind, again, I was inside checking the charts, when I heard a change in the engine speed. Upon looking around the boat it was clear what had happened, we were surrounded by trash and plastic bags as far as you could see, we had picked up a plastic bag on the propeller. I started the other engine to keep up boat speed and tried forward and reverse several times to dislodge the bag but nothing helped. So, shut down that engine and use the other, cats are great, two of everything. As we were anchoring for the night, reversing to set the anchor the bag came off, at least it saved me a swim.

Greece is made up of a mainland and 2,000 islands, 170 of which are inhabited. This causes a problem in transportation of people and supplies. The solution is to have a well run, economical, wide spread ferry system. There are at least four major ferry companies and the sale of ferry tickets must be very lucrative, every water front, every town is lined with ticket sellers. The ferries vary from small hydrofoils carrying forty people to large ships, the size of cruise ships carrying several hundred people, cars, trucks and supplies. Many islands have more than ten ferries per day. In mid June, with crew coming in from Norway, while I was cruising the Dodecanese group an unexpected wrinkle came up. This was the start of the tourist season. What better time for the ferry company employees to call a strike. Thousands of people were stranded on all of the islands, missing their rooms or return flights. So, with crew in Athens that could not get to the boat, the boat went to them. Crossing from Patmos, east to Paros, west in 42 knots of wind, from the north, I hoped to get to where we could connect. After a fast passage, I stopped at Mykonos, checked email to make arrangements for a place to meet on the mainland. When I arrived at Paros the strike ended and they were able to get to me.

With Greece joining the EU, the money is now the Euro. In years past Greece was known to be a reasonable place to retire, travel and vacation. With the Euro this has changed, many prices escalated when the money changed. It is still reasonable, by US or European standards, however, not the way it was. Insurance on your boat is MANDATORY, you will not be issued a Transit Log or port clearance to move, even to another island without it. I inquired whether I could assume all local boats were also insured and of course told, no. When you are on a boat, no visa is required. The Transit Log, cruising permit, will cost US$45., a tax, based on the value of the boat, for RPhurst US$70., Plus a few other expenses brings the total to enter the country to US$170. Non EU flag vessels are allowed to stay in Greece for six months or pay duty. The per night fees for docking a foreign flag vessel depend on the town and your flag. The range was US$3.5 to US$8.5 per night, discounts are offered for longer term. Locals and EU flag vessels pay 1/3 less, charter boats pay 2/3 less. Neither very often pay. I paid every time, filling my transit log and needing additional pages, which created quite a stir, they had never seen that before. Fuel has been between sixty five and eighty five cents per liter. Meat was reasonable, four to eight Euro per kilo, fruit and veggies were available at every port, the variety was sometimes and quality usually limited, late summer peaches are wonderful. While most do, some of the islands do not have email, it is pretty expensive, from four to ten Euro per hour. Cigs are half of US price, booze depends on the country of origin. Again, with the EU, products must move across borders without tax or restrictions, so products from other EU countries are reasonable, imported are not.

With so many antiquities still on the bottom of the sea, Greece severely restricts diving or spear fishing with bottles. You can snorkel all you want, just don’t use scuba gear. You can get two years of free room and board if caught. In years past, boats would spend the entire summer diving, collecting treasures to take home, permanently lost to the Greeks. There are limited dive schools that are permitted to take you diving, at one point I inquired into the cost, US$45. for a one tank dive, US$70. for a two tank dives. The water temperature will keep all but the most hardy of souls out of the water or require a wet suit. It is warm enough for a short swim or snorkel, however, long periods in the water, like cleaning the waterline need to be done in sections.

One real irritation I experienced is that on two separate occasions I have taken in film to be developed. In a shop where they may get ten to twenty rolls of film per day how can they loose one. But they did, twice!!! I now have very few pictures of the time I spent in Greece, many impossible to replace because they were of guests that may or may not return. I have been told by other cruisers that this is not rare. One film developer guy wanted to beat me up because we arrogant Americans think we know so much. So while in Greece, take your film in when they say they will develop it, and wait for the pictures, the sign touting thirty minute prints, means overnight. Don’t let the roll out of your sight, if they disagree, take it elsewhere.

After checking out of Greece on 7 November, 2002, and paying my final bill and getting a receipt issued in the amount of $0.88, I have moved to Turkey where I intend to spend the winter on the south coast. Next May I will again head west, then north into the Adriatic Sea for next summer. If you enjoy receiving these updates, let me know, if you do not wish to receive them let me know, you do not receive it and want to, let me know, yes you could get it from someone else... if you would like to join me for any part of the next year, let me know. Please let me know before you send pictures, always in compressed JPEG, my email inbox is limited and it is often overwhelmed.

Email to worldccruiser1997@yahoo.com. With the failure of my computer I have lost many old files. If you have my older letters, from 1998 on, across the South Pacific to New Zealand, New Zealand to Australia, please let me know, I will have someone send them to me.

Thanks for your time, Bruce Parnham, S/V RPhurst