28. 27th March to 5th April 2009 - We nip to Rhodes, Greece

From Marmaris it is a quick hop over to Rhodes. Rhodes town is supposed to be the largest inhabited medieval town in Europe – but whoever described it as such forgot all the wonderful towns in Croatia including Rab, Split and Dubrovnik to name just three.

Rhodes town, as always with Greece for me, is disappointing, vastly expensive, and poor quality. In fact after a €6 (£6) each visit to the Palace of the Grand Masters where most of it was closed due to a lack of staff (“it’s the weekend”) and the rest – room after empty room – had no explanation with no guidebook available, I got very angry with the two staff who WERE there. The whole of Rhodes is having “work” done – funded, of course, by millions of EU Euros, and all projects are in a state of abandon, the money gone. I wanted to ask him what I had paid to see, why I had to pay twice (after all it is my tax money that pays his salary) and also to ask him what he had spent the money on. The person I needed to complain to was unavailable until Monday (though more likely to be Tuesday as all the museums are closed on Monday), after we are long gone. In the end, through tears of frustration, I said “for goodness sake, change your b... government. I am sick of Greek bureaucratic incompetence”. The man who was still talking to me was passionate in his reply “do not worry – we will”. Elections are due this summer so I hope that the corruption and incompetence will be swept away. It makes me very anti-Europe seeing how my tax money is being stolen.

Rhodes has a continuous stream of cruise liners arriving, even at this time of year. The town smells wonderful with the spring blossom and the old town itself is clean though very shabby except for the main drag. After our disappointment with the Palace we decided to skip more museums’ and walked out of the old town, past the unfinished marina which has lain unusable and under-construction for over 10 years, past the new road being built on one of the sandy beaches for which Rhodes is famous, and to our pleasure stumbled on a fabulous food market – just beginning to pack up for the day. We had run out of cash and counted our pennies - €12. We left that market with more wonderful food than we could comfortably carry – enough for at least a week – and struggled back to Deep Blue. Ha .. one victory over the Greeks!!

We have had some good luck – and it looks like Andy has stumbled on a business opportunity which started out with a chance conversation in Marmaris Yacht Marina bar and has now become an exciting possibility due to a good turn we did for someone here in Rhodes. I will tell more when it is more definite but we dallied in Marmaris to follow it up and now we are doing the same in Rhodes. Our current life style supports the business concept due to the people we meet who could be our customers so I hope that it works out.

Tomorrow, winds permitting, we sail back to Turkey and to rejoin Matelot in the Fethiye Gulf.
April 6th – 11th 2009

We did rejoin Matelot as planned and have spent a week in the wonderful bays of the Skopea Limani - part of the Fethiye Gulf. We are lucky that spring sprung and have been able to get back to sea swims and stern showers between sun bathes. We spent three nights in Wall Bay on a rickety pier belonging to the Wall Bay restaurant. This mini temporary settlement of an extended family with no running water, electricity or land access was welcoming and hard to leave. They cook the most delicious food and bread in open fire ovens, farm and press wonderful olive oil. In the evenings we were entertained with Turkish music played and sung by a splendidly moustached gentleman dressed in a suit put on especially for the occasion. Normally he was in charge of the chain saw! During the day we walked the well marked coastal footpath and swam in hidden coves.

This area is a national park and the cliffs are covered in mixed forest. In the distance we can see snow capped mountains. In Tomb Bay, our next stop, there are Lycian rock tombs in the high cliffs. We clambered up the cliffs to get a close look. How amazing they are – these 2000 year old tombs were literally carved out of the rock and look like small houses. The entrances are pillared, have a portico and inside the walls are perfectly straight with enough room to stand up.
There are few boats around so generally the people are friendly and we spend our evenings chatting.

Eric and Susan with Lola K, a beautiful stream-lined 20m Italian yacht designed by the Wally designer for them two years ago. They claimed to have sailed here at 9 knots in 4 knots of wind. The boat was totally impractical for cruising with just two elderly people but was obviously Eric’s dream boat. They are unable to enter many bays because of their draft, are so electrically hungry they needed to run their generator for two hours while we were having morning swims before motoring off, and need help whenever they enter a harbour or marina.

Cenk, a Turkish Mechanical engineer from Istanbul on his Jeanneau 42, here on his own writing a book and with whom we had a lively conversation about Turkey, religion and the behaviour of man (the selfish Gene). He told us that the Delaware flag of convenience we see on many Turkish boats saved him £70,000 on purchase and £3,000 per year on-going. Ironically enough the Turkish word for cheat is “dalavereci” which when said sounds very like Delaware! He has a 50% share in the boat and was waiting for his mate to arrive while anchored in his wifes favourite bay. He obviously comes from a monied family as he spent two years in London after University living in Richmond learning English.

The four Czecs on the smallest and most badly maintained boat ever who have spent the past 2 years happily cruising these waters and were quite charming. Four Germans on a huge catamaran who told us their favourite spots and the family from Tasmania with a Downs son and a very bright daughter who were on a weeks charter.

After a wonderful week away from any civilisation we have now run out of water, power and food so need to find a town to restock. Fethiye beckons.