3rd MayAn old sailor once told us that
real sailors are those that at least once, have been towed into a harbour. If that is true, now we became real
sailors. It all started 170 miles out of Crete. Making use of light
winds, Graham tried to start the engine so we can head West, the engine
got as far as cranking but wouldn't fire. After fiddling with it for a
whole day he gave up, it was beyond his knowledge. We decided to head to
Rhodes instead as it was closer and possible to make it in one tack. 30
miles out of Rhodes Harbour the wind died down to nothing. Now we were
dead in the water. Needless to say we were furious , after all that money
spent in Egypt fixing the engine and it let us down at the worst time
possible...(We are still cursing the Egyptians). But then we decided to take it as a day rest, sleeping and
even opening a bottle of sparkling red (last of Australia) to celebrate being back into Europe.
With little wind we managed to make 30 miles in over 24 hours and
approached Rhodes Harbour early morning at 1-2 knots. Called port control,
marina, tried to flag down passing yachts for help. Either got ignored or
waved back but no assistance. Eventually I managed to attract the
attention of a private little fishing boat, who was very happy to tow us
into the harbour. Can't remember being this stressed and actually cursing
the cruising life. The fishing boat towed us inside the bay and left, we
were happy to pay but they left without giving us a chance to offer money,
still getting used with the fact that we are not in Egypt any more,
no more baksheesh.
Rhodes was never in our plans, but so glad we ended
up here. Beautiful walled old medieval town, still early for the season so
not inundated with tourists and the best of it are the Greeks. They are
just so friendly and welcoming. As soon as we entered in a taverna got
approached and involved into conversation. It was difficult to keep up as
being away from Europe for almost 3 years we are out of date. 6 months ago
the idea of coming back to Europe was off-putting, but now we are so glad to
be back.
04th May
From word of mouth we got Pierre's name as a
good engineer. Gave him a call and met up outside the boatyard. Before
getting into business he needed a drink, of beer , at midday. Yes, the guy
is an alcoholic... He came on board and after checking the engine we
decided to join him on the beers... It was bad news, better to drown the
sorrows. Three hours later we drank all our beers and Pierre turned out to
be a nice and interesting chap, from Belgium but lived all over Europe and
Africa , same as us, a wanderer.
05th May
Decided to lift the boat out,
while doing the engine work so we can paint the bottom. But that wasn't very
easy without an engine. The slot where the boat is lifted is very narrow,
the weather was very rough and when we found out who was our tow we almost
given up on the idea. It was a fisherman of about 80 years old, the boat
as old as the owner, with a crappy engine about to pack up as good as
ours. No other option left we still went for it. The fisherman lined
up the boat to the slot but of course with strong winds the boat swung
sideways and we were almost sloshing against the concrete wall. Graham was
about to have a heart attack and I was almost throwing up with stress,
trying to push the boat away from the dock. The shouting going on was unbelievable,
Four guys on the dock screaming in Greek at the fisherman, Graham and I
shouting between each other trying to line Nomad Life into the narrow gap.
Somehow Nomi squeezed in and no damage!!! This is the Greek way... After
the ordeal we almost prayed to Allah, but not that bad!
07th May
Many
beers later and very little work done on the engine, this is how Pierre
works, "sija sija" which in Greek means slowly slowly, and a favorite
phrase here.
11th May
After all the engine is not a throw away,
Egyptian dirty fuel blocked up the heads and it needs to be taken apart and
thoroughly cleaned. Once we dropped the head into a workshop and had a car
for the day took the chance to drive around. As it is spring, the island
is green with pine trees and grass, this is the best time to visit Rhodes
before the dry summer, when the island looks more like desert. From Rhodes
town, the road down the coast passes through Faliraki, a well known
British resort (famous for the drunk package tour tourists). Then came
Lindos, beautiful quiet Greek village built on the mountains with a castle
on top. Pierre did mention that the Greeks do things on a funny way, an
example is digging up roads on summer, the busiest time for the island
with tourism. And he is right, the road that goes around the island was
half blocked, even the runway on the airport was full of diggers.
15th
May
Living on a boatyard is not the most comfortable, but at least we got
to see a bit of real Greece, we are one of the few foreign boats here. Very often we
hear shouting going on, the men love to argue about menial things,
accompanied by loud shouting and kicking things around, it normally goes
on for half an hour, then like a married couple, the issue is resolved and
they become best of friends, patting each others back. But listening to
Pierre's problems working with the Greeks is the most off-putting. They do
not hesitate to rip off foreigners, payday comes with a few months of
delay, if it comes at all!
18th May
It has been a very stressful
2 weeks, once the engine was fixed, it took a whole day to start, because
of bad connection and residual dirty fuel in the filters, then the alternator broke. Sometimes it felt like we
were going backwards rather then forward. But now, all the little problems
that needed attention has been sorted and Nomi is ready to go in the
water. But before that we caught a day of celebration in the boatyard, a
fishing boat from Karphatos -the neighboring island- hauled out here and did a
proper Greek party, with the bazooka , singing and dancing. The party
started early and by evening some of them were thoroughly drunk. We also
survived an earthquake whilst on the hard standing, at that time Pierre
noticed a vibration then he found out later that the earthquake reached 4
in the Richter scale. So glad the boat didn't ended up in the ground while
I was painting the bottom!
20th
May
Despite all the work and not a lot of fun here in Rhodes, we loved
the island and are sad to leave, it has a very relaxed atmosphere. Saying goodbye to Pierre was also sad, we
enjoyed so much his company that at times work did get pushed aside which
did delay us a bit, but we had a lot of beers and laugh together! We will
miss him. As soon
as the boat went back into the water and the engine tested we turned West
and left for Malta.
21st May
After 100 miles we detoured to Crete, it
was just impossible to head West, winds increasing and rough seas. Try
again tomorrow.
