WHERE ARE WE ANNE?: SCORES OF SYRIANS SITTING IN SYMI

ANNE AND MYSELF WITH BROTHER DAVID AND JANE. PEDI, AGAIN.

Symi to Nisyros to Tilos to Symi

September 2015

When I first heard a Greek person say to me “More Syrians than tourists”, I laughed in agreement at the pithy summing up of the kind of summer tourist season he was having. Bit by bit during summer in the Greek islands of the Dodecanese along the coast of Turkey I came to realise it wasn't such an exaggeration. Most of the upward of 500,000 refugees crossing from Turkey to Europe via Greece, did so north of us around Lesbos. Hundreds still arrived while we were in Symi though. We tended to see the calm orderly side of the crisis after the refugees had arrived or were being processed in Greece. I'd queue with groups of young Syrian men in the morning to buy spanakopita while others sat in groups smoking and waiting.

Leaving the throngs of Syrians behind, we overnighted in Panormitis before leaving Symi, then with what little wind on the nose, we motored all the way to Palun, Nisyros, I think our biggest motor for the season. David and Jane saw the sights of the volcano while Anne and I swam and carted extra water to the pig that lives under the fig tree where we picked our figs. The pig took a small drink but was more keen to tip the water out with its snout and wallow in the cooling mud.

Before returning the hire car we all explored the towns up on the rim of the caldera and down on the main port of Mandraki. Nice little towns perched high on winding roads with sensational views both in to the caldera and out to sea. Lunches on board Fourth Dimension stepped up a notch with David and Jane in charge. Jane's sumptuous salad and David's marinated mushrooms became signature dishes during their stay.

A motor sail south from Nisyros in little wind got us to the small harbour of Livadhia on Tilos. We hired another car to tour the island taking in several beaches for swims and a very steep drive up to a mountain top. Well, we got part of the way up. Slowly and steeply we crept up a narrow but solid concrete road. At a certain point with the precipitously steep drop off the side of the road becoming vertiginous, Anne said that was enough and she was getting out. Jane joined in solidarity and there wasn't much point pressing on. I can't blame them, I turned around but it was an exhilarating little drive with great views. It may be just as well we turned around, given the billiard ball smooth state of the tyre tread we discovered later.

From Tilos we left at dawn to sail back to Symi for David and Jane's ferry connection to head home.

We had mixed winds and even flew Big Purple. That didn't end well. Due to the captain's inattention during a gust all that taut light purple fabric in the air went all flappy and sustained a rip from the clew. Very unprofessional. Oh well, some more work for Suleyman the sailmaker back in Finike and another lesson for me.

We snugly tied alongside a wharf in Pedi bay happy that we wouldn't have any anchor dragging issues with the rising wind gusts. I'd just got to bed when there was an awful wrenching noise. On deck in a flash, I was expecting to see a boat had dragged into us, instead I found one dinted solar panel lying on the quay having been torn from it's corroded mount in a gust. It tested ok and was reinstalled the next day. Lucky.

It was great having my bro on board. We hadn't seen each other for a few years so the reunion was that much more welcome. Thanks David for the pic of me lolling about naked in the Aegean. That one won't make publication.