Trip to Greek Islands 2008

We had our usual trip to the Greek Islands. During the heat of August catabalic wind Meltem blows with more force. This ends up in confused seas, but at the same time cooler environement. This also reflects in the sea temperatures. In Gocek water temperature rises up to 29 degrees celcius, whereas in the Islands you still have temperatures between 22 degrees to 25 degrees.

We started our voyage from Gocek. Some pictures of the boats in the marina.

You will see the pictures of Palmer&Johnson "Nira", Hakvoort "Yosma", a Ferretti Custom Line, local boats of the marina and Turkish build "Cigdem".

Trip to Greek Islands

As we moved to the Bay of Gocek, we came accross Kusch yachts "White Rose", CBI Navi "Metsuyan", Feadship "Huntress" and "O'neiro" (http://www.hoayachting.com/luxury-yacht-charter/luxury-motor-yacht-o`neiro.php).

vitters "Nirvana"

Then we had Vitters "Nirvana" next to Yassica Islands while we were moving out of the bay. It was nice to see the toys, especially the wooden sailing dingy.

Trip to Greek Islands

Then we moved to Fethiye for fueling. There are some pictures from the Ece Saray marina. One of them is an old Benetti. On the way out of the bay we came accross "Bel'Mare" build in New Zealand. Few years ago this boat was offered to me.

http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=yacht-charter-bel-mare-1026

Rhodes

We arrived Rhodes after a 4 hour trip in pleasant weather. The sun was just setting while we went in. We berthed stern to at old commercial port, next to the main gates of the old walls to the port. Rhodes is the largest island and the center of Dodecanes (12 islands)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodecanese

These islands are located at the eastern part of the Agean Sea and they are very close to the Anatolian shores. The furthest eastern one; Meis (Kastelorizo) lies next to Kas on the Turkish coast within a distance of not more than a mile. Rhodes is not more than 6 miles away from Bozuk Kale, which is the tip of Marmaris peninsula.

There were some nice sailboats next to us. 1st picture is "Jacquelina", designed by Bill Dixon (http://www.bcryachts.com/index.php?id=182561), which had the largest aero rig build to date. 2nd yacht is "Acacia Four" (http://www.southernwindshipyard.com/scheda.php?pagina=yachts&yacht=10006&gallery=photo) of Southern Wind Shipyards

Old city of Rhodes

The old city of Rhodes is a world heritage site. The medieval walls cover this part of the city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes). Under the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) the Orthodox Church (centered in Istanbul-Constantinople) were controlling these islands. Some of them, like Patmos (where the sacred grotto of Apostle John the Theologian rests) were exceptionally important from a religious perspective.

We took a tour of the town and visited the palace of the Grand Masters. At a museum in the complex I come across some information about the influence of the Latin Church (Pope) and the conflicts they had with Orthodox Church (Patriarch) of Istanbul.

The recent history of Rhodes (recent for our part of the world) was shaped by the Knights who has settled during the crusades. They have ruled until the Ottomans conquered the island and pushed them to Malta.

These knights were Catholic and following the order of the Pope in Rome. Whereas, most of the population was Greek Orthodox and was following the patriarch in Istanbul. After the 4th Crusade during which the crusaders looted Istanbul, there was already an irrecoverable hostility between the Orthodox Church and Latin church of Rome.

It was mentioned that during the reign of the Knights most of the time the position of Metropolises was vacant. When there was a Metropolises, he had to submit his acceptance to the Knights and also to Pope in Rome. This meant that Patriarch in Istanbul had no influence. This information has sparkled a very interesting understanding in me. Patriarch, which was operating under Ottoman reign must have very positively aligned with them for the conquest of Rhodes. “Clash of civilizations” never had a single dimension as it is being introduced to us. Just like today, obvious for the independent mind, there had been several other factors that were effecting the shaping of the history and relations between populations.

So far so good for history and politics. In the pictures you will see the ruins of a Roman temple as well as several buildings from the Medeival period.

Palace of Grand masters

We have walked through the street of Knights. Palace of Grand Masters is located on the top of the hill, at the end of the street.

The 3rd picture is from an inner garden of a Ottoman Villa on the same Street. It was not renovated yet.

It was interesting to learn that the Palace was in ruins after an explosion in 19th century (1856) and was used as a jail afterwards. The Island was taken over by Italians after the failure of Ottomans in Libya at the end of 19th Century. Maybe just a coincidence, but I have noticed that most of the tourists on the Island were either local Greeks or Italians; Italians might still have some affection. Anyway, the whole place was renovated by Mussolini to its Medieval grandeur during Fascist era. I have previously witnessed a similar attempt at Leros (another Dodecanese Island), where Italians had a naval base before 2nd WW. There were several large buildings with very wide boulevards. Of course Leros being a quite small islands there were never more than few cars on the roads.

Anyway, Rhodes was united with Greece only after the 2nd WW.

Palace of Grand masters

The palace of Grand Masters was a square building and was used as an inner castle during the siege.

Turkish influence

Considering that the Island has stayed under Turkish rule for some 400 years, there are several Turkish remains. Also, there are still a Turkish population living on the Island. 1st picture is a Turkish library. The others are several masques.

Back to boats

So much for the history, let us get back to boats. During the 2 days we stayed in Rhodes there were new arrivals.

1st boat is "Intuition Lady" of Benetti, 2nd one is "Sealion" of Hakvoort, 3rd is "Stella" of Shama yachts (build in Egypt - regretfully a poor build, we were really disturbed by the noise of the generators) and the star is "Gitano" of Baglietto.

More yachts in Rhodes

I took some more pictures while we were departing for Astipalaia.

Departing Rhodes

We departed Rhodes in the morning after a nice dinner at "Four Seasons" (not related to the hotel chain, just a local restaurant).

Astipalaia

Our next stop was Astipalaia. (http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/Cities/Astipalaia.html) There had been some changes since my last visit 3 years ago. There is now a small jetty with breakwater. It might have improved income for the islanders and safety during the stay, especially for southerly winds. However, the previous nice bay of Chora has lost its charm. So, the next morning we moved to next to Livadia to swim and enjoy the water. There is a Venetian Castle on the top of the hills.

There was an old Admiral and an Azimut 105 next to us.

Cyclades

Cyclades are the islands located in the center of Aegean. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclades). They are very barren, rocky, but posses beautiful beaches and shores with crystal clear waters.

Our first destination was two small adjacent islands Andikaros and Dhrima, where I planned to have a stop for a nice swim. These are more or less rocks next to each other. The passage in between is too shallow for boats. There is only a house of a shepherd/fisherman on Andikaros. When Meltem is blowing, the gusts from Naxos (which is the largest island in Cyclades) blow into the islands. So, it was not very comfortable blowing up to 35 knots. We even had to put down our bimini. Still, we stayed for lunch and had a good swim. The last time I was there was some 15 years ago. It was nice to see that nothing has changed. we had to look for a better shelter for the evening, so we moved to next island, Skhinousa. We anchored at the south side of the island. We were not alone, there were several other big boats.

1st one was Feadship "Pegasus", 2nd was "Bolara" of Baglietto, 3rd was the Wally sailboat "Tuamata".

Then a nice sun set

Skhinousa

I took more pictures at Skhinousa next morning with better light conditions.

The big one

We left Skhinousa for Ios and just after leaving the bay we came across "Felicita West" of Perini. We had breakfast and a nice swim at the golden beach of Mylopotas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ios_Island).