Pia, Anya & Kevin left Sybaris this morning to fly home. We have had so much fun with you as usual. It has been great to see you all again and we hope you return soon. Thanks Kevin for entertaining us with your card tricks. You are the real MacCoy!

We had far to go today, 35nm to Rhodos. Plus we wanted some time to sightsee and shop as well in Rhodos so we decided to leave as soon as the sun came up. Per and I got up and got Sybaris en route while Pia, Anya and Kevin stayed in bed. But since the sunrise was so beautiful I did go tell Pia and Anya to peek out of the hatch!

  

We motored all the way and arrived at Rhodos in time for an early lunch.
And then we went into town walking through the busy little streets, visiting the Castle of the Knights and of course some shopping.

   
  
   
  
   

We returned to Sybaris for dinner and a last game of Mexican Train.

We spent the morning in Pirate Cove. The water is so lovely and clear you can see the fish swim by. Much better of course is swimming in it which we did most of the time.

  
  

After lunch we motored almost 3 hours to the island of Chalki. We walked around town for a while but all we really wanted to do was go for a swim as the temperatures are around 35-38c. So that is what we did. We all jumped (well some of us took the ladder) in and cooled down. Later we returned to town for a Kebab & fries dinner.

   
  
   
   
  
  
  

Pia and I drove back to Mandraki to get some groceries (and several other things shhh) and returned to Sybaris.

  

We left Nissyros late morning and motored back to Tilos, this time to a secret bay we have nicknamed Pirate Cove. We swam and took a dinghy trip to the beach where we tried to give water to the goats from the well. Unfortunately the rope broke and we lost the bucket in the well. We also picked up some pumice stone which have floated across from Nissyros.
We spent the night alone in the bay playing Mexican train dominoes. What a perfect place!

  
  
  
  

The wind was picking up just as we were preparing breakfast and since we were moored next to some little boats we thought it was best to leave immediately. We motored 3.5 hours to the lovely island of Nissyros where we arrived late morning. Per went to hire a car and soon returned with a red one. We all piled in and first drove to Mandraki. The boys figured we would spend hours in shops again and soon found themselves a café in the shade while the girls for once did not go shopping. Instead we walked up to the monastery on top of the hill where we admired the views.

   
   
  
   
   

Soon after we joined the boys for lunch.
We returned to Sybaris as the temperatures were rising and it was too hot to sight-see. Later in the afternoon we again piled into the car and drove to Nikea. We walked the narrow streets and had an ice-cream at the picturesque square before returning to the car.

  
   
  
   

We drove to the volcano just as the sun was leaving the valley. There was a strong breeze as well to keep us cool. First we walked up to the smaller crater.

 

On top the breeze was so strong we had problems standing still as Kevin shows us in this clip.

 

We then walked back to the main crater and decided to go down to the bottom of it. In both craters there are still some hissing fumaroles, letting off a hot and smelly sulphur vapour.

 
 

By now the sun was setting giving us a beautiful orange/red/pink/purple views while we drove back to Sybaris.

Another day without wind, we motored the 24 miles to the island of Tilos. We moored up in the little town and spent the afternoon on the pebble beach. Later the girls hit the few but great shops! We returned to Sybaris too late to cook so instead we went out to one of the Tavernas in town.

  
 
  

After a lazy breakfast we left Pedi and motored up to Agios Emilianos, a lovely little bay just down the coast. We anchored and tied back to land by the small monastery.

  
 

Soon after we all jumped in the lovely clear water and floated until our friends Chris & Elaine on Ginny showed up. Real good fun to catch up with them again!
We had a great lunch together before we both headed in different directions.

 

Our destination was Panormitis on the south-west tip of Symi. After anchoring in the bay we went ashore where we visited the monastery and walked around the little village before returning to Sybaris again.

    
  
  

 

In the evening we admired a most amazing sunset.

Another perfect day on Sybaris…

Ah what a nice change from yesterday, today we had a flat calm sea. We motored all the way to the island of Symi where we anchored in Pedi Bay. Early afternoon we spent swimming and sunning. Also Per taught Kevin how to handle our dinghy so now we have an official and very capable dinghy captain.

Later in the afternoon the girls went shopping while the boys hung out in a café sipping who knows what?! They claimed it was Ouzo but seeing they were stone sober and Kevin is nowhere close to drinking age we have doubts…

We all met up again back in Pedi at the sea side Taverna where we had a delicious Greek meal.