Today we had an option to either stay on the Turkish coast or sail over to the Greek island of Symi. As there was good wind forecast for that part of the sea we decided to go for the Symi option.

No wind at the start so we motored so as not to lose time until we found some wind. It continued to build all day until it was touching over 30 knots as we approached the island. 30 knots is plenty and we were well reefed by the time we arrived. An exhilarating ride.
As we are entering a Greek port there is lot of paperwork to do for us and the boat, but we pay an agent to take care of that. All we are left to do is change our courtesy flag from a Turkish one.

To a Greek one

Surprisingly tricky whilst sailing at speed.
Symi is the first real town we have visited this trip, as all the other places have basically been yacht stops that are only open in the season. This is the last week and places are running down  stocks. Symi is a real town and although clearly tourism is big business here, it exists all year around. You can see why it is a huge pull for tourists. Postcard stuff.

Just after we arrived at motor yacht arrived and caused chaos by making a massive wash nearly causing damage to several yachts. If moored yachts roll and clash masts the damage can be huge. Anyway after a pretty frantic 10 minutes  we reset all our moorings and then the ferry showed up….

No sane person would try and get a ship this size into a harbour this size… but they get it in and out calmly with no wash…
The terminal facilities are nonexistent.

People and cars go up and down the ramp in apparently random fashion as people in uniform blow whistles for reasons that are not clear, then 10 minutes later it heads off and postcard normality returns…

Anyway as we have a choice of restaurants tonight we have gone to the one 10 metres behind our boat.