Finike to Crete

We left Finike on 16th March, it was rather sad having to say goodbye to friends we’ve made at the marina knowing that we may never meet again, but I guess that’s what happens when you live a nomadic lifestyle. The weather was very calm on departure day so we had to motor all the way & after 12 hours reached Fethiye. We’ve decided we need to do more sailing as it we worked out it cost us $200 in fuel – ooooccchhhh!!!! We spent a couple of days in Fethiye organizing new boat batteries & decided we wouldn’t go up to Marmaris as originally planned.
While in Fethiye I had an interesting experience at the PTT (Post Office). I arrived at 12.45pm to post a parcel only to find there were no tellers anywhere to be seen, only a security guard. I watched a couple of other people come in, they took a ticket out of the machine & sat down to wait, so I did the same thinking the tellers must be at lunch & would be back by 1pm. Well by 1.15pm the PTT was full of customers, I estimated around 80, who were standing around waiting for service, but that was ok cause I had ticket number 304, the lady sitting next to me had 312 & I figured most of the other customers tickets should have been after mine. Around 1.30pm the tellers wandered back in & it took a while for them to set themselves up for serving. The first number 223 was called so I sat patiently waiting only to realize after another 10 minutes that people were being served without tickets, so I promptly got myself to the front of the counter to be served, this only took another 5 minutes. From this experience I learnt 2 things: 1) Turkish people are very patient. 2) Never complain about slow service in NZ again.
Our next port of call was Rhodes Island, Greece, but before we left we made sure we spent what was left of our Turkish currency on groceries & then to finish off we had our last Effes (Turkish Beer) at a local restaurant. It was also sad leaving Turkey after being there so long & knowing that we may never return, we’ll miss the donners & Effes.
Luckily we had great wind conditions for our trip to Rhodes & were able to sail all the way, most unusual as we’ve found there is usually no wind or it’s coming straight from the direction we need to head. By coincidence some Swiss friends, Peter & Leena who we met last year in Kos & Bodrum, left Marmaris & arrived in Rhodes at the same time as us. They also happen to be on the same schedule as us ie. going down to Crete then up the Ionian Coast to reach Corfu by mid April.
We left Rhodes the following day & did an overnight trip to Crete. Peter & Leena opted to go a slightly different way so we lost contact with them. The wind conditions were rather mixed but we managed to sail most of the way. After 25 hours we arrived in Sitia on Crete & Peter & Leena arrived not long after. The weather changed after our arrival & we experienced strong winds for several days. We went west to Spinalonga & anchored in the lagoon which looked delightful. It was even more special for me as I read a book last year about the old leaper colony that used to be here on Spinalonga Island. Although the book was fictional there were a lot of true facts in it & the place is more or less as the book describes.
It was calm when we arrived at Spinalonga, however the wind came up & once again we were experiencing gusts up to 40knots. We stayed 2 nights, luckily the wind died down each night so we were able to get a good nights’ sleep. During the day however we noticed Peter & Leenas’ boat, Nicone, had dragged it’s anchor & they hadn’t realized as they were busy down below, just as well it didn’t happen at night. They were able to change to a larger anchor, 48kgs, which solved their problem.
We moved on from Spinalonga to Iraklion on 26th March. Iraklion is apparently the 5th largest city in Greece & the capital of Crete. We moored on the inside of the break water & went into town to explore the shops, it was rather chilly with the wind coming down off the snowy mountains. The next morning was a beautiful day & Pete went for a bike ride to check out a nearby marina, he returned 1½ hours later only to say that he could get to the marina. He did get a good 20km workout though. Meanwhile I was getting a workout running along the breakwater which turned out to be 2kms long. We continued our journey to the western end of Crete & stopped off at Bali for the night. The next day we started out with a good steady sailing breeze, but had a good shakeup along the way with winds gusting up to 50knots & the waves built up to 3-4 meters. We even had a storm pass right over head with thunder, lightening hail & heavy rain. We are still amazed at how quickly the weather can change in the Med, however our good ship Saliander always sees us through.
We arrived at Hania on 28th March & moored on the town quay with Peter & Leena. We were very pleased we’d made it into a sheltered anchorage, especially the next day when the wind blew from the north & the surf was breaking at the habour entrance. After the weather settled down we hired a car & drove along the northern coast where there is a good highway running 160 miles along the length of the island, this is where the main towns are located. We prefer to explore the mountain villages which we found in the south western corner the following day. The island is certainly very green with lots of vegetation, there is also a lot of horticulture around this part of the coast ie large hot houses growing tomatoes & olive groves are prolific in the mountain areas. I found herbs (sage, thyme, oregano & lavender) growing wild up in the mountains, the wild flowers are also out now, including the red poppies. We like to go off the beaten track & we certainly did that, we took a shortcut from the coast through the mountains. Unfortunately the metal road, or should I say “goat track”, had not been maintained over the winter months, the rain had scoured out big ruts. Our poor little Suzuki struggled to get over them & had a few extra rattles by the time we’d finished with her, including the exhaust. We came across an Austrian man taking the same road/goat track. He was pushing his bike, with all his traveling gear, up one of the many steep hills. He refused our offer of a ride because his doctor told him he must do it for his heart – I think it must be kill or cure!!!!
We ended up in Paleochora, a lovely sleepy village on the southern coast. No doubt it comes alive in the summer months when it’s overrun with tourists like the rest of the Greek Islands. We called into a taverna which looked very traditional but was actually run by English people. Our waitress was an older English woman & I was tempted to ask if her name was Shirley (Valentine). We met a couple of young Argentinean girls at the taverna & gave them a lift back to Hania as they were staying not far from us. They spoke very good English (definitely better than our non existent Spanish) & it was really interesting to hear about their country etc. We arrived back at Hania in time to have a farewell dinner with Peter & Leena, our Swiss friends, who were leaving early the next morning to sail up to the Peloponnese.
We’ve enjoyed Hania which is a lovely town, however like all the other towns on the island it has very narrow streets which are mostly one way, this makes it interesting for driving. There’s no point in using a map to navigate as they don’t tell you which way you can go on the roads & although there’s a system to the one way roads, if you miss your turn you can end up being spat out of the other side of town having to weave your way back to your destination. Peak hour traffic is fun too!!!
We have spent the last 2 days provisioning up & catching up on our chores ready for our departure from Crete. Paul & Jude, our English friends from Finike, have just arrived in Crete & are down in Spinialonga. However, as the winds are now favorable for heading up to the Peloponnese, we’re expecting to leave here tomorrow & unfortunately will not have a chance to see them.
One of Pete’s priorities when we are traveling is getting the fishing lines out. Last year it took 6 months before he finally started catching anything (other than plastic bags). He thought he had finally found the right fishing tackle to do the job, this year his lucky lures are not working at all so far. Just as well we had plenty of fish in NZ to keep us going for a while. Maybe he’ll get lucky tomorrow!!!