Stormy Weather

Apart from a brief dry spell on Saturday it has not really stopped raining since Friday morning. Other parts of the country have been paralysed by gale force winds up to Force 11 on the Beaufort scale, with blizzards and flooding in many areas. Snow has fallen on Crete and in much of the mainland including Athens and snow chains are required on most national roads. Temperatures are well below freezing in many parts of the country. Here on Symi it is around 10 degrees today. Yesterday it never rose above 9 in Chorio and we had one hail storm heavy enough to block the gutters. The Aghia Marina river which forms part of our boundary flowed for several hours yesterday and I should imagine it is flowing again right now. Hopefully not through our house as it did yesterday... Mind you, I doubt if I am the only one on this island who puts her furniture up on bricks in the winter.

The outlook for the rest of the week is pretty unsettled with more rain and windy days to come.

At some point over the weekend a big boat unloaded a lot of fish food for the fish farm on the quay below our window. Between cloudbursts and thunderstorms a squad of oil-skin clad figures with forklift and crane have been transferring this lot to the fish farm lighter. Apart from their neon orange and yellow figures there is not much movement to be seen out there today. At this time of the year the harbour tends to be quiet anyway as the greater part of the population lives up in Chorio and has little need to come down into the harbour.

A small GRP yacht with a drooping French flag wallowed in earlier and is now tied up near the remains of the traffic barrier (this self-destructed in strong winds some weeks ago). Yachts are quite an unusual sight at this time of the year. Most sailors are safely tucked into some marina or other with little desire to hurl themselves about in the frigid squalls of a Mediterranean winter.

The bus is back from its annual service - a welcome sight on a wet day when the alternative is paddling up the Kali Strata.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com