Ice Cream and Cold Beer

Brisk meltemi breezes have been blowing in the Aegean all week, fanning fires in Naxos and keeping the Greek fire services on the alert in all vulnerable areas. The wind will drop this weekend as another heat wave sweeps across Greece. Temperatures are expected to be upwards of 40 degrees centigrade in much of the country, accompanied by high humidity – excellent weather for beach goers and purveyors of ice cream and cold beer. Here on Symi the water taxis, beach tavernas and excursion boats can look forward to a busy weekend after a frustrating week of windy weather. Webcam waves are also proving very popular and quite a few wavers come upstairs to enthuse and thank us for providing the facility. Webcam watchers, on the other hand, will have noticed a change to the backdrop on the waterfront over the last few days as the stone ‘wishing well’ planters have now been filled with earth and bay trees. I took the accompanying photograph this morning.

Meanwhile on the ferry front, the Aegli hydrofoil has once again been withdrawn from service. According to ANES’ Symi office she is out of order again but dedicated watchers of marine traffic have noticed that she was seen doing a trip to Marmaris in Turkey on Thursday. At this stage it is unclear when if ever she will be back in service so modifications have been made to the routes of the Proteus and Symi II to try to fill the gaps.

Harbour beautification aside, another project that is being tackled with zeal is the Pedi marina. The crane and crew are working flat out at the moment to finish the work by the end of this month, much to the dismay of people staying in the area. It is a bit like pulling teeth – horrible while it lasts but best done quickly and it will be a huge relief when it’s all over. The blocks have been laid for the full length of the new mole and the new breakwater is nearly complete. At present the floating crane is working in the corner, outside the Pedi Katoi. It is the dark shadow in the centre of the sunrise photo I took this morning.

 

Have a good week.
Regards,

Adriana