Scraping barnacles in the rain

It has been raining steadily since midnight and Nimos is lost in the mist. Dismal though the day may be it is rather warmer than the preceding three days when cold clear conditions and a brisk bone-numbing northerly prevailed. The men from DEH took advantage of the dry weather to continue with their labours, resulting in various power cuts around the island while they installed a massive transformer on the Pedi road. The rainy weather is expected to clear from Saturday afternoon and mild south westerly winds should prevail for a few days after that. I hope the boffins are right as we are sailing our venerable old wooden ketch across to Rhodes to slip her on Monday and scraping barnacles in the rain is not much fun.

There is a general strike on throughout Greece today so many places are closed. On Symi the Dodecanese Pride ran but nothing else did and the Port Authority's telephone number just rings and rings. The National Bank is closed but the Alpha bank is open. There is talk that the strike will last for 48 hours but at this stage this is unconfirmed. As this strike does affect shipping, anyone planning to travel this weekend would be advised to have a back up plan in case they get stuck along the way.

The confirmed death of six swans from bird flu in northern Greece has not had much impact on the Symiots - those birds on Symi that have not been culled are firmly under lock and key and we haven't seen swans here for years! It is quite weird how quiet the island has become without the crowing of cockerels at all hours of the day and night.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com