Mild and Sunny

I was fortunate to be able to catch the Proteus from Rhodes on Sunday evening, her last trip before settling down in Symi for essential maintenance.  She is now laid up in Yialos and the famous amphitheatre harbour is reverberating with the merry whacking of hammers as the crew set about chipping rust – a tedious but essential task when maintaining a steel ship.  There is talk that she will be in service during the winter but at this stage no schedule has been released so we can only do what we have become so adept at – wait and see.

In the meantime the Blue Star Diagoras is visiting Symi twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, until Christmas.  This is a big help as Dodecanese Seaways is only serving Symi on Saturdays and Sundays, stopping off en route to and from Kos.  Handy if you have business to do in Kos but not much use to Symiots  needing to get to Rhodes to the tax office and all the other essential bureaucracy that is part and parcel of every day life here these days.  The only drawback with the Diagoras is that like any vessel emanating from Piraeus she is subject to the whims of the weather in the Central Aegean and is also affected by strikes whereas the local boats are more reliable in that regard.

Now that the Panormitis Festival is over the island is very quiet indeed.  There is one yacht in the harbour.  Most of the water taxis and excursion boats have already been hauled out for the winter and all the tourist businesses are closed.  Other shops and eateries are operating on shorter hours as there are fewer people around and the requirements of the locals are few.

The weather remains mild and sunny with daytime temperatures at 22 degrees, dropping to about 18 degrees in the evenings.  Rain is expected to reach us on Thursday evening and we may be in for a stormy weekend with some heavy downpours.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana