We left
the island of Patmos and sailed to Kos, the island of Hippocrates.
Kos is a Mecca for young,
active tourists who enjoy water sports, especially wind surfing.
Our anchorage put us "on site" to watch and enjoy all
the activity. We read in some of the cruising guides to avoid
Kos for it is too noisy and too "busy." We enjoyed the
activity and if we had been there just a little longer probably would
have opted for a para-sail trip. We have done just enough wind
surfing to appreciate the skill of some of the surfers and the
agony of those attempting it for the first time. The winds were
pretty high part of the time, which made it especially difficult for
beginners.
On Kos we rented a car instead of a motor scooter
to travel the length of the island. The heat
and the fact that the trip to Kos town was about an hour made a
car welcome. Kos town is beautiful and the greenest location
of any that we visited in Greece. The city was rebuilt after
a 1933 earthquake. The tree lined avenues and the parks surrounding
the port are shady and inviting. 
We
visited the fabled plane tree where legend holds Hippocrates lectured
his students. Perhaps in our day of HMO's, managed care and
"the bottom line" health care providers should be required to read
his oath on a regular basis.
Time was running out and we knew we needed to get to Marmaris
Marina in Turkey in time to make arrangements for Sea Gem before
we left her and traveled
back home.
Charlie made all the necessary visits to customs,
immigration, and the port police, and filled in the multiple forms
necessary to check out of Greece while we were in Kos town.
We then
drove back to Ormos Kamari, our anchorage, and prepared to leave
for Turkey. We made one overnight stop in Symi so that we
would arrive in Turkey early in the day. The bay where we
stopped in Symi was beautiful, and given an opportunity, we would
have stayed for a visit. We had morphed into departure
mode. Our minds had already clicked into what had to be done
before we could leave the boat.
The distance between Greece and Turkey is minimal
yet the problems that separate the two co
untries
are great. Fortunately we do not have to be concerned with
politics that don't involve us.
We were pleasantly surprised to find the Marmaris
Marina large, clean and well equipped. All manner of
services are available there and the marina staff is helpful.
On arriving we were directed to a slip where
we docked stern too, taking their mooring lines for our bow.
In the marina attractive stores and restaurants are abundant and
there are small food stores nearby. In the city we found large
supermarkets and open air markets.
Leaving Sea Gem for a prolonged absence was like
moving. Besides the standard clean up you would expect, such
as the refrigerator and freezer, we took all packaged food
off the boat. Even canned items were not left aboard.
With extreme variations in temperature cans can rupture leading
to a stinky mess that might also attract vermin. I was assured
that there is not a rat problem in the yard, but hatches must be
kept closed to keep the cats out. Maybe that is why they do
not have a rat problem. We found friends on the dock and marina
employees that were happy to take the food. Throwing food
away is not in our mode of operation so a home was fo
und for all of it.
Lists were made and items checked off. The two outboards were taken in for service and then remounted, the inflatable was sent for repair and
then packaged for storage, the engines and generator were winterized and the thru hulls closed. The water makers were pickled, ready for the lay up. One thing after another was
accomplished as we worked away. The heat made work hard. The temperature rose in daytime
to melting proportions. Heavy work we planned for early in the morning, by night we were
too tired to do much.
We 
found
helpful friendly people everywhere in Marmaris. Charlie was looking
for an Internet Cafe one day and ran into 
a
nice young man who offered to let him use his own computer,
located in his leather shop so that Charlie could check e-mail.
They have Internet in Turkey but the phone connections are
not reliable. It makes doing anything on the web totally frustrating.
I did not even consider sending a log from Turkey. Charlie
went back and took pictures at the leather shop and we bought a
couple of hats to add to the pile of Christmas gifts we are accumulating.
We look forward to visiting DOGUS LEATHER SHOP again to visit
and ask advice from Ali Uysal and Faik Korun who are pictured here
with Charlie.
We plowed along and made arrangements to leave Marmaris by ferry and go to Rhodes
where we would be able to get a flight to Athens. Due to ferry times and connections we had to leave Marmaris on the day the boat was hauled out of the water.
For the first time we remained in the boat while she was lifted and it is a strange sensation to be driven across a parking lot in your sailboat. Being up that high and having to use a
ladder to climb in and out of the boat I recall what our friend Lois Post said after her husband John fell out of their boat while it was "on the hard" and was severely injured. "If
you are going to fall out of your boat, make sure it is in the water first."
We
packed a lot of "stuff" we wanted to get off the boat and
packaged the thirty-five kilos of olive oil that Charlie had purchased
in Crete. Our coordinator from the marina offered to build
a wooden box for us to carry it, but we said, "No, a cardboard box
would be sufficient." Oh, had we known!
By the time we packed everything we had six duffels
and containers to check which just left the backpack and my purse
to carry aboard. We got a van to take us, (and the stuff),
to the wharf to await the ferry. The trip by hydrofoil
is fast and smooth and in less than two hours we were in Rhodes.
Getting a taxi in Rhodes was another thing and as Charlie hauled
all the heavy stuff from the ferry, through customs and out
to the street, I snagged a taxi from the main road. Being
"high season" the driver told us we would have trouble finding a
room, and we did have to go to several places before we found a
hotel with a vacancy. We checked in and the next morning we
were out of there and on our way to Athens.
By now we are pretty familiar with the Athens airport
and we wanted to store all the baggage before we headed to Spetses to David and Demetra Hersey's party.
We found only a few days before we left Sea Gem
that the party was postponed until Monday, August 7 and our reservations
home were for the same day. We knew that we would still see
many of the old group and our plans were already made so on we went.
As it turned out David and Demetra ended up giving an impromptu
party at their home on Saturday night (we think for us since he
changed the date of his party after we had completed our homebound
reservations)
and he also hosted dinner on Sunday evening after the flame ceremony.
Quite a lovely weekend, with many of our friends from the Millennium
Odyssey present.
Jimmy and Gwenda Cornell were there, relaxing and not
having to "manage" anything.
Our good friends Don and Lois Babson made arrangements for us at
a small, friendly
resort hotel. Spetses is a real Greek vacation
destination and it is hopping in August. There are few cars on Spetses
and most travel is by scooter, motor cycle, horse drawn carriage
or walking. We scootered around, swam on the beaches and sampled
the fine restaurants. One of the restaurants is owned by Christo,
who also crewed on David Hersey's boat, "Company", so the group
often met there
The
last flame ceremony of the Millennium Odyssey was conducted in the
Greek Orthodox Church on Spetses. The procession from the
water front 
was
impressive, with tolling bells, chanting, and lighted lamps carried
up the hill by bearded and robed clergy, followed by a huge contingent
of local people and the Millennium Odyssey participants. The
church was overflowing with all of us standing throughout the ceremony
where each of the participants were presented with a lovely icon
by the priest.
Following
the ceremony we trouped down to Christo's restaurant where we were
brought course after course of delectable Greek specialties.
We ate throughout the evening when good judgment prevailed and we
bade our friends go
od-bye
so that we could rise and be at the ferry dock by seven the next
morning. It is never easy to say good-bye, especially knowing
that you may never see some of these friends again and your only
contact will be through less and less frequent e-mail and Christmas
cards.
Our trip to Athens was uneventful as we checked our luggage,
and through the miracle of Frequent Flyer points made our way to
the First Class lounge. Everything was going smoothly until
about forty-five minutes before the flight when Charlie got a call
over the public address 
system. "Mr.
Charles Gray has a phone call. Please come to the lounge desk
please." He answered the page and was asked to come to the
Delta counter downstairs. We both went down, wondering what
the problem was.
When we got to the counter we saw the cardboard
box, with the tell tale rope handles sitting behind the counter.
The very pretty young Delta representative told us there was a problem
with the olive oil. To take it into the baggage compartment
it needed to be in a wooden crate (remember our friend at the marina)
and the crate needed to have two inches of sawdust surrounding the
oil which has to be in a metal container. Well we failed on
several counts: cardboard box, plastic container and absolutely
no sawdust. What to do? The agent said, "Just call someone
and have them pick it up and hold it for you."
Now we are pretty short of friends in Athens who will come to the
airport on a moments notice and rescue thirty five kilos (about
eighty pounds) of olive oil. "Is there anything else we could
do?" we asked. "Well," she said, "you could carry it aboard."
There the olive oil saga began: through security
checks, where it was too tall to stand up, and would leak if laid
down, down long concourses and runways, onto buses and off busses,
onto planes, and finally into the welcoming embrace of the U S Department
of Agriculture Inspector at Atlanta airport who razzed us royally
about what we were doing with all that olive oil. Charlie
carried it ninety-nine percent of the way, with a little help from
me and wheelchairs whenever we could snag one. Now that we
are home and able to share with our friends " the best olive oil
on earth", it was worth it. But next time, we'll build a wooden
box. 
We are busy re-entering the world of work, I-4 traffic, appointments, commitments, pressure, politics and hectic schedules. What fun. If it were not for family and friends, a new law office building
and the opportunities to expand our law firm we could be tempted to stay at sea. We are looking forward to returning to Sea Gem the first of April to complete our cruise of the Mediterranean and
resume our Log. Until then.....
