June 17, Sheila got either food poisoning or a bug, but we have never seen her this sick. She ended up in dire straits with violent upheavals on both ends. Mike took tender care of her while the caring loving slept. The Leftons escaped by hydrofoil the next morning to Lindos, Rhodes and the main town of Rhodes. After Keith arrived we went to dinner at the taverna by Hippocrates' tree. Sheila stayed on the boat.
June 18 our ferry trip to Bodrum, Turkey was canceled, due to the Melteme and force 9 wind. We enjoyed the lay day sunning, reading, repairing, etc…
June 19 Ron and Deb had planned an early start to take a ferry to Bodrum, then fly to Istanbul for a few days, then home. Weather still grounded the Greek ferries, but eventually some Turkish Gullet boats did arrive. They managed a ride with them. Later, the weather subsided enough that many of the charter sailboats wanted to leave. Of course our two anchors were under some of the others who arrived after us. It seemed to take an hour to extricate ourselves. We relocated away from the charter group to some peace.
June 20 the Wheelers arrived and we departed for Nisoros with 25 knots on a beam reach. As the wind built to 30 we cranked in the genoa roller furling part way, then it let go and completely rolled out. Mike was not happy about the broken roller furling. Yet another BIG project. Keith and Jeff put on life jackets and life slings. We spent 20 minutes preparing. They went forward, lowered and secured the jib--so quickly we wondered what all the fuss was about. We sailed into the small harbor Pali, east of the main harbor Mandrakia. We learned of Pali from a German captain. Small, good taverns with no Port Police. We decided to dine at the last place in the harbor, Astra Dini’s Taverna. We were the only customers. Her English was limited, but invited us to the kitchen to see what was available. She opened a freezer case saying the lobster was fresh today. Her brother is the fisherman. We had learned from our friend Petra Stubben, who grew up working with her parents’ restaurant in Germany, that squid is much more tender after freezing. Therefore we chose the cuttle fish from the freezer. Our hostess cooked up a storm, delivering one course after another, many we did not know we ordered, but all was wonderful. The Wheelers rented a flat in Brussels, but had only spent two days there before arriving at Migration. They decided to take a room ashore to have a good night’s sleep. The boat, on the other hand, which was on the end of the jetty, rocked all night long.
June 21 we rented motor bikes and toured the island active volcano and the Chora on the top of the mountain with its ancient church. The deep blue of the Mediterranean seemed to go for thousands of miles. June 22 we headed for Serimos. The town was quaint with a beautiful beach. Our focus became the woman in a classical long black dress, with a white headscarf and her staff walks right into the water with children playing about her. It seems to be the thing to do when it is hot. Sheep were grazing on the steep rocky cliff next to the boat. Their bells clanking. We had nice food at the family owned taverna and slept well.
June 23 we had a nice uneventful sail back to Kos.