It’s a Small World

There were some tasks we needed to do this morning, like cleaning the boat and patching the dinghy. Yup, we had put a couple holes in the bottom thanks to a few jagged rocks we encountered the other day. It was a bit of an ordeal to patch, much like patching a tire, except we were supposed to heat the glue before we slapped the patches on. We managed to make do with the oven and it seemed to do the trick. Heath and I worked on it, while the rest went sightseeing and Zach C bot lunch.

The sea was fairly calm, and we only had a short distance to go to Symi. There was a beach that we wanted to hit before it got too late. Zach put potatoes in the oven and we had just finished eating our loaded baked potatoes when we sailed up to the most beautiful beach we had seen yet! It is only accessible by boat and goat. Just before we entered the cove, we noticed strange splashing in the water that at first we assumed was a large group of people swimming. As they splashed closer we could see they weren’t people, but never could figure out what they were. I suppose a huge school of fish. It looked extremely weird. There was a tall cliff face surrounding the cove, a pebble beach, a tiny church and goats. Crazy goats that hopped up and down the cliff like there was no tomorrow. It was a total scream. We couldn’t believe that they honestly just hung around on that shear rock wall without a care in the world. We dangled an hour or two away, swimming, snorkeling, collecting rocks, trying to climb where the goats go… truly a fabulous afternoon. We had the place to ourselves, except for an anchored sailboat with a couple people on board. It was ferocious hard to climb out of the sea and keep going. Our time is getting so short here! Sitting in the cockpit sipping her tea, Avril claimed high and low she had seen cannonballs on the ocean floor, but nobody really believed her. Afternoon Tea is a real ritual on the boat, and sometimes we have mid morning tea and evening tea as well. And always we have little biscuits or cookies that someone found in a local shop. It’s getting to be a real competition, all this cookie buying. Some are delicious, some end up as fish food.

Symi Harbor was a cute little place with fun shopping and restaurants. The harbor master zoomed around in his little motor boat helping tie bows to mooring balls, while friendly guys on shore caught stern lines and tied us up. They wanted us to move over just a little, and clearly it seemed the easiest for them just to bump into our boat with the harbor master boat and give it a good shove. None of this careful maneuvering. Worked just fine!

The island used to be famous for its sponges, and they still have quite a few shops selling them. With the advent of synthetic sponges, as well as the WW’s making diving impossible, Symi’s economy somewhat collapsed, and today the town is quite full of abandoned houses. We walked and shopped till supper time.

We still hadn’t splurged on seafood, so today was the day. Sitting down under the lit canopy, we proceeded to order a big feast of all things fish, including the famous Symi shrimp. Our poor waiter was possibly new, because I doubt an old hand would get so flustered when Zach P mistook his name, George, for Deutsch. That seemed to sorta throw him for the rest of the evening. It was a fun and interesting supper, but I can’t lie. It was also a little bland and a bit weird. There was a large garlic bulb braid hanging on the wall, and Avril said there was 50 bulbs in there. Forrest was a skeptic, and thought she probably didn’t know how to count, so they had an agreement that whoever was correct owed the other one a Gelato. I don’t think our waiter got any less nervous when he saw Forrest meticulously counting the bulbs, not once but twice.

Forrest bought the Gelato.