Rhodes, leaving and our first night trip

Early in the morning we cast off from Nisiros and first of all got some distance to the coast, because it is still quite dark. So we could once again enjoy the sunrise on board. Today there are already waves, but much less and only one metre high. Course Rhodes. Later the wind shifted and blew in our faces, which made progress a lot slower. With Turkey on one side and Rhodes on the other, we made our way to Rhodes City.

Here, a bit surprisingly, there was a considerable delay, because there is no customs or coast guard office in the harbour. So we drove a little further into the New Marina and were first allowed to pay a half-day mooring fee, only to have to go to customs to leave the country. Everyone told us that this could take more than a day. So we looked for an agent who could do it for us, so it would be much quicker, because our destination for the day was supposed to be Fethiye in Turkey.

The agent was super nice and …. really fast, but by the time we had the papers it was already 16:30. Would have meant that we would enter unknown waters at night. So we decided to pay the second half-day fee in the marina, take a shower and eat a really good steak. After the anchor beer, we decided to leave at 3:00 a.m., as the first few hours would be spent in very deep water. And so we did. At night we used the compass, which was exciting because it was new moon, pitch black, but we were able to marvel at the starry sky, several shooting stars and a coastguard who caught an illicit fisherman. Dangerous as hell, because hauling in nets out in the water without any light is crazy. Slowly, we both felt like real sea bears, because navigating by compass, at night and when the sun rose, with Turkey in front of our eyes and even on the point in front of the bay of Fethiye, boosts our self-confidence.