With our police report done, it was time to head off towards Kastelorizo, via a bit of Greek Island hopping. Our first stop was Astipolea, a days sail away. We got there just before sunset and found the wall completely full so we anchored in a nice bay south of the town and stayed on board.

Next day we set sail for Tilos and we found a nice anchorage on the west coast that was also a bit of a hippy camping spot. Pleasant spot to hang out for a late afternoon.

This put us in range of Rhodes. We decided to do a day in Rhodes town before heading down to Lindos for a couple of days. We’d heard that the new Rhodes Marina was open so we thought there may be space in Mandraki now. No such luck. We got waved away. So new Rhodes Marina it was.

And brand spanking new it was. Right down to the newly laid mooring lines and the new staff who were still learning the ropes. They put all the yachts in one corner and left the rest of the marina free. Huge empty spaces were available for a lot more yachts.

We had a little argument about pricing. They have a strange way of pricing wide boats that saw us being classified as 23m long???? After a couple of escalations we agreed on a price of 95 euros. Still ouch – but not as ouch as the original price.

Rhodes was our last good shopping spot before hitting Turkey so we filled up on diesel and wine. Found a great wine shop in the old town that provided us with some great recommendations and in they went to our special bilge storage spot.

One of the reasons we called into Rhodes town was to try and get an extended visa for Greece. When we tried to get one in Leros they said we had to go to Rhodes to try. However when we went to the immigration office, we found out they were only open on Tuesdays and Fridays. We got talking to an English expat who’d been living there forever and she reiterated that it would be almost impossible to obtain one – something the Police in Leros had also said. Oh well – the Greeks just don’t want us to stay and spend our money there.

With diesel and wine topped up, it was off to Lindos, about 30nm down the coast. Lindos is one of our favourite places in Greece, a stunning setting under an ancient acropolis with Greek columns, a Crusader Castle and Church perched on a hill. Underneath there is a beautiful town with winding streets leading up to the acropolis and lots of shopping. On the bay itself is some delightful restaurants. Ah…heaven.

We’d only driven there by car previously so we were keen to take La Mischief there. It wasn’t that straightforward though as there were quite a few boats in the bay and the bottom was strewn with rocks.

We had a couple of anchoring attempts before we were happy. On one, we managed to get our anchor caught around some rocks and we needed to snorkel on it (lucky the water was very clear as it was caught 15m down) to work out which way to drive the boat to free it. I was on snorkel directing Dee on the wheel.

Safely anchored, we had a couple of wonderful days there, swimming, eating and shopping. The town had some wonderful rooftop restaurants overlooking the bay and we enjoyed a night time dinner talking to some interesting Israelis before retiring to the Captains House Bar, an original Captain’s House from the 17^th Century built by a wealthy seafarer with ornate carved stone work around the Sala door and the original hand painted ceiling still intact. The barman and the owner were great company and it took us to the early hours of the morning to eventually leave. For our second night on the town, we took the recommendation of a Pommy rugby player who was managing a jewelry shop (interesting combination), and checked out another Captains House (there are a few of them in Lindos) that was an up and coming restaurant called Olive Street. It turned out to be a great recommendation and a step up from a lot of the (very good) tavern meals we’d been enjoying.

With Paul and Jenny about to arrive in Kasterlorizo, it was time to say goodbye to Lindos and head southeast to our final Greek destination 70nm away.