It’s feeling a little bit chillier this morning, though it’s not as breezy as it was yesterday. As you can see from Neil’s two photos today, the weather is apt to change very quickly at this time of year. That’s one of the reasons we always take care when traveling. Not because we might get tossed about on the high seas, but because we might not get off the island at all. Years ago, we met someone at the Panormitis festival who was due to catch the inter-island ferry a couple of days after, but it was so windy, the boat came in, reversed toward the quay, then had to pull away and head out because it was too rough to land. Our friend was, like many, stuck here for some extra days. We’ve had a similar problem on the way back. It was ten years ago mind you, but we ended up being stuck in Rhodes for an extra three or four nights due to high seas. This was in April, so the unpredictability can last for several months.
The seas haven’t been that bad recently, nothing like it, but it’s always worth thinking about if you’re planning to visit Symi out of the summer season. Three or four extra days in Rhodes were not only costly but rather dull (no offence to the island). Had we known we would be delayed, we’d have stayed in Romania because it would have been cheaper. With little spending money left and an extra hotel stay to pay for, there wasn’t much left for anything else, so we walked around the seafront X number of times, read books, sat in cafes and generally bided our time until news came that the boat would finally leave.
Anyway, not to put anyone off, but just to suggest if you are heading this way, or heading back to catch a plane, you check the weather as best you can, and build in the possibilities of delays. It’s not always like this, you’re just never sure when it will be. On other days, like yesterday, the same view can look like this.
