March is rolling past with windy showers and ever-longer sunny intervals. Day time highs are around 15-18 degrees centigrade and the prevailing northerly winds give great visibility, as you can see from the photographs.
One big advantage of Greek Easter being late this year is that the Carnival celebrations and Clean Monday picnics took place in balmy sunshine and gentle breezes rather than gales and downpours. There are still regular shipping bans – today brings another one – but the strong winds are 7s and 8s rather than 9s and 10s and pass quickly. The disruptions affect mostly the smaller local boats that aren’t allowed out in BF 6 and over and the Stavros which needs to be able to safely drop the vehicle ramp in the exposed small island ports that it serves. The Blue Star is running pretty much on time.
The first tourist charter flights into Rhodes started early this year. As it isn’t exactly beach weather and there isn’t much for tourists to do in March, the King Saron has been bringing over occasional groups of tourists, sea conditions permitting. A few tourist shops have started to open up when the boat is in and Symi was visited by a boutique cruise ship on Tuesday. The bus is still operating a reduced winter schedule.
25 March is Independence Day as well as the Annunciation so this is the second consecutive long weekend. Monday will be celebrated with parades, church services and family time.
Adriana Shum 