It seemed for a while that we would never
be in the same country at the same time! Tracy went to Australia,
Terry went to Israel. Tracy came back to England, Terry went to
Turkey to work for Sunsail. Not content with being left in the
UK, Tracy flew to Greece to see some friends who worked at Sunsail’s Vounaki Club. The day she arrived, she was asked if she would
help crew a yacht delivery to Kos. So she did! When she arrived
in Kos, she rang Terry to say where she was, when he surprised
her back by saying that he was being transferred to Kos in 2 weeks!
Two weeks later, after a short spell in
Marmaris in Turkey, we were living in a first floor apartment
in Kos Town, with Terry working as a Base Engineer for Sunsail
and Tracy as yet unemployed. Tracy’s work situation was soon
sorted however, after Terry landed her a job as a boat Divemaster
on the City of Kos dive boat - at that time Tracy had only passed
her Open Water a month before and only had 7 dives to her credit!!
From the very next day, 7 days a week (unless the unpredictable
Dodecanese winds blew up) Tracy lifted tanks, kitted out Intro
divers and gave briefings and generally played hostess to the
boat’s customers - sometimes numbering as many as 60! On
the odd quiet day she got to dive with Kosta, the instructor,
or Terry - who was given free dives on his days off from Sunsail.
Terry’s days were mostly spent on
the marina with fellow engineer, Daz, who was also our neighbour,
fixing boat engines and generally maintaining them. Every other
Friday was busiest being the turnaround day, when the flotilla
came back, the guests left and new ones arrived. In that time
all the boats had to be cleaned, mended and made ready for the
new arrivals. The flotilla was run by the "lead crew",
made up of Lisa, the hostess, Pete, the Engineer, and Ffyord the
Skipper. When all the hard work was done, everybody relaxed with
a few drinks (sometimes more than a few) and a dance at The Four
Roses Bar, where we were all well known by Yannis the owner -
no least of all because of Tracy and Lisa’s frequent bar
dancing!!
And so for the subsequent 6 months, we
lived happily in this routine. Occasionally going to the Therma
Springs for a warm dip. A walk up a local mountain and the odd
weekend in nearby island, Leros, to the Savannah Bar run by Pete
and Simon who let the customers make up cocktails until everyone
was too drunk to stand!
We were also visited by Terry's best mate
Tim and his girlfriend Julia who came out for a weeks holiday
at the same time as Tracy’s best mate Wendy! Tracy’s
mum Kathy, and her 3 friends, Cheryl, Lucy and Trish came over
for a week and spent most of it in the Four Roses! We also made
friends with Pete Hadley, the owner of Tattoo Kos after his then
partner John tattooed around Tracy’s belly button. Little
did we know that within 3 years we’d be popping back to Kos
just to see Pete again...!
The end of October soon arrived, which
was the end of the season and the end of Sunsail in Kos. All the
stores were cleared out and equipment was packed. The only thing
left to do was take the boats back to the mainland. Terry and
I, Pete and Christine, the manager at that time, took a boat called
Foolish Pleasure, a 51 ft yacht, back to Melina over about 4 days,
The rest of the boats were taken back by paying customers. Melina
was to be Tracy’s last stop and after about a week there,
she bid a very tearful farewell to Terry - as he was off to South
Africa.
Would we ever arrive and leave a country
at the same time, together.....?
"SECOND TIME AROUND"
Things started to get a bit tense in Israel
with all the fighting with the Palestinians, so it was time to
go. We wanted to head for South Africa, but Tracy wanted a new
Tattoo. So, we booked ourselves on a package holiday to Rhodes!
(The airlines didn't fly direct to Kos, where the tattoo shop
is and it was cheaper to get a package deal than a one way ticket
to Rhodes). We spent three days in a hotel in Rhodes and did some
sight seeing. The intention was to catch a ferry to Kos from Rhodes
but the unpredictable winds blew up and we were stranded. We booked
into a guesthouse within Rhodes' medieval castle for a few more
days but time was running short and we flew to Kos instead, but
not before booking our flights to Durban in a week's time! We
had to fly to Athens first, then transfer to Kos. We were disappointed
to find the weather was pretty horrible, and to make matters worse
it appeared that Pete, the man Tracy wanted to do her tattoo had
already left the island! Fortunately after a bit of investigation,
we found him and he tattooed Tracy's lower back with a Lionfish,
which he did freehand from a photo taken by Terry in Egypt! It
was great to see Pete again and we went back to his house in the
evening for a meal and a few drinks while he packed as he was
heading off to Sweden to be with his new girlfriend. Our short
trip soon ended and we flew back to Athens to get our flight to
Durban.
Of all the places we have visited, some
with amazing diving, which after all is what this is all about,
some with stunning scenery, some with divers and plentiful wildlife,
there is something about Greece that we love. There are no fish,
as they've eaten them all, the scenery is a bit bleached, plus
the wildlife is virtually non-existent, unless of course you count
goats and mules! Maybe it's the easy way of life, or the love
for life, the food, the wine or a combination of it all. But the
relaxed life on the Greek islands will keep us coming back time
and time again.
LIANI PUNDI
This was the dive site that City of Kos
went to EVERY day for the best part of the 6 months Tracy worked
for them! The Intro divers went from the shore with Kosta, the
instructor who took them down to about 2m to get their photos
taken with some of the Rainbow Wrasse. The qualified divers went
on a different dive of course and despite the lack of marine life,
the crystal visibility was a treat. The dive only usually lasted
a maximum of half an hour to a depth of around 20-25m. From the
dive boat, you kept the land to your right on the way out for
about 15 minutes, then came back again! There are thousands of
sea urchins, which the ships crew would collect and eat with a
sprinkling of lemon and Ouzo! There was another dive there however,
same direction, different depth! We did this dive with Vassili,
the owner of City of Kos, before we were experienced enough to
know better. Following Vassili with all the trust in the world,
before we knew it we were at 50m looking at a very old fishing
boat wreck. We wondered why he had told us to get 15 litre tanks!
It is a great place to learn to dive or to do an intro dive as
the water is clear and there are no currents but experienced divers
found it all a bit boring particularly those who had dive in tropical
waters. Spare a thought for poor Kosta who when we were there
had already dived it several thousand times! Kosta, you really
need to get out of Greece for a while!
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