In around 500 BC the Greek philosopher Pythagoras suggested for the first time the idea of a spherical Earth. He lived on the Greek island of Samos less than 100 miles north of our current position in Rhodes. It was the observation of tall ships disappearing over the Mediterranean horizon that first arose suspicions about the prevailing flat earth assumptions of those times. 150 years later, another Greek philosopher Aristotle provided the first convincing proof of the round earth theory using observations in the sky, such as the differing positions of stars when viewed from different locations on land, and the shape of the shadow cast onto the moon during a lunar eclipse. But still it remained a radical and non-sensical theory until many centuries later in 1521, when a sailing expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan finally proved with undeniable certainty that the Earth is indeed spherically shaped. Magellan himself did not survive the voyage, but one of the five expedition boats did… they sailed a ship so far west that they returned to where they started from, leaving the “Flat Earthers” in a state of stunned silence.

So it’s a fitting location here in the Greek islands for us to complete our own experimentation with this idea of a round Earth, very near to where the whole notion came into existence. In May of 2012 we ourselves sailed out of the Mandraki Marina on the north tip of Rhodes and headed west over the Mediterranean horizon. We arrived back here yesterday afternoon, exactly 2 years, 8 months, 5 days, 18 hours and 44 minutes since we last departed. It means we have put 31,892 nautical miles of water beneath us while covering a net distance of 0.0 miles. If our goal was simply to get from Rhodes to Rhodes, we definitely took the long way here.

Of course our journey was never about the destination, it was about the adventure and the experience;.. in those 0 miles of net distance between our start and finish line, an entire world lies in between that we got to experience. We witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly in people and in places. We experienced Mother Nature in her various forms and moods – punishment by the weather and the sea at some times, rewarded at others with magical moments and stunning views of the Earth’s most beautiful landscapes from vantage points few are fortunate enough ever to experience. We learned about the world from the perspective of its local people, which expanded our thinking and tolerance by orders of magnitude, while smashing to pieces many of our prejudices. And most importantly, we discovered ourselves, who we are, and what matters to each of us.

We are proud of completing our journey but recognize that we did almost none of it alone. We began as very novice sailors, and needed all the help we ended up finding throughout our voyage. We send our most sincere thanks to the outstanding crew that joined us for extended periods along the way: Tuncer (Legend), Rupe, Javier (Tarzan), and Asier (Maestro)… you were extraordinary team members and we are so grateful for our experiences with you. And to the many others who joined us for shorter segments or helped us from ashore or from abeam (John Burnie, Jimmy Swift, Bruce Byall, Uncle Chris, Uncle Bob, Lior, the Rogues, the Shapirits, Yossi, and many others) we thank you too for making our voyage the unforgettable and unique adventure it has been…. if there is one thing we really did do right, it was surrounding ourselves with amazing people. And to our parents, for their support both on board and from ashore (including Pop’s Atlantic Ocean crossing!), we haven’t the words to describe our gratitude to you.

So we confirm the authors of the Bible’s holy scriptures got it wrong, at least in a literal sense, in the books of Daniel, Matthew, Isaiah, and Revelation. And although their errata might be excusable for several reasons, the remaining members of the Flat Earth Society today deserve no such intellectual forgiveness. So yes, it’s true the world is not flat nor shaped like a disc, and there are no four corners to be found anywhere. We testify the thing is in fact a sphere as Pythagoras first suggested more than 2500 years ago.

We’ll enjoy a week or so here in Rhodes with some special guests who are coming to meet us here for a celebration. Then we’ll sail back to Marmaris in Turkey and begin the bittersweet process of passing Tamarisk along to someone with more ambitious voyaging plans than are currently in the cards for ourselves.

Three more elapsed days and no miles traveled… that’s a sure recipe for bringing morale down on the boat. On the bright side, the sat com is now almost fully installed and we’re planning our route for tomorrow morning. Our departure in the morning still depends on whether the technician shows up to activate the sat com tonight, which we think is about 50/50. He promises he’s gonna be here within an hour, but we’ve been in Greece nearly a week now so we know not to put too much faith in so called “promises”. Frankly we’ll be thanking our lucky stars if we get our sails up in the morning.

Our next stop will be the island of Symi, which is just 20 miles northeast of here, so with any luck we’ll be there for lunch tomorrow.

Some people back home have been asking us to post some videos in addition to the pics. We are truly amazed and grateful for the interest people have shown in our trip, so we’ve created a YouTube account and will be posting an occasional video for those of you who have been asking for them. We can only upload video files when we have a good wi-fi connection (on the land), so we probably won’t be able to post these on a regular basis. Below is a short clip from our first crossing, plus a quick bike tour around Rhodes.

As the rest of the world nervously anticipates the kind of chaos that may erupt after Greece says goodbye to the Euro, the attention here in the islands is on something much different… how to have a rocking party and enjoy the start of the summer. There’s almost no sign anywhere to suggest we’re at the epicenter of a meltdown, and that’s fine with us.

It’s a slow work day on the boat – the electrician showed up about 3 hours late (which is considered on time in Greece) to run wires for the sat com. Now that he’s got one of the wires half way run to the breaker panel, he’s taking a “quick” lunch break and will be back in ???. All this slowness for the past couple of days gave us time to explore the city a bit and take a few pics. If you can’t find a good photo opp here, you may want to choose a different hobby.

Anticipating a late start this morning, we followed the music last night to Bar Street to check out what all that noise was about. Luckily we’re not allergic to Scandinavian blondes because there’s armies of them here and they all converge on Bar Street just after midnight. If you’re not careful you could get hit by one falling from a table or sliding out of the foam party, which literally leaks huge volumes of foam, water, and arm-waving Scandinavians straight into the street – it would break about eleventeen rules in the US.

The metal working guy is telling us it will be Friday before he can finish the cage for mounting the sat com on the rear bridge. That’s longer than we were hoping, but we can use the extra time to do a more complete report about Bar Street.

The electrician just got back from lunch to say he’s done for the day because he needs a new wire from the shop and that he’ll see me in the morning. When I pressed him for a more specific time so I can make sure I’m here to meet him, his response was classic: “between 1:30 and 2″, which I guess is still considered “morning” in Greece.

We are calling today the official start of the around the world voyage because we left Turkey with no intention of returning. It was an amazing feeling of freedom to be out at sea on a fully working boat that we now feel is ready to circumnavigate. Our destination today was Rhodes, which is on the south end of the Dodecanese islands in Greece. This is where our satellite internet device has just arrived after about 6 weeks of being trapped in Greek customs. The import duty here is about 25%, and they had trouble believing the incredibly low price that appeared on the packing slip. But anyway, it’s here finally and we are ecstatic about that (no further comment about the packing slip).

Tunger had to hop on the ferry and was here waiting for us in Rhodes when we pulled into the port. By the time he showed up at the boat this morning our exit paperwork was already complete and it was impossible to add him to our transit log without re-doing all the paperwork ($$$). So he hopped on the ferry and came flying by us when we were about half way to Rhodes. In one of the pics you can see me talking to Tunger on the walkie talkie while his ferry is in the background.

We’re now moored inside the Mandraki marina and will be here for a couple of days while we figure out how to install this sat com system, which is now sprawled out on the galley table – we’re all pretty hopeless with electronics, so this could be interesting.