by Andy W » 30 Jun 2018, 21:18
Sea Dreams have changed ships on the Rhodes-Symi route. The Symi, which had a ferry licence and could carry one-way passengers, has been transferred to work in the Sporades. In exchange the Symi II has come south from the Sporades. Now although Symi II is capable of operating as a ferry, there are extra costs involved in doing so. Symi could carry vehicles, including trucks, and the money made from this covered the extra licence and crewing costs. Symi II doesn't have a vehicle deck and is somewhat smaller. so there is less scope for recovering the costs, and as a result Sea Dreams haven't so far taken up a ferry licence for the route. This means only day excursion tickets are available, and it is illegal for them to carry baggage on a day excursion. Now obviously there's nothing to stop passengers holding a day return ticket from simply failing to board for the return journey. People genuinely miss the boat every week. But if the crew allow you on board with baggage and the Rhodes port police/coastguard spot this, the captain will be heavily fined.The coastguard observe arrivals and departures at Rhodes and Symi to ensure the maximum safe passenger capacity is not exceeded, so there is little prospect of avoiding detection. On other day excursion vessels in the past, the Symi coastguard have deployed an amusing (for bystanders) trick of simply arranging for any baggage that is found on board or in the act of being carried ashore to be taken straight back to Rhodes again.
I obviously need to update the ferry timetables here, but have been waiting and waiting for an accurate entry to service date and timetable for the new ferry Sebeco which does now have a licence for the route - I'm still waiting, though we now know it can't be before 8 July as that's when the licence comes into effect. It was only launched last week so even 8 July seems optimistic.