Third time lucky at the last minute! (report from Kastelorizo)

I've just got back today. Fulfilled! Third time lucky for me, after a
thin veil of cloud in Mexico 1991, and totally overcast in Germany 1999.
Eclipse 2006 for me was clear and superb - my first view of the subtle
glow of the chromosphere, and my first clear view of the corona and
diamond ring.

This time I did it all last-minute: a flight to Athens last Sunday
(booked only a few weeks ago), a ferry trip to Rhodes booked only a few
hours before travel, and the ticket for the nominally sold-out
Kastelorizo excursion secured on the dock-side literally minutes before
the hydrofoil departed! Yes!! Plus the obligatory last ten minute
anxieties over whether the approaching clouds from the West would reach
the sun before the trailing limb of the moon did. Was I destined always
to see clouds spoil the clear sky of the partial phase?

But the approaching clouds sort of split North-South with the Sun in the
gap and my final ring-side seat for the show (on the big hill
overlooking the tiny town of Kastelorizo) was looking more secure.

Relief grew. As in Mexico, I was struck by the unworldliness of the dim
pale-yellow-coloured light coming from high in the sky, unlike the sun
peeping from behind clouds near sunset. As in Germany, I was taken by
how the light levels progressively fell in the last two minutes. By now
I'd stowed my safety glasses away, but didn't remember to look for the
shadow approaching and was suddenly uncertain over whether it was time
to look naked-eye or not. I glanced upward, glimpsed something very
bright, and glanced down again. I needed someone in the group of 20 on
"my summit" to shout out but no-one did. I glanced again, and this time
it was the pink glow of the chromosphere which caught my eye.

Mid-totality, I remembered about watching for the shadow, and too
hastily turned round and made for a spot nearer the edge of the hill,
tripping over some hard vegetation in the twilight. I saw some lights
on the small ships and boats in the harbour and others out at sea. I
looked back at the action, and saw it brighten around the trailing limb
of the moon. I thought it was about to finish, but no, it was just
brightening from the chromosphere. Then, finally, a beautiful diamond
appeared, I gave it a second, then looked round to watch the shadow.
According to others, I missed a second diamond, outshining the first. I
was rewarded by seeing the little town suddenly light up dimly below me,
but failed to make out a shadow retreating across the sea in the way I'd
hoped. I heard the horns of ships greeting the return of the sun. And
the light of course, falling on the volcanic rocks and on my fellow
observers, was once again that eerie pale yellow colour.

I'd guess there were about 2000 eclipse visitors on this most outlying
of the Greek islands (usual population about 500), of whom about 150 had
climbed the big hill and escaped the crowds. One of my smaller group of
20 was a journalist for the newspaper Eleftherotypia, and I was an
interviewee for the article which appeared next day.

The Greeks as a whole didn't seem very clued-up about the eclipse. Some
of this will be ignorance of the type found anywhere, but I found people
afterwards who believed that Kastelorizo was the only place in the
_world_ which saw totality, and loads of people on Rhodes beforehand who
didn't appreciate that there would be anything worth seeing where _they_
were ("surely you will only need special eclipse glasses if you are
going to Kastelorizo?").

I haven't decided yet where my next eclipse will be, so I'd better get
studying where those tracks are heading - especially now that Alex, the
Eleftherotypia journalist, has publicly dubbed me an eclipse chaser!
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