Thank you Greece

A little late than never…

Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Thank You Greece

We have said goodbye to the second leg of our world adventure. We left Hong Kong on the 17 April for Turkey and then left Turkey on the 16 June. Today is the 11th August and we are leaving Greece for Italy. I think it is fair to say that Turkey and Greece are both exceptional sailing destinations and required 2 months in each to warrant enjoying the full experience.

I will break this story into 3 parts. Cyclades Islands, Peloponnesus Peninsula and the Ionian Islands. There are a few other small sections and tales but these will just be intertwined.

Arriving in Greece was a weird experience. For various Covid reasons we were not allowed to sail into the country so we decided to take a seaplane from Teos to Athens. Everything started swimmingly (excuse the pun) until we landed to refuel and our poor little seaplane didn’t want to restart. I guess we should be thankful it chose not to restart on the ground and not decide to stop whilst in the air. Anyway, a long delay resulted in the company providing us a Jet for the remainder of our journey.

Being reunited with Arabella (yacht) was weird. We had been off the boat a few days and it felt uncomfortable to say the least. I think it is fair to say that Arabella truly has become home and coming home always feels good.

Before we really began our adventures in Greece we needed to view a couple Sunreef 80 foot yachts that the Sunreef company had setup for us to view and test sail. We had been discussing the possibility of trading Arabella in at the end of the Caribbean leg (April-May 2022) and doing the remainder of our world tour on a new boat. Well we all liked the extra size of the Sunreef and we were really pleasantly surprised by how well they sailed but after some soul searching we realised that Arabella has treated us extremely well over the past 6 years and we wanted to finish our love affair by sailing around the WHOLE world in her.

After a little shopping in Athens and another visit to the Acropolis we were off to the Cyclades. First stop Mykanos for a 3 week stint in the Cyclades. The place “the wind was born” and where all sailors want to enjoy sailing. And we sure enough did. It started with a bang and a lovely sail down to Mykanos. Mykanos is not the prettiest island in the world – In fact it can only be described as a baron rock with lots of little white boxes as Alexandra described it. But Mykanos brought us 2 wonderful memories. Firstly the old town and all its little passages. We found a few lovely restaurants and Alex and I retraced the steps of our trip here in 2019. Secondly was the club Scorpios which we frequented a couple of times for the beach club followed by the restaurant. It really is the place to be seen and it was hopping as was to be expected. The girls dressed up and all looked gorgeous. The food was great on the second night and we were given an amazing table overlooking the ocean. I can only describe this place as a place I would be proud to own. We enjoyed the decadence of it all. After all living on a sailing boat isn’t always as glam as it looks in the pictures and getting a reason to dress up and play fancy can be nice at times. This was certainly one of those times.

After a few days in Mykanos we sailed south to Naxos, Paros and Antiparos. The highlights of this section was great sailing, Captain Morgan learning to use the electric foil board, fishing and diving. Everyone was very active and has to be said to be the most active week of our trip to date. All the toys were on display. In fact we realised we had 25 different toys on the boat. Here is the list

1. SUP’s
2. Surfboards
3. Wake boards
4. Foil board
5. Seabob
6. Electric foil board
7. Wing foil board
8. Fishing rods and tackle
9. Snorkeling masks and fins
10. Scuba diving gear
11. Optimists sailing dingy’s
12. Magic carpet
13. Little Alex dingy
14. Dancing pole
15. Trampoline
16. Spear gun’s
17. Floating cushion’s
18. Banana boat and chilli boat
19. Electric scooters
20. Yoga mat’s
21. Bats and balls
22. Sailing Arabella (the big boat)
23. Drone
24. Knee board
25. Water skis

Then we arrived in Milos and fell in love. What a wonderful island! Definitely our pick of the Cyclades. It has everything from unique geography, to great little towns and an amazing coastline. I would have to say if you were looking for an island we are huge range of things to do in the Cyclades then this would be it.
Hiking, sailing, shopping, road tripping, caving, restaurant, taverna’s etc. It has it all and we experienced it all. Highlights for me were randomly finding an ear specialist to treat Delphine’s hearing loss, hiking across the Island, the caves and rock formations on the South West corner of the island.

OK what’s this about Delphine’s ear? Sadly she had a misfortune. On our route down to Milos we stopped as a small collection of rocks. I went Wing Foiling and Delphine and Fede went for a dive. She lost some buoyancy control and felt pressure in her ear and experience some trauma to the inner ear causing significant hearing loss. This is quite dangerous and can be permanent. Fortunately, the wonderful doctor we met knew a lot about this issue and immediately treated Delphine with cortisone steroid prednisone. The effect was remarkable and over the next week her hearing improved considerably. Quite a scary time for us all.

A highlight for me was hiking across the Island of Milos. I set out before dawn and hiked around 25km. It was hot but also beautiful and quiet. I often talk about a yacht being a very small Island and it is important to find some me time. On top of this the exercise is always welcome. Another highlight was renting our little mini jeep and driving the island as a family. Stopping at incredible beaches, caves and weird rock formations. In many respects this is what separates Milos from other islands. It has such a unique and beautiful geography. Around every corner is something special. Two highlights must be Sarakiniko and Kleftico. Extraordinary rock formations and breathtaking beauty.

The plan was to leave Milos and sail to Santorini but the wind had other ideas. For the next 6 days we experienced very strong winds gusting up to 40 knots at times. We popped up to the gastronomic island of Sifnos and found a pretty little bay where we anchored up and waited out the wind to leave us. I was not feeling great at this time and was increasingly worried about my never ending stomach problems. So Delphine and I did a short trip up on a ferry to Athens to see another Doctor. More tests and still no solution was found. We plodded on.

Delphine really enjoyed Sifnos and I will return one day because I think this is a beautiful island that I haven’t truly explored yet.

When the wind finally gave us a break we decided to skip Santorini and leave the Cyclades and head for the Peloponnesus. The difference is immediately noticeable in the flora. The cyclades is a hard and baron landscape which is swept by the wind. The Peloponnesus is sheltered and the beginnings of a lush green you will find all the way up the western side of Greece. So much softer and more gentle. If the eastern islands of Greece are your hardened sailors or fishermen then the western side are your beautiful and gentle ladies.

I loved the change. I missed seeing big trees and green landscape. For me I loved the rugged windy Cyclades but I couldn’t live there forever. Whereas the Peloponnesus brings you a calmness I liked. Highlights from this short section were standup boarding with Delphine, catching Big Eyed Tuna, Hiking across the peninsula, Daddy enjoying his new toy the Wing Foil and most notably the girls visiting Olympia.

Finally we moved up to the Ionian Islands and the place Alex couldn’t stop reminding us she wanted to go to. Zakinthos Island, Ithaki Island, Kefalonia, Lefkada Island and Corfu Island. These are the true treasures of Greece in my opinion. I think the landscape and seascape bring something for everyone. Wind, calm, sun, clean water and beautiful landscape.

Highlights were the cooking show getting really going and making our first loaf of bread, meeting up with John who randomly arranged getting us a Greek social security number which allowed us to get a J&J vaccination, Olympic Games showing on TV, South Africa beating the Lions, Dias Apiary, the crazy man in the cave, wing foiling in Vasiliki. All these stories are told in great length on our website. But it is safe to say that the Ionian brought us many days of fun. I can’t wait to go back.

There was however an overriding story throughout our time in Greece. This was the books my Mum had recommended we read. The Iliad and the adventures of Odysseus. The girls (including Delphine) really got into this a tracked his journey through various parts of Greece and really kept the girls interested. Furthermore the mythology of Greece and the Gods played there part to give a almost mythical nature to our own journey.

Its hard to compare Greece and Turkey. Obviously they are similar in landscape but very different in culture. Turkey is certainly more conservative but the people seem to much more welcoming. Greece is commercialised and more developed for tourism but our time there was full of watersports and frankly we spent most of our time in the warm waters. Turkey was still spring and there was certainly a nip to the water. For our family however, I think it is fair to say we enjoyed Turkey a little more but this is largely because we had a few friends there before we arrived and made many long term friends for the future. It is not really fair to compare the two because honestly we had superb time in both.

So that’s Greece. We are now in Italy and this is a little late but better late… you know the rest.

Top 5 places
Island of Milos
Fiskardo
Pilos Bay on the Peloponnesus
Ithaki Island
Shipwreck Bay, Zakinthos

Top 3 restaurants? (honestly we didn’t get lucky in this department and cooked really well)
Scorpios, Mykanos
Arabella Yacht with Daddy Cooking
Manolis, Sifnos Island

Top 5 foods?
Greek Chickpea Soup (Revithia)
Grilled Octopus
Saginaki
Daddy’s Casserole Rice
Swirly pastry thing we are trying to find the name of

Top 5 experiences?
Olympia (must have VR glasses)
Dias Apiary
Wing Foiling in Vasiliki
Hiking in Pilos Castle
Real sailing in the Cyclades