SAILING IN GREECE Matt's Trip Fellow Travellers The Boat The Islands The Cost

Sailing in Greece: Fellow Travellers Stephen, my poet friend had come along with a motive. He wanted to learn all he could about sailing. BJ and Captain Adonis were willing to oblige and they had him tying and un-tying ropes from the moment we left the dock in Kalamaki. After the first day he had decided this was the life he was looking for and continued to ask questions and play the role of deckhand, while I sat around like a lazy rich guy. When we sailed into a small cove the Captain would hand Stephen the rope and tell him to dive in and swim to shore and tie it to that rock and Stephen would happily do it. On the way home we were short of water so we sailed into a small bay where there was a beach and a canteen and Stephen swam to shore with a flotation device and came back with several jugs of water. At night, Stephen and BJ stayed out later than the rest of us, talking about sailing and meeting beautiful girls who probably wished they had brought their mothers with them to occupy BJ while they flirted with Stephen. At the end of the trip Stephen was standing on the front of the boat as we got closer and closer to Athens and the responsibilities which awaited him at home. I could see his sadness even though his back was turned to me. But his hard work and eager attitude paid off and Stephen got his wish when BJ told him that if he was interested he would love to have him for a crew. When Alex, the GPSC manager met him and found out that he had Greek citizenship, he became interested too. Who wouldn't want to hire someone who writes poetry, looks like a Greek god, speaks English, Greek and French fluently, loves to sail, and can work legally in Greece? My 8 year old daughter Amarandi loved the trip and was crying when we almost ended it in my grandmother's village in the Peloponessos. It was the last day and I thought we could just spend a few days in the village and let the others sail back. Even for me it felt like betrayal even though it made sense since we would just be sitting around Athens for a few extra days before our return flight. But to abandon my comrades didn't seem right and I was having a terrible time with the decision. Captain Adonis came to the rescue. "Your daughter wants to stay on the boat. That is the decision. Let's go!" And we pulled up the anchor and sailed away and I felt a tremendous sense of relief. Skippers are like fathers sometimes and they can handle the tough decisions. I was a little nervous about my daughter being on the boat. I was afraid that I could not relax in fear that she might fall off and nobody would notice. But as time went on I realized it would be impossible for her to fall off and not be noticed. First of all because her energy and enthusiasm level was so high that she was constantly with someone, either BJ asking him about the sea or with Captain Adonis, learning how to tie knots, or with anyone else. When we were sailing, being on deck was the most comfortable place on earth. Maybe it was 100 degrees in Athens but on the sea there was a breeze, and with the canopy providing shade, there was nowhere more pleasant to be and if by some chance she fell into the sea (almost impossible) there would be someone there to see. Plus after a few stops I realized she was a much better swimmer than me. It was with Amarandi that BJ was at his best. He was the perfect uncle, teacher, coach and baby-sitter. I suppose when you skipper boats for twenty or thirty years you get a lot of families and you learn to relate to kids. But BJ was so good I was thinking of rewriting my will so that if anything should happen to me, BJ would become Amarandi's guardian. He had already raised one daughter and Amarandi would get to live on the sea and not have to spend the rest of her life in land-locked Carrboro, North Carolina. But I thought this might be unwise because if Amarandi knew she might make plans to somehow get rid of us. At one point Amarandi was practicing the knots BJ had taught her and left the rope tied to the railing. As we were leaving the port and BJ was pulling up the anchor and Stephen was releasing the ropes, Captain Adonis started yelling "stop!! stop!!!" and threw the boat in reverse. Amarandi's knot was still tied and was about to pull the entire railing off the boat. Ana was secretly terrified. She was sure that she would be throwing up from the moment we left the harbor but she also realized that to not go on a free yacht trip through the Greek Islands would be pretty dumb. Before we left she grilled the GPSC staff on Dramamine, the patch and any other methods of avoiding seasickness or getting rid of it once you had it. Ana was great because she was voicing all my fears and I felt stronger knowing there was one person on the boat more nervous than I was. Ana has a day-job in Athens so she could only go out for the first day (we left on a Sunday) and then take the Flying Dolphin back from Poros on Monday morning and just be an hour or two late for work. Well, Ana never got seasick and she never got off the boat until we all did five days later at the end of the trip. She kept calling in and telling her boss that she would try to get back tomorrow. But she did get stung by a bee and went from the marina to the hospital for antihistamine because she was allergic and then the next day she broke her toe at home and went to the hospital again. So for all her fears about getting seasick she ended up with two land-based injuries. Andrea had sailed before. Not only had she sailed before but she had even mutinied. She was on a large yacht in the Caribbean where she was the cook. The boat was owned by an abusive rich man and his alcoholic wife and after a month of torture the entire crew left the boat in some port and all flew home. She had also sailed to Turkey on a caique, a Greek fishing boat that had been converted into a yacht (sort of) and putt-putted it's way across the Aegean to Turkey every year so the owner would not have to pay taxes, until he was so tired of the trip he decided to just pay up. She was also a guest on a 100 foot yacht sailing the islands with her previous boyfriend and the couple who owned the boat who stayed drunk the entire time and then charged all their 'guests' $500 to tip the captain. (We tipped Adonis about $300 and he kissed Andrea when she handed him the money). Andrea loved the boat and she loved the cabin too. It was kind of cozy. It was also her job to make sure the coffee was strong enough, a job she is well suited for since without strong coffee she can't function. Want to find out more about chartering a yacht in the Mediterranean?