I used to be a teacher. I worked for 12 years in both public and private schools in rural and semi rural California. In reality what that meant is that I went into a building for 8 hours a day and told small humans to be quiet so I could talk at them. Much of the time this was rather thankless, if entertaining, work. Every so often a student or two would come through that didn’t totally annoy me beyond all reason.
We met the Keriotis Family in Athens. Dimitri is Greek, with much of his family still here, so they frequently return to Greece. We found out we would be here at the same time, so we invited them to come sailing for a week. We sailed over in the morning and found an anchorage directly in front of the city. Kate went into town to a shop that carried protein powder, and I stayed on board doing laundry and sitting around. In the early afternoon I plucked the family off the sea wall in front of the Marina and we got them loaded on board. We set sail immediately, to get away from the city. At first the wind was good, and we made nice progress, but it died throughout the day, and we motored the last mile, back to the cool anchorage on the south side of Agistri. Setting up the moderately complicated shore tie was easier this time as we had done it before, and there were no other boats. With KODA secure we were free to jump in the water and swim around in the mild Aegean water. Eleni did a swim workout, and the rest of us were lazy. In the evening we went for a walk across the island to a fish taverna, where we ordered lots of small dishes to share.
The next week we cruised around, going to Kalamaki, Poros, Hydra, and Chinitsa islands. We ate lots of delicious food, as we were with a family who knew what to order. Hydra was a cool highlight, as there are no cars allowed on the island, and everyone walked everywhere. We meant to stay there longer, but the wind started coming directly into the anchorage, making it rather uncomfortable. The morning we decided to leave, two charter boats collided directly next to us, and that was enough for us. The anchorage at Hydra was probably the most crowded one we encountered all summer; charters competing with super yachts for a corner of rocky shore to tie to. The middle of the anchorage was very deep and I was concerned about our anchor becoming entrapped on the bottom. Luckily we escaped unscathed, and sailed south.
The Keriotis family was only with us for 5 nights, as they were on a schedule. We dropped them in Porto Chelli, and they caught a ferry back to Athens. We were unable to venture further out into the Aegean as the weather was being grumpy. I think they had a good time, and it would be fun to have them on board again sometime.
Just the two of us again, we made a brief morning sail over to Spetses Island and spent one rather rolly night. Waking up just before first light, we raised sail and set course for Milos. It was an all day sail with some fickle wind. The last part was excellent, with the gennaker out and charging along at around 13 knots. We blasted past an 85 foot Sunreef, which was gratifying. The south west corner of Milos has a spectacular anchorage, one of my favorites of all time. Huge cliffs encompass funny little caves and beaches. The water is clear, and there is great snorkeling all around. We spent two nights here, enjoying the silence during the night, as it was not to be had during the day.
From Milos we worked north, having the 200 hour engine service done on Sifnos. We dropped anchor on the north end of Poros and settled in. Our goal was to be here for a couple Meltemi events and get some good foiling time in. It was a pretty good spot, but not as strong as the forecast said it would be. After a week or so we decided to move on, and went to Donousa, Koufonisi, and finally up to Rinea, next to Mykonos. In all of the spots we were looking for good foiling conditions. We found some good wind on Koufonisi, with the gusts topping out at 40 knots. We met a crew of Greek kiteboarders, who were having a great time there. They were nice guys, and I rescued one who got becalmed at sunset with the dingy.
We had to pick up our next set of guests, Todd and Lori, in Mykonos in early August, so we knew we had to get up to that latitude before the next Meltemi. Since the Meltemi looked like it was going to be a big one, we left early, stopping for one night on the east coast of Ios. Ios was an island where we would have liked more time, but we took advantage of our one day, riding the Onewheels up to the crest of the island, to a cheese factory there, where we had a very pleasant cheese tasting afternoon. In the morning we headed back up, past Poros, and on to Rinea, to wait out the Meltemi.
