"Greek Island Sailing" a Greece Travel Page by Acirfa

Who said the Med is like a Mill Pond!? No it isn't! Gale force 8 at times down to absolutely no wind at all, so a plethora of conditions it is to be said. March in Greece, on the Med, in a yacht, no heating = damn damn cold, but great fun, peaceful, quiet, lacking tourists, probably an ideal time for those like us, trainee 'jack tars', as less other boats to bump into.

Someone suggested a trip to Greece, I thought Athens, the Acropolis, wonderful! Then someone mentioned the sea, a yacht, why did I have cruiser in mind, but ok so I would still see the Acropolis and Athens and people walking around in Toga's of course, wine flowing and life being romantically lived out before my eyes.

How wrong can you get, Athens is the pits, well the bit I saw was, no elegantly clad inhabitants and the Greek wine was disgusting. Still we were there only a short while before settling into our floating 'caravan', it had a galley, 4 berths what is more it had an en suite and that was willingly given over to me, because it 'ponged' apparently, I must have had a nose block as it did not affect me at all but I played on it so as to keep it as my own private area, so I had my own berth with attached shower room entirely for myself. It was going well.

Finally underway, brrrrrr and was it cold, I was sorry I had not thrown in my ski gear in fact, still, 5 layers did surfice in the end and once we started winching and helming, along with learning to tie knots and throw fenders around, it soon warmed up. Nights were spent sleeping in dripping wet cabins with heads on wet pillows... but along with these discomforts came the peace of the sea, the rush of exhilliaration when the yacht heeled over as we pushed with speed through the water, smashing down on rough waves. Before long we were all in harmony with our surroundings.
As dolphins played under the keel of the boat and accompanied us on our way, we felt very privileged, the sun shone on some days to bring us out in our shorts and each day brought an event with it that would add to our 'seaman's dits' when we sat down for our evening meal.

We visited beautiful islands, we learnt new skills, ate Greek food, danced amongst the locals, explored their islands, experienced highs on the sea and still the wine never improved and what is more I did not get to see the Acropolis. We lacked hot water but the true appreciation of a steaming shower was to be held by us all as we found out a local hotel who were good enough to open up before start of season to allow us to wash away the salt on our bodies and warm our cores. We battled in high winds to hold the boat and mooring up was an interesting task at each day end, all these things proved to make an adventurous and fun holiday and yes I would do it all again. Wet duvets, dripping cabins, transfers to bus stations on the edge of motorways made on the back of a motorbike and clutching ones luggage made it all a true experience, one I think we will all remember, especially our skipper who had to manoevre the boat with three totally unskilled crew, a brave man he was!